AI Employees · Receptionist
An AI receptionist that never misses an enquiry.
A reply while the enquiry is still warm, at any hour it lands. It answers, qualifies, and books on web, chat and email, then hands anything that needs a person straight to your team.
A night on the desk
The work that used to wait until morning, won overnight.
An AI receptionist is an employee-grade AI worker 7 Minds Systems builds, trains, and runs for you. It answers, qualifies, and books enquiries on web, chat and email through the night and the weekend, and routes anything sensitive to a person, from about £3,000 to set up plus £700 a month.
This is one post in our AI employee range, and it covers first contact rather than the whole customer journey. It reads each enquiry on web, chat and email, puts the questions your team would put, and books the ones worth having into your calendar. The £3,000 setup and the £700 a month cover the role in full, with no per-call or per-minute meter. Supervision stays with us: we review how it replies, correct it, and keep it in your voice. The person who takes sensitive cases is named in your build. It suits firms whose enquiries arrive outside office hours.
What it is
What does an AI receptionist actually do?
Enquiries arrive at all hours, and the odds of winning one fall fast with every minute it waits. An AI receptionist is the role that closes that gap: it replies the moment an enquiry lands, any hour, and turns interest into a booking while the person is still deciding.
Unlike a chatbot, which answers a question and stops, it owns the job end to end. It greets each enquiry, asks what your team would ask, books the right ones into your live calendar, and follows up on the rest, in your voice.
It is one of the AI employees we build into an Autonomous Digital Branch, or it can run on the site you already have. Either way, we train it, wire it to your calendar and tools, and manage it after launch.
For an organisation past a single reception, the same idea scales into the flagship Cooperating AI Workforce: a bespoke AI department of cooperating agents wired into your back-end and your team’s tools, both ways, with humans in command.
A night on the desk
Can it qualify and book while the office is shut?
One enquiry, after hours, start to finish. The reply goes out within the minute, the booking is made while the office is dark, and the log is on your desk before you arrive.
- 01
Answers on the spot, any hour
Web, chat and email, day or night. No contact form left until Monday, no first impression missed because the desk was busy or shut.
- 02
Qualifies before it books
It confirms what the enquiry needs, the budget behind it, and whether it fits, using your own questions, so the slots in your diary go to the work worth winning.
- 03
Books straight into your calendar
A real appointment lands in your live calendar with the details logged, reminders set, and reschedules handled, so no-shows fall and nothing is double-booked.
- 04
Follows up, and knows its limits
Quiet enquiries are chased for weeks in your voice, and anything sensitive or off-script is routed to a named person on your team with the context attached.
A human receptionist owns rapport and judgement in the room. An AI receptionist owns the hours and the overflow a person cannot. Here is how the two compare, line by line, so you can put each where it earns its keep.
AI receptionist versus a human receptionist
The hours nobody can staff, covered.
| A human receptionist | A 7 Minds AI receptionist | |
|---|---|---|
| Hours covered | Contracted hours, minus holiday, sickness, and breaks. | Every hour, every day. Evenings, weekends, and holidays included. |
| Answering a new enquiry | When they are free; after hours it waits for the next shift. | The moment it lands, on web, chat and email, while the enquiry is still warm. |
| What it does with it | Takes a message, books if they can, follows up if there is time. | Qualifies, books straight into your calendar, and follows up for weeks. |
| Consistency | Varies with the day, the workload, and who is on shift. | Answers every enquiry the same way, in your agreed voice, every time. |
| What it costs | A salary plus tax, pension, cover, software, and a desk. | From £3,000 to set up, then £700 a month, managed. |
| When it leaves | They resign eventually, and the training often walks out too. | It does not. The role and its training stay with your business. |
| Human judgement | Owns rapport and judgement in the room, which is where a person wins. | Routes anything sensitive or off-script to a named person on your team. |
- Hours covered
- Every hour, every day. Evenings, weekends, and holidays included.
- Answering a new enquiry
- The moment it lands, on web, chat and email, while the enquiry is still warm.
- What it does with it
- Qualifies, books straight into your calendar, and follows up for weeks.
- Consistency
- Answers every enquiry the same way, in your agreed voice, every time.
- What it costs
- From £3,000 to set up, then £700 a month, managed.
- When it leaves
- It does not. The role and its training stay with your business.
- Human judgement
- Routes anything sensitive or off-script to a named person on your team.
- Hours covered
- Contracted hours, minus holiday, sickness, and breaks.
- Answering a new enquiry
- When they are free; after hours it waits for the next shift.
- What it does with it
- Takes a message, books if they can, follows up if there is time.
- Consistency
- Varies with the day, the workload, and who is on shift.
- What it costs
- A salary plus tax, pension, cover, software, and a desk.
- When it leaves
- They resign eventually, and the training often walks out too.
- Human judgement
- Owns rapport and judgement in the room, which is where a person wins.
An AI receptionist is built for the hours and the overflow a person cannot cover, not to replace the judgement a human brings in the room. Most receptions want both. Figures are illustrative until we scope your role; the strategy call gives you the number for your firm.
Proof
Where the system runs today: our own group companies.
- Eta Medical Group
- AH Group Holdings
- Eta Investment Group
- AH Strategic Holding
- Eta Properties
Named with permission. Every firm here is a fellow member of the private group of operating companies that 7 Minds Systems belongs to, spanning healthcare, property and professional services. Verified results and testimonials are published here as each engagement signs them off, never before.
Meet your AI receptionist before you commit.
Book a thirty-minute call and we will scope the role and its return live, or price it against a hire in the ROI calculator first.
Thirty minutes, no pitch. You leave knowing what we would build, what it would answer, and what it would cost.
Questions
The AI receptionist, answered.
What does an AI receptionist do?
An AI receptionist is an employee-grade AI worker that answers, qualifies, and books enquiries on web, chat and email, day and night. Unlike a chatbot that captures an email, it holds a real conversation, books into your calendar, follows up, and routes anything sensitive to a person, and we build, train, and run it for you.
Will it replace my receptionist?
No. It covers the hours and the overflow a person cannot: late-night enquiries, weekends, and the back-to-back moments when the desk is busy. Most firms keep their reception team and put the AI receptionist on the after-hours and first-response work, so staff focus on the people in front of them.
How much does an AI receptionist cost?
A standalone AI receptionist is around £3,000 to set up and £700 a month, illustrative until we scope your role, which is a fraction of a salaried hire and covers every hour of every day. The current figures, in your local currency, are on the pricing page, and your own number is quoted in writing before we build.
Can it take phone calls, not just web chat?
Not as standard. The workforce answers on web, chat and email, and telephone answering is a separate build we scope on request. We would rather tell you that here than claim a channel we have not built for you, so ask on the call and we will price it alongside the rest of the role.
What happens when an enquiry needs a human?
It recognises its limits. Anything sensitive, complex, or off-script is routed to a named person on your team with the context already gathered, and in regulated fields every regulated step is approved by a human before it goes live.
How quickly can one be live?
Faster than a hire. We scope the role, train it on your services and voice, connect it to your calendar and tools, and have it answering real enquiries in weeks, not the months a recruitment cycle takes.
See the rest of the workforce on the AI employees page, or weigh it against a salaried hire in the side-by-side with an in-house hire. For the numbers, see AI receptionist pricing; if you were looking for AI receptionist software, that page explains the managed alternative.
Book a strategy call
Thirty minutes to meet your AI receptionist.
Thirty minutes to scope this role properly: what it would answer, what it would escalate, and what it would cost to run.
Know the scope and the number before you start.
The build is scoped and priced in writing before it begins, with the exclusions named, and the AI workforce is built and trained on your services and voice before it answers anyone. You commit to a defined piece of work, not to a promise.
Book a thirty-minute call
Pick a time straight from the diary. If you would rather write first, email us and a person replies, usually the same working day.