What Is an AI Receptionist? Benefits, Features & Top Providers

As your business grows, answering every call becomes harder. But missing one can mean losing a customer. One phone receptionist might not be enough when your team gets barraged by calls during peak hours.

With more consumers expecting prompt responses, it’s essential to ensure your business is as accessible as possible. Data shows that over half of visitors to sites like Yelp reach out to service providers soon after finding them online. Sadly, 42% of SMBs struggle with call management, losing over $500 monthly due to unanswered calls, as reported by PR Newswire.

If you’re missing calls due to staffing gaps, it may be time to consider an AI receptionist. This article explores what these AI-powered phone agents are, what to look for in one, and why they’re cost-effective, always-on alternatives to live agents and outdated phone trees.

What Is an AI Receptionist?

An AI receptionist is a voice-based assistant that uses natural language processing (NLP) to understand and respond to calls in a conversational way. Think of it as conversational AI that handles business calls without human input.

The AI receptionist is a built-in feature of phone systems that can sync with CRMs and other business tools. This allows the AI to route inquiries, schedule appointments, and answer FAQs in real time.

This technology can lower long-term costs since you don’t pay them a salary like hired human receptionists. When set up strategically, AI receptionists offer consistent performance, from collecting data to following predefined workflows.

How AI Receptionists Work

An AI virtual receptionist relies on NLP to understand spoken language and hold real-time conversations with callers. When someone calls, the AI converts human speech into text, interprets the meaning, and decides what action to take. Here’s how the process works in practice:

AI training and setup

To set up your AI receptionist, you input key company information into a knowledge base or central library from which the AI will draw its answers. These include data such as business hours, team bios, and FAQs. The AI can also auto-import information from your company website or CRM.

Uploading these useful details allows the AI to give relevant and accurate answers to specific queries every time, even when the wording varies.

Answering and routing

AI receptionists don’t put callers on hold but start engaging immediately, using voice recognition and smart logic to identify the caller’s intent.

They then act accordingly, whether to solve an issue, connect the caller to the right person, or set a call-back in motion.

Appointment management and SMS

With calendar integration, AI receptionists can book appointments on the spot, sending automated SMS confirmations and reminders to reduce no-shows.

As a result, you can spare your staff from manually chasing down clients or sending emails to update them. Besides having fewer missed meetings, you can clear your schedule for new clients in place of cancellations.

After-hours and high call volumes

AI receptionists go on duty when phone calls surge or your front desk team clocks out. They capture inbound calls that would have gone to voicemail and ensure follow-up happens.

Additionally, their cloud-based infrastructure enables easy scaling, as they can absorb overflow during peak hours by routing calls based on your predefined rules. This automated distribution keeps your lines free and prevents long wait times that frustrate callers.

Top 3 AI Receptionist Providers in 2025

Let’s explore these top three AI receptionist solutions, their features, and best use cases to help you choose the optimal answering service for your business.

Key features	Nextiva	Dialpad	RingCentral (RingEX)
Natural language interactions	Understands caller intent through IVR call management process and clear routing paths	Handles open-ended speech with sentiment detection and voice recognition	Supports varied caller phrasing with smart routing and multilingual options
CRM integration	Syncs with customer data for contextual call handling	Links to call notes, contact history, and sales workflows	Connects to CRM tools for routing and contact resolution
SMS capabilities	Sends appointment confirmations and reminders via integrated texting	Delivers text messages tied to meeting follow-ups and sends missed call alerts through API	Provides SMS alerts for appointments, routing status, and spam filtering
Appointment booking	Books and updates appointments through connected calendar tools	Schedules meetings and suggests follow-ups post-call	Coordinates scheduling and sends alerts through linked apps
Voice customization	Offers preset call greetings with branded messaging options	Allows voice tone adjustments and learning-based improvements	Supports customizable voice personas with tone, pace, and language preferences
Workflow editor	Uses visual tools to design call flows and escalation logic	Enables no-code setup with trigger-based routing	Includes flexible flow control with rule-based routing by team, time, or location
Real-time analytics	Monitors call patterns, duration, and missed opportunities	Shows live call summaries, action items, and CSAT scores	Displays usage stats, caller trends, and routing performance
Security and compliance	Meets data privacy needs with encryption and secure hosting	Offers call protection, permissions control, and compliance tracking	Assists companies in regulated industries with audit logs, spam filters, and data controls

1. Nextiva

Nextiva’s AI receptionist is coming soon, and its platform is ready to support the new tool. Its call flow builder works with built-in tools like Auto Attendant to streamline AI’s role in customer journeys.

The call flow tool lets teams control how calls move through the system, using rules that reflect daily workflows. This feature makes it easy to guide callers, reduce hold time, and route calls. Nextiva’s Auto Attendant can perform these tasks through a menu system. Both tools are part of a larger push toward smarter, AI-powered communication.

Features:

• Creates drag-and-drop call flows without coding
• Uses Auto Attendant to route calls by department or schedule
• Syncs with CRMs and builds customer interaction histories
• Books appointments and automates SMS confirmations and follow-ups
• Offers AI-powered call summaries and a central analytics dashboard

Ideal for:

Nextiva fits small and midsize businesses that want one platform to manage voice, SMS, and customer interactions. Instead of relying on multiple vendors, users get a streamlined system with built-in AI and automation.

Its dashboard not only centralizes communication but also provides visibility into customer needs and business trends.

Pricing: You can access Nextiva’s AI starting with the Essential Plan ($129 per agent per month).

2. Dialpad

Dialpad’s AI receptionist is built into its cloud communication stack. It answers calls, sends them to the right team, and learns from user behavior over time — all configured without code. Administrators can adjust AI agent workflows directly in the dashboard anytime.

Features:

• Combines voice, messaging, and video in one centralized platform
• Transcribes calls and analyzes sentiment in real time
• Summarizes calls with follow-up actions automatically
• Handles missed calls, routes callers based on intent, and books appointments

Ideal for:

Dialpad is most suitable for fast-paced teams in midsize businesses or enterprises with heavy call volumes. Its AI receptionist learns from every interaction, improving call handling over time. Sales teams can use Dialpad’s Ai Playbooks to stay on message.

Meanwhile, support agents, sellers, and supervisors — as well as other roles involved in contact center AI — benefit from real-time Ai CSAT insights to assess customer satisfaction quickly.

Pricing: AI receptionist comes free with all business phone plans. However, Ai CSAT and Ai Playbooks require a premium subscription ($170 per user per month).

3. RingCentral

RingCentral’s AI receptionist is an AI phone agent baked into its new RingEX suite. For teams already invested in RingCentral’s ecosystem, the tool is a natural extension that adds efficiency and security without complexity.

Features:

• Routes calls based on department, location, or caller identity
• Offers voice customization with multiple personas (skills) and languages
• Manages appointments and sends SMS reminders
• Filters spam and answers after-hours inquiries automatically
• Uses a dashboard for routing rules and call flows

Ideal for:

This platform is a good fit for large teams or global businesses that need flexible but secure phone systems. It’s equally advisable for industries with strict rules, such as finance, health care, and legal services. RingCentral’s AI offers call automation without losing control.

Pricing: RingCentral’s AI Receptionist is integrated into its RingEX suite. Its basic Core Plan is $30 per month.

Key Features to Look for in an AI Receptionist

To get the most out of AI receptionist services, look for a platform with these eight features:

Natural language interactions

When comparing AI voice agents, pay attention to how natural their conversations sound. The best tools can handle accents, slang, and complex phrasing while giving clear, on-brand responses.

CRM integration

Choose a solution that integrates with your CRM, like HubSpot, Salesforce, or Zoho. This lets your AI agent pull up caller records and provide more personalized responses. CRM integrations also facilitate department transfers and message-taking, ensuring no lead or issue is lost.

SMS capabilities

Look for an AI receptionist that sends SMS confirmations, reminders, and follow-ups. This feature reduces no-shows without adding to your team’s workload.

Appointment booking

Ensure the AI can sync with your calendar software to book, reschedule, or cancel appointments. This helps avoid double bookings and keeps your schedule running smoothly.

Voice customization

It’s not just about reading a script. Your AI should also reflect your brand’s tone — professional, friendly, or casual — and allow choices for pace, gender, and language.

Workflow editor

A built-in workflow editor lets you control how customer calls are handled. Look for drag-and-drop tools to set triggers, routing paths, and escalation rules without coding.

Real-time analytics

Select a platform with a real-time dashboard that tracks call volume, intent, resolution rates, and sentiment. These insights allow you to identify trends, update scripts, and improve customer service over time.

Security and compliance

Your selected AI receptionist must comply with industry rules like HIPAA, GDPR, and CCPA. It should offer end-to-end encryption, spam filtering, and secure data hosting. Also, check what data it stores, who can access it, and how quickly your team can retrieve it.

Why Nextiva Leads the Pack

Selecting an AI receptionist goes beyond the immediate solutions it can provide. It’s about finding a system that will grow with your small business or midsize enterprise. The right solution should be easy to use, flexible, and designed for long-term value.

Nextiva delivers calls, messages, automation, and customer insights all in one platform. It’s a future-ready system that’s not only simple to set up. It also simplifies your workflow and leverages AI for improved customer experience as your business needs evolve.

Discover how Nextiva’s solutions can streamline communication and enhance every call.