How does an AI receptionist work?

An AI receptionist answers your business line using conversational AI that's been trained on your specific business. When a call comes in, it greets the caller, figures out what they need, and handles it on the spot, then hands you a clean record of what happened. Here's the whole flow, start to finish.

The basic flow of a call

You forward your existing number (or use one we provide), and from then on every call rings the AI first. It answers instantly, day or night, greets the caller with your business name, and has a normal conversation: answering a question, booking a slot, screening the caller, or taking a message. That instant pickup is the whole point, because nearly 80% of consumers say speed, convenience, knowledgeable help, and friendly service are the most important parts of a good experience (PwC, 2018). The moment the call ends, a summary and a full transcript arrive by email and appear in your dashboard. The how-it-works page walks through the same three steps visually.

How it gets trained on your business

Before it goes live, the agent is custom-built for you. You share whatever you have (your website, a few documents, or just notes), and it's trained to know your hours, services, pricing, and the questions your callers actually ask. It's answering your calls in minutes, dialed in to your business within about a day, and full two-way texting turns on once a one-time carrier registration (10DLC) clears; carriers typically take a few business days, sometimes longer. The building is done for you rather than left as homework.

What happens after each call

Every call produces a summary and a full transcript, delivered by email on every plan and always waiting in your dashboard. If you'd rather read it where your team already works, summaries can also post into Slack, Microsoft Teams, Discord, Telegram, Signal, or Google Chat. Those channels are free on every plan and you can connect as many as you want. Full transcripts stay in email and the dashboard, since a transcript runs longer than any chat message will hold. Calls are recorded and transcribed with an up-front disclosure to the caller, transcripts stay available for the life of your account, and recordings, transcripts and account data are stored on US servers. The point is that a 'missed' call is no longer missed: most callers who reach a voicemail won't leave a message (95% find texting more convenient), but here even an after-hours caller leaves you a complete record to act on.

Does it connect to my calendar?

Yes. It checks your live availability during the call, books the appointment, and confirms it with the caller before they hang up: no callback, no phone tag. (The calendar is the built-in integration; other business software is assessed case-by-case during setup.) Booking it on the first call is what protects the lead. A Harvard Business Review study of 1.25 million online leads found that a business that responds within the hour is nearly 7 times more likely to qualify a lead than one that waits even an hour longer (2011). You can see everything it can do in more detail, or start a free trial and hear it on your own line.

Key takeaways