Should an AI Answer Your Business Phone?

Wix started rolling out an AI agent called Alfred on 7 September, built to answer calls to a business's own Wix site around the clock. If you're a one-person trade or salon that lets calls go to voicemail while you're up a ladder or elbow deep in a job, it's a fair question whether letting a machine answer instead actually helps, or just moves where the customer gets fobbed off.

Should an AI answer your business phone?

Sometimes, and it depends on what's actually happening to the calls you're missing right now. If most go straight to voicemail and never get a callback, an agent that takes a proper message and texts something back straight away is a real improvement on nothing. But picture a nervous first-time client, still working out whether to trust you with a big job, who wants to talk something through before booking it. Hand that conversation to a machine and you risk losing them the moment they realise nobody real is on the line.

What does an AI phone agent actually do?

Wix's own updates page describes Alfred as answering calls for any Wix site "day or night", using the site's published content to answer questions, then transcribing and summarising every call. It can text a caller a link back to the site to book or buy, saves new contacts automatically, and tags each call by sentiment so you can see which ones need a callback. That's Wix describing its own product rather than an independent test of it, so treat the description as Wix's claim about what Alfred does, not a verdict on how well it does it.

What doesn't the announcement tell you?

Whether it's actually available to you yet. Wix's own page doesn't say which countries, languages or plans get Alfred, or when, only that it works for "any site, with no extra setup beyond a quick review of tone and greeting". If you're a Wix user in the UK wanting to try it, check inside your own account rather than assume the feature has reached you: a rollout like this often starts in one market and expands later without much notice.

Where would it actually help?

Most directly with the calls you're currently losing outright. A missed call at nine at night, or one that comes in while you're mid-job with wet hands, currently just doesn't get answered. An agent that picks up, takes a proper message and sends a text back at least keeps that enquiry alive instead of losing it to whichever competitor picks up next. Because it reads from your own site to answer questions, it's only as reliable as what's actually published there, so this only helps once your opening hours, prices and services are genuinely up to date.

Where does it cost you more than it saves?

With the customer who specifically wanted a person. Someone ringing about a job that worries them, a leak, a rash, a big one-off cost, often wants to hear a human weigh in before they commit, and a caller who realises partway through that they're talking to software can feel more fobbed off than one who simply left a voicemail. It's also worth checking your own data protection responsibilities before switching one on: transcribing and storing what a caller says, and saving their details automatically, goes further than a normal answering machine already does, and that's worth a proper check rather than an assumption either way.

Is it worth trying for a one-person business?

Worth watching, and worth trying carefully if you're already losing calls to voicemail with no callback happening. Keep your own number visible rather than hiding it behind the agent, and treat it as a way of catching what you're currently missing altogether, not a replacement for ringing someone back yourself once you're free. An agent that answers your phone is only as good as the website it's reading from, and the same trade-off between a phone call and a booking tool shows up wherever a machine takes over part of a conversation a customer used to have with a person.

If what's actually missing is a website that can be found in the first place, get a private preview before anything is owed.

Frequently asked questions

Do you have to tell a caller they're talking to a machine?

That's a question about your own data protection responsibilities rather than anything Wix's own page addresses, so it's worth checking with your own adviser before switching one on. Transcribing and storing what a caller says, and saving their details automatically, goes further than a normal answering machine already does.

Does it replace an online booking system?

No. Texting a caller a link back to your site is just that, a link. Whether they can actually book a slot themselves once they land on it depends on what's already set up on the page behind it, not on the phone agent itself.

What happens if it gives a caller wrong information?

It can only answer from what's actually published on your site, so an out of date opening time or an old price is exactly what gets read back to a caller with total confidence. Worth checking your own site content is current before relying on anything reading it aloud.