The AI receptionist: answering calls with a voice agent

An AI receptionist is a voice agent that answers your phone line. It greets the caller, says it is an AI assistant, answers questions from what you have taught it, takes details and hands the conversation to a person when it should. Done well, nobody waits on hold and no call ends in a voicemail box that never gets checked.

This page collects what independent research says about callers, what the role is good and bad at, and how to set one up. Every figure links to its source; see also the AI voice agent statistics page.

Why the phone still matters

People still call when it matters. In a McKinsey survey of 3,500 consumers, live phone conversations were among the most preferred ways to get help for every age group, including Gen Z, and 57% of customer care leaders expected call volumes to grow by up to a fifth within two years. A vendor-commissioned survey of 1,006 consumers found 56% prefer phone support for general issues and 74% for complex or urgent matters.

Self-service does not replace that. Gartner found only 14% of service issues are fully resolved in self-service, and only 36% even for issues customers called "very simple".

What callers think about talking to AI

The research is clear that trust has to be earned:

• Most would rather not. 64% of customers told Gartner they would prefer companies didn't use AI in customer service; their top worry was that it would become harder to reach a person.
• A way to a human is essential. In 2026, 87% said companies using generative AI must offer an option to reach a human agent, while 50% said generative AI makes their interactions easier.
• People want to be told. Nearly 75% of 15,015 consumers surveyed for Salesforce want to know when they are talking to an AI agent, and 45% are more likely to use one when there is a clear escalation path.
• First impressions stick. Only 27% would try a chatbot again after a bad experience.

The practical reading: an AI receptionist should be honest about being AI, fast at the common questions, and quick to hand over everything else.

What an AI receptionist is good at

Good fit	Better left to a person
Opening hours, location, prices you have published, how to book	Complaints, refunds and anything emotional
Taking a caller's name, number and reason, and recording it	Decisions that need judgement or authority
Booking or requesting appointments through your own system	Medical, legal or financial advice
Answering after hours and during busy periods	Callers who ask for a person
Sorting calls so the right person follows up	Situations your instructions don't cover

How to set one up in SAGOT

1. Write the job. Create an agent with instructions, the knowledge it may share, the questions to ask and the person who owns follow-ups. Give it an inbound greeting that says it is an AI assistant.
2. Connect your systems (optional). Add HTTPS connections so the agent can create a booking or a record in your own tools. Each connection is one action you approve.
3. Add a phone line. Use a Twilio number or the SAGOT phone gateway with your own phone and SIM, and choose the published agent as the line's answering agent. See phone lines.
4. Review every call. Each call has a transcript, a recording and an outcome. When the agent cannot help, it records a handoff for the person you named; SAGOT does not yet transfer calls live.

Developers and AI assistants can do all of this through the API, MCP server and CLI.

What to measure

• Answered rate: share of incoming calls the agent picked up.
• Resolved without handoff: calls where the caller got what they needed.
• Handoffs and time to follow-up: how quickly a person picked up what the agent could not.
• Caller requests for a human: a rising number means the instructions need work.

Frequently asked questions

Does an AI receptionist have to say it is an AI?

It is good practice and increasingly the law. In the EU, the AI Act's transparency rule for systems that talk with people applies from 2 August 2026. SAGOT requires every agent's greeting to identify it as an AI assistant.

Can it transfer the call to a person?

In SAGOT today the agent records a handoff with the caller's details and reason for the person you named, who then follows up. Live call transfer is not available yet.

Will callers hang up on an AI?

Some will, and research shows many people prefer a human. Being upfront, answering the common questions quickly and offering a clear path to a person are what the surveys above point to.

Can it answer in more than one language?

Yes. You set the language in the agent's settings, for example English and Filipino.