Best AI Receptionists and Voice Agents for Insurance Agencies of 2026
AI phone agents for independent agencies, brokers and carriers, ranked on agency management system integrations, quote intake, servicing calls and real cost.
By , research by the BestBots team ยท Updated Oct 19, 2026
Fact checked against each company's published pricing, documentation and verified user ratings. How we score
Sonant is the best AI receptionist for most P&C insurance agencies: it is built only for insurance, writes quote intake and servicing requests into Applied Epic, EZLynx, HawkSoft and AMS360, and lists SOC 2 Type II. If you want a published price and a low risk start, Nextiva's XBert costs $99 for 100 interactions with a 30 day money back guarantee.
Our top picks
We compared eight AI receptionists and voice platforms for insurance agencies, using pricing pages, product pages and review listings as of October 2026. Every price links to its source, and scores follow our rubric.
What insurance calls AI handles well
An agency phone line carries four kinds of calls, and AI fits them differently.
- New quote requests. The caller wants a price. AI can collect drivers, vehicles, property details and current carrier, then book a producer or write the intake into your system. This is where AMS integration pays off.
- Servicing. ID cards, certificates of insurance, adding a driver, mortgagee changes, billing questions. These are repetitive and high volume, and AI can handle or route most of them after hours.
- Claims. A caller who just had an accident or a burst pipe. AI can take first notice of loss details and route, but the caller is stressed, so a fast path to a person matters.
- Coverage questions. "Am I covered for this?" Keep these with licensed staff. Configure the AI to collect the question and hand off, not answer.
How to choose
- Your agency management system. If quote intake should land in Applied Epic, EZLynx, HawkSoft, AMS360, QQCatalyst or AgencyZoom, Sonant is the only pick that names those integrations. Nextiva connects EZLynx on request. Everyone else needs Zapier, email summaries or manual entry.
- Live backup. Claims and upset policyholders are why Smith.ai and Abby Connect exist. If your team cannot always pick up a transfer, a hybrid is safer.
- Languages. Spanish speaking customers are common in personal lines. Smith.ai, Dialzara and Abby Connect list Spanish on every plan; Upfirst lists 35+ languages and Sonant handles several languages in one call.
- Health and benefits lines. You need a signed BAA. Retell includes HIPAA, Bland offers BAAs, and Upfirst offers them on custom plans.
- Outbound. Renewal and payment reminder campaigns need a voice platform such as Bland or Retell and consent from the customer.
Our picks, in detail
- Starting price
- Quote only
- Minutes or calls included
- Not published, quote only
- CRM integrations
- Applied Epic, Momentum, EZLynx, QQCatalyst, HawkSoft, AMS360, AgencyZoom, Zapier
- Live agent backup
- No staffed agents; transfers to your agents or third parties
Sonant is built only for P&C agencies, brokers and distributors, and it writes quote intake and servicing requests into Applied Epic, EZLynx, HawkSoft, AMS360, QQCatalyst, Momentum and AgencyZoom. It is an Applied Certified Vendor, transfers to your producers, handles multiple languages in one call and lists SOC 2 Type II.
Pros
- Named integrations with the agency management systems insurance agents use
- Applied Certified Vendor
- Quote intake from a call straight into the AMS or rater
- SOC 2 Type II listed
Cons
- No published pricing or trial
- No third party review listing with 10 or more reviews found
- Built for P&C; life and health agency fit is not described
Skip it if you want a price before a demo; Sonant publishes no pricing.
- Starting price
- $99 per month
- Minutes or calls included
- 100 interactions (calls, texts, chats)
- CRM integrations
- Housecall Pro and Zoho live; 20+ on request in 2 to 4 days at no cost, including ServiceTitan, Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive and GoHighLevel
- Live agent backup
- No staffed agents; smart handoff to your team
Nextiva's XBert costs $99 for 100 interactions across calls, texts and chat, with a 30 day money back guarantee and no card to start. EZLynx is on its list of integrations Nextiva connects on request in 2 to 4 days at no cost, and calls under 30 seconds are not billed.
Pros
- $99 for 100 interactions covers calls, texts and web chat in one bucket
- Calls under 30 seconds do not count as interactions
- 30 day money back guarantee and no long term contract
- Says it is SOC 2 certified and HIPAA compliant
- Nextiva carries 4.5 on Trustpilot from 8,704 reviews
Cons
- Supported languages are not published
- ServiceTitan, Salesforce and HubSpot are request based integrations (2 to 4 days)
- No staffed human backup
- Trustpilot reviewers describe confusing onboarding and long hold times
Skip it if you take 300+ calls a month; at $0.99 per extra interaction, 300 calls runs about $297.
- Starting price
- $24.95 per month
- Minutes or calls included
- 30 to 600 calls depending on plan
- CRM integrations
- Clio, Zapier and custom API actions
- Live agent backup
- No staffed agents; warm transfers to your own team with caller context
Upfirst's Pro plan covers 300 calls for $159.95, then $0.75 per call, and spam, sub 15 second and silent calls are not billed. It books into Google, Outlook and Calendly, speaks 35+ languages with automatic switching, and offers HIPAA BAAs on custom plans for health insurance offices.
Pros
- Lowest entry price among per call receptionists at $24.95 for 30 calls
- Spam, sub 15 second and silent calls are not billed
- Calendar booking on every plan, including Clio, Calendly, Acuity and Square
- 35+ languages with automatic switching when the caller changes language
- 14 day free trial and 20% off for annual billing
Cons
- No review listing with 10 or more reviews that we could find, so less public proof than Smith.ai
- No staffed human backup; transfers go to your own phones
- HIPAA BAAs only on custom plans above 600 calls
- Native CRM list is short beyond Clio; most CRMs go through Zapier
Skip it if you need intake written into your AMS; Upfirst connects through Zapier and custom API actions, not native agency system integrations.
- Starting price
- $0 per month
- Minutes or calls included
- 25 calls free; 75 to 500 calls on paid tiers
- CRM integrations
- Clio Grow, Clio Manage, HubSpot, Salesforce, plus Zapier and Make
- Live agent backup
- Yes, North America based receptionists as a per call add on
Smith.ai can escalate any AI call to a live North America based receptionist, which matters for an upset claimant or a policyholder who needs a person now. It answers in English and Spanish, books through Calendly and other calendars, connects to HubSpot and Salesforce, and has a free plan with 25 calls.
Pros
- Free plan with 25 real calls a month, so you can run it on live traffic before paying
- Escalation to live North America based receptionists when the AI should not handle a call
- Native Clio, HubSpot and Salesforce integrations, plus Zapier and Make
- Spam calls from a list of 20 million+ known numbers are filtered and not billed
- Recording, transcription, summaries and lead qualification on every plan
Cons
- Per call rates of $1.60 to $3.00 are two to four times what Upfirst charges at similar volume
- Live agent calls cost extra per call, and that rate is not on the AI pricing page
- Volumes above 500 calls are quote only
- Six month term plans are non refundable, and Trustpilot reviewers describe disputes over exactly that
Skip it if cost per call is the priority; 300 calls on Pro costs $500 a month.
- Starting price
- $29 per month
- Minutes or calls included
- 60 to 1,000 minutes
- CRM integrations
- Google Calendar, Outlook, Zapier, Make, webhooks, Slack, Teams; CRMs not named
- Live agent backup
- No staffed agents; routing to multiple transfer numbers
Dialzara's $29 Business Lite plan includes 60 minutes, and every voice plan adds an AI SMS agent and website chat at no extra charge. It lists real estate and insurance offices among its core users, books appointments, routes to multiple transfer numbers and speaks English and Spanish.
Pros
- $29 entry plan is the lowest monthly price in this group
- AI SMS agent and website chat included free with any voice plan
- English and Spanish, booking and lead qualification on every plan
- Trustpilot 4.2 from 20 reviews, mostly praising support
- No setup fees or contracts
Cons
- 60 minutes on Lite runs out fast; 200 minutes costs about $96
- No annual discount: yearly billing is 12 times the monthly price
- Native CRM integrations are not named; most CRMs go through Zapier, Make or webhooks
- No HIPAA statement; regulated setups are on request
Skip it if you need native AMS or CRM integrations; Dialzara names Zapier, Make and webhooks, not agency systems.
- Starting price
- $164 per month
- Minutes or calls included
- 100 to 1,000 AI minutes (50 to 500 human minutes)
- CRM integrations
- Salesforce, HubSpot, Calendly, Google Calendar, Slack, QuickBooks, 1,000+ total
- Live agent backup
- Yes, human receptionists on the same plan
Abby Connect puts human receptionists and AI on one plan, with AI minutes counting as half an Abby Minute, so routine servicing calls go to AI and claims or angry callers can go to a person. English and Spanish are on every plan, and it connects to Salesforce, HubSpot and 1,000+ other tools.
Pros
- Human and AI answering mixed per call on one subscription
- AI minutes count half, doubling plan coverage
- English and Spanish on all plans, plus HIPAA options and encrypted recordings
- Salesforce, HubSpot, Calendly and 1,000+ other integrations
- No setup fee, month to month, free trial
Cons
- Starter covers only 100 AI minutes for $164
- Most expensive per AI minute in this group
- Overage rate is described, not listed as a dollar figure
Skip it if you want pure AI pricing; a 900 AI minute month costs about $1,380.
- Starting price
- $0.055 per minute
- Minutes or calls included
- Not published
- CRM integrations
- Not published
- Live agent backup
- Not published
Retell lets an agency, MGA or carrier build its own voice agent for first notice of loss intake, renewal reminders or quote pre qualification, at $0.055 per minute plus model, voice and telephony. HIPAA and SOC 2 Type II are included with no add on, which matters for health and benefits lines.
Pros
- Every component is priced on one public page, so you can model cost before you sign up
- 20 concurrent calls included free, where Vapi includes 4 and ElevenLabs Pro includes 20 only on a $99 plan
- SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA, GDPR and ISO 27001 listed with no compliance surcharge
- Drag and drop flow builder plus testing and QA tools, and a quick start that gets a phone agent live in about 15 minutes
Cons
- The $0.055 headline excludes the LLM, the voice and telephony, so quotes based on it understate the bill
- Premium voices and add ons stack: ElevenLabs v4 is $0.10 per minute and AI QA another $0.10
- Language coverage is not listed as a number; you check the dashboard
- Some Trustpilot reviewers report 1.5 to 2.5 second pauses and slow support replies
Skip it if nobody on your team can design and test a call flow; Retell is a platform, not a finished receptionist.
- Starting price
- $0.14 per minute
- Minutes or calls included
- Not published
- CRM integrations
- Not published
- Live agent backup
- Not published
Bland's $0.14 per minute includes the models and phone numbers, and the $299 Build plan handles 2,000 calls a day, which suits renewal reminders, payment reminders and policy review campaigns to customers who agreed to calls. It lists BAAs for HIPAA and SOC 2 Type II.
Pros
- One connected minute rate covers speech, LLM and voice, so there is no token math
- Runs its own models with self hosted and on premises options; customer data does not train other models
- SOC 2 Type I and II, HIPAA, PCI DSS, GDPR and ISO 27001 listed, plus a FedRAMP badge, with BAAs and DPAs
- Forward deployed engineers build the first agents; Bland says most go live in two to six weeks
Cons
- At $0.14 per minute it costs more than a budget Retell, Vapi or Telnyx stack
- Start plan caps you at 100 calls per day, which blocks real outbound volume
- Transfer minutes ($0.03 to $0.05) are billed on top when calls move to a human on Bland numbers
- Per minute rates rose from a flat $0.09 to $0.11 to $0.14 in December 2025, and the public page and billing docs list different tiers
Skip it if you only need inbound answering; Bland's strength is building and dialing outbound campaigns.
What it costs
An independent agency with three to five staff often takes a few hundred calls a month. Here is what 300 calls costs on each published plan, monthly billing, assuming 3 minutes a call where a plan bills by minute.
| Tool | Billing unit | 300 calls a month | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Upfirst | Per call | $159.95 | Pro, 300 calls included |
| Nextiva XBert | Per interaction | about $297 | $99 for 100, then $0.99 each |
| Dialzara | Per minute | $349 | Elite, 1,000 minutes covers 900 |
| Smith.ai | Per call | $500 | Pro 300 |
| Abby Connect | AI minutes | about $1,380 | Growth, up to 1,000 AI minutes |
| Retell AI | Per minute | about $85 plus build time | about $0.095 a minute on a budget stack |
| Sonant | Quote only | not published | demo required |
For scale, the BLS median wage for receptionists was $18.27 an hour in May 2025, about $3,167 a month for one full time person in wages alone. Use the cost calculator with your own call volume, and see how much an AI receptionist costs for more volume tiers.
Compliance notes for agencies
- Outbound consent. Since February 2024, the FCC treats AI generated voices as artificial voices under the TCPA. Renewal and cross sell calls with an AI voice need prior express consent for cell phones and residential lines. More on this in best AI cold calling agents.
- Call recording. Every tool here records or transcribes. Some states require all party consent, so add a recording disclosure to the greeting.
- Licensed activity. Keep coverage advice, recommendations and binding with licensed staff, and make the handoff rule explicit in the AI's instructions.
- Data security. Sonant, Retell, Bland and Synthflow list SOC 2. Ask any vendor where call recordings are stored and how long they are kept.
Red flags
- "Quotes any carrier" claims. Ask exactly which raters and systems the vendor writes to, and see a live demo on your AMS.
- No transfer path for claims. If the AI cannot reach a person fast, a claimant's first experience with your agency is a robot.
- Annual contracts before a pilot. Run a month on real calls. Nextiva's money back guarantee and Smith.ai's free plan make that cheap.
How we picked
We started from AI receptionists and voice agents that insurance agencies search for, kept the ones with an insurance fit we could verify on their own pages, and recorded only what their pricing and product pages say. We did not place test calls. Factors and weights are on how we score; the general field is in best AI receptionists.
Frequently asked questions
How are insurance agents using AI?
Mostly on the phone. Agencies use AI receptionists to answer every call, collect quote details, handle routine servicing such as ID card and certificate requests, book appointments with producers and route claims calls. Outbound, they use voice agents for renewal and payment reminders to customers who agreed to calls.
Can an AI receptionist give insurance quotes?
It can collect quote information and, with tools like Sonant, write it into your agency management system or rater. Advice on coverage and binding a policy should stay with licensed staff, so configure the AI to gather details and hand off rather than recommend coverage.
What is the best AI receptionist for an insurance agency?
For a P&C agency on Applied Epic, EZLynx, HawkSoft or AMS360, Sonant is the most purpose built option. For a small agency that wants a published price, Nextiva's XBert at $99 for 100 interactions or Upfirst at $159.95 for 300 calls are cheaper ways to start.
How much does an AI receptionist cost for an insurance office?
Published plans run from $29 a month (Dialzara, 60 minutes) to about $500 for 300 calls (Smith.ai). A typical agency taking 300 calls a month pays $159.95 to $349 on a pure AI plan. Insurance specific tools like Sonant are quote only.
Can AI handle insurance claims calls?
It can take first notice of loss details, create a record and route the call, but claimants are often upset and the facts matter. Use an AI with live transfer, or a hybrid like Smith.ai or Abby Connect, so a person can take over when the caller needs one.
Is AI calling for insurance renewals legal?
Calls with an AI voice count as artificial voice calls under the TCPA since the FCC's February 2024 ruling, so you need prior express consent for calls to cell phones and residential lines. Calls to existing customers who agreed to be contacted are the safest use. Check with counsel.
Do AI receptionists work for health insurance agents?
Yes, if the vendor signs a BAA. Retell includes HIPAA with no add on, Bland offers BAAs, and Upfirst offers HIPAA BAAs on custom plans. Do not let any AI handle protected health information without a signed BAA.