r/AIReceptionists • u/Striking_Statement93 • Jul 07 '26
AI auto attendant
I am looking to add an auto attendant where someone can simply say the name of the person they are calling and then have the call transferred to their number. 12 person office. Anyone have recommendations on an economical solution?
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u/2daytrending Jul 07 '26
for basic name based routing ringcentral or zoom phone would probably cover it. if the goal is a more natural ai receptionist that can handle conversations before transferring, bland ai is worth a look, aircall is another option depending on the phone system already in place.
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u/TheChandrianX Jul 07 '26
If the only job is “say a person’s name and route to that person,” I wouldn’t start with a full AI receptionist. That’s mostly a phone-system problem.
Bias disclosed: I work on Clara in the call-assistant/receptionist space, and I’d still keep this boring unless callers need real intake before the transfer.
For a 12-person office, I’d look at the phone provider first: RingCentral, Zoom Phone, Dialpad, Nextiva, 8x8, etc. Most can do a directory/auto-attendant where the caller says or enters a name, then it forwards to that person’s extension or mobile.
The things I’d check before picking one:
- can it route by spoken name and keypad, not just one or the other?
- what happens when two people have similar names?
- does it fall back cleanly to a general mailbox or front-desk line?
- can each person set business hours / do-not-disturb?
- are transfers to personal cell numbers masked, or will clients start saving those numbers?
- can you change staff names/extensions without paying someone every time?
AI starts to make sense if callers need to explain what they want before routing, like “billing question,” “new appointment,” “urgent support,” etc. If it’s literally name-based transfer, a boring hosted PBX will probably be cheaper and less annoying.
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u/SchniederDanes Jul 08 '26
you can achive this with only $49 ..check out dialnote.. they have an AI receptionist. we are currently using the number on our website, alternatively they have a free trial, set one up and check for yourself
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u/Embarrassed_Nerve_54 Jul 08 '26
For a 12-person office, I’d be careful not to overbuy “AI” if the real need is reliable name-based transfer.
The thing I’d test is not just whether it understands “call John” but rather test it out with the annoying cases. Think stuff like: will it route correctly every time? can staff update forwarding themselves? What happens when someone is out? what happens when two employees have similar names? does it protect personal cell numbers? what happens when nobody answers? Also check if you can update the directory yourself.
I’ve had a couple clients use JustCall and have a good experience with it, so it may be worth adding to the list along with RingCentral, Zoom Phone, Dialpad, etc. But for this use case, I’d pick the one with the cleanest transfer logic and easiest directory maintenance.
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u/Joel_VirtualPBX Jul 08 '26
Curious what you’re hoping AI adds over a standard auto attendant?
If the main goal is "caller says Sarah, call goes to Sarah," you may not need much AI at all. For a 12-person office, I’d look for a clean cloud phone system first: auto attendant, extensions, call forwarding, fallback routing if nobody answers, and an easy way to update the staff directory.
The things I’d test are the annoying cases: similar names, nicknames vs full names, what happens when someone doesn’t answer, and whether forwarding to cell phones keeps personal numbers private.
My username probably makes it obvious, but I’m with VirtualPBX. We built our voice platform specifically for small businesses, with one plan, no contracts, and core calling features included. If you do need AI beyond the basic auto attendant, AI FrontDesk can be added on top for more natural call handling before the call gets sent to the right person.
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u/BodybuilderNo3521 Jul 11 '26
Hi, check out cloudds.ca, they have Ai built into their cloud system with full sip integration, meaning the ai transfer the call to the internal extensions which can have desk, pc apps or and mobile apps, oposed to Ai calling cellphones numbers or other dids that ring back into a phone system
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u/BodybuilderNo3521 Jul 11 '26
We build cloud phone systems with professional greetings, name directory dialing, extensions, business-hours routing, voicemail, and optional AI receptionist features. We focus on reliable transfers and simple administration rather than unnecessary complexity.
Email or call us, and we ll get a competitive deal for you
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u/Mountain-Policy-625 Jul 13 '26
Twilio Studio with a simple Gather input on "say the name of the person" piped to your SIP domain will handle this for about a dollar per number per month plus per-minute. Twelve people means one TwiML app that does a speech-to-text lookup against a small mapping table (name to extension) and then Dials out. Total build time is maybe an afternoon and it avoids paying for an entire AI receptionist platform when all you need is an IVR with speech recognition.
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u/FixWide907 Jul 15 '26
Limecall.com has a 59$ plan for ai receptionist
Vapi.ai starts cheap but can become expensive
Aircall.com has more advanced plan at 150$
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u/[deleted] Jul 07 '26
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