AI Receptionist
Every call answered.Every lead captured.
Bigly Sales answers every inbound call, qualifies the caller on your criteria, and books the appointment. Ready buyers transfer straight to your team.
The short answer
What is an AI receptionist?
An AI receptionist is a voice agent that answers your business phone line, holds a real two way conversation with the caller, collects the information you need, then books an appointment or routes the call to the right person. It works every hour of every day and it does not put anyone on hold.
A traditional answering service takes a message. An AI receptionist finishes the job. It knows your services, your hours, your pricing rules, and your qualifying questions, so the caller gets an answer on the first call instead of waiting for a callback that may never come.
Bigly Sales has been building voice AI since 2020. The same platform that powers our outbound AI calling answers your inbound line, which means one system, one set of recordings, and one view of every conversation your business has on the phone.
If you are looking specifically to replace or reinforce an existing answering service rather than staff a full front desk, our AI answering service page covers that comparison in more detail.
Why it matters
A missed call is a
closed deal for someone else.
Most inbound calls arrive when your team is on another line, in the field, or off the clock. The caller does not wait. They dial the next name on the list.
The caller who reaches voicemail is gone.
Someone calling about a service they need today is not going to leave a message and sit still. The next business that picks up wins the job.
Your best people are answering the phone.
Every call your closer fields to find out it was a wrong number, a vendor, or an unqualified tire kicker is time they were not selling.
Coverage costs headcount you cannot justify.
Answering nights and weekends means a second shift. Volume is unpredictable, so you either overstaff and waste payroll or understaff and lose calls.
On every call
Six jobs, handled before
your phone rings twice.
Your AI receptionist is built on your script, your services, and your qualifying criteria. You approve all of it before a single call is answered.
Answers instantly
Picked up in seconds, at any hour. No queue, no hold music, no after hours voicemail greeting.
Qualifies the caller
Asks your qualifying questions in natural conversation and captures the answers as structured data on the lead record.
Books the appointment
Offers real availability, confirms the slot, and sends the confirmation while the caller is still on the line.
Transfers live when it counts
When a caller is ready to buy, the AI bridges your rep into the active call with the context already gathered.
Answers real questions
Hours, services, coverage area, and anything else you load into the agent. Objections included, on your approved language.
Logs everything
Outcome, full recording, and transcript attached to the record, then synced to your CRM in real time.
Built for volume
Not an overflow line.
Your whole front desk.
Most AI answering tools are priced and built for a handful of calls a day. Bigly runs high volume inbound for teams in regulated industries, where a dropped call and a compliance slip both cost real money.
- Concurrent calls handled at once, so a rush never produces a busy signal
- Inbound and outbound on one platform, with one record per lead
- A dedicated account manager who tunes your agent as you scale
- A and B testing on prompts and voices to lift booking rates
- Live stats, recordings, and transcripts in the web app and the Bigly mobile app
- 99.9% uptime SLA with support infrastructure for high volume users
- Appointment booked and confirmed
- Qualified and transferred to a rep
- Question answered, no follow up needed
- Message captured and routed to the right team
- Out of area or out of scope, filtered out
- Opt out recorded and honored immediately
Compliance
Handled before the call,
not audited after.
If you operate in insurance, lending, legal, or healthcare, the phone is a regulated channel. Bigly enforces the rules at the point of the call so your compliance team is reviewing evidence instead of chasing problems.
Consent captured on the call
Consent is recorded and logged as part of the conversation, with the recording and transcript retained for your compliance team.
Opt outs honored immediately
A request to stop registers on the spot and lands in your suppression list without a manual step.
Quiet hours and state rules
Calling rules and quiet hours are checked against the contact’s own time zone, at both the state and federal level.
Whitelisted, monitored lines
Your numbers are whitelisted and watched so calls connect reliably and your lines stay clean.
For the underlying rules, see the FTC guidance on complying with the Telemarketing Sales Rule and our own legal and compliance overview.
Side by side
Voicemail, a human answering
service, or an AI receptionist.
The honest version of the tradeoff, so you can decide what your call volume actually needs.
| What happens | Voicemail | Human answering service | Bigly AI receptionist |
|---|---|---|---|
| Answer speed | Caller hears a greeting and hangs up | Queued behind other clients’ calls | Answered in seconds, every time |
| Coverage | Whenever nobody picks up | Often business hours or a premium add on | 24 hours, weekends and holidays included |
| Qualification | None | A basic script, message taken | Your full criteria, captured as structured data |
| Booking | None | Sometimes, for an extra fee | Booked and confirmed on the call |
| Live transfer | None | Cold transfer with little context | Warm bridge with the context already gathered |
| Volume spikes | Everything goes to voicemail | Hold times grow with the queue | Concurrent calls, no busy signal |
| Record of the call | An audio message | A written summary | Recording, transcript, outcome, CRM sync |
| Compliance checks | None | Depends on the vendor | Enforced before and during the call |
| Cost as you grow | Free, and it costs you deals | Rises with every minute and every seat | Volume pricing, no extra headcount |
Industries
Trained on your business,
not a generic script.
Bigly serves more than 30 industries. Each agent is built on your services, your qualifying questions, and the rules your industry has to follow.
What it costs
One line answered well pays
for the month.
Inbound plans are priced by minutes, so you pay for conversations rather than seats. Every plan includes a dedicated account manager, whitelisted lines, prompts built to your specification, and A and B testing.
20,000 inbound minutes included. For teams putting real inbound volume on AI for the first time.
50,000 inbound minutes included. For steady, week in week out call volume across a full team.
125,000 inbound minutes included, at the lowest per minute rate we offer.
Need something sized to your own volume or a mix of inbound and outbound? Talk to our sales team and we will build it with you. Full plan detail lives on the Try Now page.
Social proof
What teams say after
they put us on the phone.
“Bigly AI has the best tech in the industry for making outbound calls at scale. I highly recommend working with them.”
Google review
“Great people, great product, great advice. Thank you!”
Google review
“Highly recommended, it is a very user friendly CRM and the customer support is awesome!”
Google review, Local Guide
Reviews published on Google by teams using Bigly Sales. Wording is unedited.
Getting started
Live in 48 hours,
without a project plan.
We build your agent
Your account manager builds the receptionist on your services, hours, qualifying questions, and booking rules, then connects your phone numbers and your CRM. You approve every word before it goes live.
Your line goes live
Real callers reach the AI. You listen to recordings the same day, watch appointments land on the calendar, and tune the script with us while the first conversations are still fresh.
We tune on real data
We test alternate prompts and voices against your own calls to lift answer handling and booking rates. You see which version performs before you commit to it.
You review, we optimize
Live stats, recordings, and transcripts in the web app and the Bigly mobile app for iOS and Android. Your account manager keeps the agent sharp and your lines clean as volume grows.
Questions
Frequently asked questions
What is an AI receptionist and how is it different from an answering service?
An AI receptionist answers your business line, holds a natural two way conversation, qualifies the caller, and books the appointment or transfers the call. A traditional answering service mainly takes a message for someone to return later. The AI finishes the job on the first call, which is why fewer callers drop off.
Does the AI receptionist sound human?
Yes. It holds natural two way conversations, handles questions and objections in real time, and adapts instead of reading a fixed script. Callers will not know it is AI unless you want them to be told.
Can it book appointments directly on our calendar?
Yes. The agent offers real availability, confirms the slot with the caller, and sends the confirmation before the call ends. The booking and the full call record are pushed to your CRM in real time.
What happens when a caller needs a real person?
The AI bridges one of your reps into the live call and passes along the context it has already gathered. The caller stays on the line, so there is no callback and no repeating themselves.
How many calls can it handle at the same time?
Calls are handled concurrently, so a sudden rush does not create a busy signal or a hold queue. Plans are sized by inbound minutes rather than by seats, which means volume spikes do not require extra staff.
How long does setup take?
Most teams are live within 48 hours. Your dedicated account manager builds the agent on your script and qualifying questions, connects your numbers and CRM, and you approve everything before the first call is answered.
Do we get recordings and transcripts of every call?
Yes. Every call produces an outcome, a full recording, and a transcript attached to the lead record, all available in the web app and in the Bigly Sales mobile app for iOS and Android.
How is compliance handled on inbound calls?
Consent is captured and logged during the conversation, opt out requests register immediately, and calling rules and quiet hours are checked against the contact’s own time zone at the state and federal level. Recordings and transcripts stay available to your compliance team.
What does an AI receptionist cost?
Inbound plans start at $2,500 per month for 20,000 minutes and scale to 125,000 minutes at the lowest per minute rate. Every plan includes a dedicated account manager, whitelisted lines with local presence, and prompts built to your specification. Full detail is on the Try Now page.
Can it handle outbound calling too?
Yes. Inbound and outbound run on the same platform with one record per lead, so the same agent that answers your line can also call new leads within 60 seconds of a form submission. See every Bigly Sales feature for how outbound works.
Stop losing calls.
Start booking them.
See the AI receptionist answer a call the way your team would, on your script, in your industry. Setup takes days, not quarters.