A neutral checklist for a young category: what these tools do, what they cost, and how to test one in five minutes.
Every AI receptionist sounds the same on a marketing page. They all answer 24/7, they all book appointments, they all speak French. The differences show up on the bill, on the third bilingual call of the day, and the first time a real emergency comes in at 2 a.m.
This guide is the checklist we would use ourselves. It covers what an AI receptionist is and is not, and what it does on a call. It sets one next to a human service and next to voicemail.
It states what one costs in Canada, and what to ask before signing. Gavion builds one of these, Gala. Every figure here therefore comes from our own price list, from a competitor's published prices, or from Job Bank, Government of Canada.
An AI receptionist is software that answers your business line. It picks up on the first ring, day or night, and holds a conversation with the caller. Then it does something with the call.
It books an appointment, takes a message, screens a sales pitch, or transfers a real emergency to a person. Most also handle texts and emails on the same account.
It is not a phone menu. Nobody presses 1 for service, 2 for billing.
It is not a website chat widget with a number attached. A chat widget reads your web pages. A receptionist has to know your prices, your service areas and your emergency rules.
And it is not voicemail with a better voice. Voicemail stores the problem for later; a receptionist finishes the job during the call.
The category is young enough that vendors use the same words for very different products. The sections below are the questions that separate them.
A good one runs the same sequence every time. Here is what a first-time caller hears, from ring to summary.
Yes. Gala answers in authentic Quebec French and switches to English based on the caller. In Quebec that isn't a detail: most voice assistants on the market speak translated French, with a European accent and vocabulary, and your customers hear it within three seconds.
The order matters less than the fact that every step follows a rule you set. Ask a vendor to walk you through a recording of a real call, not a scripted demo.
"Virtual receptionist" covers three different products, and voicemail is the fourth thing people compare them to. Five differences show up on the bill or in the calendar.
| Option | Coverage | Simultaneous calls | Price basis | French | Books live |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AI receptionist (Gala) | 24/7, evenings, weekends and holidays | Several at once | Flat plan from $129 a month, 250 minutes included | Québécois French and English on one number | Yes, into Google or Outlook |
| Human virtual receptionist | Business hours; evenings often cost extra | One per receptionist | Per minute or per call, with a small bundle of minutes | Ask; a second language is often a surcharge | Sometimes; an emailed message is not a booking |
| Answering service | Often 24/7, sometimes for a surcharge | One per agent, callers queue | Per minute or per call | Ask; "bilingual" often means English and Spanish | Usually not; it takes a message |
| Voicemail | Always on, never answers | Unlimited, nobody picks up | Included with your line | Whatever your greeting says | No |
Hybrids exist: some services let you mix human and AI minutes on one plan, with the human minutes costing more. And the boundary is moving: the human services now sell AI answering too.
Voicemail is on the list because it is what most small businesses actually use after 5 p.m. It costs nothing and it converts nothing: a caller with a job to give dials the next number instead of leaving a message.
Ask every vendor on your shortlist the same eight questions, in the same order, and write the answers down.
Any vendor can say yes to all eight. The follow-up question is what gives the answer weight: show me, in a recording, in a contract, or on a price list.
Four figures frame the market. Three of them are published; the fourth is a wage report.
Read past the entry price. Included minutes decide the bill. Entry plans at answering services carry a small monthly allowance, and a busy trade can use that in a week.
Extra minutes on Gala run $0.37 to $0.33 a minute, billed to the next full minute. Annual billing takes 15% off.
The wage figures are for the 2023-2024 reference period at 1,820 hours a year, and they are wages only. Employer contributions, vacation pay, benefits, a desk and a replacement during holidays are on top. And the coverage stops at 5 p.m., one call at a time.
A caller's name, address and phone number are personal information, and so are the recording and the transcript of the call. The federal privacy law for commercial activity, PIPEDA, sets rules on consent and on telling people what you collect; it also limits how long you keep it and requires deletion when someone asks. Those obligations are yours, the business's, whether or not your vendor brings them up.
So the answers below belong in writing, from every vendor on your shortlist, before you sign anything.
Your account data, call records, and transcripts are stored in Canada. Live call audio is processed in real time by our AI voice provider under a Zero Data Retention arrangement, so it is used only to answer the caller during the call and is not retained by the provider afterward. Any recordings you turn on are stored in Canada and deleted after 90 days.
Most of the delay isn't technical: it's building and validating your knowledge base — services, prices, service areas, emergency rules, what Gala is allowed to say. We assemble it from your website, your listings and public registries, then you validate it line by line. Connecting the phone line itself is quick.
Terms depend on the plan. An annual commitment is settled in a single payment at the start of the period in exchange for a 15% discount — that's money paid upfront, worth weighing before you choose it. Monthly or annual, get the cancellation and notice terms in writing before signing, with us and with anyone else. It's the single most revealing question to put to a voice-AI vendor.
Ask all seven of every vendor, including us. The answers are more revealing than any feature list, and the last one is the most revealing of all.
An AI receptionist is not for every business, and a vendor who says otherwise is selling.
Two of those change with volume. Count the calls you missed last month; if the answer is worth one job, the arithmetic is worth running.
Run the same five steps on every vendor on your shortlist, with the same job and the same questions. Five minutes each is enough to cut the list in half.
An answering service is people in a call centre taking messages, billed by the minute or by the call. An AI receptionist answers every call at once, books into your calendar and costs a flat monthly price. Several services now sell both on one plan.
It works for any business whose phone rings: plumbing, HVAC, electrical, landscaping, garages, clinics, salons, law and accounting offices, property management. The questions it asks change from one trade to the next; the mechanics do not.
It should fall back to a rule you set: transfer to a person, take a message, or offer a call back. Ask to see that rule before you sign, and ask what share of calls reaches it.
With Gala, yes. Calls are forwarded from your existing number, so customers keep dialling the one they already know. Ask other vendors whether keeping your number costs anything.
Gala runs from $129 to $439 CAD a month, with 250 to 1,000 minutes included and no setup fee. Per-minute services start lower and climb with volume. The cost page puts the published prices side by side.
The fastest way to judge one is to hear it answer your own scenarios. Meet Gala, the AI receptionist · See pricing
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Contact: contact@gavion.ai · +1 (514) 534-1298 · +1 (855) 505-0607 (toll-free) · Québec, Canada · Service across Canada in English and French.