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NOW AVAILABLE: AI Voice Receptionist in Open Beta

Vendasta's AI Voice Receptionist
has been released on open beta, and is now available to customers of Inbox Pro.
now-available-in-beta--partner-center
Help your SMB clients answer every phone call
immediately
to capture more new leads and keep customers happy. Whether they're getting in touch via chat
or
phone, their AI Receptionist is always ready to respond!
In this article
  • AI Voice Receptionist: What is it? Who should try it?
  • Webinar: Join us today to learn all about Vendasta's AI Receptionist
  • FAQ
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AVAILABLE NOW: AI Voice Receptionist on
Open Beta
Provide your SMB clients with the opportunity to answer every lead immediately with AI Voice Receptionist.
What is it?
AI Voice Receptionist is an AI-powered employee that increases lead capture and conversion for SMBs by ensuring no customer call goes unanswered. Available to customers of Inbox Pro for the duration of the open beta period*, AI Voice Receptionist is now ready to answer phone calls for SMBs located in US & Canada. To encourage testing during open beta, each account has access to 300 voice minutes per month at no additional cost beyond their Inbox Pro subscription, with a 5 minute limit per call.
Inbox Pro
, ideal for SMBs in US & Canada, centralizes communication for SMBs, ensuring a great customer experience across multiple channels. Capabilities include:
  • [NEW] WhatsApp messaging** (AI chat responses to come at a later date). Learn more
  • [NEW] Call forwarding
  • [NEW] Missed call text back, via SMS. Learn more
  • AI web chat lead capture
  • SMS messaging, including AI responses
  • Unified inbox for Facebook Messenger, Instagram DMs, and email
  • Contact creation and activity sync with the Business App CRM
*
AI Voice Receptionist is available to customers of Inbox Pro during the open beta period, subject to change upon full release. The open beta period begins on January 22, 2025, and is expected to end in late March or early April 2025. The general release date, along with pricing and packaging details for the AI Voice Receptionist, will be announced at Vendasta Connect on March 12, 2025.
**
Also available in
AI-assisted Web Chat Lead Capture for Inbox
, ideal for for SMBs outside of US & Canada.
Learn more about AI Voice Receptionist
in our Help Center, and be sure to
join today's webinar
!
Who should try it?
Voice AI is an early and evolving technology, and AI Voice Receptionist is in beta. It performs incredibly well in many scenarios, but you might experience some errors during conversations, along with some big improvements that you'll see come available over time.
AI Voice Receptionist has been released on open beta to:
  • Provide partners with the opportunity to provide a game-changing solution to suitable SMB clients as early as possible.
  • Collect partner feedback and apply improvements prior to full release.
Got feedback?
Share it here!
For your SMB clients who are eager to take advantage of the value AI has to offer their business, and can accept the uncertainties of using a product under development, this is an incredible opportunity for them to experience the impact without additional investment.
SMBs that meet the following requirements will find the most success with AI Voice Receptionist during Open Beta.
  • Have Inbox Pro active
  • Are located in the U.S. or Canada
  • Are using AI web chat to capture leads on their website, or AI SMS to respond to customer texts.
  • Have a phone number assigned to their account
Vendasta's AI Workforce
AI Receptionist is the first AI employee available through Vendasta as part of its broader AI workforce initiative that aims to democratize technology by making AI accessible, affordable, and practical for local businesses. To be presented as a unified AI Receptionist in the future, AI Voice Receptionist and AI Chat Receptionist can currently be configured separately in Business App > AI Workforce.
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Watch the webinar to learn more
Are your clients missing valuable opportunities due to unanswered calls and chats? Stop the shop and start capturing every lead.
Join us for a webinar designed to help you unlock the full potential of Vendasta’s AI Receptionist. This AI-powered employee ensures your clients’ businesses are always available— capturing leads 24/7 across voice, SMS, web chat, and (soon) WhatsApp.
WATCH NOW
What You’ll Learn:
  • Why your clients need an AI Receptionist: Understand the impact of missed calls and chats on lead capture, customer satisfaction, and revenue.
  • The Vendasta advantage: See how Vendasta’s AI is uniquely designed to work out-of-the-box, with responses tailored to each customer interaction.
  • Live demo: Watch a step-by-step setup of the AI Receptionist to handle both phone calls and chats, ensuring seamless customer interaction.
Why Attend?
  • Gain a competitive advantage: Increase lead capture and conversion for SMBs by ensuring they never miss a customer inquiry.
  • Deliver game-changing timesavers to SMBs: Set up workflows that handle client communication effortlessly.
  • Become mission-critical to SMBs: Drive more results from your existing marketing efforts without extra work for you or your customers to deliver exceptional ROI.
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FAQs
What is AI Receptionist?
AI Receptionist AI-powered voice and chat assistant for SMBs that can handle calls, provide information, route inquiries, and capture leads professionally across multiple communication channels.
Key features of the AI Receptionist available during the open-beta include:
  • Ability to be deployed on a phone-number
  • Answering questions accurately about a business using a business' knowledge base.
  • Capturing lead information and notifying business owners about key conversation details.
At this time, AI chat receptionist and AI voice receptionist are configured separately, either through:
  • Business App > AI workforce
  • Business App > Inbox > Inbox Settings
On which communication channels can AI Receptionist respond?
During the beta launch, the AI receptionist will be able to respond connected channels such as:
  • Phone
  • SMS
  • Web chat
  • WhatsApp (coming soon)
The AI receptionist will respond on additional connected channels upon its full release, such as on Facebook Messenger and through email.
Why should SMBs use an AI Receptionist?
SMB owners and their teams who are busy serving customers can use it to save time, reduce missed opportunities, and provide a consistent, professional customer experience.
Why should SMBs use Vendasta's AI Receptionist?
Vendasta's AI Receptionist captures and converts more leads for SMBs by handling inquiries 24/7 across voice, SMS, WhatsApp (coming soon), and web chat. It's fully integrated with the Business App CRM and Automations, enabling them to build the ideal customer experience for their target audience, and automated workflows tailored their business model.
How long is the Beta period?
The open beta period begins on January 21, 2025, and is expected to end in late March or early April 2025. The general release date, along with pricing and packaging details for the AI Voice Receptionist, will be announced at Vendasta Connect on March 12, 2025.
Through this advance notice, Vendasta Partners are given time to set expectations with their customers and prepare them for upcoming changes to pricing and packaging.
Will my agency or my clients be billed for phone calls managed by the AI Voice Receptionist?
During the open beta period, every SMB with an active Inbox Pro account 300 minutes of voice available every month, included at no extra cost. There is a 5-minute maximum per call.
The general release date, along with pricing and packaging details for the AI Voice Receptionist, will be announced at Vendasta Connect on March 12, 2025. Through this advance notice, Vendasta Partners are given time to set expectations with their customers and prepare them for upcoming changes to pricing and packaging.
Why the 5-minute limit per phone call?
A 5-minute limit has been implemented on individual phone-calls to avoid wasted minutes on spam or unrelated conversations, and maintain purposeful interactions that align with the needs of the business.
What inquiries can the AI handle?
In open beta, the AI Voice Receptionist can handle most common inquiries and FAQs that a receptionist would be expected to handle. This includes capturing lead information and details of the conversation if a human needs to take further action.
The knowledge available to the AI Receptionist comes from the AI Knowledge base in Vendasta. Instructions for how the AI Voice Receptionist behaves during calls can be modified by adding instructions in
Business App > AI workforce > AI Voice Receptionist > Configure > Additional Instructions
.
Can I update my AI receptionist’s script and knowledge base after setup?
Absolutely! You can update the AI’s script and business knowledge at any time by revisiting the configuration settings in the AI Workforce section.
What happens if the AI cannot answer a caller’s question?
If the AI cannot answer a caller’s question, it will capture the caller’s details and pass the inquiry to the business for follow-up. This ensures no leads or customer concerns are missed.
How accurate is the AI at answering FAQs?
The AI is trained with the business’s knowledge base and FAQs. The open beta preview is highly capable, but you may see unexpected behavior. Accuracy will also depend on how well the business provides up-to-date and comprehensive information during configuration.
TIP: Don't give the AI too much knowledge to draw from; it currently performs best when it's been given only highly relevant, specific information that it will need for common phone interactions.
TIP: For best performance answering common questions, add instructions to the 'Additional Instructions' area of the Voice AI configuration, since this information is available for the AI to use in its answers without needing to "look up" anything. Common questions like pricing, services, FAQs can be added there.
Can I choose which languages the AI receptionist speaks?
Yes, businesses can enable specific languages for the AI receptionist based on their audience. Many common languages are supported, and the voice AI can switch into a different language at a caller's request. Multi-language support is currently in beta, so results may vary.
TIP: To instruct your AI to answer calls by default in another language, add this to the 'additional instructions': "IMPORTANT: Begin all calls by speaking [language], and say: "Bonjour..."
How do I listen to call recordings and review transcripts?
Call recordings and transcripts are accessible through the Inbox and the CRM in Business App. New calls will appear in Inbox, and be logged on the contact activity in the CRM.
Users will also be notified about new calls via Email and App notifications.
Can the AI receptionist handle multiple calls at the same time?
Yes, the AI receptionist can manage multiple calls simultaneously, ensuring no caller is left waiting.
Can I remove the "This call is being recorded" message at the beginning of the AI Voice Receptionist calls?
This notification is a legal requirement in Canada and many US states. In the future, we might look at allowing individuals to opt-out by letting them assume all legal risk, but at this time the notification will remain in place for all use.
Will Vendasta release other AI Employees?
Yes, throughout the year Vendasta will be releasing new AI Employees to provide businesses with an AI Workforce handling job functions across the entire customer journey.
Will Partner Center Inbox get AI Receptionist?
Yes – ETA in late February 2025, the AI Receptionist (along with Phone & SMS features) will be added to the Partner Center Inbox experience partners located in the US and Canada.
Further pricing and availability for Partner Center inbox will be coming at a later date.
Find answers to more FAQs here.