AI receptionists for therapy practices: what they can and can't do (2026)

Where Cortexa fits

Cortexa is an operations team for independent therapy practices that runs the front desk, intake, billing, credentialing and payroll as one team. Billing runs about 3% of what you collect, and the front desk, intake and billing together about 6%. There's no long-term contract, and there's a 30-day money-back guarantee.

With Cortexa running the front desk, replies to new inquiries went from 4 hours to 5 minutes, and inquiries booking a consultation went from 30% to 54%. Kerrie Mohr at A Good Place Therapy saw first inquiries that become first sessions go from 22% to 47% in her first three months. See whether it pays for itself with your numbers.

What an AI receptionist does for a therapy practice

An AI receptionist is software that answers your practice's phone line with a synthetic voice and follows a script set up for your practice. Some products also answer texts and website chat. Many AI receptionists for healthcare are general products, and a few are built for therapy practices.

For a therapy practice, the script can cover a new client's name and contact details, insurance, what they want help with and when they can come in. AgentZap's therapy page says it integrates with SimplePractice and TherapyNotes, with appointments syncing to your calendar and client data flowing to your EHR. Frontdesk's therapy page describes the same steps, plus benefits checks and matching new clients to clinicians by modality, presenting concern and insurance panel.

What AI receptionists do well

AI receptionists are good at the parts of the front desk that are the same on every call.

Where AI receptionists struggle

AI receptionists struggle with calls that don't follow a script, and a therapy practice gets its share of those.

Can an AI receptionist handle new client calls for a therapy practice on its own? For the routine part, yes. It can take the caller's details, check a calendar and book a consultation. Three kinds of call still need a person. The first is a caller in distress, who needs a human on the line quickly and a practice protocol that someone follows. The second is clinician fit. Choosing between two therapists can depend on something the caller mentions in passing, and on what the practice knows about each clinician's caseload and approach. Software matches only against the rules and roster someone set up and keeps current. The third is insurance that doesn't fit a script, such as out-of-network benefits, a deductible that hasn't been met or an employee assistance program. The software can take the routine calls and pass the rest to a person who knows the practice.

Some callers will also ask for a person. Decide in advance how they reach one, during office hours and after, and what the software tells them while they wait.

Crisis calls need a clear path to a person

Any receptionist, human or AI, can pick up a call from someone in crisis. The practice needs a written protocol for that call and a fast way to reach a person.

The national crisis line is the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. It provides free and confidential emotional support to people in suicidal crisis or emotional distress, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, across the United States and its territories. People can call, text or chat 988, and the Lifeline runs through a national network of over 200 local crisis centers.

Your clinical leadership decides what the protocol says. In an AI product, check that the software follows that protocol and gets a person involved. AgentZap says calls "escalate per your protocol" to on-call clinicians, the 988 line or emergency services. Frontdesk says it escalates to the on-call clinician, hands off to 988 if needed and keeps an audit log. Ask to see this on a test call, ask what record the software keeps, and ask who at your practice gets the alert.

Is an AI receptionist HIPAA compliant?

A practice covered by HIPAA can use an AI receptionist once the vendor signs a business associate agreement (BAA) and handles your clients' information the way that agreement says. HHS describes a business associate as a person or company that creates, receives, maintains or transmits protected health information on behalf of a covered entity. HHS's own list of examples includes a third-party AI chatbot on a provider's patient portal that handles things like appointment scheduling and reminders. A cloud provider that stores electronic health information is a business associate too, even if it holds only encrypted data and has no key. The BAA must describe how the vendor may use your clients' information and bar it from using or disclosing that information in any other way. Read the signed BAA itself before you rely on a "HIPAA compliant" label on a website, and check what it allows the vendor to do with call recordings and transcripts.

The two therapy-focused products we checked both say they sign a BAA. AgentZap's therapy page says it "signs a BAA with every therapy practice," and its pricing page shows a HIPAA badge. Frontdesk's therapy page says it "signs a BAA." Its pricing page, read the same day, doesn't mention HIPAA or a BAA, so ask which plan includes the BAA before you sign up.

Questions to ask an AI receptionist vendor

Ask these before you sign, and get the answers in writing.

• Will you sign a BAA, and on which plan? Get a copy before any client calls go through the system.
• Do our clients' calls train your AI models? Ask whether recordings and transcripts are used to train or improve any model, yours or a third party's, and where the BAA says so.
• Where is our data stored, and for how long? Ask about call recordings, transcripts and intake details, and what happens to them if you cancel.
• What does it write into our EHR? Ask which client fields it creates or changes in SimplePractice, TherapyNotes or your system, and watch a test booking in your own account.
• How does a caller reach a person? Ask how transfers work during office hours and after, and what the caller hears if nobody picks up.
• Is crisis escalation documented? Ask for the written escalation steps, a test call and the log the software keeps.
• Who keeps the clinician roster current? Matching uses the specialties, insurance panels and openings someone entered, so ask who updates them and how often.

What AI receptionists cost in 2026

Therapy-focused AI receptionists charge a monthly plan with a set number of call minutes, plus a per-minute rate once you go over. Here is what two of them publish.

How to read those prices

The plan price covers a fixed number of call minutes, so what you pay depends on how many calls the software answers and how long they run. AgentZap offers two months free on annual billing. Frontdesk charges extra minutes in credits, at 25 credits a minute, where one credit is one cent.

To size a plan, multiply your monthly calls by their average length. For example, 150 minutes covers 50 calls of three minutes each. If the software answers your whole line, calls from existing clients who want to reschedule count too.

When an AI receptionist is enough, and when you need people

Which one fits depends on how many calls you miss, how complex your intake is and who does the work after the booking.

How Cortexa runs the front desk

Cortexa is not an AI receptionist. People on our own team answer your practice's phone line, return voicemails and missed calls, and reply to email, website-form and directory inquiries such as Psychology Today. They follow a written playbook of your services, clinicians, fees and policies, and the phone number stays yours. We don't hand reception to another company.

Our software supports the parts that repeat. Prospective clients see matched clinician options based on criteria your practice sets and approves, such as presenting concern, modality, insurance and availability, and the client chooses the clinician. We verify insurance eligibility and in-network status at intake, book the consultation, send reminders and follow up with people who inquire and don't book.

Clinical questions go to the clinician or clinical contact you name, and our reception staff don't give clinical advice. Callers in crisis are handled with your practice's safety protocol, directed to emergency resources and escalated to your clinical director. We sign a BAA. PHI is never used to train AI models, a promise in Section 3 of our BAA, and PHI is stored on US servers (AWS).