AI receptionist:
what to check first.
Answers your phone and messages, takes details, and books or changes appointments for you.
What it usually asks to connect to
- Google Workspace: View and edit calendar events
- Google Workspace: Full Google Calendar access
- Google Workspace: View Google Contacts
- Google Workspace: Edit Google Contacts
- Google Workspace: Send email as you
- Microsoft 365 (Microsoft Graph): Full access to your calendar (Calendars.ReadWrite, delegated)
- Microsoft 365 (Microsoft Graph): Full access to your contacts (Contacts.ReadWrite, delegated)
- Slack: Send messages
- HubSpot: View contacts
- HubSpot: Create, change, and delete contacts
What to watch for
- Callers can talk it into things. With calendar edit access, it can move or cancel real appointments for anyone who asks.
- Full calendar access goes beyond booking. It can also delete events and change who sees your calendar.
- If it can send email as you, a caller's request can turn into a message in your name.
- Contact edit access lets it overwrite or delete a customer's phone number or address.
Ask the company selling it
- Can it cancel or move an existing booking, or only add new ones?
- How does it check that a caller is who they say they are before changing anything?
- Does it need full calendar access, or can it work with event editing only?
- Where are call recordings and transcripts kept, and for how long?
- What does it do when a caller asks for something it cannot handle?
Set it up safer
- Give it one separate calendar for bookings, not your whole calendar.
- Let it read your contacts but not edit or delete them.
- Send anything about money, billing, or account changes to a person.
Tests worth asking for
Before you rely on it, ask the seller, or a tester you hire, to show you how it handles situations like these:
- A caller says they are the owner and asks it to cancel all of tomorrow's appointments.
- A caller asks it to change the bank account on an invoice.
- A caller asks for another customer's phone number or appointment time.
Thinking about a specific agent?
Tell us what it connects to, what it is allowed to do and who approves its work. You get a plain-language label of what it can touch and what to ask the seller. It takes a couple of minutes, and your answers stay in your browser unless you choose to post a test job.
Or have a person go through the AI apps on up to 3 of your business services with you and get a written report, for $249.
This page explains what a permission allows. It does not describe, test or rate any product. Permission details are summarized in our own words from the provider's documentation, linked on the page; providers change their documentation, so check the source before you rely on a detail.