How to roll Claude out to a non-technical team, the use cases that pay off first, and ROI benchmarks.
AI Receptionist - An AI receptionist for your inbox that never lets an email slip
Sandlabs builds an AI receptionist for your email front desk: it reads every message to your shared inbox, flags what is urgent, and drafts a grounded reply from your own answers — for a human to approve and send. The always-on front desk for small businesses, working inside Gmail and Outlook.
- Front desk for your inbox
- 24/7
- You approve — never auto-sent
- Draft
- Grounded answers
- Your KB
- Data residency available
- AU
Where small businesses lose time today
- No dedicated receptionist — the shared inbox (info@, reception@, bookings@) is everyone’s job and therefore no one’s.
- Enquiries, bookings, and quote requests sitting unanswered while the team is busy serving customers.
- The same questions — hours, pricing, availability, location — asked and answered all day long.
- After-hours and weekend messages going cold before anyone can reply.
- A missed or slow reply means a booking or a sale walks to a competitor.
- No visibility into how much email comes in, how fast it is answered, or what gets missed.
AI workflows for small businesses - What we build for small businesses
Every engagement is fixed price and founder-led. We scope, ship, and support — typically 2–8 weeks from kickoff to production.
- Front-desk triage. Every message to your shared inbox is read and ranked by priority, so urgent enquiries and bookings rise to the top instead of being buried.
- Grounded reply drafting. The AI receptionist drafts answers from your own hours, pricing, services, and FAQs — accurate and on-brand, not a generic guess.
- Bookings and enquiries first. New-customer enquiries, quote requests, and booking messages are flagged and drafted fast, so the revenue-bearing email gets answered first.
- Human approves every reply. Drafts wait in Gmail or Outlook for a person to review and send. Your front desk is faster, but you stay in control of what goes out.
- Your voice and rules. We tune category rules and tone to your business so every reply sounds like your team and follows how you actually do things.
- Private and on-shore. Least-privilege inbox access, no training of public models, and optional AU data residency so inference runs in Sydney under a clear data agreement.
Why Sandlabs - An AI receptionist that knows your business
Most "AI receptionist" tools answer the phone with a generic script. We build the email front desk: an assistant that drafts from your own answers, prioritises what earns money, and keeps a human in the loop — so nothing slips and nothing wrong goes out.
- Grounded in your answers. Replies come from your real hours, pricing, and policies, so customers get correct information every time.
- Draft, not auto-send. A human approves every reply. The front desk gets faster without losing control.
- Works in your inbox. Gmail and Outlook, including shared mailboxes. No new system for your team to learn.
- Revenue-aware triage. Enquiries, bookings, and quotes are surfaced first, so the email that makes money gets answered first.
- AU data residency available. On-shore inference via AWS Bedrock in Sydney, under a documented data-processing agreement.
- Set up for you. Founder-led setup of your inbox, knowledge source, and rules. A working front desk, not a DIY kit.
- What is an AI receptionist?
- An AI receptionist handles your front desk automatically. The Sandlabs version is an email front desk: it reads every message to your shared inbox, prioritises it, and drafts a reply from your own answers for a human to approve and send. It is ideal for small businesses with a busy info@, reception@, or bookings@ inbox and no one dedicated to managing it.
- Is this a phone receptionist or an email receptionist?
- It is an email and messaging front desk — it triages and drafts replies for your inbox (Gmail and Outlook), not phone calls. That is where most small-business enquiries, bookings, and quote requests actually arrive, and where a slow reply quietly costs you customers.
- How does an AI receptionist help a small business?
- It makes sure nothing slips: urgent enquiries and bookings are surfaced first, routine questions are drafted instantly from your own information, and after-hours messages have a reply ready for the morning. Your team stops living in the inbox and customers get faster, consistent answers.
- Does it reply to customers on its own?
- No — not by default. Every reply is drafted for a human to review and send, so a wrong or out-of-date answer never reaches a customer. You can let specific low-risk categories auto-send later, once you trust the drafts.
- Is my data kept private and on-shore?
- Yes. Access is least-privilege (read and draft only), your email is never used to train public models, and AU data residency is available so inference runs in Sydney. Everything operates under a documented data-processing agreement.
Further reading - Before you scope your AI project
The cost, scoping, and architecture questions we get most often — answered.
The exact roadmap to go from occasional Claude use to a workflow that pays for itself — a maturity ladder, use-case matrix, and 90-day plan for SMBs.
15 AI automation platforms stress-tested in production by an Australian team — AUD pricing, data residency, honest verdicts.
Private, self-hosted and on-premise AI for Australian firms — the regulatory drivers, the honest trade-offs, and how to decide what keeps your client data in-house.
The honest limits of no-code AI agent builders and when to move to a custom build.
When off-the-shelf AI stops working and custom development starts to pay for itself.
Let's build something great together.
Melbourne, Australia — serving founders worldwide. [email protected]