Will an AI replace my receptionist?

Usually not, and we would not pitch it that way. Most businesses keep their front desk person and use Frontly for overflow, after-hours and the repetitive calls, which frees a good receptionist for walk-ins, relationships and the work that actually needs a person.

Does Frontly work nights, weekends and holidays?

Yes, at the same monthly rate. That is 168 hours a week rather than 40, with no overtime and no cover to arrange. The calls that arrive outside business hours are exactly the ones a single hire cannot answer.

How many calls can Frontly handle at once?

Several at a time, in parallel. A person takes one call at a time, so when three people call together two of them wait or drop to voicemail. That gap widens at exactly the moments that matter, such as right after an ad runs.

What can a human receptionist still do better?

Greeting people who walk in, judgment on an unusual situation, reading tone in a difficult conversation, and the many jobs a front desk quietly absorbs that have nothing to do with the phone. Frontly transfers anything needing judgment straight to your team, which is why the two work well side by side.

Can Frontly do more than take a message?

Yes. It qualifies the caller, books the appointment during the call, answers questions from your knowledge base, escalates by your rules, and files a structured record with the full transcript in your dashboard.

Frontly vs Hiring a Receptionist

Q: What does a receptionist really cost?

Base pay of roughly $38,000 to $52,000 in most US markets, plus employer payroll taxes at 7.65 percent, the employer share of health insurance, paid time off, workers' compensation, training and recruiting when they leave. Loaded, one seat is usually $50,000 to $70,000 a year for about 40 hours of coverage a week.

A front desk hire costs far more than the salary line, works 40 hours of the 168 in a week, and takes one call at a time. Frontly Answer covers all 168, answers several callers at once, and books the appointment during the call. Here is the honest comparison, including what a person still does better.

What the comparison actually turns on

Loaded cost: a front desk hire runs roughly $50,000 to $70,000 a year once payroll taxes, benefits, time off and turnover are counted
Coverage: one hire covers about 40 hours a week, and the calls that arrive at 7pm or on a Saturday are the ones that go unanswered
Concurrency: one person takes one call at a time, so a rush goes to voicemail
Consistency: the same qualifying questions get asked on every call, and every call is transcribed
A person is still better at walk-ins, judgment calls and reading a difficult conversation, which is why most businesses run both

Coverage

Feature	Frontly	Hiring a Receptionist
Hours covered per week	168	About 40
Nights, weekends and federal holidays	Yes	Overtime or uncovered
Several calls answered at once	Yes	No
Unaffected by sick days and vacation	Yes	No
Scales instantly at peak	Yes	No
No recruiting or turnover risk	Yes	No

Hours covered per week

Frontly

168

Hiring a Receptionist

About 40

Nights, weekends and federal holidays

Frontly

Hiring a Receptionist

Overtime or uncovered

Several calls answered at once

Frontly

Hiring a Receptionist

Unaffected by sick days and vacation

Frontly

Hiring a Receptionist

Scales instantly at peak

Frontly

Hiring a Receptionist

No recruiting or turnover risk

Frontly

Hiring a Receptionist

On the call

Feature	Frontly	Hiring a Receptionist
Same qualifying questions every time	Yes	Varies
Full transcript of every call	Yes	No
Appointment booked during the call	Yes	Yes
Cross-call memory of returning callers	Yes	Varies
Multiple languages	Yes	Rare
Never distracted by the person at the counter	Yes	No

Same qualifying questions every time

Frontly

Hiring a Receptionist

Varies

Full transcript of every call

Frontly

Hiring a Receptionist

Appointment booked during the call

Frontly

Hiring a Receptionist

Cross-call memory of returning callers

Frontly

Hiring a Receptionist

Varies

Multiple languages

Frontly

Hiring a Receptionist

Rare

Never distracted by the person at the counter

Frontly

Hiring a Receptionist

Annual cost of one hire

Feature	Frontly	Hiring a Receptionist
Base pay	See /pricing	$38K to $52K
Employer payroll taxes at 7.65%	None	$2.9K to $4.0K
Health insurance and benefits	None	$6K to $12K
Paid time off, sick days and holidays	None	3 to 4 weeks a year
Workers' compensation	None	$300 to $1.5K
Training and onboarding	None	$2K to $5K
Recruiting when they leave	None	$3K to $8K
Loaded annual cost	See /pricing	Roughly $50K to $70K

Base pay

Frontly

See /pricing

Hiring a Receptionist

$38K to $52K

Employer payroll taxes at 7.65%

Frontly

None

Hiring a Receptionist

$2.9K to $4.0K

Health insurance and benefits

Frontly

None

Hiring a Receptionist

$6K to $12K

Paid time off, sick days and holidays

Frontly

None

Hiring a Receptionist

3 to 4 weeks a year

Workers' compensation

Frontly

None

Hiring a Receptionist

$300 to $1.5K

Training and onboarding

Frontly

None

Hiring a Receptionist

$2K to $5K

Recruiting when they leave

Frontly

None

Hiring a Receptionist

$3K to $8K

Loaded annual cost

Frontly

See /pricing

Hiring a Receptionist

Roughly $50K to $70K

Where a person still wins

Feature	Frontly	Hiring a Receptionist
Greeting people who walk in	No	Yes
Judgment on an unusual situation	Transfers to your team	Yes
Reading tone and de-escalating	Escalates to your team	Yes
Everything that is not a phone call	No	Yes

Greeting people who walk in

Frontly

Hiring a Receptionist

Judgment on an unusual situation

Frontly

Transfers to your team

Hiring a Receptionist

Reading tone and de-escalating

Frontly

Escalates to your team

Hiring a Receptionist

Everything that is not a phone call

Frontly

Hiring a Receptionist

DEEP DIVE

Key Differences Explained

Base pay is roughly two thirds of the real number

A front desk hire in the US typically starts somewhere between $38,000 and $52,000 depending on the market and the practice. On top of that sit employer payroll taxes at 7.65 percent, the employer share of health insurance, paid time off, workers' compensation, training, and the cost of recruiting a replacement when they move on, which for this role happens more often than most owners plan for. Loaded, one seat is usually in the $50,000 to $70,000 range, and it still only covers about 40 hours a week. Typical US private-industry benchmarks, August 2026, indicative only.

40 hours covered out of 168

The hours a receptionist does not work are not quiet hours. Evenings, early mornings, weekends and holidays are when people who are at work all day make their own appointments, and those calls either reach voicemail or reach a competitor. Frontly answers all 168 hours at the same monthly rate, which is the part of the comparison that has nothing to do with cost per hour.

One call at a time is the real bottleneck

Even during covered hours, one person takes one call. The second caller waits, the third goes to voicemail, and the person standing at the counter gets half of your receptionist's attention while all of it happens. Frontly answers callers in parallel, so a burst after an ad runs or a listing goes live is handled rather than triaged.

This is usually an augmentation decision, not a replacement one

Most businesses that adopt Frontly keep their front desk person. The AI takes overflow, after-hours and the repetitive calls, and the person handles walk-ins, relationships and anything that needs judgment. That is a better use of a good receptionist than having them read out opening hours for the ninth time today, and it is a far easier decision than replacing someone.

What you should not expect from an AI front desk

It does not greet the person who walks through your door, it does not do the twenty other jobs a front desk person picks up during the day, and it does not improvise its way through a genuinely unusual conversation. It transfers those to your team. If the role you are hiring for is mostly not-the-phone, this comparison is the wrong one and you should hire.

How Pricing Compares

Frontly

Flat monthly rate

Frontly Answer is the inbound AI front desk, billed at a flat monthly rate and sized by monthly minute allowance, with no payroll taxes, benefits, cover or turnover attached. Sizes and inclusions are on /pricing.

Hiring a Receptionist

Roughly $50K to $70K a year, loaded

Base pay of roughly $38K to $52K plus employer payroll taxes, benefits, paid time off, workers' compensation, training and recruiting. Typical US private-industry benchmarks, August 2026, indicative only. Check them against your own payroll.

INDUSTRY FIT

Is Frontly right for your industry?

AI receptionist for dental practices loses its front desk to the chair constantly, so calls go unanswered while the receptionist you are already paying is helping the patient in front of them.

AI intake reception for law firms pays intake staff to be available for inquiries that arrive unpredictably, and the inquiry that arrives at 8pm is frequently the one worth the most.

AI reception for property managers gets the concurrency argument most clearly: one receptionist takes one call at a time, and a burst pipe on a Friday night generates several at once.

AI after-hours front desk is the part no single hire covers at all. Nights and weekends are an on-call rotation, an answering service or voicemail, and each of those costs you something different.

AI front desk for hotels cannot roster somebody across every hour a guest might call, and the overnight calls are frequently the ones carrying a reservation.

Also See

Frontly vs Smith.ai Frontly vs Rosie Frontly vs Goodcall Frontly vs Synthflow Frontly vs Aircall Frontly vs Virtual Receptionist Services Frontly vs Voice AI Platforms (Bland, Vapi, Retell)

FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

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