An AI receptionist answers your business line and talks with callers in ordinary conversation. Then it handles the routine part of the call itself: it answers questions from what you've taught it, books the appointment, texts the caller a link, puts them through to the right person, and emails you a summary. Whether it's right for your business depends mostly on what your calls are about, and this post tries to help you work that out.
What happens on a call
Say it's 12:20 on a Tuesday at a small accounting office. Both people at the front are with clients. The phone rings, and the caller wants to know whether you take new bookkeeping clients, what it costs, and whether someone can meet with them this week.
Here's what the AI receptionist does with that call:
- It picks up and introduces itself. ModPhone's default greeting is "Thank you for calling [your company]. This is [agent name], your AI assistant. How may I help you today?" You can rewrite it.
- It answers from your facts: your website, the documents you uploaded, the details you typed in. If the answer isn't there, it tells the caller it doesn't have that information instead of making something up.
- It books the meeting. It checks your Google or Outlook calendar, offers open times, reads the date and time back, and waits for a clear yes. The caller then gets a text asking them to reply Y to confirm.
- It texts what's easier to read than hear, like your new-client form link or your address.
- If the caller asks for a person, it transfers the call to your number or to a department. If nobody picks up, the caller can ask for a callback.
- When the call ends, you get the summary and transcript by email. If something needs a human (a callback request, a question it couldn't answer, a caller who sounded unhappy), it goes on a follow-up list.
It can take several calls at once, so a second caller never gets a busy signal because the first one is still talking. It answers at 7 a.m., during lunch and on Sunday night the same way it answers at 10 a.m.
What it costs compared with the alternatives
| Option | Monthly cost | When someone answers | The catch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Voicemail | $0 | Never, live | You only hear from callers willing to leave a message |
| Receptionist on staff | About $3,170 a month in wages alone at the BLS median of $38,010 a year (May 2025), before benefits | Business hours | Lunch, sick days, evenings, and the second call that arrives while they're on the first |
| Live answering service | Ruby, for example: $250 for 50 minutes up to $1,725 for 500 minutes | Depends on the plan | The bill climbs with call volume |
| ModPhone AI receptionist | $49 (200 minutes), $99 (500 minutes) or $299 (1,500 minutes) | Around the clock, every day | It's AI, so judgment calls still come to you |
Past the included minutes, ModPhone keeps answering and bills the extra at $0.10 to $0.15 a minute depending on the plan. The full breakdown is on the pricing page.
To be fair to the other options: a good receptionist does things software doesn't. They greet walk-ins, calm down a caller who's crying, and handle the odd request nobody wrote down. You can also use both. The person answers during the day, and the AI takes the calls they can't get to and everything after hours. We compare the two approaches in more detail in ModPhone vs Ruby.
How setup works
You can hear it before you sign up. Paste your website into the live demo and in about 30 seconds you're talking to an agent that has read your site.
Going live on a real number takes about 10 minutes:
- Sign up. The free trial lasts 30 days, costs nothing unless you choose a plan, and includes one phone number, 100 voice minutes and 100 texts.
- Give it your website. ModPhone reads the site, usually in 30 to 90 seconds, and turns it into a list of facts. No website? Type in your business name, what you do, your hours and where you are.
- Review the facts. Fix anything wrong, delete anything out of date, and add the answers to the questions you get most.
- Choose a voice and greeting, add the number calls should transfer to, and connect your calendar if you want it to book.
- Pick a phone number and call it from your cell.
To have it answer the number your customers already know, set up call forwarding with your carrier. Conditional forwarding sends only the calls you don't pick up (for example, on Verizon you dial *71 followed by your ModPhone number), so you keep answering when you can and the AI catches the rest. Dialing the undo code turns it off.
When it's a bad fit
It isn't the right tool for every business, and it's better to know that before you spend a month on a trial.
If your phone rings a couple of times a week, voicemail is probably fine.
If most of your calls are lookups in a system the agent can't see, such as "is my car ready?" or "what's my balance?", it will mostly take messages for you. That's still an improvement on voicemail, but you'd be paying for a message-taker. Look at what your callers ask first.
If the conversation itself is the service, as with crisis lines, grief counseling or delicate intake, callers should reach a person.
And if nobody will keep its facts current, it will repeat last year's prices with complete confidence. Updating a fact takes seconds, but someone has to own it.
What to have ready
- Your website address, plus any PDFs worth reading: price list, service menu, policies, the new-client checklist.
- The five questions your front desk answers most, with the answers you'd want given.
- Who should get transferred calls, and their numbers.
- Access to the Google or Outlook calendar you book from.
Common questions
Will callers know they're talking to an AI?
Yes, if you keep the default greeting, which says "your AI assistant." We recommend keeping it, since some states now require disclosure in certain situations. We cover the rules in AI virtual agent trends in 2026.
Can an AI receptionist answer two calls at the same time?
Yes. ModPhone answers simultaneous calls with no limit on how many, so callers don't get a busy signal or hold music while another caller is talking.
What happens when it doesn't know the answer?
It tells the caller it doesn't have that information rather than guessing, and offers a transfer or takes a message. The call is flagged on your follow-up list so someone can call back, and you can add the missing fact so the next caller gets an answer.
Can I keep my current business number?
Yes. Forward your existing line to your ModPhone number. With conditional forwarding, only calls you don't answer go to the AI receptionist.
How much does an AI receptionist cost for a small business?
ModPhone costs $49, $99 or $299 a month depending on how many minutes and channels you need, with no setup fee. There's a free 30-day trial with no charge unless you choose a plan, and paid plans have a 30-day money-back guarantee.
A first step
This week, count how many calls went unanswered or to voicemail. If the number bothers you, try the demo on your own website and ask it the questions those callers probably had. For more on the evening and weekend calls specifically, see what to do about after-hours calls.