Gesden, Doctoralia Phone or AI receptionist: who answers the phone?

The software keeps the calendar; the phone is still a human job

Gesden, Clinic Cloud, Nubimed, Dentalink or Odontonet all play the same background role: they are where the clinic's calendar lives. Appointments go in, records stay there and invoices come out. What none of them does is answer a call.

That is why calls are lost in the usual places: first thing in the morning, when the front desk is opening up and serving at the same time; at lunchtime; when the only receptionist is in a surgery; and after hours. A patient who reaches nobody doesn't leave a message: they call the next clinic.

Three ways to handle the calls that go unanswered

When a clinic wants to stop missing calls, it usually finds three options. They do different things, and two of them can work side by side.

A call manager such as Doctoralia Phone, from the Docplanner group, helps the team handle calls: it brings them into one place, shows who is calling and keeps a call history which, according to the vendor, can be linked to Doctoralia's online calendar. But the person answering is still someone at the clinic. An AI receptionist does a different job: it answers the calls the team can't take.

What changes depending on your software

There are two ways of working with an AI receptionist, and only one depends on the software. If the clinic wants a message, the agent takes the name, phone number and reason and sends it to you in writing; the front desk confirms the appointment wherever it always does. That works with any software, because nothing connects to it.

If the clinic wants the agent to book directly, the calendar has to be connected, and here the software does matter. Some vendors publish an official API and others don't; where there isn't one, the connection is built to measure for each clinic's setup. In every case it is settled in the technical session, with the version you run.

Five questions to ask any provider

Who answers, and do they say so? Since August 2026, an AI agent has to say it is one from the start of the conversation. If the provider doesn't, the problem ends up being the clinic's.

Where does the appointment end up? In your software, in another calendar, or in an email someone will have to type in? The more manual steps, the more appointments get lost along the way.

What access does it need to your software, and with which permissions? To book, the calendar is enough: it doesn't need to see clinical records.

Where is the data stored? A clinic's calls are health data: they must stay in the EU, under a processor agreement and with a deletion date. We explain it in AI and GDPR with patient data.

What does it do in an alert situation? The agent shouldn't judge anything: it should hand it to a person, and to 112 if it is a life-threatening emergency.