I build AI agents. Check these before you pay for one.
These are my stories and my fixes. An AI writes them up, and I check every fact and link before a post goes up.
I went back through six months of posts in the local business groups I follow. About 45 sellers pitched an AI receptionist or missed-call text-back. Most were copy-and-paste posts with an out-of-state demo number, and nearly every one got no response.
One owner asked what it costs and whether it actually helped. No seller of a done-for-you service answered.
I build and run AI agents in production every day, so I'm for them. A good one answering your phone while you're on a job works. From a sales post you can't tell a good one from a bad one.
The FTC sued Air AI (opens another site) in August 2025. It alleges the company told small businesses its AI agent could replace staff when the tool was "often not able to perform basic functions like placing outbound calls." Some buyers reportedly lost as much as $250,000 and took on debt. Those are allegations, and enough reason to ask a seller some questions before you sign.
What I'd ask before signing
Ask the seller a few plain questions, then run your own test calls before a customer hears it. The answering really is AI, so it will make mistakes; even Klarna's CEO (opens another site), after its AI customer service came out "lower quality," said it's critical to be clear with customers "that there will always be a human if you want."
Don't sign without these
- If a caller asks whether it's a bot, it says yes.
- It never quotes a price you didn't write down.
- Emergencies go straight to a person.
- Any caller who asks for a person gets one.
- You own the number and can leave with your data.
You're responsible for every word it says, so somebody reads them.
How you'd check one yourself
Four things I'd do before a customer hears it, the same things I do with the agents I build.
Ask the seller these
Asked if it's a bot, does it say yes? What does it say when somebody asks a price? What happens with a gas smell, or water where it shouldn't be? How does a caller reach me? Who owns the number and the recordings? How do I leave?
Make 20 test calls yourself
Before it goes live, call it twenty times the way customers will: confused and unable to explain the problem, angry, an emergency, a price shopper who won't take no for an answer. I do the same with the agents I build, real cases through them before launch.
Read the transcripts
Every call and text for two weeks. Look for a price you never wrote down, an emergency it booked like a routine call, or a caller who asked for a person and didn't get one. Every agent I build starts with a person approving what it does.
Get the promises in writing
Whatever the seller promised, get it in the contract; you own what it says. Air Canada's chatbot (opens another site) told a grieving customer he could book and claim a bereavement refund later. A tribunal held the airline responsible because it "did not take reasonable care to ensure its chatbot was accurate."
If you'd like a second set of eyes, I'll go through a seller's answers and your test calls with you, or set up an assistant that follows these rules myself.
