An AI receptionist for Australian businesses that actually does the job

Three things get called "answering" that aren't the same product. Voicemail records a message, if the caller leaves one; a caller who hits voicemail often just rings the next name. An IVR ("press 1 for…") routes button-pushes and books nothing. A human answering service takes a message for $2.60–$4.00 a call and texts it to you to deal with later. An AI receptionist is a fourth thing: software that holds an actual conversation — understands what the caller needs, asks the follow-ups you'd ask, and takes an action on the spot.

The action is the point. A receptionist that can only say "I'll pass that on" is voicemail with better manners. From Starter, Giday's receptionist books the job into a calendar during the call and sends the SMS confirmation before the caller hangs up; from Busy, it quotes real prices where you've approved a price list; and on every plan it screens the telemarketers out for free instead of turning them into "messages" you pay to read.

In the measured window on our first live line — 30 July to 22 August 2026, a Brisbane locksmith — jobs booked mid-call typically ran about 2.5 minutes from hello to booked, 1 in 5 calls arrived outside business hours, and 1 in 10 landed on a weekend. Full numbers on the virtual receptionist page.

The quiet superpower of an AI receptionist: it takes several calls at once. If three customers call at the same moment, all three get answered instantly, in your business name, with no hold music and no queue. No human receptionist — and no human answering-service desk — can do that: with a person, your second caller hears engaged or waits on hold, and the third rings your competitor.

It also never takes lunch, never calls in sick, and answers the 2am emergency exactly as well as the 2pm booking — same knowledge, same calendar, same manners, no after-hours surcharge on any plan.

Every plan answers 24/7 in an Australian voice, takes messages and screens spam. The ladder adds capability, not courtesy:

All prices are AUD including GST, month to month, on the pricing page. Extra minutes are 50c past your plan's allowance, on every plan, and if a bigger plan would have cost less for the month, we email you the figures.

Some AI phone products market the fact that callers can't tell it's AI. We think that's exactly backwards, and we publish the receipts: our recording-law guide surveys what eight Australian providers actually disclose, with dates and sources.

• Ask whether it's a person and it tells you straight away it's a virtual receptionist, not a person — every time, policy not preference.
• The recording notice is in the greeting your receptionist speaks, on every call, in its own voice: the words on a recorded line.
• Asked "are you recording?", it answers honestly — and a caller who isn't comfortable can have every record of their call deleted — your receptionist actions it during the call, and the recording and transcript are purged within the hour.
• The notice has no off switch — not one you can reach, and not one we can reach for you. In several states it's the practical basis for consent to record.

An honest capability list, because aspiration logos help nobody:

• Live now, self-serve: instant setup on your own Australian number, a Giday-hosted calendar we set up for you (Starter and up) or calendar connection by iCal feed (Steady and up — Google Calendar, Outlook and most booking tools publish one), price-list quoting you switch on yourself in the dashboard (Busy and up), SMS confirmations both directions (Starter and up), a dashboard with calls, messages, bookings, transcripts (Steady and up), your receptionist's name, voice and greeting, the questions it asks, your business knowledge and your service area.
• ServiceM8 on Busy and up: paste an API key in your dashboard, or we'll do it with you on a call. It runs in production on our first live line today.
• Not offered: payment collection over the phone (never), medical or legal advice (never — those callers get a booking or a message).

An AI receptionist loses to a good human on long, messy, emotionally loaded calls — a dispute, a grieving caller, a delicate negotiation. Giday's answer isn't to bluff through them; it's to recognise them and hand over warm: put the call through to you (from Starter), or take a priority message that reaches you in seconds with the caller's number attached. The receptionist doesn't have to be human. The escalation path does — and it's you. The full honest comparison is on Giday vs a human receptionist, and the broader service picture on phone answering.

Try it against your own phone: sign up, ring your new receptionist, ask it the hardest questions your callers ask you. The first week is free — 60 minutes of call time — and the clock doesn't start until it answers its first call, yours included, so tune it with test-chat in your dashboard first if you like.