# What is an AI receptionist and what can it do?

> An AI receptionist answers calls and messages, qualifies requests and offers appointments. A missed-call calculation, Quebec privacy rules and pitfalls.

Updated on October 15, 2026 · https://app.pilotiko.com/en/glossary/ai-receptionist

An AI receptionist is a conversational agent, by voice or text, that answers a business's calls and messages: it understands the request, asks the right questions, gives basic information and offers an appointment or hands off to a person. Current versions are usually built on a large language model connected to the business's own information.

## In short
- It is a conversational agent, often with a voice interface.
- It should answer from an approved knowledge base, not from the model's memory.
- Handing off to a person must stay possible at all times.
- Pilotiko's phone AI receptionist is planned and not available yet.

## How is an AI receptionist different from voicemail?

Quebec's OQLF defines a conversational agent as one that can hold a two-way exchange with a user in natural language, through instant messaging or a voice interface. The simplest follow rules and pick an answer from a finite set; the most advanced are intelligent agents built on a [large language model](https://app.pilotiko.com/en/glossary/llm) [1].

Voicemail records a message. A phone menu asks callers to press a number. An AI receptionist understands a sentence like my water heater has been leaking since this morning and carries on: address, urgency, availability.

## What happens during a call handled by an AI receptionist?

For a service-centre type of use case, Quebec's guide on agentic AI lists minimum guardrails: an approved knowledge base, logging, and transfer to a human when needed [2].

1. **Greeting** — It introduces itself as an automated assistant and asks why the person is calling.
2. **Qualifying** — It asks the questions the business set: type of service, address, urgency.
3. **Informing** — It answers from an approved base: hours, service areas, starting prices.
4. **Offering** — It proposes a genuinely open slot or logs the request for a call-back.
5. **Handing off** — It transfers the call to a person as soon as the case falls outside its script.

## In-house, answering service or AI: what should you compare?

| Criterion | In-house receptionist | Answering service | AI receptionist |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hours covered | Office hours | Depends on the plan | Depends on setup, evenings included |
| Simultaneous calls | One at a time | Depends on the service's staffing | Several at once |
| Unexpected cases | Excellent judgment | Varies | Limited: needs a hand-off |
| Access to the real calendar | Yes | Often not | Only if connected to it |

Qualitative comparison; check each provider's actual terms.

## How many after-hours calls does a small business miss?

**Calculation: a plumbing company in Terrebonne**

- Calls received per week : 120
- Share arriving evenings and weekends (assumption) : 25%
- After-hours calls (120 × 25%) : 30
- After-hours calls with no answer or call-back (assumption: half) : 15
- Real service requests among them (assumption: 40%) : 6
- **= About 6 service requests a week that get no same-day response in this scenario.**

## Which rules and mistakes should you know about?

An AI receptionist collects personal information: names, addresses, sometimes details about a home. Since [Quebec's Law 25](https://app.pilotiko.com/en/glossary/quebec-law-25), a business must tell people at the time of collection about, among other things, the purposes and means of collection and their rights of access and correction [3].

- Letting callers believe they are talking to a person.
- Letting the model invent a price or lead time because the knowledge base is out of date.
- Removing the hand-off to save time: urgent cases suffer.
- Booking into a calendar that is not the real one, creating double bookings or a [no-show](https://app.pilotiko.com/en/glossary/no-show-rate).
- Keeping no log of handled calls, which makes errors impossible to fix.

## Does Pilotiko offer an AI receptionist?

Available today: online booking on real open slots and [AI agents](https://app.pilotiko.com/en/glossary/ai-agent) that prepare work, with a person's approval before anything is sent. Email and text confirmations and reminders are being commissioned: nothing is sent yet.

> Coming soon. Pilotiko's AI receptionist (voice and text: answer, qualify, book) is not available yet. The code exists but has not yet been verified with a real phone number.

## Frequently asked questions

### Can an AI receptionist book appointments?

Yes, if it is connected to the business's real calendar and can see open slots. Otherwise it can only log the request for a call-back. Confirm that connection before relying on the tool.

### Should callers be told they are speaking with AI?

It is the honest approach and avoids misunderstandings. Callers should also be able to ask for a person. In Quebec, the business must in any case tell people why their personal information is being collected.

### Can an AI receptionist handle Quebec French?

Recent models handle French well, but accents, local expressions and job-site noise can cause errors. Test the tool with real calls before trusting it with your main line. Always keep a hand-off to a person.

### What does an AI receptionist do with an emergency?

It should recognize one from keywords and set questions, then transfer immediately to an on-call person. An AI should never decide on its own that a gas leak or water damage can wait.

### Does an AI receptionist replace front-desk staff?

It mainly covers the moments when nobody can pick up: evenings, weekends and simultaneous calls. Delicate cases, unhappy customers and decisions are still better handled by a person, in line with [human-in-the-loop](https://app.pilotiko.com/en/glossary/human-in-the-loop) practice. Think of it as extra coverage.

## Sources

1. Office québécois de la langue française (Vitrine linguistique), « agent conversationnel (GDT) », https://vitrinelinguistique.oqlf.gouv.qc.ca/redirection/ficheuid/26545036 (accessed on 2026-10-15)
2. Ministère de la Cybersécurité et du Numérique (Gouvernement du Québec), « Guide sur l'utilisation responsable de l'intelligence artificielle agentique », https://cdn-contenu.quebec.ca/cdn-contenu/adm/min/cybersecurite_numerique/Intelligence_artificielle/GU_IA_Agentique.pdf (accessed on 2026-10-15)
3. Commission d'accès à l'information du Québec, « Principaux changements apportés par la Loi 25 », https://www.cai.gouv.qc.ca/protection-renseignements-personnels/sujets-et-domaines-dinteret/principaux-changements-loi-25 (accessed on 2026-10-15)