AI receptionist vs human receptionist in Australia: cost and what each does
Published 6 October 2026 · Wage, super and price pages read on 6 October 2026 · By Target Digital · 8 minute read
AI receptionist vs human receptionist is a comparison of two different jobs, and the cheaper option depends on which job you need done. A person greets visitors, handles payments and reads a room. An AI answers calls at any hour and books appointments. Most small businesses do not need to pick one.
We sell AI follow-up, not receptionists, so we have no reason to push you either way. This guide puts the published numbers side by side, explains what each does well, and sets out when a mix works best. It is general information, not advice on employment law.
What a human receptionist costs
The legal floor is a start, not a typical wage. The Fair Work Ombudsman says that for most employees the minimum wage is set by the award covering their industry or occupation, and that the National Minimum Wage applies to employees not covered by an award or registered agreement. As of 1 July 2026 it is $26.44 an hour, or $1,004.90 a week.
The ATO says the super guarantee is 12 percent of ordinary time earnings from 1 July 2025. The ATO also says new Payday Super rules apply to earnings paid from 1 July 2026, which changes how and when super is paid, so check its current guidance. By our arithmetic:
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
| Weekly minimum (Fair Work figure) | $1,004.90 |
| Annual wages, 52 weeks | about $52,255 |
| Super at 12 percent | about $6,271 |
| Total before other costs | about $58,525 |
That is a floor. It excludes award rates above the minimum, penalty rates, payroll tax, workers' compensation, recruitment, training, a desk and equipment, and the cost of covering sick leave and holidays. Check your award and Fair Work's pay tools for the real figure.
What an AI receptionist costs
Using the published plans we compared in our guide to AI receptionist cost in Australia: Trillet's single plan is $49 a month and AiDial's Max plan is $449 a month, read on 5 October 2026. Over a year that is $588 to $5,388 before extra calls, setup, integrations and any compliance add-on. Neither page states a currency or whether GST is included.
These two numbers are not like for like. The AI plan answers the phone. The person does that and much more.
Coverage: hours and calls
Fair Work's weekly figure works out to a 38-hour week. A full-time receptionist covers 38 of the 168 hours in a week, about 23 percent, before leave. AI receptionist providers advertise 24-hour call handling: AiDial lists 24/7 call answering and Trillet lists 24/7 call handling. Those are the providers' claims, so test them with your own calls.
What each does well
| Human receptionist | AI receptionist |
|---|---|
| Greets visitors in person and handles deliveries | Answers calls at any hour, including after hours |
| Takes payments and deals with paperwork | Takes the same details on every call and sends a summary |
| Reads tone, calms an upset caller, uses judgement | Books appointments straight into a calendar |
| Knows regular clients and local detail | Answers common questions from the information you give it |
| Handles anything unexpected | Transfers or escalates what it cannot handle, if set up to |
This table is our judgement from how both work. AiDial's own FAQ answers the replacement question with "Not necessarily": it describes its product as a tool that handles high-volume repetitive enquiries and after-hours calls so your team can focus on complex ones.
Can AI replace a receptionist?
For the phone, partly. For the front desk, no. If most of your receptionist's day is answering the phone and booking, an AI plan can cover much of it and you can redeploy the person. If the job is mainly greeting patients or clients in person, handling payments and keeping the front of house running, AI does not do that.
When to use both
- After hours. A person covers the day, AI takes the calls that come in at night and on weekends.
- Overflow. When the receptionist is on another call or at lunch, the AI answers instead of voicemail.
- New enquiries. A form or ad lead goes to a follow-up system that calls or texts within minutes. That is not a receptionist job, and it is what our AI Outbound Call Engine does.
Rules that apply to the AI
- Say it is an AI. See our guide to AI caller disclosure.
- Health practices hold sensitive information. See our guide to dental enquiry follow-up for the privacy points.
- Calls out to leads follow the telemarketing rules: see our compliance guide.
How to decide
- Count the calls you miss in a month, and what a booked job or client is worth to you.
- List what your receptionist does in a week, hour by hour.
- Price the AI plan on your real call volume, including overage.
- Trial it on after-hours calls first, where nobody is answering today.
- Read ten calls a week for the first month.
Three ways to set up an AI receptionist alongside a person
Trillet's published options show how flexible the arrangement can be. It lets you choose when the AI picks up:
- Every call. The AI picks up everything, 24 hours a day, and you read the summaries.
- When you are busy. It steps in when you are on another call or with a customer.
- When you do not answer. Your phone rings first, and the AI answers if you do not.
The second and third modes are the natural fit for a business that already has a receptionist: the person answers when they can, and the AI catches the rest. Other providers work through a different route. AiDial gives you a dedicated AI number that you forward your main line to, and it notes that this means keeping service on both your original number and the AI line. Ask which model each provider uses, because it changes the phone bill.
A break-even calculation you can run yourself
The question that settles most decisions is how many recovered jobs pay for the plan. The formula is the plan's annual cost divided by the value of one job. The numbers below are illustrative, to show the method, and are not a result anyone should expect:
- AiDial Max at $449 a month is $5,388 a year. If an average job is worth $800, you need seven recovered jobs a year to cover it.
- Trillet's single plan at $49 a month is $588 a year. At the same $800, you need one recovered job.
Put your own numbers in. The hard input is how many calls you miss, which you can find from your phone provider's call log or by counting missed calls for two weeks.
What to read each week
An AI receptionist needs supervision, especially in the first month. Both providers give you something to read: Trillet emails a summary of every call with the caller's name, number, reason for calling and any appointment booked, and AiDial's client dashboard provides call transcripts that you can download. Read a sample each week and ask four questions:
- Did it answer correctly from the information you gave it?
- Did it hand over to a person when it should have?
- Did anyone sound frustrated, and what happened next?
- What did callers ask that it did not know? Add it to its information.
Contract terms to compare
Terms differ more than prices do. Trillet says there are no contracts and you can cancel at any time, with a 28-day money-back period. AiDial says setup fees and any minimum subscription period are specified in your scope of work, that cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing cycle, but not before any minimum period in the scope of work ends, and that unused calls do not roll over. Neither is better in every case. A short trial with no lock-in suits a business that is unsure, and a longer term may come with more support.
What to hand to the AI and what to keep
This split is our judgement, based on what the providers describe their products doing:
- Hand to the AI: after-hours calls, overflow when the receptionist is busy, opening hours and location questions, taking messages, and routine bookings.
- Keep with a person: upset or vulnerable callers, complex or unusual requests, anything involving payments or complaints, and face-to-face greeting.
The aim is to free your receptionist for the work only a person can do, and to stop calls going unanswered when nobody is free.
AI receptionist vs human receptionist: common questions
Is an AI receptionist cheaper than a human receptionist?
On published plan prices, yes by a wide margin: $588 to $5,388 a year against a wage floor of about $58,500 including super, for a 38-hour week at the National Minimum Wage, with award rates possibly higher. But it does a narrower job, so compare what you need done, not the two totals.
Can AI replace receptionists?
It can take over much of the phone work. It does not greet people in person, take payments or handle the unexpected, and the provider we quote says its product is not necessarily a replacement.
Is an AI receptionist worth it?
If you miss calls that would have become paying work, a plan under $450 a month needs only a few recovered jobs to pay for itself. If you rarely miss calls, it will not.
What happens when the AI cannot answer?
That depends on setup. Ask the provider how it escalates to a person, how it handles a transfer that fails, and what the caller hears.
Next step
If your problem is calls, a receptionist plan may be all you need and we will say so. If it is enquiries that go cold, book a 30-minute call. We will look at how enquiries reach you today and tell you what we would do.