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Artificial intelligence (AI) disrupts how brands communicate with customers, especially in phone answering. AI-powered answering services engage customers, capture leads, route inquiries, and even handle scheduling with speed and accuracy.
Businesses of all sizes can leverage tools to deliver consistent, round-the-clock service at a fraction of the cost of traditional call centers.
In this article, we’ll rank the best AI phone-answering services in 2025, breaking down their standout features, advantages, limitations, and what makes each worth considering. Find the right solution for your business.
Top AI phone-answering services in 2025
AI answering services use natural language processing (NLP), speech recognition, and sometimes machine learning (ML) models to manage phone calls and related tasks without needing a live, human operator for every step.
They can:
- Greet callers.
- Understand intent or keywords.
- Route the call to the correct department or person.
- Schedule appointments.
- Gather information such as name and reason for calling.
- Answer frequently asked questions (FAQs).
Research shows that conversational AI can reduce customer service costs by up to 30% by automating routine inquiries and shortening handle times. At the same time, Gartner predicts that by the end of 2026, 40% of enterprise applications will incorporate task-specific AI agents, a clear sign that these tools are quickly moving from early adoption to mainstream use.
Now that you know what AI answering services are and why they matter, let’s compare the leading providers in 2025.
1. Goodcall
Goodcall is an AI-powered virtual receptionist and phone assistant service for small to medium businesses. It offers conversational AI to pick up inbound calls, forward or transfer them, ask screening questions, schedule, and integrate with existing phone systems.
Goodcall assigns a unique “Goodcall number” in a local area code to each AI agent, which can work in parallel with your business line.
Key features
- No-code setup (workflow builder), where you can define call flows
- Call forwarding (conditional forwarding)
- Conversational AI to handle FAQ, lead capture, and appointment bookings
- Integration or webhooks to sync with customer relationship management (CRM) and external systems
- Call transcription and summary
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Rapid deployment and ease of setup, which means less technical overhead | Might struggle with highly complex or emotional calls, a common limitation of AI |
| Good flexibility in routing and customizing flows | Some users report that the AI “lags” or misses calls or misinterprets intents in edge cases |
| Works well as an overlay to existing phone systems | Less mature on advanced capabilities such as voice cloning, multi-step decision logic, or deep contextual memory based on user comparison of alternatives |
| Cost-efficient for automating routine calls | Limited customer service support, especially for non-technical users |
| AI handles first-tier interactions, then escalates when needed |
If your business wants a lightweight, modular AI answering service that you can stand up quickly without overhauling your phone infrastructure, Goodcall is a strong pick. It’s well-suited for firms that want basic automation of calls, lead capture, and routing without needing a full-blown unified communication as a service (UCaaS) system.
2. Smith.ai
Smith.ai provides hybrid AI and live receptionist services, with a focus on combining automated AI handling routine calls and fallback to human agents for more nuanced or complex interactions.
They emphasize 24/7 support and after-hours call service, custom “call playbooks,” lead qualification, and seamless transitions between AI and human answering
Key features
- AI Receptionist mode that handles routine calls, qualifies leads by asking filtering questions, and escalates to a human if needed
- Live human receptionist backup for overflow, complex queries, or during escalating interactions
- Custom call scripts or playbooks tailored to your business needs
- CRM and software integrations
- Centralized call logs, performance reporting, and analytics
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Hybrid model to reduce reliance on AI safely | Potentially higher costs if many calls escalate to human handling |
| Strong in lead qualification, filtering low-quality leads and ensuring your sales team spends time wisely | Less “all-in” automation compared to fully AI-first systems |
| Predictable pricing and transparent per-call billing approach rather than opaque per-minute bundles | Less scalable per-call pricing if your business has high call volume |
| Good reputation and reviews based on client testimonials and scale |
Choose Smith.ai when your business needs a safety net of automation for efficiency and human backup for nuance. It’s ideal if you can’t risk AI missteps but still want cost savings and automation for the bulk of routine interactions.
3. OpenPhone
OpenPhone offers an integrated business phone system. Its AI answering service, dubbed Sona AI, is an add-on agent to handle inbound calls 24/7, answer FAQs, take messages, escalate to a human, and produce summaries. Sona is positioned as more advanced than voicemail, capturing lead info and eliminating gaps in answering.
Key features
- 24/7 call answering, message taking, and call forwarding when needed
- Knowledge base and business information to train Sona so responses feel more customized
- Transcriptions, call summaries, and structured logs for your team to review
- Escalation to a human agent when Sona is uncertain or the call requires nuance
- Integration into OpenPhone’s unified communication stack, including calls, texts, and team collaboration
- AI automation, such as auto-replies, contact suggestions, call tags, etc.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Since Sona is part of OpenPhone, you get visibility and coherence across your call/text stack. | It requires forwarding or configuration to send calls to Sona. It doesn’t automatically intercept all calls unless you route them. |
| The transition from AI to humans is smoother when needed. | For very high call volumes, the per-call approach could become expensive. |
| The billing is per call or on a plan basis, which means no weird per-minute surprises. | The AI might be more conservative and escalate more often in ambiguous cases, which means less cost savings on those calls. |
| You can customize how much the AI handles vs. escalations. | It can become reliant on the quality of your knowledge base and training. If the base is weak, Sona’s responses might feel generic. |
| It’s good for startups and growing teams with less overhead of stitching together separate systems. |
If your business already uses OpenPhone or wants a unified communication platform with a built-in AI answering service, Sona is compelling. The seamless integration, predictability, and control make it ideal for growing teams wanting to keep everything under one umbrella rather than building add-ons piecemeal.
4. RingCentral Al Receptionist
RingCentral AI Receptionist is an AI-powered call-answering layer built into the RingCentral communications ecosystem. It aims to replace traditional phone trees with conversational voice handling, answering calls 24/7, routing, scheduling, sending texts, and escalating. You can train the AI using your website, FAQ documents, and uploaded knowledge blocks.
Key features
- Always-on conversational answering across multiple languages with mid-conversation language switching
- Call routing by name, location, or context without requiring hierarchical phone trees
- Appointment scheduling, SMS follow-ups, and message sending after calls
- Analytics, call summaries, conversational insights
- No need to switch phone systems as the AI receptionist layers into your existing RingCentral setup with automatic sync
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Deep native integration with RingCentral’s broader communications stack, which means less friction in setup and administration | Escalation logic might depend on your internal team’s availability. If your staff isn’t available, calls might get dropped or left waiting |
| Since it’s built into a large UCaaS platform, it inherits stability, performance, and support. | Some advanced custom logic (beyond simple routing + FAQ) might require manual tuning or custom scripts. |
| Rich feature set with multilingual support, contextual routing, natural conversational handling, SMS workflows | If you’re not already in RingCentral, migrating might be overhead. |
| From case studies, it shows a meaningful reduction in time spent on inbound calls and diverted chatter. | Some users express concern about the transparency of costs or overage billing in AI minutes. |
If your business is already using RingCentral or considering it, adopting its AI answering service is a logical choice. You get a unified system with less integration burden, robust infrastructure, and seamless AI call handling without bolting on a different vendor.
5. GoToConnect Virtual Receptionist
GoTo Connect is a unified communications platform, and its virtual receptionist feature brings AI-powered answering into that stack. It focuses on simplicity, multilingual support, customization, and tight integration with the GoTo platform.
Their AI receptionist and answering platform has pay-per-minute or fixed-minute plans, and you can optionally buy minute bundles with overages.
Key features
- 24/7 AI receptionist with the ability to customize tone, language, greeting voice, etc.
- Integration with your existing call flows or auto attendants (i.e., AI can be inserted at points in your dial plan)
- Real-time analytics, reporting, performance dashboards
- Simple setup designed for small to medium businesses
- Multilingual support
- Per-minute pricing or a fixed-minute plan with overage as needed
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Embedded into the GoTo Connect ecosystem, which means less friction if you already use GoTo for communications | Usage beyond bundled minutes can trigger overage costs, which can surprise users if traffic spikes. |
| Configurability in tone, language, and greetings gives brands more control | Some features require higher-tier plans or add-ons. |
| Predictable billing options and minute bundles help avoid surprises | The AI flows are less sophisticated than pure-play AI. |
| Multilingual support is useful for global or multilingual customer bases | If you switch phone systems later, AI receptionist features might not be portable. |
| A natural add-on for businesses that want AI reception capabilities but don’t want to rebuild their phone stack |
Choose this AI answering service if you’re already on GoTo Connect and want your AI answering to live within that same ecosystem. This keeps management centralized, reduces complexity, and gives you optional bundling and predictability in billing.
6. Dialpad Al
Dialpad is a unified communications platform offering voice, messaging, video, and AI capabilities. Its AI and virtual receptionist features allow businesses to automatically answer calls, route them intelligently, transcribe calls, and handle basic customer interactions without human intervention.
Because it’s built into Dialpad’s broader communications stack, the “AI receptionist” isn’t a standalone bolt-on. It’s part of the same system that your team uses for calls, messaging, conferences, and CRM integrations.
Key features
- Virtual receptionist and auto attendant with multi-level routing
- Call forwarding and routing adjustments via online dashboard (you can forward to mobile, landline, and agents)
- Voice transcription, real-time call transcription, and post-call summaries and analytics
- No-code drag-and-drop call flows
- Integration with CRMs and other tools
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Since it is part of Dialpad’s stack, you avoid integration friction that comes with third-party AI answering platforms. | For very complex or nuanced calls, it might struggle and need to escalate or fall back to human agents. |
| Transcriptions, sentiment, and summaries help your team follow up more effectively. | If the routing logic or knowledge base is weak, callers could get awkward or wrong paths. |
| You can reconfigure routing and flows easily as your organization evolves. | It might not match specialty vendor capabilities in deep conversational nuance, domain-specific scripting, or fallback strategies. |
| Because it’s built-in, you don’t need to pay for a separate answering service. | Heavy volumes might stretch internal limits or require premium plans. |
| If your business already uses Dialpad for calls and messages, adopting the AI layer is natural. |
If you want to keep communications under one roof and built-in AI, Dialpad offers good value without needing to integrate an external AI phone agent.
7. Vonage Virtual Receptionist
Vonage offers a virtual receptionist, implemented as part of its VoIP and UCaaS offerings, which automates call-answering and routing tasks.
In addition, Vonage also markets an AI Virtual Assistant solution that handles conversational interactions, understands caller intent, and can perform actions to self-serve many calls. The idea is that the virtual receptionist handles structured routing (menus, schedules), while the AI assistant service handles more dynamic conversational tasks.
Key features
- Auto attendant and menu-based routing
- Custom greetings, either recorded or text-to-speech
- Schedule-based routing
- Conversational AI for the more advanced assistant
- Autonomous AI routing and self-resolution capability
- Monitoring, speech recognition, and continuous updates and script adjustments
- Integration with broader Vonage communications and contact center platform
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Because Vonage treats it as a product and service, it often helps with conversational design and tuning. | Menu-based routing still underlies many flows. Conversational AI isn’t a universal fix for every complex call. |
| You can begin with menu-based routing and progressively enable conversational AI features. | Because it’s part of a larger platform, pricing or feature access might require upgrading to premium plans or addons. |
| As part of Vonage’s communications stack, the receptionist or assistant works together with other Vonage features. | In ambiguous cases, the AI might misroute or ask to rephrase. |
| It can support businesses scaling from modest to larger call volumes. | If your business eventually moves off Vonage, migrating these AI flows might be challenging. |
If you prefer a managed setup and conversational design and want tighter alignment with their communication system, Vonage is a great choice.
How to integrate an AI phone-answering app into your business
Implementing an AI answering service doesn’t have to mean building everything from scratch. In fact, many companies find the fastest route is by hybrid business process outsourcing (BPO).
Here’s how outsourcing works in this context: Instead of investing in new infrastructure or hiring an in-house team to manage AI systems, you tap into the BPO vendor’s existing resources.
The provider already has AI answering tools, trained staff, and established workflows that you can access immediately upon outsourcing. Outsourcing removes the upfront cost and complexity of technology adoption.
Integrating an AI answering service through BPO allows you to plug into proven systems without trial and error. The setup enhances your customer service efficiency through AI while still preserving human quality via fallback agents.
The bottom line
The market is full of AI answering platforms, and the provider you choose should match your distinct needs. The comparisons in this guide highlight the features, strengths, and industries each service supports, providing a clear view of which solution is the best fit.
Still, adopting AI doesn’t have to be a solo effort. Partnering with a hybrid BPO allows you to access these advanced AI answering tools immediately, backed by human agents who can handle complex or sensitive calls.
Are you ready to streamline customer communications and scale smarter with an AI answering service? Let’s connect.
