AI & Technology
ElevenLabs Launches Reception: An AI Receptionist That Answers Calls 24/7
Overview: The 24/7 Voice AI Receptionist
Imagine calling a business at 11 PM and getting an immediate response—not from a traditional call center, but from an AI receptionist that can understand your request, answer questions, schedule an appointment, and connect you with the right person.
That is the idea behind Reception, a new AI receptionist from ElevenLabs. It is designed primarily for small businesses and freelancers that want to automate incoming phone calls without hiring a full-time receptionist.
What Is ElevenLabs Reception?
Reception is an AI-powered voice agent built on ElevenLabs' voice-agent technology. It can answer business phone calls around the clock and handle common tasks such as answering customer questions, scheduling appointments, collecting information, and routing calls.
Instead of following a rigid phone menu such as:
“Press 1 for sales, press 2 for support...”
customers can have a more natural conversation with the AI.
For example:
Customer: “I'd like to book an appointment for tomorrow afternoon.”
AI Receptionist: “Sure. I can help with that. What service would you like to book?”
The AI can then use the business's configured services, availability, and scheduling system to continue the conversation.
When Was Reception Released?
ElevenLabs introduced Reception by ElevenAgents on September 16, 2026.
The launch extends ElevenLabs' existing work in AI voice agents into a more ready-to-use product aimed at businesses that need automated phone reception.
Reception is designed to reduce the amount of setup normally required to build a custom AI phone agent.
How Does Reception Work?
One of the main ideas behind Reception is simple setup across five primary stages:
- 1. Add Your Business Website: A business can provide its website URL (e.g.
https://examplebusiness.com). Reception can use information from the website to understand the business, including its services, operating hours, and other relevant information without manual entry from scratch. - 2. Configure the Receptionist: The business can configure how the AI receptionist should behave, including AI voice, greeting, business information, services, working hours, call-handling rules, transfer rules, scheduling, and staff information. For example, a dental clinic could configure a receptionist to answer questions about appointments and transfer specific calls to the appropriate staff member.
- 3. Connect Scheduling and Other Tools: Reception can connect to supported calendars and other integrations. When a customer wants an appointment, the AI can check availability and offer suitable time slots instead of simply taking a message.
- 4. Customers Call the Business: Once configured, customers can call the business and speak with the AI receptionist. The AI processes the conversation and determines what the caller needs in natural conversational speech.
- 5. Human Handoff: AI does not have to handle every situation itself. If a customer needs to speak with a human, Reception can route the call according to configured rules, creating a hybrid workflow where AI handles routine calls while employees deal with cases requiring human attention.
Call Workflow Architecture
Once configured, customers can call the business and speak directly with the AI receptionist:
If a caller needs a human, Reception seamlessly routes the call according to configured rules.
What Can Reception Do?
Reception is designed to handle several common business tasks out of the box:
- Answer Customer Questions: Customers can ask questions about services, business hours, locations, pricing, availability, and general business information. The AI responds using the information available to it.
- Schedule Appointments: One of the important capabilities is appointment scheduling. For example: “I want to book a consultation on Friday.” Reception can check configured availability and help the customer select an available time.
- Route Calls: If a caller needs a specific employee or department, Reception can transfer the call according to the business's routing configuration.
- Collect Customer Information: The AI can ask for information such as name, phone number, service required, appointment requirements, and other intake information before a human employee gets involved.
- Work 24/7: Unlike a traditional receptionist, an AI receptionist does not need to follow a normal 9-to-5 schedule, enabling customers to reach a business at any time.
Where Can Businesses Use Reception?
Reception can be useful anywhere businesses receive repetitive customer calls:
Real Estate: Real-estate businesses can use an AI receptionist to answer property-related calls and help arrange property viewings:
For a real-estate CRM, the collected information could potentially become a new lead through integrations with the company's backend or CRM.
- Salons and Spas: A salon could use Reception to handle appointment booking, service questions, opening hours, rescheduling, and cancellation requests.
- Home-Service Businesses: Plumbers, electricians, cleaning companies, and other service businesses can use voice AI to collect customer requirements and schedule service visits.
- Professional Services: Law firms, consultants, accountants, agencies, and similar businesses can use AI receptionists to handle initial inquiries and schedule consultations.
- Hotels and Hospitality: AI receptionists can answer common questions about reservations, opening hours, services, amenities, and directions.
Reception and Traditional IVR: What's Different?
Traditional IVR systems generally work through predefined menus:
Reception takes a conversational approach. Instead of navigating through menus, the customer can simply say:
“I want to reschedule my appointment.”
The AI can understand the request and respond accordingly. This is one of the major differences between a traditional phone menu and a conversational AI receptionist.
Multilingual Communication: 70+ Languages
ElevenLabs says Reception supports 70+ languages, making it useful for businesses serving customers who speak different languages.
This is particularly relevant for businesses that receive international or multilingual calls.
Why Is Reception Important?
Small businesses often face a simple problem: phone calls can consume a significant amount of employee time.
Many calls involve repetitive questions such as:
- “What time do you open?”
- “Can I book an appointment?”
- “What services do you provide?”
- “Can I speak with someone?”
- “Can I reschedule my appointment?”
Automating Routine Interactions with Voice AI
An AI receptionist can automate many of these interactions while allowing employees to focus on more complex tasks.
The bigger trend is that AI is moving beyond text-based chatbots and becoming capable of handling real-time voice conversations.
How Can a Business Start Using Reception?
The general process is straightforward:
Businesses should test the receptionist thoroughly before putting it in front of real customers, especially for appointment booking, transfers, and business-specific information.
Pricing & Plans
Reception currently has several plans, including a free trial and paid plans based on phone usage.
The published plans include:
| Plan | Price | Phone Usage |
|---|---|---|
| Free trial | $0 | 30 phone minutes |
| Basic | $29/month | 75 minutes |
| Plus | $79/month | 275 minutes |
| Premium | $199/month | 1,000 minutes |
The Bigger Picture
Reception represents a shift in how businesses can handle customer communication.
Previously, a business typically needed:
AI voice agents can now connect several parts of this workflow:
The important development is not simply that AI can “talk.” The value comes from combining conversation + business knowledge + actions.
An AI receptionist that can understand a caller, access relevant information, schedule an appointment, and hand the conversation to a human is much more useful than a basic text-to-speech phone bot.
Final Thoughts
ElevenLabs Reception brings AI voice agents into a practical business workflow. Instead of building a voice system from scratch, businesses can configure an AI receptionist to answer calls, handle routine questions, schedule appointments, collect information, and route calls.
For small businesses and freelancers, this could provide a way to maintain phone coverage outside normal working hours while reducing the amount of repetitive work handled manually.
More broadly, Reception shows how AI voice technology is evolving from simply generating realistic speech toward becoming an interactive business agent capable of taking actions during a conversation.