What it actually does
Smith.ai answers your business phone. That is the whole product. AI, a North America-based live receptionist, or both. They screen the caller, run intake, try to book the appointment, and log it into your CRM. Website chat is a separate product with the same live-agent idea.
It is not missed-call text-back. They pick up so the call is not missed. You can get a post-call SMS, a ping when a transfer fails, or a live callback. That is not Podium texting the person who just hit voicemail.
Three modes: 100% AI, hybrid, 100% human. About a quarter of AI-first calls still involve a person (caller asked, you set a rule, or the bot got stuck). Callers are told it is AI. Live agents work from home offices in North America, not an overseas floor. Spanish is included on the AI plans. On human plans a dedicated Spanish line is $1 per call.
They do not manage Google reviews or listings. A review-request link in a follow-up text is not a reviews product. Booking on AI uses Calendly and similar. ServiceTitan and Housecall Pro are native for the AI receptionist. Jobber is mostly Zapier. No Dentrix, Open Dental, or Eaglesoft on their integrations list. Law is the deep stack: Clio, Filevine, MyCase, conflict checks, retainers.
Who should buy it
Buy it if a missed call is a missed case or a missed emergency job, and you will pay per answered call to keep a human behind the bot. Law firms are still the company. Their own FAQ says roughly 80% of customers. HVAC and plumbing are the second-best fit if tickets are high and after-hours is the leak. Dentists and salons can use it (Mindbody exists) but it is not a dental PMS front desk.
Do not buy it if you wanted Google reviews and two-way text. That is a different category. Do not buy it if 90% of your after-hours volume is “book the water heater quote” and a cheap AI-only bot would do. Do not buy the human Starter if a busy week will blow 30 calls. Call 31 is $11.50. Add-ons (booking $1.50, SMS, payments) stack on top. The 30-day money-back refunds the first plan payment up to $1,000. Overages are excluded.
The reason not to buy is the meter, not the greeting. Trustpilot in 2026 has shops whose AI transferred to live agents without consent and raised the bill ($3 per live-agent call on AI plans). Another got a number already on a spam list, then got quoted overages on the spam. Cancel is email to support@smith.ai with 30 days’ notice. The ToS can bill another month if you cut it close. Capterra’s one 1-star (construction) is six months of overages and a card that kept charging. Capterra’s 29 reviews are almost all lawyers, and the newest in the July 2026 snapshot is October 2023. I would not put a one-truck plumber on this as the default.
The verdict
When it works, the phone gets answered at 2 a.m. and someone qualified gets on the calendar. G2’s virtual-receptionist listing sat at 4.9 from 73 reviews (June 2026 snapshot, no 1-stars, and it had gone two months without a new review). Capterra 4.8 from 29. Trustpilot is the less flattering 4.4 from 336, which is where billing and cancel stories live. Lawyers on Reddit who skip the AI and just buy the humans like it.
Pricing is public. Ignore older “$97.50/mo” tables. They are stale. Current official: AI Free is $0 for 25 calls ($3 extra), AI Pro is $150 for 75, human Starter is $300 for 30. Hybrid is custom. Month-to-month is the default. Annual is prepaid and non-refundable. Unused monthly calls do not roll over.
Solid for a law firm or a high-ticket trade that will cap transfer rules and buy a tier above real traffic. Not the default for a shop that mainly needed reviews or a cheap night bot.