Can an AI receptionist book appointments?

Yes. On calendar-connected plans the agent reads real availability and confirms the appointment inside the conversation, then writes the booking, the contact and the transcript into your CRM. Callers do not wait for a callback to get a slot.

How much does an AI receptionist cost?

Paid plans start at $30/month billed annually ($35/month billed monthly) on Starter, which includes 150 minutes and 150 conversations per month; additional minutes are billed at $0.12/minute. Higher plans add more minutes, integrations and support; Enterprise is quoted. Billing is monthly or annual, annual is discounted, and standard plans have no setup fee.

Will an AI receptionist replace my receptionist?

That is not how most customers use it. The agent covers the volume a single person cannot — after hours, simultaneous callers, other languages, repetitive questions — and escalates anything requiring judgement to your team with the conversation history attached. A human stays in the loop by design.

How long does it take to go live?

A website agent can be embedded in minutes with one line of code. A full deployment takes longer because it should: you review the knowledge sources the agent may answer from, define escalation and routing rules, and connect your CRM and calendar before the agent takes real traffic.

Does the AI receptionist work on my website as well as the phone?

Yes. The same receptionist answers on your website widget, by voice or text, and on your phone line, with one configuration and one knowledge base.

What happens if the AI does not know the answer?

It says so and escalates rather than improvising. The agent is grounded in your approved content and cites its sources, so questions outside that knowledge base are routed to a person or captured as a callback request with the context already written down.

CETRAI

AI Receptionist for Small Business Calls and Bookings

AI receptionist for small business: answers every call and chat 24/7 in 75+ languages, qualifies enquiries and books meetings. From $30/month billed annually.

An AI receptionist that greets every caller and website visitor, answers questions from content you have approved, qualifies the enquiry, books the meeting and hands off to a person when the conversation needs one — 24/7, in 75+ languages.

What is an AI receptionist?

An AI receptionist is a virtual front-desk agent that answers inbound calls and website conversations automatically. CETRAI's AI receptionist speaks and types, detects the caller's language, answers only from your approved knowledge base with citations, captures contact details, books meetings, writes every conversation into your CRM, and escalates to a human with the full transcript when the request needs judgement, an exception, or an account change.

What the AI receptionist handles

The front desk is mostly the same handful of jobs repeated all day. These are the ones CETRAI takes over first.

Answer every call and chat, day and night — No queue, no voicemail, no after-hours gap. The agent answers on the first ring and can hold many conversations at the same time, so a busy hour does not turn into missed enquiries.
Greet in the caller's own language — Language is detected automatically across 75+ languages, so an international caller is never asked to repeat themselves or wait for a bilingual colleague to become free.
Answer from approved content only — The agent is grounded in your own pages, documents, price lists and FAQs, and cites the source behind its answers. Anything outside that knowledge base is escalated rather than guessed.
Qualify and route the enquiry — Intent detection separates a new sales enquiry from an existing customer, a supplier or a recruiter, and routes each one to the right team or inbox with the qualification notes attached.
Book the meeting while the caller is still there — Calendar-connected plans let the agent offer real availability and confirm the appointment inside the conversation instead of promising a callback.
Write everything into your CRM — Contacts, transcripts, summaries and next steps sync to Salesforce, HubSpot, Zoho, Pipedrive and other connected tools, so nothing depends on someone retyping a message pad.
Escalate to a person with context — When a conversation needs a human, the handoff carries the full transcript and summary, so your colleague starts from what was already said rather than from scratch.

An AI receptionist for small business teams

Small businesses lose enquiries for a structural reason: one person cannot answer the phone, serve the customer in front of them and reply to the website chat at the same time. In a small business the receptionist is usually also the person invoicing, ordering stock or treating a patient. Calls arriving during those tasks go to voicemail, and most callers with an urgent need simply dial the next business on the list instead of leaving a message. An AI receptionist removes that trade-off: every call and website chat is answered on the first ring, at the same time, without adding a salary or a shift rota. It also fixes the after-hours gap. Enquiries that land in the evening or at the weekend are answered, qualified and booked into your calendar rather than waiting in an inbox until Monday, by which point the buying decision has often already been made elsewhere. Accuracy matters more when there is no supervisor listening in. The agent answers only from content you have approved — your own pages, price lists, policies and FAQs — and cites the source behind each answer. Anything outside that knowledge base is escalated to a person with the full transcript instead of being guessed at, which is what keeps an unsupervised front desk safe to run. Cost is predictable rather than headcount-shaped. Plans start from $30/month billed annually with meeting booking included on every paid tier, so a two-person business gets the same 24/7 coverage, language support and CRM sync as a much larger team, and can scale minutes up without hiring.

Small businesses that use an AI receptionist

The pattern is the same wherever a missed call is a lost customer. These are the setups we deploy into most often.

Clinics, dental and medical practices — Appointment requests, opening hours, preparation instructions and rescheduling handled while front-desk staff are with patients.
Law firms and professional services — New matter enquiries qualified and booked into a consultation slot, with anything requiring advice escalated to a fee earner.
Home services and trades — Quote requests captured with job details and address while your team is on site rather than lost to voicemail.
Retail and e-commerce — Stock, delivery and returns questions answered instantly in the customer's own language, on the phone and on the website.
Real estate offices — Property enquiries qualified on budget, timeline and location, then booked straight into a viewing slot.
Hospitality and restaurants — Booking, group and menu questions answered during the rush, when nobody can reach the phone.

AI receptionist vs. a traditional front desk

Most teams do not replace a receptionist outright — they stop losing the calls a single person cannot physically cover. Here is where the two differ. The honest split: a person is better at judgement, empathy under pressure and anything requiring discretion. An AI receptionist is better at being available, consistent and fully documented. Most deployments keep both and let the agent absorb the repetitive volume.

Hours covered: CETRAI — Every hour of every day, including nights, weekends and holidays. Traditional front desk — Staffed business hours; evenings and weekends go to voicemail.
Simultaneous conversations: CETRAI — Many at once — a rush does not create a queue. Traditional front desk — One caller at a time; the rest hold or hang up.
Languages: CETRAI — 75+ languages with automatic detection. Traditional front desk — Whatever languages the person on shift speaks.
Record of the conversation: CETRAI — Full transcript, summary and CRM record created automatically. Traditional front desk — Handwritten or typed notes, when there is time to take them.
Cost structure: CETRAI — Published subscription from $30/month billed annually, cancellable, with no setup fee on standard plans. Traditional front desk — Salary, benefits, holiday and sick cover for each seat.
Judgement calls: CETRAI — Escalates to a person, with the transcript attached. Traditional front desk — Handled in the moment by an experienced human.

How to set up your AI receptionist

The same three steps every CETRAI deployment starts with. A website embed is one line of code; a full rollout adds knowledge review and routing.

Register & Create Agent — Sign up and configure your AI agent in minutes. Choose voice, personality, language.
Train with Your Content — Upload your product catalog, FAQs, service descriptions, and website content.
Connect Your CRM — Link to Salesforce, HubSpot, Zoho, or Pipedrive. Leads sync automatically.

AI receptionist pricing

Paid plans start at $30/month billed annually ($35/month billed monthly) on Starter, which includes 150 minutes and 150 conversations per month; additional minutes are billed at $0.12/minute. Every plan is published on the pricing page — there is no per-message quote to chase. How Usage Works: The plan will pause when either monthly minutes OR monthly conversations are reached, whichever ends first. You can upgrade or add minutes anytime.

Starter — Great for growing businesses. $30/month billed annually · $35/month billed monthly. 150 minutes and 150 conversations included.
Growth — For scaling businesses. $250/month billed annually · $290/month billed monthly. 1500 minutes and 1500 conversations included.
Pro — Advanced automation & personalization. $600/month billed annually · $700/month billed monthly. 3500 minutes and 3500 conversations included.
Enterprise — Custom solutions for large organizations. Custom pricing. Custom minutes and Custom conversations included.

See all CETRAI pricing plans

AI receptionist FAQs

Answers to the questions buyers ask most before rolling this out.

What is an AI receptionist? An AI receptionist is software that answers inbound calls and website conversations in place of a human front desk. CETRAI's version speaks or types, detects the caller's language across 75+ languages, answers only from content you have approved, captures the caller's details, books meetings on connected calendars, and escalates to a person with the full transcript when the request needs human judgement.
Can an AI receptionist book appointments? Yes. On calendar-connected plans the agent reads real availability and confirms the appointment inside the conversation, then writes the booking, the contact and the transcript into your CRM. Callers do not wait for a callback to get a slot.
How much does an AI receptionist cost? Paid plans start at $30/month billed annually ($35/month billed monthly) on Starter, which includes 150 minutes and 150 conversations per month; additional minutes are billed at $0.12/minute. Higher plans add more minutes, integrations and support; Enterprise is quoted. Billing is monthly or annual, annual is discounted, and standard plans have no setup fee.
Will an AI receptionist replace my receptionist? That is not how most customers use it. The agent covers the volume a single person cannot — after hours, simultaneous callers, other languages, repetitive questions — and escalates anything requiring judgement to your team with the conversation history attached. A human stays in the loop by design.
How long does it take to go live? A website agent can be embedded in minutes with one line of code. A full deployment takes longer because it should: you review the knowledge sources the agent may answer from, define escalation and routing rules, and connect your CRM and calendar before the agent takes real traffic.
Does the AI receptionist work on my website as well as the phone? Yes. The same receptionist answers on your website widget, by voice or text, and on your phone line, with one configuration and one knowledge base.
What happens if the AI does not know the answer? It says so and escalates rather than improvising. The agent is grounded in your approved content and cites its sources, so questions outside that knowledge base are routed to a person or captured as a callback request with the context already written down.

See the AI receptionist on your own content

Book a working session and we will point the agent at your site, your FAQs and your booking calendar, then walk through the escalation rules with you.

Contact the CETRAI team