AI receptionist in Australia: the one thing it must never do

Search “ai receptionist australia” and you’ll find page after page of businesses selling one. An AI receptionist isn’t on our menu, so this is the view from outside the shop.

What is an AI receptionist?

Software that answers your business phone and talks to the caller in a computer voice. It works from answers you give it, takes the caller’s name, number and reason for calling, and can pass the call on or book a time if it’s connected to your calendar.

RingCentral, one of the big phone system companies, says on its Australian page that its version handles “FAQs, texts, appointment scheduling, and lead capture”, meaning common questions, text messages, bookings and taking down new customers’ details.1 It says you set it up “using your website, FAQs, or uploaded documents”.1

It isn’t the old “press 1 for accounts” menu, and it isn’t a person in a call centre. Think of a chat box on your website that can talk.

What is an AI receptionist good at?

The calls where the answer doesn’t change from one caller to the next. In my view, that’s three jobs:

• The same questions, every time, at any hour. Your hours, your area, whether you do a job type, how to book.
• Taking details so you can ring back. Name, number, suburb and what it’s about, written down while you’re busy on a job.
• Sending the caller to the right person, if there’s more than one of you to send them to.

What is it bad at?

Anything it wasn’t told. AI tools can state something false with complete confidence, and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC), the privacy regulator, says businesses should “carefully test” customer-facing tools such as chatbots “to understand the risks of inaccurate or biased answers”.5

It also struggles, in my view, with the calls that matter most: the upset customer, the emergency, the job that needs a price, and the regular who just wants you. A machine that guesses a price or a time on your behalf has made a promise you didn’t.

So I’d give it a short list of things it may answer, and tell it to take a message for everything else.

What’s the one thing an AI receptionist must never do?

Pretend to be a person. That’s a line we won’t cross in anything we build, and I’d walk away from any setup that crosses it.

Sounding natural is fine. RingCentral’s page promises “human-like conversations”,1 and a clear voice is a kindness to the caller. Claiming to be human is a different thing.

What does pretending look like?

• A human name with no mention of AI: “Hi, this is Sarah from reception.”
• Lines that suggest a person: “Let me just check with the team” when there’s no team on the line.
• Saying yes, or dodging, when the caller asks “Am I talking to a real person?”

Why does it matter?

Because the government, the privacy regulator and consumer law all point the same way.

• The government’s guidance says tell them. The National AI Centre’s Guidance for AI Adoption, published 5 May 2026, says “People should know when they’re interacting with AI”, and that disclosing it matters most where AI “can be mistaken for a human being”.2
• The privacy regulator says label it. The OAIC says public-facing AI tools “(such as chatbots)” should be “clearly identified as such”.5
• Consumer law bans misleading people. The ACCC, the national consumer watchdog, says businesses mustn’t mislead consumers, and “It makes no difference whether a business intends to mislead or not”.3

We read the government and regulator pages above on 14 October 2026 and found no Australian law written specifically to make a phone AI say it’s a machine.2345 Whether a machine passing itself off as a person breaks consumer law isn’t settled in any of them, and this isn’t legal advice.

The practical reason is simpler. A caller who finds out they were fooled stops believing the rest of what you told them.

What should it say when it picks up?

That it’s AI, that the call is recorded if it is, and how to avoid both. Something like:

“Hi, you’ve reached [business]. I’m an AI receptionist, a computer, not a person. This call is recorded and written down so [name] can ring you back. If you’d rather not, you can hang up and text us on [number] instead.”

And if anyone asks whether they’re talking to a real person, the answer is no, every time.

Can an AI receptionist record calls in NSW?

Only with the caller told first, because two laws can apply. In NSW, the Surveillance Devices Act 2007 bans using a listening device “to record a private conversation to which the person is a party”, unless an exception applies.6 The first exception it lists is that “all of the principal parties to the conversation consent, expressly or impliedly”.6

The federal Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979 also bans intercepting a call, and section 6(1) defines that as listening to or recording it “without the knowledge of the person making the communication”.7

Which law covers your setup isn’t something we can settle for you, and this isn’t legal advice. Both point the same way: tell every caller before anything is recorded, and give them a way out.

Where do the recordings go?

Ask the seller where recordings and written-up calls are stored, in Australia or overseas, and for how long. The Privacy Act covers businesses with an annual turnover over AU$3,000,000, and some smaller ones whatever their turnover, including health service providers, according to the OAIC.8

If you’re a registered tax agent or BAS agent (registered to prepare other businesses’ Business Activity Statements, the form that reports GST, the goods and services tax), the company running it may be a third party under your Code of Professional Conduct. The Tax Practitioners Board (TPB) says a third party “may also include entities that maintain offsite data storage systems (including ‘cloud storage’)“.9

Can it ring people back?

Not to sell. The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), the regulator for phones, internet and spam, says “Commercial calls made using an auto-dialler (robocalls) or that use pre-recorded or AI voices are all telemarketing calls”.4 Telemarketing, meaning calls made to sell, has its own rules, so make the call-back yourself.

What does an AI receptionist cost to run?

Four things, and only one of them has a price on a page:

• The service itself. RingCentral’s Australian page prices its AI receptionist as a monthly fee for each account with a set number of minutes included, a charge for each minute over, and call time rounded up.1 Check how any seller counts: by the month, the minute or the call.
• Your phone setup. Ask whether it works with the number you have now, and whether your phone company charges to forward calls to it.
• Your time to write its answers and keep them current. The OAIC says checking an AI product “should not amount to a ‘set and forget’ approach”.5
• Your time to ring people back. The receptionist takes the message; you still make the call.

I’m not printing prices here: they change, so read the seller’s page on the day you buy. Check whether it includes GST, and which currency it’s in.

Questions to ask any seller

1. Does it say it’s AI in its first sentence, on every call? Ask to hear it.
2. What does it say when a caller asks if it’s a real person? Ring it and ask.
3. Does it record or write up calls, and where is that stored, and for how long?
4. Can I limit what it answers, and make it take a message for everything else?
5. How is it charged, and is GST included?
6. Can I turn it off and keep my number if it doesn’t work out?

Is it the right first step?

For a business where the calls are “can you come out” and “how much”, I’d start smaller. A text back when you miss a call holds your place until you can ring, and the call back is you.

Our post on the missed call text back has the two texts to copy and the rules they follow.

If you’d rather hand it over

An AI receptionist isn’t on our menu. The nearest things are A text back when you miss a call, a text inside a minute when you cannot pick up and an honest reply after hours, and A chat box that actually helps, which answers only from a list you approved and says it is a machine.

Start with one thing, or a bundle. If yours is different, we scope it.

Book a free hour.