A multi-specialty clinic's phone line has three jobs. It has to get each caller to the right department without a phone tree. It has to finish routine requests like scheduling and refills without staff. And it has to hand anything clinical to a person. An AI routing system does this by understanding what the caller says, matching them to their chart in the EHR, and either booking or refilling directly or transferring with context.
Below are five platforms compared on the points that matter for a clinic with several departments: how many calls they handle at once, how they route, how much you can tailor per specialty, and how they bill.
How do the main platforms compare?
| Platform | Concurrent calls | Reported accuracy | Customization | Pricing | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Answering Agent | Unlimited | 99.93% | Medical templates, no-code builder | Flat-rate subscription | High-volume clinics |
| Sully.ai | High (multi-agent) | 99.7% | Specialized agents, 19 languages | $79+ per provider/month | Clinics that want modular AI |
| Smith.ai | Moderate (hybrid) | High (human backup) | Template-based | Per call, ~$250–$700/month | Clinics that want live agents on hard calls |
| RingCentral AI | High | Moderate | Basic healthcare routing | $59/month for 100 minutes | Clinics already on RingCentral |
| Goodcall | Low | Basic | Some specialty logic | $60–$790/month | Small, low-volume practices |
Accuracy figures are vendor-reported. Ask each vendor how they score calls before comparing them.
1. Answering Agent
Answering Agent is built for medical front desks. Speech recognition is tuned for medical terms, so it can tell apart medication names that sound alike. It confirms the caller's date of birth against the EHR to pull the right chart. It then sorts each call into one of 12 request types, such as refill, appointment, or lab result, and routes it from there.
Symptom calls go to a human. The AI captures and transcribes the details, and a provider makes the clinical decision. That keeps liability with your clinicians instead of the software.
There is no concurrent-call cap, and it runs around the clock, so it can replace a separate after-hours service. Pricing is a flat subscription rather than per call or per minute, which keeps the bill steady when volume spikes. On scored calls, it reports 99.93% accuracy and says it resolves up to 68% of routine requests without staff.
2. Sully.ai
Sully.ai sells a set of AI roles instead of a single router: Receptionist, Triage Nurse, Medical Coder, Scribe, Consultant, and Pharmacist. You can deploy them one at a time. That suits clinics where each department runs a different workflow.
For routing, automated triage matches patients to a provider by symptom or visit type. The scheduler offers the first open slot that fits your booking rules, which helps with appointment scheduling. Clinicians review the AI's outputs. It works across voice, SMS, and web chat, supports 19 languages, and integrates with Epic, Cerner, and athenahealth.
Pricing starts at $79 per provider per month, with custom enterprise plans. The trade-off is setup effort. The full suite takes more configuration than a clinic without IT staff may want. A common path is to start with the receptionist role and add modules later.
3. Smith.ai
Smith.ai pairs AI with live North American agents. The AI takes most calls and hands off the ones that need judgment or a gentler touch. Choose it if you want a person available on sensitive calls.
Routing uses skills-based rules and language understanding to separate clinical from administrative calls. You can add two or three qualifying questions to pin down intent. It connects to more than 7,000 business tools and CRMs. It can also use caller history to flag priority patients and offer callbacks during busy periods.
Cost is the drawback for busy clinics. Plans start around $292.50–$300 per month for 30 calls, with extra calls at roughly $8.50–$11.50 each. A clinic taking 200 calls a month can pass $1,700. Spam and sales calls don't count against the limit. If you're weighing this model, see AI vs. human front-desk staff.
4. RingCentral AI
RingCentral added a conversational voice agent in 2025 that replaces IVR menus. Patients state their need, and it routes by name, department, keyword, or context. Each department can set its own hours, greetings, and rules. The agent also learns from your website and FAQ pages.
Scale is not a concern on RingCentral's cloud. Healthcare-specific customization is thinner than on the medical-first tools. Axis Integrated Mental Health reported a 60% increase in new patient intakes after adopting it.
At $59 for 100 minutes, you pay about $0.59 per minute. That makes the most sense if you already use RingCentral for phones and can drop a separate vendor. For high-volume clinics, per-minute billing makes monthly costs harder to predict.
5. Goodcall
Goodcall is the budget option, with plans from $60 to $790 per month. It adds some specialty logic. For example, a decision tree can check whether a patient needs imaging before a visit and then book across several provider calendars.
It fits small practices with light call volume. Before using it for patient calls, confirm its HIPAA status. Its clinical routing is limited for a large multi-department clinic.
How should a multi-specialty clinic choose?
Start with the fork that matters most for your clinic:
- High volume across many departments: You need unlimited concurrent calls, EHR chart matching, and flat pricing. Answering Agent fits this case.
- You want AI beyond the phone, such as coding, scribing, or multilingual triage: Sully.ai, if you can handle the setup.
- You want a human on sensitive calls and can absorb per-call fees: Smith.ai.
- You already run RingCentral: Add its AI agent to avoid another vendor.
- Small practice, low volume, tight budget: Goodcall, after you check HIPAA.
Whichever you pick, test three things before signing:
- Does it route by clinical intent, or only by keyword?
- Does it hand symptom calls to a person?
- Does it write the outcome back to your EHR so callers end up with scheduled appointments instead of messages?
For context, traditional answering services run $0.75–$2.50 per call with 15–25% message error rates. You can read more in AI call routing vs. traditional systems.
FAQs
How does AI know which specialty to route my call to?
The caller states the reason for the call in plain words. The system identifies the request type, such as a refill, a new appointment, or a lab result, and checks it against the patient's chart. It then sends the call to the matching department, or it handles the request directly if it's routine.
How does AI call routing work with our EHR and scheduling system?
The system verifies the caller, often by date of birth, and pulls their chart. It can then book or reschedule on the correct provider calendar, confirm details, and log the call to the record. That saves staff from re-entering information by hand.
What happens when a caller has urgent symptoms or a complex request?
Good systems flag symptom calls and send them to a person. The AI records the details, and a clinician makes the decision, so urgent cases get a fast human response.
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