Twelve questions to ask any voice AI vendor.
Ask them and you can tell a serious vendor from an impressive demo. Four of the twelve are uncomfortable for us, and we publish no figure we cannot evidence. Use them on us as well.
What should I ask an AI receptionist vendor before buying?
Ask twelve things: where data is hosted and under whose contract, who is personally accountable for safety, exactly what happens on escalation, whether it writes into your systems or only emails a summary, what it does when it does not understand, whether pricing rises with call volume, who owns the transcripts, what the fallback is if the service fails, how it is tested before go-live, whether it will claim to be human, what happens at the end of the contract, and which named customers will speak to you. Any vendor who is vague on hosting, escalation or pricing should be treated with suspicion.
What a good answer looks like.
| Question | A good answer | A warning sign |
|---|---|---|
| Where is the data hosted | Named processing region, written into the contract | We use industry standard cloud |
| Who is accountable for safety | A named person and a documented safety case | Our AI is very accurate |
| What happens on escalation | Defined triggers, named route, transcript attached | It transfers if needed |
| Does it write into our systems | Named integrations and a demo of the write | It emails you a summary |
| What if it does not understand | Escalates on a defined rule | It handles almost everything |
| Does the price rise with volume | Flat capacity tiers, stated in writing | Per minute, contact sales |
| Who owns the transcripts | You do, exportable at any time | Held in our platform |
| What is the failure fallback | Calls divert to your team automatically | We have high uptime |
| How is it tested pre-launch | Scripted test calls signed off by you | Continuous improvement |
| Will it claim to be human | No, it identifies itself | Callers cannot tell the difference |
| What happens at contract end | Data export and clean divert back | Not discussed |
| Will a named customer speak to us | Yes, with a reference call | Anonymous testimonials only |
The four we find uncomfortable
Named customer references, because Prime Assist is in trials, with founding practices open, and our published proof is worked scenarios rather than logos. Certification status, because beyond our clinical safety case under DCB0129 and our ICO registration we claim no certification, and we say so plainly. Set-up time, because a regulated deployment takes longer than a per-minute service you can switch on tomorrow. And breadth, because a vendor built for one narrow vertical may fit that vertical faster than we will.
Why hosting and residency are not a technicality
A voice agent hears names, addresses, health information, financial detail and sometimes distress. If a vendor cannot tell you which region that audio and transcript sit in, and show you the contractual commitment rather than a marketing page, they are asking you to accept a risk that is legally yours and not theirs.
Escalation is the whole product
Any vendor can demonstrate a call that goes well. The question is what happens on the call that goes badly: the ambiguous request, the caller in distress, the question outside remit. A serious product has written triggers, a named human route, and a record. An unserious one improvises and hopes.
Judge on completed tasks, not on demo quality
Voice quality has largely converged. What has not converged is whether the thing actually completes work in your systems and whether it knows when to stop. Ask to see it write a booking into a real diary during the demo, not a slide describing that it can.
The short verdict
Score every vendor, us included, on hosting, accountability, escalation, integration and pricing model. If we lose on your criteria, we would rather you buy the right thing. Come back when your requirements change.
Questions about choosing a vendor.
Ask us something elseWho are Prime Assist competitors?
The category includes general-purpose voice AI platforms, per-minute human answering services and healthcare-specific reception tools. We deliberately do not publish a competitor comparison table with named vendors, because their capabilities and pricing change monthly and a stale comparison misleads buyers. Use the twelve questions on this page instead.
Why does a clinical safety case matter if I am not in healthcare?
Because writing one forces documented escalation, a named accountable person and a hazard log. Those are the three things most likely to be missing in a voice AI product, and the three things you will care about the first time a call goes wrong.
Is a vertical-specific product better than a general one?
A product configured for your sector will usually outperform a generic one on vocabulary, rules and integrations. Ask how much of that configuration exists today versus how much would be built for you.
Should I run a pilot?
Yes. Pilot on one line or one call type with a defined success measure, and insist on scripted test calls signed off by your team before it takes a real caller.
How do I compare pricing honestly?
Model your busiest month, not your average one, and include internal time spent actioning messages. Cost per completed task is the only number that compares across all four options.
Three ways to test us. Only one of them involves talking to a human.
Buying voice AI on a slide deck is how people end up with something that fails on the first awkward caller. So we made the product itself the easiest thing to try, and put the commitment in your hands rather than ours.
Hear it for yourself, right now
Ring the line and talk to Prime Assist the way one of your callers would. Ask it to book you in, then try to catch it out. No form and no email address.
Call +44 20 3747 7785We only get in touch if you ask us to.
Put a number on your missed calls
Two questions show the calls you miss today next to the same calls with Prime Assist, where every call is answered at once. Add your own value to see what they are worth.
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Watch it handle your calls
Bring the three calls that waste the most of your team’s day. We run them live, in your sector’s language, and tell you honestly which ones we would not take. One short form to book.
Book a demoNo card, no sales sequence, one human reply.
Do all three, in that order, and it takes a little over half an hour in total. We would rather you tested the product than read our claims about it.
- DCB0129 safety case
- UK or EU processing region
- No minimum term
Let AI answer the phone, so your team can answer the person in front of them.
Ask us all twelve questions. We will answer them in writing, including the ones where our answer is not yet strong.
No card, no obligation, and no minimum term.
HEAR IT FIRST
Call +44 20 3747 7785 and put Prime Assist through its paces before you book anything.