This isn't a comparison designed to make one option look bad. Both have genuine strengths, and the right answer depends on your business. But when business owners ask whether they should hire a part-time receptionist or set up an AI, they often don't have a clear picture of what each actually costs or does. Here's an honest breakdown.
What a part-time receptionist actually costs
A part-time receptionist working 20 hours a week at $28 an hour — which is roughly the going rate in Australia for an experienced admin person — costs $560 a week in base wages. Add 11% superannuation and that's $622 a week. Annual leave loading adds another few percent. Training time, on average, costs the equivalent of two to three weeks of wages for a new hire.
So the realistic cost before you've factored in sick days, turnover, or the time you spend managing them: somewhere between $2,500 and $3,500 a month.
When a good receptionist leaves — and they do leave, because it's often not a long-term career role — you start again from scratch. The training investment is gone. You're back to missed calls and messy scheduling until the next person is up to speed.
What a human does better
A good human receptionist is genuinely better in certain situations. They can handle complex, emotional, or ambiguous conversations with nuance. They can sense that a caller is distressed and adjust their tone. They can take initiative in situations that fall outside any script. They build relationships with repeat customers who call in regularly. They can also handle tasks that go beyond reception — filing, administrative support, coordinating with other team members.
If your business involves a lot of sensitive conversations, or if your receptionist role is genuinely multi-faceted, a good hire is worth it.
What AI does better
An AI receptionist is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, including public holidays and weekends. It never has a bad day. It doesn't take sick leave. It doesn't make errors because it's in a rush or distracted. It responds in seconds to every enquiry, captures lead details consistently, and gives the same quality of answer at 3am as it does at 9am on a Monday.
It also scales without additional cost. Whether you're getting 5 enquiries a week or 50, the cost is the same.
And when you update your pricing or services, the AI reflects that update immediately — you don't need to brief anyone or wait for them to internalize the new information.
The honest middle ground
Most small businesses that do well with this end up using both — but for different things. The AI handles first contact and after-hours enquiries: answering questions, capturing lead details, setting expectations about when someone will be in touch. The human handles everything that requires actual relationship or complexity: callbacks, booking changes, difficult conversations, in-person reception.
This isn't a compromise. It's a sensible division of labour. The AI does the high-volume, low-complexity work around the clock. The human focuses their energy on interactions that genuinely need a human.
The wrong question
"Should I get an AI or hire a receptionist?" is often the wrong way to frame it. The better question is: "What tasks actually need a human, and what can be handled without one?" Once you've answered that, it's usually clear where each tool fits.
For businesses that are losing after-hours enquiries, struggling to respond quickly, or spending good human hours answering the same five questions on repeat — AI isn't a replacement for a receptionist. It's the solution to a problem that a receptionist, working 20 hours a week, was never going to solve anyway.