AI Receptionist for Dentists in Ireland: GDPR, Disclosure and Cost

An AI receptionist at an Irish dental practice should tell callers at the start that they are speaking to an AI, why the call is processed or recorded, and how to reach a person. Published vendor prices start around €400 a month, with a setup fee on some plans. A signed processor contract comes before go-live.

Most practices get the order wrong. They compare minutes and voices, then discover in week three that nobody wrote the opening notice, nobody asked where recordings are stored, and the privacy notice on the website still says calls are recorded "for training purposes" only. The money is the easy part. The paperwork is where a dental practice, which handles health information, needs care.

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Work in this order: what the caller hears, what you sign with the vendor, what you will actually pay, and a test of the lot on a quiet Tuesday before patients meet it. Nothing here is legal advice. Where a point turns on your own circumstances, it says so, and a data-protection adviser should confirm it.

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What the caller has to hear in the first ten seconds

Two separate duties meet at the start of the call. The first is about the machine. Article 50 of the EU AI Act says that systems designed to interact directly with people must be built so that the person is informed they are dealing with an AI system, unless that is obvious from the circumstances. The implementation timeline at artificialintelligenceact.eu (last updated 31 August 2026) shows the remainder of the Act, Article 50 included, applying from 2 August 2026; the later grace period it lists covers the labelling of generated content, not this disclosure. A synthetic voice that sounds like a person is exactly where "obvious" fails. The legal duty sits with the provider that builds the system, but callers hear your practice's name, so make disclosure a contract term and treat it as mandatory.

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The second duty is about data. Under the GDPR, people must be told who is processing their data, why, on what basis, for how long, and what rights they have. On a phone line you cannot read a full notice, so the usual approach is a short layered notice: a few seconds at the start, then a fuller explanation on your website and in a text message link.

A short opening script that covers both

"Hello, this is the automated assistant for [practice name]. I'm an AI,
not a person. I can book or change appointments and take messages.
The call is recorded and transcribed so that we can look after your
booking; there's more detail at [short web address]. If you'd rather
speak to someone, just say 'reception' at any time."

That is about 55 words and takes roughly 15 seconds to speak. It says what the caller is talking to, what it can do, that recording is happening, where to read more, and how to leave. It does not promise anything about retention or sharing, because those belong in the privacy notice and must match the contract. If you cannot say it truthfully, change the setup, not the script.

What I would not say

Avoid "this call may be recorded for quality and training purposes" as the only line. It is a call-centre habit, and it tells a patient nothing about an AI, about a transcript being stored with a third party, or about who sees it. If the vendor uses recordings to improve its own models, that is a different purpose with its own legal basis, and the line above would hide it. Ask the vendor in writing whether your calls are used to train anything. The safe contract answer is no, with a clause saying so.

The documents to have signed before the first live call

A dental practice is the controller of its patients' data. The AI receptionist vendor is almost always a processor acting on the practice's instructions. That relationship has to be written down.

Whether a formal impact assessment is required for your practice is a judgement for you and your adviser. Health data is a special category, and the assessment is cheap insurance, so I would write a short one regardless. The practical point is that it should exist before the system answers a real patient, not after a complaint.

Questions to put to the vendor, with the answers you want

• Where is audio stored, and for how long? You want a country, a retention period and a way to shorten it.
• Is any call used to train or improve a model? You want a flat no in the contract.
• Who can listen to recordings at the vendor? You want a named role and an access log.
• What does the system do with a caller who describes symptoms? You want a hand-off to a person, not advice. ViveoAI states on its pricing page that it does not diagnose, triage or advise on treatment and that urgent and clinical calls are escalated under rules the practice approves before go-live.
• What happens on exit? You want deletion confirmed in writing within a stated period.

What vendors publish in euros

Prices below are the published list prices I could read on vendor pages on 4 November 2026. They change often, and neither pricing page says whether tax is included. Neither vendor is an endorsement, and both sell into other markets too.

One-off costs matter as much. AIGEN lists a €500 setup fee charged only if you continue after a free seven-day pilot, and says deeper links to practice-management software are scoped and quoted separately. ViveoAI states that setup and onboarding are included, that billing is month to month with no long-term contract, that most practices are live within around four weeks, and that a 14-day pilot of up to 100 minutes at one location is free; custom development and new software integrations are quoted separately and are excluded from the pilot. ViveoAI's site lists Dentally, EXACT, CareStack, Sensei and Aerona among the systems it works with.

Weave, a dental communications platform, publishes an AI Receptionist page with early-access sign-up but no price on it, and it states that booking straight into the calendar is for "qualified Dental PMS only". Read the compatibility line before assuming it fits your software. The tutorial on Weave, Zo or a generic agent covers that choice.

A worked example: a three-chair practice, month one

Illustration only. Say a three-chair general practice with one location receives about 90 calls a week. Reception answers most, but around 12 a week go unanswered at lunchtime, during hygiene appointments and after 5.30pm. Staff think about a third of those would have been new-patient enquiries, so roughly four a week. Suppose, as an assumption you should replace with your own figures, that half of those would book a first appointment worth €120 on average.

• Missed calls per week: 12.
• New-patient enquiries among them: 4.
• Booked if answered: 2.
• Value per first appointment: €120.
• Weekly value recovered: 2 x €120 = €240. Over four weeks, €960.

Against a €399 plan the practice is ahead on paper by about €560 in month one, before counting staff time spent checking the system, a possible setup fee and any cancellations. Change the assumptions and the picture changes quickly: if only one enquiry in four books, the recovered value is €480 and the margin over the plan is about €80. This is why I tell owners to count their own unanswered calls for two weeks from the phone system log first. ViveoAI's own pricing page makes the same point, suggesting you multiply missed calls, booking rate and average booking value rather than trust an industry average.

Minutes, not calls, are what you buy

Both vendors bill on minutes, so a call length assumption drives the bill. ViveoAI says 500 minutes is typically around 200 calls, which implies about two and a half minutes a call. AIGEN includes 300 minutes. If your calls run longer, because patients ask about fees and the AI explains payment plans, the allowance goes faster. Pull five typical recordings during the pilot and time them.

For the extra usage, take a practice with 120 AI-handled calls of three minutes: 360 minutes. On a 300-minute plan at about €0.30 a minute, the extra 60 minutes add roughly €18. That is small, but a busy week or a marketing campaign could double it. Ask for an alert at 80 per cent of the allowance.

Calls that must never stay with the AI

List these in the vendor's configuration, not just in your head. A dentist at the practice should sign off the list.

1. Pain, swelling, bleeding after an extraction, a knocked-out tooth, trauma, or difficulty swallowing or breathing: transfer to a person or give the practice's published emergency instruction.
2. Questions about medication, allergies or whether something is "normal": a message to the clinical team, with no answer from the AI.
3. A patient who says they want to complain or sounds distressed: transfer.
4. Payment disputes, or treatment-plan costs beyond the published fee list: message for the practice manager.
5. A caller asking whether they are speaking to a person: answer honestly every time.
6. A parent or carer booking for a child or a vulnerable adult, if your practice has rules on identity: hand off or follow the rule exactly.

What a poor hand-off looks like

A failure worth testing for: a patient says "my filling fell out and my face is a bit puffy". The assistant, set up only for routine booking, offers the next hygiene slot on Thursday. The fix is a keyword and intent rule that treats "puffy", "swollen", "fever" and "can't open" as urgent, plus a test call for each. ViveoAI's Professional plan lists emergency and priority call routing as a feature, and AIGEN says staff step in where human judgement is needed; whichever you use, test the exact words your patients use, not the words in the demo.

Three before-and-after changes to your existing wording

The practice's website, voicemail and booking confirmation all need touching. Here are the edits I would make.

Voicemail greeting. Before: "You have reached [practice]. We are closed. Please leave a message." After: "You have reached [practice]. Our automated assistant can book appointments and take messages. It is an AI, and calls are recorded; see [web address]. For a dental emergency, [instruction]."

Privacy notice line. Before: "We may record calls for training and quality." After: "Calls to our phone line are answered in part by an AI assistant supplied by a processor acting on our instructions. Audio and a transcript are kept for [period] to manage your booking and to resolve queries. You can ask for deletion or for a person to handle your call."

Confirmation text. Before: "Appointment confirmed for Thursday 3.30pm." After: "Appointment confirmed for Thursday 3.30pm, booked by our automated assistant. Reply CHANGE or call [number] to speak to the team."

The first-fortnight test plan

Run this with the vendor's pilot, before forwarding every call. The guide to setting up an AI receptionist without losing callers covers the technical side; this list is the compliance side.

1. Call at 8.55am, at lunchtime and at 6pm. Check the notice plays every time and finishes before the first question.
2. Say "are you a robot?" and "can I speak to someone?" Both must be answered honestly and promptly.
3. Describe a toothache, a swelling and a lost crown. Each should reach a person or the emergency instruction.
4. Ask for a deletion of your own test call. Time how long the vendor takes to do it.
5. Open the transcript and check names, dates of birth and phone numbers for errors. Note which fields the system misheard.
6. Check who at your practice can open recordings, and whether that access is logged.
7. Confirm the privacy notice on the website names the assistant before anyone outside the team calls.

Keep the results on one page. If a data-protection authority or a patient ever asks what you did, that page and the signed contract are your answer.

Overflow cover or a full front-desk plan

Overflow cover means the AI answers only when the desk is busy or closed. Full cover means it is the first voice on every call. The first carries less risk and costs less, and the second reaches more calls. I would begin with overflow and after-hours for a month, because that is the group of calls you currently lose anyway; nobody is displaced and any bad call is one that would otherwise have gone to voicemail. Move to full cover only when the transcripts show it books correctly and hands off cleanly. The wider cost comparison is in what an AI receptionist costs a dental practice, and the staffing side is in which front-desk tasks AI can take over.

If you have a second location, ViveoAI quotes extra locations from £249 each, so the group maths differs from the single-site maths. Decide centrally how calls route between sites before you buy the group plan.

Reading a sample transcript for compliance, not just accuracy

During the pilot, read transcripts with a compliance eye. Here is an invented extract and what I would flag.

AI: Hello, this is the automated assistant for the practice. I'm an AI...
Caller: Hi, it's about my son, he's nine. Can you do Friday?
AI: Of course. Can I take his full name and date of birth?
Caller: [child's full name], [date of birth].
AI: Thanks. Friday at 4.15pm is free. Shall I book it?

Three things to check. First, the transcript now holds a child's name and date of birth, so retention applies to it like any other record. Second, the assistant did not ask whether the caller is the parent or guardian; add that question if your practice requires it. Third, the notice was spoken, but check the recording shows the caller stayed on the line afterwards. If a caller hangs up during the notice, make sure nothing is stored beyond the minimum.

A second habit worth keeping: once a month, ask the vendor for a count of recordings held and compare it with your retention rule. If you promised 90 days and the vendor holds 14 months, that is a finding to fix, and it is far easier to fix in month two than in year two.

When to say no to all of them

If your unanswered-call log shows fewer than five calls a week, a part-time reception hour or a better voicemail and text-back may beat any of these plans. If your practice-management system has no supported integration, the AI can only take messages, and you are paying for a smarter voicemail. That is acceptable if you know it going in.

Questions dentists ask before signing

Do I need patient consent to record AI-handled calls?

Recording is processing of personal data, so you need a lawful basis and must tell the caller at the start. Consent is only one basis, and for calls about health it is rarely the cleanest. Decide the basis with your data-protection adviser, then say it plainly in the opening notice.

Can the AI receptionist give clinical advice?

It should not. Configure it to take administrative calls, book, and pass anything about pain, swelling, bleeding or medication to a person. ViveoAI says on its pricing page that its product escalates clinical calls rather than advising on them; ask any vendor for the same statement in the contract.

Does the vendor's data have to stay in the EU?

Not automatically. Transfers outside the EEA need a valid mechanism under the GDPR. Ask for the vendor's list of sub-processors, the country each one processes in, and the transfer mechanism used, in writing, before go-live.

What happens when the monthly minutes run out?

It depends on the contract. ViveoAI says its AI keeps answering and bills extra minutes at a stated rate; AIGEN quotes extra usage at about thirty cent a minute. Check whether the service stops, slows or bills, and set a usage alert.

Is a free pilot really free?

Two vendors reviewed here advertise free pilots of 7 and 14 days, with a setup fee or monthly plan afterwards. Ask what the pilot excludes, because integrations and reminders are often left out of it.

Further reads

• Dental Practice AI Mistakes: Consent, Data, and Over-Automation — Consent, data and over-automation errors in dental AI projects.
• After-Hours Dental Answering Service: Can AI Take Emergency Calls? — Whether AI should take emergency calls out of hours.
• AI Receptionist vs Front Desk Hire: A Dental Practice Comparison — Cost comparison against hiring front-desk hours.
• How Dental Practices Use AI for Recalls and Appointment Reminders — Recall and reminder messages once calls are covered.
• AI Receptionist for UK Dental Clinics: NHS, Private and Hand-Offs — NHS and private routing rules in the neighbouring market.
• How to Measure an AI Receptionist's Return in the First 90 Days — How to judge the spend after three months.
• Heidi Health for Dentists: Setup, Templates and Patient Consent — A step-by-step Heidi setup for a dental practice: the plan to start on, template tweaks, getting notes into the PMS, and patient consent wording.
• AI Chatbot for Dentists: Fee, Emergency and Booking Rules to Set — Decide what your dental chatbot says about fees, emergencies and booking, and the exact points where it must hand over to a person.
• AI Tools and AI Development: The Complete 2026 Guide — the AI hub, including every tutorial in the AI-for-business series.

Sources: ViveoAI pricing page, AIGEN pricing page, Weave AI Receptionist page, EU AI Act Article 50 text and implementation timeline (checked 4 November 2026).