Here is how to set up an AI receptionist: decide which calls it should take, write a one-page answer sheet, pick a service, load your answers and handoff rules, forward your business number to it, then call it yourself five times before customers do. Most small businesses can do the first version in one afternoon.
Every guide ranking for this question is written by a company selling its own receptionist. This one is not. The steps below work the same way whichever service you choose, and the setup screens in most tools follow this order.
What you need before you start
Gather these first. It is faster to write them once than to answer the same setup question in five different screens.
- Your business phone number and who your phone provider is (a cell carrier, a VoIP app, or a landline company).
- Your hours, including holidays and the days you close early.
- Your services, with rough prices or price ranges you are happy for a robot to repeat.
- The ten questions people ask you most. Scroll your recent texts and voicemails if you are not sure.
- One phone number for urgent transfers, and the name of whoever answers it.
- Your calendar login, only if you want the AI to book appointments.
How to set up an AI receptionist, step by step
Step 1: Decide which calls it takes
Start with missed and after-hours calls only, not every call. You keep answering the phone as normal, and the AI only picks up what you would have lost to voicemail.
This is cheaper, because most services charge by the minute or by the call. It is also safer: if the AI gets something wrong in week one, it gets it wrong on calls you were missing anyway. Once it has handled a few weeks of overflow well, you can decide whether to send it every call.
Step 2: Write a one-page answer sheet
The AI only knows what you tell it. A short, plain document beats a long one. Write it in full sentences, the way you would brief a new hire on their first morning:
- Who we are: business name, what you do, and the area you serve.
- Hours: regular, holiday, and what to say when you are closed.
- What we do and roughly what it costs: only the prices you are comfortable quoting over the phone. For everything else, write “the owner will confirm the price.”
- What we do not do: the services people ask for that you turn down. This saves you a lot of pointless callbacks.
- Top ten questions and your answers.
- What to collect from every caller: name, callback number, the job or reason for calling, and, for trades, the address.
- Never say: a short list of things it must not promise, such as exact quotes, arrival times, refunds, or medical or legal advice.
Some tools will offer to build the first version by reading your website or Google Business Profile. That is a fine starting point, but read every line it pulls in. Old prices and closed services on your website will be repeated to callers word for word.
Step 3: Pick a service that fits how you take calls
Choose by the one feature you cannot live without, usually calendar booking or a live transfer to you. Then compare how each plan charges against your real call volume. Our breakdown of how much an AI receptionist costs shows the three pricing models and which kind of business each one punishes.
If your phone system or booking app already sells a receptionist add-on, check that first. One system that shares a calendar beats two that drift apart. Use the free trial to do the rest of these steps; most services offer one, and our list of free AI receptionist options shows which.
Step 4: Set the greeting and the voice
Keep the greeting short and say the business name first: “Thanks for calling Oak Street Plumbing, how can I help?” (a made-up business). Long greetings make callers hang up before the AI gets to help.
Decide whether the greeting says it is a virtual assistant. Being upfront avoids the awkward moment when a caller works it out halfway through. Check what your service does by default and whether you can change it.
If you can set a separate after-hours greeting, do. “We are closed right now, but I can take your details and the owner will call you back first thing” sets the right expectation.
Step 5: Load your answers and set the rules
Paste your answer sheet into the service’s knowledge base, business info, or instructions box. Then set the rules most tools ask for:
- Booking authority: can it book straight into your calendar, offer times for you to confirm, or only take a message? Start with “take a message” or “offer times” unless your calendar is always accurate.
- Messages: where call summaries go (text, email, an app) and who gets them.
- Spam: turn on any spam or robocall filtering so you are not paying minutes to talk to sales bots.
Step 6: Set the handoff to a human
This is the step owners skip and regret. Decide in writing which calls go straight to a person:
- Emergencies (a burst pipe, a broken tooth, a car stuck on the road).
- Upset or confused callers, or anyone who asks for a person twice.
- Your best customers, if the service can recognize their numbers.
Then decide what happens if nobody picks up the transfer: a message with an urgent flag, a text to your cell, or a promise of a callback within a set time. Make sure the transfer number is one someone actually answers.
Step 7: Connect your calendar (optional)
If you want it to book, connect the calendar or booking app you already use. Block out lunch, travel time and buffer time first, because the AI will happily offer any slot that looks empty. Make one test booking and check that it shows up with the right service, length and customer details.
Step 8: Forward your business number to it
You keep your existing number. The service gives you a number to forward calls to, and you turn on forwarding with your phone provider.
- Conditional forwarding sends only the calls you do not answer. This is what step 1 recommends.
- All-calls forwarding sends every call to the AI, and your phone stops ringing.
On Verizon mobile lines, for example, Verizon lists *71 plus the 10-digit number to forward only calls you do not answer, *72 plus the number to forward all calls, and *73 to turn forwarding off. Other carriers and VoIP systems use different codes or a settings menu, and the codes can differ by plan, so take them from your carrier’s support page or the forwarding screen in your AI service, not from a random list online.
After you turn it on, call your own number from a different phone and let it ring out. If the AI picks up, forwarding works.
Step 9: Call it yourself five times
Before a real customer hears it, play five different callers:
- A simple booking or “are you open Saturday?”
- A price question, including one service you do not offer.
- An urgent call that should be transferred.
- An annoyed caller who interrupts and asks for a person.
- A question that is not on your answer sheet at all.
Read every transcript. When it gets something wrong, fix the answer sheet, not just the single reply, then call again. The fifth test matters most: you want it to say “I’ll have the owner call you back” rather than make something up.
Step 10: Go live and read the first week of calls
Turn it on for missed and after-hours calls and read every summary or transcript for the first week. Look for three things: wrong answers, callers who hung up, and questions it could not answer. Add each new question to your answer sheet the same day.
After two or three weeks with few problems, decide whether to widen it to more calls, add booking, or leave it as overflow. Plenty of small businesses never go further than overflow, and that is fine.
What to skip, and what it will not do for you
- Do not let it quote prices it cannot see. Jobs that need a site visit, a diagnosis or a custom quote should end with “the owner will confirm the price.”
- Do not hand it your hardest calls on day one. Complaints, emergencies and anything emotional still go better with a person.
- Do not turn on outbound AI calling without checking the rules. In February 2024 the FCC ruled that calls made with AI-generated voices count as “artificial” under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. Answering inbound calls is the normal use; calling people back with an AI voice is a different question to raise with an attorney.
- Check call recording rules before you switch recording on. The FCC says it has no rules on recording calls by individuals, but some state laws prohibit it. Look up your state’s rules or ask your attorney.
- Sensitive information needs extra care. If callers share health, payment or legal details, ask the vendor in writing what protections it offers and get professional advice before relying on it.
- It will not fix a bad answer sheet. If your hours and prices are out of date, the AI repeats the mistake to every caller, politely and at scale.
Not sure the phone is the right place to start? Our free AI scan points to the jobs worth handing off first.
How we put this together: we read the official setup guides and support pages listed under Sources on October 13, 2026. No vendor paid to be included. Menus and codes change, so confirm on your carrier’s or vendor’s own page.
Frequently asked questions
How long does it take to set up an AI receptionist?
Vendors say their setup screens take anywhere from a few minutes to under an hour. Writing a good answer sheet and running your five test calls is what takes the rest of the afternoon. Plan on a week of reading transcripts before you trust it with more than overflow calls.
Can I keep my existing business phone number?
Yes, in most setups. You forward your current number to the number the service gives you, either for missed calls only or for every call. Your customers keep dialing the same number they always have.
How do I set up an AI receptionist on iPhone?
An iPhone has a free built-in screener: go to Settings, then Apps, then Phone, and set Screen Unknown Callers to Ask Reason for Calling. Unknown callers are asked their name and reason before your phone rings. It screens calls but does not answer questions or book jobs, so for a full AI receptionist you still sign up for a service and forward your number to it as in step 8.
How do I create an AI receptionist for free?
You can run every step in this guide during a service’s free trial, then cancel if it does not earn its keep. A permanently free business AI receptionist is rare, so plan for a monthly cost once the trial ends.
For more on handling calls, chat and email with AI, see our AI customer service for small business hub.
Sources
- Verizon: Call Forwarding FAQs
- Apple Support: Manage unknown callers on iPhone
- FCC: Recording Telephone Conversations
- FCC: AI-Generated Voices in Robocalls Ruling (February 2024)
- Nextiva: How to set up an AI receptionist (vendor setup guide)
More in this topic: AI Customer Service guide.
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