Is Bold Agent Kit better than Smith.ai?
It depends on the buyer. For a business that wants a live person on every call, bilingual live agents, payments taken on the call or intake into a legal practice system such as Clio, Smith.ai is the better fit, and Bold Agent Kit does not try to compete on those. For a business that wants every call answered by an AI it built, bookings made on the call, the same agent on texts, email, chat and DMs, and a flat $25 a month instead of a price per call, Bold Agent Kit is the better fit. A firm that wants both can run them side by side.
What is the difference between Bold Agent Kit and Smith.ai?
Smith.ai is an answering service. It offers an AI Receptionist, live receptionists from a network of more than 500 agents across North America, and a Hybrid of the two, all priced by the call, with English and Spanish handling, and intake built for firms such as law practices. Bold Agent Kit is software you set up yourself: one AI agent on your own number and your own AI key, answering calls, texts, email, website chat and DMs from one knowledge base, booking real calendar slots and running follow-up campaigns, for a flat $25 a month with no per-call charge from us.
How does Smith.ai pricing compare with Bold Agent Kit?
Smith.ai prices by the call. Its AI Receptionist has a free plan with 25 calls a month, and at the time of writing its published paid AI plans start at $150 a month, each with included calls and a rate for every call beyond them. Its Virtual Receptionist plans start at $300 a month on the same per-call model, with functions such as booking and call recording priced per call on top. Bold Agent Kit is $25 a month or $200 a year for the account, with a 14-day free trial and no per-call charge from us. Your carrier and AI provider bill their usage to you at cost.
How do I move from Smith.ai to Bold Agent Kit?
Build the agent first, from the playbook Smith.ai already runs for you: the greeting, the questions callers ask, your answers, and the situations that get escalated. Load those as data points, Q&A pairs, documents and instructions. Add a number in your own Twilio account, connect your calendar and CRM, and import your contacts from a CSV or a CRM segment. Ring the agent yourself until it answers the way you want, then forward your business number to the Twilio number, or port it into your Twilio account. Plan the date around Smith.ai's cancellation terms, which ask for notice on its AI plans.
When is Smith.ai the better choice?
When a person on the line matters. Smith.ai's Virtual Receptionist plans put a live agent on every call, and its AI Receptionist can hand a call to one, which Bold Agent Kit cannot do, because it has no live agents of its own. It is also the better fit if you need English and Spanish on every call, outbound calls made by people, payments taken on the call, conflict checks, or native connections to legal systems such as Clio, MyCase, Lawmatics or Filevine. If those are the reasons you chose Smith.ai, it is sensible to stay with it.
Does Bold Agent Kit have human receptionists?
No. Bold Agent Kit is software, and every call is answered by the AI agent you built, on your own number. There is no staff pool behind it and no live agent of ours to escalate to. When a caller needs a person, it can transfer the live call to someone on your own team, and the recording and transcript are still kept in your inbox, tagged as a call, on their contact record. You name in its instructions which callers get that treatment, and everything else is answered and booked without you.
Can Bold Agent Kit transfer a call like Smith.ai does?
Yes, to your own team. Smith.ai offers warm transfers to your team and, from its AI Receptionist, to its own live agents. On a phone call, Bold Agent Kit's agent can transfer the live call to a person on your team, but there are no live agents of ours to pass it to. You name in its instructions which callers should be handed over, an emergency, a complaint, a high-value enquiry, and the recording and transcript are still kept in your inbox. If a pool of live receptionists is essential to how you work, Smith.ai is the better fit.
Will I lose anything by moving from Smith.ai?
Possibly, and it is worth listing before you move. You lose live receptionists and the bilingual live agents. You lose payment collection on the call, conflict checks and Smith.ai's native legal integrations, because Bold Agent Kit connects to eighteen tools: HubSpot, GoHighLevel, Housecall Pro, ServiceTitan, Jobber, eight calendars, Stripe, Shopify, WooCommerce, Wix and Squarespace. You also take on your own Twilio account and AI key. In return you get a flat price, an agent you change yourself, and the same agent on texts, email, chat and DMs.