Everyone asks: "Can AI really replace a receptionist?" The better question is: "Can you afford not to?"

Let's run the numbers.

Traditional Receptionist Cost

Full-time receptionist:

Salary: $35,000/year
Benefits: $10,500/year (30%)
Total: $45,500/year

Part-time receptionist (20 hours/week):

Hourly: $18/hour
Annual: $18,720/year

Neither option covers:

Nights and weekends
Sick days
Vacation
Lunch breaks

AI Receptionist Cost (Ours)

Per-minute pricing:

AI processing: $0.04/min (OpenAI + Deepgram)
Twilio phone: $0.013/min
Infrastructure: $0.01/min (Vercel, database)
Total: $0.063/min ≈ $3.78/hour

Monthly cost for average SMB:

Calls: 200/month
Avg duration: 3 minutes
Total minutes: 600/month
Monthly cost: $37.80
Annual cost: $453.60

The Math

AI receptionist costs 1% of a full-time employee.

Even if call volume 10x'd (2,000 calls/month), you'd pay $4,536/year—still 10% of an FTE.

But Wait, There's More

The real cost isn't payroll. It's missed calls.

Missed Call Economics

Industry stats:

27% of SMB calls go to voicemail
85% of voicemail callers don't leave a message
67% of those callers don't call back

If you get 200 calls/month:

54 go to voicemail
46 don't leave a message
31 never call back

That's 31 lost opportunities per month.

If your average customer value is $500:

Lost revenue: $15,500/month
Lost revenue: $186,000/year

Paying $450/year to capture those calls is a 41,233% ROI.

Why This Works Now

Five years ago, this didn't make sense:

| Cost Component | 2019 | 2025 | Change | |---|---|---|---| | LLM API | N/A | $0.03/min | New | | Voice Recognition | $0.25/min | $0.006/min | -98% | | Voice Synthesis | $0.20/min | $0.004/min | -98% | | Phone (Twilio) | $0.013/min | $0.013/min | Flat |

Total 2019 equivalent: ~$0.48/min Total 2025: $0.063/min

A 87% cost reduction in 5 years.

The Non-Obvious Benefits

Beyond cost, AI receptionists provide:

1. Perfect Memory

Every call is transcribed, searchable, and analyzable.

SELECT
  intent,
  COUNT(*) as call_count,
  AVG(sentiment_score) as avg_sentiment
FROM call_logs
WHERE created_at > NOW() - INTERVAL '30 days'
GROUP BY intent
ORDER BY call_count DESC;

You can't do this with a human receptionist.

2. Instant Scaling

Black Friday? Product launch? No problem. AI handles 1 call and 1,000 calls the same way.

3. Consistency

Human receptionists have bad days. AI doesn't.

4. 24/7 Coverage

After-hours calls become revenue opportunities, not missed chances.

When AI Doesn't Make Sense

High-touch industries: If your business requires extensive relationship-building on first contact (e.g., luxury real estate, high-end legal), keep the human.

Complex routing: If calls require 10+ custom rules and frequent changes, humans are more flexible.

Low call volume: If you get fewer than 10 calls/month, just answer the phone yourself.

The Wedge

We're not trying to replace all receptionists. We're targeting:

SMBs with no receptionist (can't afford $45K/year)
Overflow/after-hours (let humans handle 9-5, AI handles the rest)
Scaling businesses (doubling call volume shouldn't mean hiring)

Our Unit Economics

For transparency, here's what it costs us to run Autonomy Receptionist:

Per customer/month (average):

Revenue: $99/month
COGS (AI + phone): $38/month
Gross margin: 62%

Customer acquisition:

CAC: $250 (mostly ads)
LTV: $1,188 (12-month avg retention)
LTV:CAC = 4.75

Healthy SaaS metrics: 3:1 or better. We're well above that.

The Future

As LLM costs continue falling (they've dropped 90% in 2 years), this only gets better.

Our prediction: By 2027, AI receptionist costs will be under $0.01/minute.

At that point, the question isn't "Can I afford AI?" It's "How did I ever afford not to use AI?"

Want to see the economics in action? Try Autonomy Receptionist free for 14 days.