While other industries had higher adoptions (from 30 to 50 percent), hospitality had just 22 percent of companies using AI-powered virtual reception for inbound calls.
Atlanta – On the heels of releasing its seamless AI Voice Agent, Moneypenny has surveyed 500 companies across the healthcare, finance, legal, hospitality and real estate industries and found the human element on both sides of communications to be key in how various industries use AI Voice Agents. For example, while other industries had higher adoptions (from 30 to 50 percent), hospitality had just 22 percent of companies using AI-powered virtual reception for inbound calls.
“Along the same lines, we saw only 43 percent of hospitality companies actively embracing AI Voice Agents, while all other industries reported 60 percent or as much as 74 percent for legal,” said Kris Altiere, US Head of Marketing for Moneypenny. “If you think of the kinds of inbound calls hospitality receives and how an actual human can change that interaction versus a routine task, which are what many of the other industries field, then you can understand where a marriage of people and AI technology tools best fit.”
Industries also differed on what they saw as the top-rated benefit of an AI Voice Agent. For healthcare, the highest was faster response times (75%); for legal, it was labor savings (50%); for hospitality, it was reducing services costs (67%), and for real estate it was enhanced call quality and lead qualification (both 50%). Finance had an almost three-way tie for the most important benefit between 24/7 availability (45%), improved caller satisfaction and experience (44%), and scalability with multiple call handling at one time (43%).
Looking ahead at where AI Voice Agents could help further, healthcare’s top response was in handling payment and financial inquiries (55%), finance’s was for afterhours support as well as feedback collection (both 40%), legal’s was appointment management (53%), hospitality was feedback collection (52%), and real estate’s was service management along with lead qualification (45%).
“Some companies and callers are understandably a little nervous about how AI Voice Agents might change the call experience. That’s why it’s so important to design them carefully so interactions feel personal, relevant, and tailored to the specific industry and situation,” said Altiere. “By taking on the routine parts of a call, an AI agent frees up real people to handle the conversations that are more complex, sensitive, or high-value.”
Each industry had high expectations for AI Voice Agent features that ranged from natural interruption handling and age/tone adjustment to configurable escalation rules and complex conversation navigation – one size does not fit all. Data privacy and security was the top expectation for healthcare (tied with interactivity at 60%), finance (45%), legal (tied with data security and compliance at 63%), and hospitality (52%). While the top feature cited by real estate was a natural sounding voice (68%), data privacy and security came in at second with 59%.
Beyond call handling, all companies had thoughts on where AI could help integrate with existing IT systems like CRM or helpdesk tools and software. Among legal companies, 42% said these kinds of integrations were critical, while around a third of finance and healthcare (35%) agreed. In real estate, 23% of companies said it was critical, and hospitality had only 13% concur. However, 73% of real estate and 61% of hospitality companies did see the value in it.
Moneypenny, a leader in world-class customer communication solutions, recently launched its new AI Voice Agent, following the success of an extensive beta program. The next-generation virtual assistant speaks naturally with callers, giving businesses greater flexibility in how they manage customer conversations.
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