Yes. An AI voice agent can answer every call, work out what the caller needs, collect qualifying details (type of cover, renewal date, property or business details, claims history) and book a callback with a licensed agent. It shouldn't quote final premiums, confirm that something is covered or recommend a policy. Those questions go to a person.
The value sits in the calls you currently miss: lunchtimes, busy Monday mornings, evenings when people finally get round to their renewal. The best leads usually carry a date, because someone whose cover renews in three weeks is ready to act. Two conditions apply from the first call: callers should be told they're speaking to an automated assistant, and told if the call is recorded. Insurance sales and advice are regulated in most markets, so the line between "collecting information" and "advising" has to be drawn in the agent's instructions, not left to its judgement.
Which calls the AI takes and which it passes on
An insurance agency's inbound calls fall into a handful of types, and they need different handling. Decide each one before you set anything up:
| Call type | AI handles? | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| New quote enquiry | Yes | Qualifies, scores and books a callback slot with the right agent |
| Existing client, renewal question | Partly | Takes the question and policy reference, books a callback; gives no figures |
| Claim notification | First contact only | In office hours, transfers straight to a person. Out of hours, takes brief details and, if you keep a checked list of each insurer's claims line, reads out the right number |
| Mid-term change (new driver, new address) | Partly | Takes details and says clearly the change isn't in place until the agency confirms it |
| Document or certificate request | Yes, if connected | Logs the request; sends only if linked to your system and the caller is verified |
| Cancellation | No | Transfers or books an urgent callback; retention conversations belong to people |
| Complaint | No | Transfers, or records it word for word and flags it for same-day action |
Anything the agent can't place into one of these types should default to a callback request, never to a guess. For claims in particular, a caller who has just had a break-in wants a person; an AI that asks eleven qualifying questions first will be remembered for the wrong reasons. Handling claims enquiries with AI covers the claims side in more depth.
The out-of-hours claims list is the part that quietly goes out of date. Give it a checked date for every row, and make someone responsible for it:
INSURER CLAIMS LINES (read out only to callers reporting a claim)
Insurer Line Hours Last checked By
[Insurer A] [claims number] 24/7 2 Sep Office manager
[Insurer B] [claims number] 24/7 2 Sep Office manager
[Insurer C] [home emergency no.] 24/7 2 Sep Office manager
Rule: if a row is more than 35 days old, say "I'll ask an agent to
call you first thing" instead of reading a number.The expiry rule exists because of a failure that's easy to picture. In an illustrative agency, one insurer moved its home claims line to a new number. Nobody updated the list, the voice agent read out the old number to a caller with a burst pipe at 11pm, and the agency heard about it from an unhappy client the next morning. A stale number is worse than no number, because it sounds authoritative.
Mid-term changes need one extra rule: urgency. A caller buying a car tomorrow who needs it insured today can't wait for the next available callback slot. Tell the agent to ask "When do you need this in place?" on every change request, and if the answer is today or tomorrow, to send an alert to whoever is on call and tell the caller plainly: "I've marked this as urgent. An agent will call you within the hour during office hours. Please don't drive the car until they've confirmed the cover."
Qualifying questions for personal and commercial callers
Keep qualification short. The aim is to know who to call back first and to arrive prepared, not to complete a proposal form over the phone with a bot. A script with two branches:
Opening: "Hello, you've reached [Agency]. I'm the agency's
automated assistant and this call is recorded. Are you calling
about a new quote, an existing policy, or a claim?"
NEW QUOTE, PERSONAL (home, motor, landlord, travel):
1. What would you like cover for?
2. When does your current cover renew, or when do you need
it to start?
3. Who are you insured with now? (optional)
4. Any claims in the last five years? (yes/no only)
5. Best number, and a good time for a call back?
NEW QUOTE, BUSINESS:
1. What does the business do?
2. Roughly how many staff, vehicles or premises?
3. Which covers are you thinking about?
4. When does your current cover renew?
5. Any claims in the last five years? (yes/no only)
6. Best number and time; is there anyone else who should be
on the call?
Close: "Thank you. [Agent name] will call you [slot]. They'll
talk through the details and any quotes. I can't confirm
prices or cover myself."Claims history is asked as yes or no on purpose. The details of a claim matter, and a caller recounting a stressful claim to a bot, then again to the agent, has a poor first experience.
A scoring sheet for who gets called back first
Once calls come in overnight, agents arrive to a list. A simple score decides the order. Here is a filled-in sheet for three illustrative overnight leads:
| Factor | Points | Car dealership, motor trade cover | Homeowner, buildings and contents | Landlord, two flats |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Renews or starts within 30 days | +3 | 3 | 0 (renews in 4 months) | 3 |
| Commercial or multi-policy | +2 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| A line of business you write well | +2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Referral or existing client | +1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Claims in last five years | Flag, no points | Yes: agent to ask first | No | No |
| Score | 7 | 3 | 7 |
The homeowner still gets a call, but not before the two leads with a deadline. The claims flag isn't a penalty: it tells the agent to open with the claims question, because it may decide which insurers can quote at all.
The sheet has one blind spot: business you don't write. In an illustrative first week, a haulage firm with twelve lorries called at 7pm. Renewal in 20 days (+3) and commercial (+2) put it at 5, ahead of the homeowner, and an agent spent 40 minutes the next morning gathering fleet details before a colleague pointed out the agency has no fleet market. Add a "lines we don't write" list to the agent's instructions. When a caller matches it, the agent still takes a name and number, tells them the agency will call to explain who might help, and marks the lead "refer" with zero points, so it gets a courteous two-minute call instead of a wasted morning.
Once scored, the lead and summary should land in your CRM without anyone re-typing it; updating the CRM automatically after calls shows how.
What an AI call sounds like, and what to correct
Test calls reveal the gaps in your instructions faster than anything else. An illustrative exchange from testing:
Caller: I'm looking at buildings insurance. We had a bit of
water come in last winter from the river. Would a
policy cover flooding?
Agent: Most buildings policies include flood cover as
standard, so that should be covered. Can I take a few
details so an agent can call you with a quote?
Caller: Great. And the water last year, do I need to mention
that?
Agent: It's always best to be honest. The agent can advise
you on what to include.Two problems, one serious. "That should be covered" is exactly the statement the agent must never make: flood cover varies by insurer and property, and a property that has already had water in it may be hard to insure for flood at all. The second answer is closer, but it should be firmer, because non-disclosure of a previous flood could void the cover later. Corrected instructions add: "Never say whether something is or isn't covered, or is usually covered. Say: 'Cover depends on the insurer and the property, so the agent will go through that with you.'" And: "If a caller mentions any previous damage, flood, theft or claim, say: 'Thank you, please mention that to the agent, because insurers need to know about it.' Then flag it in the summary."
Phrases the voice agent must never use
Put these in the instructions as a banned list, each with its replacement. Then test for them specifically:
- "You're covered" / "that's included" / "that should be fine" becomes "The agent will confirm exactly what the policy covers."
- "You'll save money" / "we'll beat your renewal" becomes "The agent will look at what options are available."
- "You don't need to mention that" is never acceptable. Anything the caller volunteers is passed on.
- "Your change is done" becomes "I've passed that on. The change isn't in place until the agency confirms it with you."
- Any premium figure, including "last year's price", becomes "The agent will go through prices with you."
In the lead summary itself, a before and after shows what "good" looks like. Before (the agent's raw output): "Caller wants home insurance, had some water last year, call back tomorrow." After (with a fixed summary format): "New quote, personal. Buildings and contents, detached house. Renews 3 Feb. Current insurer not given. Claims: caller mentioned water ingress last winter from a nearby river; not clear if claimed. Callback requested Tues 10:00-12:00. Flag: previous water damage, check flood acceptance before quoting."
The "after" came from giving the agent a fixed format to fill, with an instruction to write "not given" rather than leave a field out:
LEAD SUMMARY
Type: [new quote personal / new quote business / existing client]
Cover wanted:
Property, business or vehicle details:
Renewal or start date:
Current insurer: [or "not given"]
Claims or damage mentioned: [caller's words, not a judgement]
Callback: [day and time window]
Flags: [previous damage / urgent / named agent requested / refer]"Caller's words, not a judgement" matters for the claims line. A summary that reads "no significant claims" is the voice agent deciding what's significant; one that reads "caller mentioned a small kitchen fire, 2023, not claimed" lets the agent decide.
What it costs for an agency missing 150 calls a month
Suppose, purely as an illustration, an agency receives about 900 inbound calls a month, of which roughly 150 go unanswered or to voicemail. Say a third of those are new-business enquiries: 50 potential leads a month that currently depend on the caller trying again.
On the cost side, packaged AI receptionist services price by call. Smith.ai's AI receptionist, for example, lists a free tier of 25 calls a month and a Pro plan from $150 a month for 75 calls, with larger packages and per-call charges above that; it also offers transfers to human receptionists for calls the AI can't handle. At 150 calls a month you'd be on a larger package, so budget a few hundred dollars a month, and check the current packages rather than extrapolating. Custom-built voice agents on developer platforms are usually charged per minute, and are cheaper per call at volume but need someone to build and maintain them. Add setup time: writing the script, the banned list and the routing rules, connecting the CRM and running tests is likely to take 15 to 25 hours of staff time for a small agency.
On the value side, the question is how many of those 50 leads you'd have lost and what a new client is worth over the years they stay. That's your own number, but the sum is quick. Say, as an illustration, a personal-lines client earns the agency $200 a year in commission and stays about five years: $1,000 over the relationship. If the voice agent turns 3 of those 50 monthly leads into clients who would otherwise have rung a competitor, that's $3,000 of future commission added each month, against a service costing perhaps $300 to $500 a month. Change the inputs to your own commission and retention figures before you trust the answer. If even two or three extra clients a month stay for several years, the maths usually works; if your missed calls are mostly existing clients with simple questions, a missed-call text-back may do most of the job for far less.
A 20-call test before real callers
Before switching it on, have staff make 20 test calls, each playing a different caller. A spread that catches most problems:
- Five straightforward new quotes (personal and business).
- Three callers asking "am I covered for...?" in different ways.
- Two claims, one of them distressed and interrupting.
- Two mid-term changes, one wanting it done "today".
- Two cancellations and one complaint.
- Two callers who volunteer a previous claim or conviction.
- One caller who asks for a price outright, twice.
- One wrong number, and one caller who asks for a named agent.
A pass means: no cover or price statements, correct routing on every call, a complete summary in the CRM, every volunteered fact flagged, and the AI disclosure given at the start. Anything less goes back into the instructions and the test runs again. A first round rarely passes. An illustrative agency's first run scored 14 out of 20:
| Failed call | What went wrong | Instruction added |
|---|---|---|
| Two "am I covered?" calls | Said a theft was "usually covered" | Banned "usually" and "normally" alongside "covered" |
| Distressed claim | Asked four questions before offering a person | On any claim in office hours, transfer after the first answer |
| Named agent request | Booked the next free slot with a different agent | If a name is given, book only with that agent or ask |
| Two new quotes | Summary missing the renewal date | Renewal date made a required field; ask again if skipped |
The second run, with those four changes, passed 19 of 20; the remaining failure was the wrong-number call being logged as a lead, which was an easy fix. After launch, listen to a sample of ten real calls a week for the first month; setting up an AI phone agent for after-hours calls has more on the monitoring routine.
Telling callers it's AI, and recording
Open every call with a plain statement that the caller is speaking to an automated assistant and that the call is recorded. It's the honest approach anywhere, and if you serve customers in the EU, the EU AI Act's transparency duty (Article 50, applying since 2 August 2026) requires that people be informed they're interacting with an AI system. Recording and data rules vary between markets, so check with your compliance adviser what notice your recordings need and how long you must keep them. Give callers a way to reach a person ("say 'agent' at any time"), and make sure it works in office hours. Decide what it does at 9pm too, because a promise of a person that leads to silence is worse than no promise. A workable out-of-hours answer: "Nobody's in the office until 9 tomorrow morning. I can book you the first callback of the day, or if you're reporting a claim, I can give you your insurer's claims line now." Test that line as one of the 20 calls, placed after hours. Many callers are happy to talk to an assistant once they know a person is one step away.
If the voice agent is one part of a wider plan, where AI saves time across a small brokerage puts call handling in context with renewals, submissions and file notes, and how AI receptionists handle bookings explains the callback-booking mechanics in plain terms.
Further reads
- AI Receptionist or Answering Service for a Booking-Based Business? — AI against a staffed answering service, compared on cost and fit.
- How to Measure an AI Receptionist's Return in the First 90 Days — Judge the voice agent on results, not impressions.
- What to Ask an AI Chatbot Vendor Before You Sign Up — Vendor questions that apply equally to voice agents.
- How to Automate Insurance Renewals With AI and Keep More Clients — Turn captured renewal dates into a renewal pipeline.
- How to Write an AI Disclosure Statement for Your Website — Wording for telling callers and clients about AI use.
- What Does AI Cost a Small Insurance Brokerage in Year One? — Where a voice agent fits in a first-year AI budget.
- Can AI Make Outbound Calls for Your Business? Costs and Rules — What AI calling platforms charge per minute, what 300 confirmation calls a month really cost, and the consent, disclosure and calling-hours rules to check.
- AI Tools and AI Development: The Complete 2026 Guide — the AI hub, including every tutorial in the AI-for-business series.
Sources: Smith.ai AI receptionist pricing page (checked September 2026); EU AI Act Article 50 transparency duties. Call volumes and conversion figures are illustrative.