AI employee for the phone
AI phone assistant for small and mid-sized businesses
An AI phone assistant is software that answers incoming calls on its own, understands what the caller wants and handles routine tasks, such as booking an appointment in your calendar or answering questions about your services and opening hours. Anything it cannot or should not resolve goes to your team with a summary. At Neurobots, the phone assistant is part of an AI employee that also handles WhatsApp, chat and email.
Key facts
- Available around the clock, including evenings, weekends and public holidays
- Set up in about 14 days by a certified partner
- From €399 per month plus €1,299 setup (net); telephony is billed separately
- Data stored on servers in Nuremberg, Germany; data processing agreement (DPA) available
Updated: October 2026
Why businesses use an AI phone assistant
In many small businesses, the person who answers the phone is also serving a customer, treating a patient or working on site. If the phone rings at that moment, the call goes unanswered or ends up on voicemail. In the evening and at weekends nobody picks up at all. Whether the caller leaves a message or simply calls the next provider is something you usually never find out.
Estimate how many calls go unanswered at your business and what that may cost with our missed calls calculator.
What an AI phone assistant does on a call
The assistant works with the knowledge you provide during setup: services, prices, opening hours, frequent questions and your rules for appointments and call forwarding.
Answer calls 24/7
The assistant picks up at night, at weekends and when several customers call at once. Customers can reach you even while your team is busy with something else.
Understand the request
Callers explain what they need in their own words, without a keypad menu. If information is missing, the assistant asks, for example for the car model when booking a workshop slot or for the preferred time.
Book appointments in your calendar
It checks free slots in your connected calendar, suggests suitable times and enters the chosen appointment. Requests to reschedule or cancel are recorded as well.
Qualify enquiries
For new enquiries it asks the questions you define, such as scope, timing or budget. Before you call back, you can see which enquiry should come first.
Hand urgent calls to a person
For emergencies, key customers or sensitive topics you decide when the assistant hands over: it forwards the call to your team or creates a callback request with a note.
Send a summary to your CRM
After the call, contact details, request and outcome are stored in your CRM in a structured way, for example in HubSpot, Pipedrive, Salesforce, SAP or Microsoft Dynamics. Nobody has to type up notes.
Which CRM systems can be connected and how the handover works is explained on the integrations page.
Beyond the phone: WhatsApp, chat and email
Some customers call, others prefer to write. The Neurobots AI employee uses the same knowledge to answer messages on WhatsApp, SMS, messengers, email and your website chat. Rules for appointments, qualification and handover are the same on every channel, and every enquiry ends up in your CRM.
How this works on WhatsApp and what you need for it is explained on the page AI chatbot for WhatsApp Business.
How setup works in about 14 days
A certified partner handles the setup. What the partner mainly needs from you is information and a few decisions.
Initial call and analysis
You agree with the partner which calls the assistant should handle, which questions come up most often and when a person should take over.
Add knowledge and rules
Services, prices, opening hours, answers to frequent questions and your appointment rules are added. Existing material such as price lists or FAQ pages is a good starting point.
Connect phone, calendar and CRM
The partner connects your phone number, for example through call forwarding, and links your calendar and CRM. Phone numbers and call minutes are billed separately by the telephony provider.
Test, go live, refine
Before launch, you and your team call in yourselves and check answers and handovers. After launch, conversations remain traceable and the partner adjusts answers and workflows where needed.
Data protection and security
On the phone, customers give their name, their number and often details of their request. This is how Neurobots handles that data:
- Processing under the GDPR, storage on servers in Nuremberg, Germany
- Data processing agreement (DPA) available
- Established language models act as data processors; conversation threads are not stored by the model providers
- Encrypted connections over HTTPS, multi-factor authentication (MFA) and role-based access control
- Backups and failover
- ISO/IEC 27001: certification in preparation, not certified at present
More on the security and data protection page.
How much does an AI phone assistant cost?
At Neurobots you pay a one-time €1,299 for setup and then a fixed monthly price: €399 on the Basic plan with 500 sessions or €599 on the Pro plan with 1,000 sessions. A session is a call of up to 5 minutes or a chat of up to 20 messages. All prices are net. Phone numbers and call minutes are billed separately.
- Setup (one-time)
- €1,299
- Basic plan
- €399 per month, 500 sessions
- Pro plan
- €599 per month, 1,000 sessions
- Telephony
- billed separately at the telephony provider's rates
Every cost item with a worked example is in the guide How much does an AI phone assistant cost?, and the plans in detail are on the pricing page.
The AI phone assistant in your industry
A dental practice gets different calls from a trades business. These pages show what the assistant handles in each industry.
Medical practices
Take appointment requests, answer questions about surgery hours, pass requests such as prescriptions to the practice team.
Dental practices
Book check-ups and hygiene appointments, put patients in pain straight through to the practice team.
Tax advisors
Record enquiries from clients and prospects, arrange callbacks and first meetings.
Law firms
Capture new client enquiries, arrange callbacks, pass on urgent matters immediately.
Trades businesses
Take job requests while the team is on site and arrange site visits.
Beauty salons
Book and reschedule treatments, answer questions about prices and treatments.
Car dealerships and workshops
Arrange workshop appointments and test drives, pass questions to service advisors.
Restaurants and hotels
Take table reservations and answer questions about opening hours.
Real estate agents
Answer questions about properties, qualify prospects, schedule viewings.
Service centres
Book drop-off appointments and record questions about existing orders.
Comparisons and calculator
AI phone assistant vs. answering machine vs. phone answering service
What each option does with incoming calls and what it costs.
AI employee vs. call centre vs. receptionist
Availability, effort and cost models side by side.
AI employee vs. chatbot
When a simple website chatbot is enough and when it is not.
Missed calls calculator
Estimate with your own numbers how much revenue unanswered calls cost.
Frequently asked questions about AI phone assistants
What is an AI phone assistant?
An AI phone assistant is software that answers calls, understands the caller's request in normal conversation and handles routine tasks itself, such as booking appointments or answering questions about services and opening hours. Cases it should not resolve go to your team with a summary.
How is it different from voicemail or a keypad menu?
Voicemail only records a message, and a keypad menu routes callers through fixed options. The AI phone assistant holds a conversation, asks follow-up questions and deals with the request directly, for example by booking a free slot. Your team only calls back where it is actually needed.
Can the assistant forward calls to a person?
Yes. During setup you decide when the assistant hands over, for example in emergencies, for special requests or when the caller explicitly asks for a person. Depending on the settings, it forwards the call or creates a callback request with a note.
How long does setup take?
About 14 days. A certified partner agrees the workflows with you, adds your knowledge, connects phone, calendar and CRM and tests the assistant with you before launch.
How much does an AI phone assistant from Neurobots cost?
A one-time €1,299 for setup, then €399 per month (Basic, 500 sessions) or €599 per month (Pro, 1,000 sessions), all net. A session is a call of up to 5 minutes or a chat of up to 20 messages. Phone numbers and call minutes are billed separately.
Can an AI phone assistant be used in line with the GDPR?
Yes, if the provider and the way you use it fit. Neurobots processes data under the GDPR on servers in Nuremberg, Germany, and signs a data processing agreement (DPA) with you. The language models used act as data processors and do not store conversation threads. Your privacy policy should mention that you use the assistant.
Do callers know they are talking to an AI?
They should. We recommend that the assistant introduces itself as an AI assistant at the start of the call. Callers then know where they stand, and the EU AI Act sets transparency obligations for systems that interact directly with people.
Which systems does the assistant work with?
With calendars and with CRM systems such as HubSpot, Pipedrive, Salesforce, SAP and Microsoft Dynamics. It is not currently connected to practice management software; in medical practices, appointments are handled through a connection to your practice calendar.
Is an AI phone assistant right for your calls?
Tell us which calls you get most often. In a demo we show how the assistant handles them and tell you honestly whether it makes sense for your business.