AI receptionists & phone answering for shops, compared
Choose a provider
Shop systems that answer the phone, and the vendors that sell it as an add-on. Listed alphabetically.
Autograff ShopOSShop managementAuto repair shop management — job board, digital inspections, parts and embedded payments — with a built-in AI receptionist on the Pro tier and a fleet portal. Per-shop pricing, unlimited users.
AutoLeapShop managementCloud auto repair shop management with a first-party AI receptionist (AIR). Pricing matches Tekmetric, plus an unpublished one-time setup fee.
What does an AI receptionist do for a shop?
The problem it solves is missed calls. A shop that cannot answer the phone during a busy bay hour loses the booking to the next shop. An AI receptionist answers around the clock, captures the appointment request into the calendar, and provides a record of each call — summary, outcome, full transcript, peak call-time patterns and recovered-revenue attribution — so the front desk can follow up on what it missed.
How do the options compare on packaging?
The capability itself is no longer unique — several tools can answer a shop's phone. What differs is how it is packaged and priced.
| Option | Price | Packaging |
|---|---|---|
| AutoLeap AIR | $99 / month | Separate add-on; works alongside any shop management system, including competitors' |
| Third-party AI phone tools | Priced separately | Standalone; integrates with the shop's phone and, sometimes, its calendar |
| Autograff ShopOS | Built into the Pro tier ($300/mo) | The AI receptionist lives in the same system as the schedule and the repair order |
How should I think about the cost?
The honest framing is packaging, not capability. A shop running AutoLeap for management plus AIR for phone coverage pays its management subscription — $309 on Pro — plus $99 for AIR, plus AutoLeap's unpublished one-time setup fee, and the phone tool hands its result back across an integration boundary. A system that builds the AI receptionist into its own tier — Autograff ShopOS Pro at $300 — folds that line item in and keeps the call, the schedule and the repair order in one place. Which matters more depends on whether a shop values best-of-breed modularity or a single bundled bill — a real trade-off, not a foregone conclusion.
Where does Autograff ShopOS fit?
Autograff ShopOS builds its AI receptionist into the Pro tier rather than selling it as a separate product. AutoLeap AIR is a capable first-party AI receptionist that also works alongside other shop management systems. The practical difference is packaging — an AI receptionist inside the Pro subscription versus a dedicated $99/mo add-on — rather than a difference in capability.