Should a contractor hire an office person or use an AI receptionist? The honest cost math.
Every contractor hits the point where the phone is costing jobs and the question is whether to hire someone or put an AI on it. Here are the real numbers on both, and the part of the job the AI can't do, so you can decide instead of guess.
What a person costs
The Bureau of Labor Statistics puts the median pay for a receptionist at $18.27 an hour, or $38,010 a year, as of May 2025 (BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook). That's the middle of the country. In a big metro, or for someone who also does your books, it's more.
Wages aren't the whole cost. Across private industry, benefits (the employer's share of insurance, payroll taxes, paid time off, retirement) averaged 30% of total compensation in June 2026, with wages the other 70% (BLS Employer Costs for Employee Compensation). A small contractor rarely offers the full package, but payroll taxes and workers' comp alone put you well above the wage.
| Hire | Wages | With benefits | Hours a week |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full-time receptionist, median wage | $38,010 a year | about $54,300 a year, or $4,500 a month | 40 |
| Part-time, 20 hours, median wage, no benefits | about $19,000 a year | plus payroll taxes; about $1,600 a month | 20 |
| Your spouse or your cell phone | $0 on paper | — | When they can |
The "with benefits" figure is the median wage divided by 0.70, which is what the BLS split works out to. Your number will be different. Use yours.
And there's the part that doesn't show up on a pay stub: the person takes lunch, gets sick, goes on vacation and quits. Each of those puts you back on the phone.
What an AI receptionist costs
Ours is $297, $497 or $997 a month, and every plan includes a set number of call minutes and texts (Basic has 500 minutes and 500 texts). Extra minutes are $0.30 each, billed the next month, and calls are never cut off at the limit. The market works the same way: nearly every AI receptionist is metered by the minute, and published plans run from under $100 to about $1,000 a month. The cost guide works sixteen of them out at 100, 300 and 600 minutes.
So the raw comparison looks like this:
| Full-time hire | AI receptionist (our Basic plan) | |
|---|---|---|
| A month | about $4,500 with benefits | $297 plus any extra minutes |
| Hours a week the phone is covered | 40 | 168 |
| Picks up on the second ring every time | When they're at the desk and not on another call | Yes |
| Books on your calendar | Yes | Yes, from your Google Calendar's real open times |
| Follows up on quotes that went quiet | If they remember and have time | On a schedule, by text (Pro plan and up) |
| Invoices, orders material, schedules crews, talks to the insurance adjuster | Yes | No |
| Walks a customer through a hard situation | Yes | Transfers to you during business hours |
| Sick days, vacation, turnover | Yes | No |
That last block of rows is the honest part. An AI receptionist does the phone. A good office person does the phone plus twenty other things, and some of those things are why you'd hire them.
The question underneath the question
Don't ask "person or AI." Ask: what does my phone problem actually look like?
"I miss calls because I'm working."
You're an owner-operator or you run one or two crews, and the phone rings while you're on a ladder. You don't have a paperwork problem, you have an answering problem. This is the case the AI was built for, and hiring a full-time person to solve it is paying $4,500 a month for 40 hours of a 168-hour problem.
"I have an office person and the phone still gets missed."
They're on the other line, at lunch, or out. Here the AI isn't a replacement. It's the backup that picks up when they can't, and the after-hours line. Keep the person. Put the AI behind them, set to ring the office first and pick up if nobody does. More on that setup in how to answer the phone on a job site.
"I'm drowning in paperwork and the phone is part of it."
Invoices late, material not ordered, permits not pulled. You need a person. The AI takes the phone off their desk so the hire can be about the work only a person can do, and you can hire for that instead of for "answers the phone and also does everything else."
"I want a human voice on my line, period."
Then hire, or use a human answering service. It's a real preference and I won't talk you out of it. Just know what it costs and what hours it covers, and check what the service actually does with the call, because most of them take a message.
What I did
At Gladiators Painting the AI answers every call on our main line, and it has since March 2026. I didn't lay anyone off to do it; there was nobody to lay off. What it replaced was voicemail and me stepping off a ladder. The office work I still do, and the AI's job is to make sure that while I'm doing it, the phone gets picked up, the estimate gets booked and the customer gets a confirmation text. If my company grows to where I hire someone in the office, the AI stays, because the phone will still ring while they're on the other line.
A way to decide in ten minutes
- Count the missed calls. Open your phone's recent calls for the last week. Count the ones you didn't answer and didn't call back within an hour.
- Put a job value on it. Not every missed call is a job, but some are. Use whatever share you believe, and your average ticket. The missed-call cost guide has the math laid out.
- List what the phone person would do that isn't the phone. If the list is long, hire for the list and put the AI on the phone. If the list is short, you don't need the hire.
Either way, the phone shouldn't be the reason you hire. It's the easiest part of the job to hand off, and the only part that happens at 7 p.m.
Questions contractors ask
How much does a receptionist cost a small business?
The BLS median for receptionists is $18.27 an hour, or $38,010 a year, as of May 2025. With benefits at the private-industry average (30% of total compensation in June 2026), that's about $54,300 a year. A part-timer at 20 hours is about $19,000 in wages plus payroll taxes. Your local rate may be higher.
Is an AI receptionist cheaper than hiring?
For the phone, yes, by a lot: a few hundred dollars a month against a few thousand, and it covers every hour of the week instead of 40. But it only does the phone. If you need someone to invoice, order material and schedule crews, you need a person for that regardless.
Can an AI receptionist replace my office manager?
No. It replaces the answering part of their job, around the clock. Everything else an office manager does stays with a person. What changes is that the hire can be about that work, not about sitting near the phone.
What if I already have an office person?
Set the AI to ring the office first and pick up when nobody does, and to take every call after hours. The person keeps every call they can get to, and nothing rings out.
Do customers mind that an AI answered?
Most callers want their job handled and a time on the calendar. Some want a person, and the AI transfers them during business hours. On our painting company's line the AI has answered every call since March 2026; the 412-call page shows what those calls looked like.
What's the cheapest way to stop missing calls?
Missed-call text-back: a text that goes out when a call rings out. It costs little and it's better than nothing, but it still leaves the customer waiting for you. Our guide on missed-call text-back explains why it's the floor, not the fix.
Fifteen minutes. We call your business number, run a real call, and show you what happens after it. You decide.
Book a demoRelated: why an AI receptionist for a home service business, what a missed call costs, what an AI receptionist costs, and answering service vs AI receptionist.