Software and automation. Reviewed October 29, 2026
AI receptionist
Also called: AI phone agent, AI answering service, Voice agent
An AI receptionist is software that answers the business phone in a natural voice, asks the caller what they need, captures their details and books or routes them, at any hour.
In practice
It answers the calls that would have gone to voicemail: after hours, during a job, during the lunch rush. It is not a replacement for the office during the day; it is the backstop that stops leads from leaking at night and on weekends.
Judge one by the transcripts. Listen to twenty calls before trusting it with the phone.
Related terms
- Answering serviceAn answering service is a staffed call center that picks up a business's phone when the office cannot, takes a message or books an appointment, and bills by the minute or by the call.
- Missed call text backMissed call text back automatically sends a text to any caller the business did not answer, within seconds, so the lead has a way to reply instead of calling the next company.
- Speed to leadSpeed to lead is the time between a lead arriving and the business responding, and the first contractor to respond wins a large share of the jobs.
- Qualified leadA qualified lead is a lead that has been checked and fits: the right service, inside the service area, a real person with a real job and a budget in range.
More software and automation terms
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