Overview

The live agent add-on enhances AI Receptionist by allowing certain calls to be routed to a human from Smith.ai's Live Agent Network when needed. This provides a more personal experience for complex or sensitive calls while keeping the cost-efficiency of AI call handling.

The below live agent add-on pricing goes into effect on November 20, 2025, along with the availability of new controls within your dashboard.

What live agent add-on interactions are available?

You can easily manage which types of calls involve Smith.ai live agents using the controls in your AI Receptionist dashboard. There are four scenarios that the live agent add-on can be used for:

• Human verification – When AI Receptionist has not spoken with a caller before, it will handoff the call to a live agent to verify that their contact information is captured accurately.
• Caller-initiated escalation – If a caller asks to speak with a human, AI will route them to a live agent to handle the remainder of the call.
• Playbook handoff – A live agent takes over near the beginning of the call, after AI identifies a qualifying caller type.
• Live agent scheduling – Caller type playbooks that require scheduling using a platform that is not integrated with AI Receptionist (i.e., "Any public calendar link") are routed to a live agent to complete the booking.

Using Calendly? AI Receptionist integrates with your account to enable instant AI scheduling — no live agent add-on required. Learn more →

Pricing

Every call that uses the live agent add-on is billed at +$3.00 in addition to your base per-call rate. This is a flat +$3, regardless of the duration of the call, which live agent interactions were used, or how many occurred within the same call.

Billable vs. non-billable human-involved calls

AI Receptionist calls that include any form(s) of live agent add-on are billed per call — but not every human-involved call requires an add-on.

Billable as live agent add-on (+$3):

Calls with any of the below live agent interactions are billed at a flat rate per call, regardless of call duration or number of interactions:

• Caller-initiated escalation
• Live agent scheduling
• Human verification
• Playbook handoff

Non-billable (+$0):

These calls do not require a live agent add-on:

• System escalation due to AI failure
• Outage/fallback scenarios
• Transfers outside Smith.ai's system to your business/team

Example use cases

• Caller says, "I need to talk to someone." → Triggers caller-initiated escalation → A live agent handles the remainder of the call → +$3
• AI fails to understand a caller due to noise → Triggers system escalation → A live agent handles the remainder of the call → +$0

Questions? Contact us!

• If you're already a Smith.ai client, please email us at support@smith.ai or call us at (650) 727-6484 for assistance.
• If you're not yet a Smith.ai client, please click here to get started with our AI Receptionist services or schedule a call with our team. We'll help you select the best plan to match your business’s growth goals and budget.