Question 1

What is an AI receptionist?

Accepted Answer

An AI receptionist is software that greets website visitors, answers questions using real business data, qualifies leads, and books appointments or escalates to a human - in real time, without anyone on the other end of a phone.

Question 2

How is an AI receptionist different from a chatbot?

Accepted Answer

A generic chatbot follows a fixed decision tree of pre-written answers. An AI receptionist is connected to live business data - your product catalogue, availability, order history - so it can answer specific questions and take real actions like booking, not just point to an FAQ page.

Question 3

How is an AI receptionist different from an answering service?

Accepted Answer

A traditional answering service relies on a human working from a script during paid hours, and usually just takes a message for a callback. An AI receptionist responds instantly, 24/7, and can complete the booking or sale itself without a callback loop.

Question 4

How much does an AI receptionist cost?

Accepted Answer

Remery's AI receptionist runs on a pay-per-conversation model - a typical 10-message conversation costs a fraction of a penny, far cheaper than staffing a phone line or answering service, with a free tier available to start.

Question 5

Can an AI receptionist hand off to a real person?

Accepted Answer

Yes. You set the rules for escalation - refund requests, complaints, or specific topics - and when triggered, you get the full conversation by email and can step in directly.

Question 6

How long does it take to set up an AI receptionist?

Accepted Answer

Most businesses are live within 24 hours. It is a single code snippet added to your website - no phone hardware, hiring, or script-writing required.

Capability	AI Receptionist	Answering Service	Generic Chatbot
Availability	24/7, instant response	Business hours, or paid after-hours cover	24/7, but often just deflects to a form
Knows your business	Connected to live product/service/booking data	Reads from a script the human is given	Limited to pre-written decision-tree answers
Can it book or sell?	Books appointments, qualifies and converts leads	Takes a message; booking usually needs a callback	Rarely - mostly deflects to a contact form
Setup time	Live same day - one code snippet	Days to weeks (hiring, training, scripts)	Days (decision-tree scripting)
Cost at scale	Fractions of a penny per conversation	Per-minute or per-seat staffing cost	Flat subscription regardless of usage

What Is an AI Receptionist?

AI Receptionist vs Answering Service vs Generic Chatbot

How Remery’s AI Receptionist Works

AI Receptionist FAQ

See an AI Receptionist on Your Own Site