Buyer's guide
AI intake for law firms: the options, compared
There are six ways a firm can get its phones answered and its leads qualified. This sets out what each one does, who it suits and how it charges, from each vendor's own website.
The six approaches at a glance
Every fact about another company comes from that company's own website, read on 23 October 2026. Where a site doesn't say, we've written "not stated". Prices change often, so this covers how each one charges and leaves the figures to them.
| Approach | Examples | Who answers | Qualifies and books | How it charges |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Human answering service | Ruby, Answering Legal, LEX Reception | People, 24/7 | Takes intake and books consults, depending on setup | Monthly packages of minutes (Ruby, Answering Legal), with add-ons at Ruby. LEX: flexible plans, no long contract |
| Legal intake call center | Alert Communications | Trained intake specialists, 24/7/365 | Qualifies against your criteria, schedules consults | Monthly tiers with included minutes, some with a per-retainer fee, or pay as you go per minute plus per retainer |
| Hybrid AI and human | Smith.ai | AI, people or both, the firm's choice, 24/7 | Screens injury leads, books, warm-transfers catastrophic injury calls | Per call, in monthly tiers by call volume, with paid add-ons |
| Intake software with AI | Intaker, Lawmatics, Lead Docket, Clio Grow AI | Mostly your own staff. Intaker's AI works chat, text and social. Clio Grow AI answers the phone when your team can't | Scores leads. Lawmatics, Intaker and Clio Grow AI book consults | Per user tiers (Lawmatics), quote-based (Lead Docket), per hired matter (Clio Grow AI), not stated (Intaker) |
| Build-your-own voice agent | Retell AI, Vapi | An AI agent you build and maintain | Whatever you build. Neither names a legal CRM | Usage-based, per minute, plus model and phone costs |
| Managed AI front desk | Infinivo | An AI voice agent we build and run, 24/7 | Asks your intake questions, checks your criteria, books, sends urgent calls to whoever's on call | Nothing until five qualified consultations are booked, then a flat monthly fee. Never per case |
Human answering services: Ruby, Answering Legal, LEX Reception
A person picks up every call, around the clock. Ruby serves small businesses generally and says no AI answers its calls, while Answering Legal and LEX Reception work for law firms and name Clio, MyCase, Lawmatics and others as integrations. All three take calls in English and Spanish. They suit a firm that wants a human voice on every call and has its own intake team to qualify the matter afterwards. Each person takes one call at a time, and the bill grows with the minutes.
Legal intake call centers: Alert Communications
Alert's intake specialists answer within three rings, 24/7/365, qualify against the firm's criteria, flag high-value cases and schedule consults, with bilingual teams and Spanish scripts. It names Clio and Filevine. It suits injury firms running paid media that want trained people doing intake at volume, and its pricing includes models with a fee per retainer.
Hybrid AI and human: Smith.ai
Smith.ai lets a firm choose AI-only, hybrid or human-first answering. Its injury page lists the details it screens for (incident date, jurisdiction, injury severity, existing representation), it warm-transfers catastrophic injury calls to a live person, books consults and can send a retainer by DocuSign. It names a long list of legal CRMs, including Clio, Filevine and Litify, and it bills per call. For a firm that wants a person on the hardest calls, it's a reasonable choice.
Intake software with AI: Intaker, Lawmatics, Lead Docket, Clio Grow AI
These help a firm's own team handle leads better. Intaker's AI works website chat, text, Google Local Services Ads, Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp, then hands qualified leads to a person, including by phone. Lawmatics is a legal CRM with AI lead scoring, conflict checks and automatic scheduling. Lead Docket, from Filevine, scores web-form leads and syncs with Filevine. Clio Grow AI answers phone, email and website chat inside Clio Grow, picking up calls when the team is unavailable. They suit firms with staff who answer during the day and want the software to sort and follow up. We've compared Clio's option in detail on Clio Grow AI or a managed AI front desk.
Build your own: Retell AI, Vapi
Both are platforms for building a voice agent yourself, with lead qualification and appointment booking as common uses. They bill per minute, with the language model, voice and phone costs stacked on top. Neither names a legal CRM or a legal use case. They suit a firm with someone technical in-house who's happy to own the prompts, the bar's disclosure rules, the testing and the uptime.
A managed AI front desk: Infinivo
This is what we run, for injury, criminal defense and immigration firms. The desk answers every call, chat and email within two rings, asks your intake questions in your order, checks the matter against the criteria you gave us in writing, books the consult and sends the urgent ones to whoever's on call. Each practice has its own desk: injury, criminal defense and immigration. It isn't for solo firms or criminal practices under five attorneys, and it isn't for anyone who wants to run the software themselves. You can ring a live desk from any of those pages.
How the approaches charge
There are six pricing models in this market, and they reward different things. Per-minute packages (most answering services, and the build-your-own platforms) cost more as calls get longer. Per-call billing (Smith.ai) costs more as volume grows. A fee per retainer or per hired matter (some of Alert's plans, Clio Grow AI) ties the cost to cases signed. Per-user tiers (Lawmatics) scale with your team. Quote-based pricing (Lead Docket) depends on the deal. A flat monthly fee (ours) stays the same whatever the volume, and we're never paid per case, because ABA Model Rule 5.4 bars a lawyer from sharing fees with a non-lawyer.
Is AI intake worth it?
It depends on how much is leaking out today. When Clio had 500 US firms secret-shopped in 2024, during business hours, 40% picked up, 12% called back and 48% were never reached at all, and fewer than 3 in 100 callers who reach voicemail leave a message. Both sources are on our sources page. A staffed intake seat covers about 40 of the 168 hours in a week, so round-the-clock coverage with people takes roughly four hires per seat, and each one takes one call at a time.
Questions firms ask about intake options
What are the alternatives to Smith.ai for law firms?
For people on every call, a human answering service (Answering Legal, LEX Reception, Ruby) or a legal intake call center (Alert Communications). For software your team runs, intake tools such as Intaker, Lawmatics or Clio Grow AI. For every call answered and qualified by AI, with someone else running it, a managed AI front desk like ours.
What are the alternatives to Ruby for a personal injury firm?
Ruby serves small businesses generally. Injury firms usually want a service that screens injury leads: a legal answering service (Answering Legal, LEX Reception), a legal intake call center (Alert Communications), Smith.ai's hybrid model, or a managed AI voice agent such as our injury desk.
Is AI intake cheaper than hiring an intake specialist?
Per hour, it depends on where your staff are. At offshore rates a person can cost less per hour than an AI desk. The difference is coverage: one seat covers about 40 hours of a 168-hour week and takes one call at a time, while the desk covers every hour and takes several calls at once. The desk is built to sit alongside intake staff, covering nights, weekends and the overflow.
Can AI really handle intake for a law firm without losing cases?
The fair comparison is voicemail, which is what most firms have at night, and fewer than 3 in 100 callers leave a message on it. The risks are real, and they're the ones to check before you buy: whether it discloses that it's AI, whether it ever gives legal advice, what it does with urgent calls, and whether you can read every transcript. Our compliance brief sets out how we handle each one.
How long does it take to set up AI intake?
Software you configure yourself can start the day you sign up, and the work is yours. A managed desk like ours takes weeks: we wire it into your numbers, criteria, calendar and CRM, and you listen to recordings of real callers before it takes over your busiest hours.
Ring a live desk, then decide.
Each of our three desks has a live demo line on its page. If what you hear would work for your firm, book 30 minutes and I'll tell you whether it's worth doing, including when it isn't.