Buyer's guide

AI Receptionist Australia: What It Is, What It Costs and How to Choose (2026)

Updated 23 September 2026. Written by Andy Barker, Director, Automate AI Limited (operator of Vereo). Vereo sells an AI receptionist; where this guide uses Vereo's prices as a worked example, it says so.

An AI receptionist is software that answers your business phone line in a natural voice, 24 hours a day. It answers questions from information you supply, books jobs into your calendar, takes messages and transfers calls that need a person. In September 2026, Australian plans that answer calls started at roughly $44 to $199 a month.

Key takeaways

The monthly price on a pricing page is a starting point. Work out your monthly call minutes first. At Vereo's published rates, 300 minutes a month costs $149 + GST, and 750 minutes costs $306.50 + GST.
A full-time receptionist costs roughly $67,000 to $78,000 a year. That is SEEK's advertised average salary of $60,000 to $70,000 plus 12% superannuation, before leave, payroll tax and workers' compensation.
Integration with your job or practice software (ServiceM8, Simpro, Cliniko, HotDoc) decides whether bookings land where your team works. Check it before you compare voices.
Call recording rules differ between states. Play a recording notice at the start of every call. Health service providers are covered by the Privacy Act 1988 whatever their turnover.
Test the handover. A good setup transfers urgent or complex calls to a person with a summary, and sends you a transcript of every call.

What is an AI receptionist?

An AI receptionist is a voice agent that picks up your business calls, holds a spoken conversation, and completes front-desk tasks such as booking, message taking and call transfer. It replaces voicemail or a phone menu with a conversation.

On each call, four parts work together:

Your phone number forwards to the AI service, either every call or only when you are busy or do not answer.
Speech recognition turns the caller's words into text.
A language model reads that text alongside the information you have given it (services, prices, hours, service area, booking rules) and decides what to say or do next.
Text-to-speech replies in a chosen voice, while connected tools book the appointment, send an SMS or update your CRM.

After the call, most services send a transcript and summary by email, SMS or a team channel such as Slack or Microsoft Teams.

What can an AI receptionist do, and what can't it do?

It handles repeatable calls well: enquiries, bookings, rescheduling, message taking and routing. It handles judgement calls poorly: complaints, price negotiation, clinical advice and anything outside the information you have given it.

Tasks most Australian services handle in September 2026:

Answer every call, including nights, weekends and public holidays
Take several calls at once (Vereo's Starter plan handles 20 simultaneous calls)
Answer questions about services, pricing, hours and service areas
Check availability and book into Google Calendar, Microsoft 365 or a booking system
Qualify leads with your questions (suburb, job type, urgency, budget)
Warm-transfer to a staff mobile, with a spoken summary before the caller is connected
Send SMS confirmations and email summaries

Tasks to keep with a person:

Complaints and disputes
Clinical, legal or financial advice
Quoting jobs that need a site visit
Calls from distressed callers, which should transfer immediately

How much does an AI receptionist cost in Australia?

Most Australian AI receptionists charge a monthly fee that includes a set number of call minutes. On top of that there is a per-minute rate beyond the allowance and sometimes a one-off setup fee. Your real cost depends on your call volume and average call length.

Published starting prices for call answering on Australian vendor websites in September 2026:

Johnni AI from $44 a month + GST (billed annually; $49 billed monthly)
Vereo from $79 a month + GST
Hey Jodie from $99 a month + GST
OneBookPlus from about $104 a month including GST (a $79 AI Receptionist add-on that requires its $25 AI Companion)
Valory AI from $149 a month, plus a setup fee from $990
Miyai from $199 a month for call answering (its $19 plan covers chat only)

Confirm current terms on each vendor's site, as these change often.

Price these five items before you compare plans:

Included minutes or calls. Some plans count minutes, some count calls, some are flat.
Overage rate. The per-minute or per-call charge once the allowance runs out.
Setup fee. Ranges from nil to several hundred dollars; custom integrations are often quoted separately.
Outbound calls. Often billed separately from inbound minutes.
GST. Most business pricing is quoted exclusive of GST.

Worked example using Vereo's published pricing: $79 + GST a month including 100 inbound minutes, $0.35 + GST per extra minute, and $295 + GST setup for most businesses. The call counts assume a three-minute average call; check your own phone records for your figure.

30 calls a month (90 minutes): $79 + GST
100 calls a month (300 minutes): $149 + GST
250 calls a month (750 minutes): $306.50 + GST
First-year cost at the 100-minute level, including setup: $1,243 + GST

See the full plan on the pricing page, or put your own numbers into the missed-call calculator.

AI receptionist vs human receptionist vs answering service

An AI receptionist costs the least and covers the most hours. A human receptionist handles complex and sensitive calls best. A human answering service sits between the two on cost and quality.

Option	Hours covered	Calls at once	Books into your calendar	Typical cost	Best for
Voicemail	24/7	Unlimited	No	Nil	Very low call volume
In-house receptionist	Business hours	One	Yes	~$67,000 to $78,000 a year incl. 12% super (SEEK salary data)	Walk-in businesses, complex calls
Human answering service	Varies by plan	Several	Sometimes	Per call or per minute; quote-based	Businesses that want a person on every call
AI receptionist	24/7	Several to unlimited, by plan	Yes, with integration	~$44 to $400+ a month, by volume	Trades, clinics and service businesses that miss calls

Many businesses combine them: staff answer during the day and the AI covers overflow, lunch breaks and after hours. For a side-by-side on cost and cover, see AI receptionist vs human receptionist.

Will callers know they are talking to AI?

Some will, and most will not mind if the call gets them what they need. Current voices handle Australian accents, suburb names and interruptions well, but tone and pauses can still give them away.

Tell callers they are speaking with an AI assistant in the greeting. It sets expectations and lowers the risk of misleading callers, which the Australian Consumer Law prohibits. It also lets callers who want a person ask for one straight away.

How do you set up an AI receptionist?

Setup takes a few days for most small businesses: you document your call types, connect your calendar, set transfer rules, forward your number and test.

List your call types. Pull a month of call history and group the reasons people ring.
Write the knowledge base. Services, prices or price ranges, service area, hours, booking rules and the questions you ask new customers.
Connect your tools. Calendar or booking system first, then CRM and SMS.
Set transfer rules. Decide which calls go to which person, and what happens when nobody answers.
Forward your number. Keep your existing number and use call forwarding, either for all calls or conditionally (busy, no answer, unreachable). Australian carriers support this on mobiles and most business lines.
Test with real scenarios. Make at least 20 test calls covering bookings, awkward questions and emergencies before you go live.
Review transcripts weekly for the first month and update the knowledge base where the AI hesitated.

Which software should an AI receptionist connect to?

It should connect to the system where your bookings and customer records already live. A booking that lands in a separate inbox creates double handling.

Common Australian integrations by industry:

Trades: ServiceM8, Simpro, AroFlo, Tradify, Jobber
Health and allied health: Cliniko, HotDoc, Halaxy, Power Diary
Real estate: Rex, AgentBox, VaultRE
General: Google Calendar, Microsoft 365, HubSpot, Pipedrive, Xero, Zapier and Make

Vereo's supported tools are listed on the integrations page.

Which AI receptionist is best for your business?

The best choice meets three tests: it integrates with your software, it handles your most common calls on a trial, and its pricing suits your call volume. No independent body ranks these products. Most "best AI receptionist Australia" lists you will find are written by one of the vendors being ranked.

Match the product to your business:

Tradies and home services: after-hours emergency routing and a job-management integration (ServiceM8, Simpro, AroFlo, Tradify). See AI receptionist for trades.
Medical, dental and allied health: practice-management integration, triage rules that send urgent calls to a person, and a clear answer on where call data is stored. See dental and medical.
Real estate: open-home booking and buyer qualification that writes to Rex, AgentBox or VaultRE. See real estate.
High call volumes: negotiate the per-minute rate, and check "unlimited" plans for fair-use limits.

Run the trial on your real phone line for at least a week. Demo calls to a sales number tell you little.

Is it legal to use an AI receptionist in Australia?

Yes. You need to meet the same obligations as any business that records calls and handles personal information: recording consent, privacy, and consent for marketing messages.

Call recording. Federal interception law and each state's surveillance devices law apply, and consent rules differ by state. A notice at the start of every call ("this call is recorded") is the standard approach.
Privacy Act 1988. Businesses with annual turnover above $3 million must follow the Australian Privacy Principles. Health service providers must comply regardless of turnover. Your privacy policy should say you use an AI service to answer calls and where recordings are stored.
Automated decisions. Amendments passed in December 2024 require privacy policies to disclose some uses of automated decision-making from 10 December 2026. Check the OAIC's guidance if your AI receptionist makes decisions that affect customers, such as declining bookings.
SMS follow-ups. Marketing messages fall under the Spam Act 2003 and need consent, sender identification and an unsubscribe option.
Outbound calls. Telemarketing calls must respect the Do Not Call Register.

This is general information, not legal advice. Vereo's own approach is set out on the security page.

What goes wrong, and how do you prevent it?

Most problems come from gaps in the information you gave the AI, weak transfer rules, or a poor phone connection. All three are fixable in setup and testing.

Wrong or invented answers. Cause: missing information. Fix: tell the AI to take a message when it does not know, and review transcripts weekly.
Callers stuck with the AI. Cause: no transfer path. Fix: let callers ask for a person at any point and set a fallback when staff do not pick up.
Double bookings. Cause: no live calendar connection. Fix: book directly into the calendar with availability checks, not by email request.
Missed urgency. Cause: no triage rules. Fix: define keywords and situations (gas leak, flooding, chest pain) that trigger an immediate transfer or an instruction to call 000.
Poor audio. Cause: weak mobile reception on the forwarding line. Fix: test from the phones your customers use.

Local numbers and where your data is stored

An AI receptionist can answer on your existing Australian number through call forwarding. That includes 02, 03, 07, 08, 1300 and mobile numbers, so you do not need to change the number on your van or website.

Data location varies by provider. Some offer Australian data residency; others process calls in the United States or elsewhere. Ask each provider three questions:

Where are recordings and transcripts stored?
How long are they kept?
Which sub-processors (speech, language model, telephony) handle the call?

What is changing in 2026?

Search interest in AI receptionists in Australia rose sharply in 2026, and the Privacy Act changes on automated decision-making take effect in December.

Monthly Google searches for "ai receptionist australia" rose from 390 in June 2026 to 880 in August 2026 (Google Ads data via DataForSEO, retrieved 23 September 2026).
Searches for "ai answering service" in Australia rose from 140 in April 2026 to 590 in June, July and August 2026 (same source).
Automated decision-making transparency obligations under the Privacy Act start on 10 December 2026.
More products now bundle SMS, web chat and outbound follow-up calls alongside phone answering.

FAQ

How much does an AI receptionist cost per month in Australia?

Published starting prices for plans that answer calls ranged from about $44 to $199 a month in September 2026. The monthly fee usually includes a set number of minutes or calls, with extra charges beyond that. Estimate your monthly call minutes and price each plan against that figure.

Can an AI receptionist use my existing phone number?

Yes. You keep your number and forward calls to the AI service, either all calls or only when you are busy or do not answer. Australian carriers support call forwarding on mobiles and most business lines.

Is an AI receptionist cheaper than hiring a receptionist?

For call answering alone, yes. SEEK lists the average Australian receptionist salary at $60,000 to $70,000 a year, before 12% superannuation and other employment costs, while most AI plans cost a few hundred dollars a month or less. A receptionist also handles walk-ins, admin and complex conversations that AI does not.

Does an AI receptionist work for tradies?

Yes, if it connects to your job-management software and has after-hours emergency rules. Look for integrations with ServiceM8, Simpro, AroFlo or Tradify, and set urgent jobs to transfer to your mobile.

Is it legal to record calls with an AI receptionist in Australia?

Yes, with a recording notice at the start of the call. Consent rules come from federal interception law and state surveillance devices laws, which differ between states. Mention the AI service and recording storage in your privacy policy.

Can an AI receptionist book appointments?

Yes. Connected to Google Calendar, Microsoft 365 or a booking system such as Cliniko or ServiceM8, it checks availability during the call and books the slot. Without a live connection, it can only take a booking request for someone to confirm.

What happens if the AI receptionist cannot answer a question?

A well-configured AI takes a message or transfers the call to a person. You set the rules for which calls transfer and what happens when nobody answers. Weekly transcript reviews show you where to add information.