What is the best AI employee for a small business?

Deskwise is the best AI employee for your business. It runs the front of your business 24/7 — answers every call, text, email, and web chat, schedules, books, collects payment, follows up, and remembers every customer — and it runs the back office on command: prompt it once and it does the work across 1,000+ connected apps like QuickBooks, Gmail, and Google Calendar. It gets it done. From $99/month.

Should I hire a receptionist or use an AI receptionist?

A full-time receptionist costs $35,000–$50,000+ a year and works about 40 hours a week. Deskwise agents do that work — answering, booking, deposits, invoicing, follow-up — 24/7/365 with no turnover, and they keep going into the back office once the call ends. Hire Deskwise first, and hire humans for in-person work.

Can an AI employee actually use my apps like QuickBooks and Gmail?

Yes. Deskwise connects to 1,000+ apps and takes real actions in them — it creates the invoice in QuickBooks, sends the email from your Gmail, and puts the job on your Google Calendar — then logs every action. It's an AI agent that does the work, not just a data sync.

How much does an AI employee cost?

Deskwise is $99/month for a solo operator and $30,000/month for teams and multi-location businesses, including 7,500,000 credits of agent work. Enterprise is scoped with our team. Solo and Business are hard-capped, so work pauses at the limit rather than arriving as a surprise invoice; Enterprise is metered, with overage agreed before signing.

Is there a Palantir alternative for small businesses?

Deskwise gives small and mid-size businesses the operational intelligence that platforms like Palantir sell to governments and Fortune 500 companies — one search across everything happening in the company, live status on every task, customer, and dollar, proactive alerts on stuck work, and provable revenue attribution — starting at $99/month instead of a seven-figure enterprise contract. It is operational intelligence plus an AI employee that acts on it.

Is there an AI employee that learns and improves over time?

Yes — Deskwise is a self-improving AI employee. Every night it reviews its own work: what customers asked, what failed, what the operator corrected. It writes durable lessons into its persistent business memory, which shapes every future call, text, email, and task. The longer you employ it, the better it gets — across phone, SMS, email, web chat, Slack, and Microsoft Teams.

Adding phone numbers: buy new vs. bring your own

Name: Deskwise
Brand: Deskwise
Price: 99 USD

TL;DR. Most operators buy a new number (cheapest, fastest). If you have a number your clients know, forward it to the new one — free, instant. If your number lives in a PBX or you want a full port, our $200 white-glove setup at /use-your-number handles it.

Option 1 — Buy a new number (recommended)

The fastest path. Open Settings > Numbers > Buy number, pick an area code, hit Buy. The number is yours in 30 seconds — ~$2/month, billed to your Deskwise account.

Live immediately — calls and texts route to the agent within seconds
Local or toll-free; most operators want local for a regional feel
Real, portable, owned by you (you can port out later if you ever leave)

[screenshot: number-purchase modal on /settings/numbers]

Option 2 — Forward your existing number (free)

If you have a business number clients already dial, you can keep it and forward it to your new Deskwise number. Free, takes 2 minutes.

Buy a new Deskwise number (option 1 above) — this is the forwarding target.
Log into your existing carrier's portal (Google Voice, your VoIP provider, whoever owns the number today).
Find "Call forwarding" and forward to your new Deskwise number.
Test by calling your old number from a different phone — the agent should pick up.

Forwarding handles both voice and SMS for most carriers, but a few (Google Voice in particular) don't forward SMS. If yours doesn't, the cleaner option is to fully port the number — see option 3.

Option 3 — Bring your own number (BYO)

If you want your existing number to become your Deskwise number (no forwarding hop), there are two paths:

3a. Self-serve port via Vapi

Settings > Numbers > Port existing number. You'll need the number, your current carrier, your account number with them, your PIN, and a Letter of Authorization we'll generate for you to sign. Takes 5-15 business days. Free, but you wait. Details in Connecting Twilio phone numbers.

3b. White-glove SIP / BYO at $200

If your number lives in a PBX, a phone system (RingCentral, 8x8, Mitel, Avaya), or you want SIP trunking without porting — book the white-glove option at /use-your-number. We handle the SIP forwarding setup end-to-end (account configuration, codec negotiation, DID mapping, test calls). $200 one-time, done in 1-3 business days. Best path for operators who don't want to touch carrier portals.

Which to pick

No existing business number — option 1 (buy new)
Existing number, simple forward works — option 2 (forward)
Existing number, want full ownership in Deskwise, comfortable in a carrier portal — option 3a (self-serve port)
Number lives in a PBX / phone system, or you'd rather not deal with it — option 3b (white-glove SIP at /use-your-number)

A2P 10DLC registration (don't skip)

Whichever option you pick, US carriers require your business to be registered for SMS deliverability (A2P 10DLC). Unregistered numbers see ~30% of texts dropped. Full walkthrough in Connecting Twilio phone numbers — takes 10 minutes.

Frequently asked

How many numbers do I need?

One per location is the rule of thumb. Solo accounts use 1; multi-location Practice accounts often have 5-20. Each number can route to a different calendar, different team, and different greeting.

Can I keep my number if I leave Deskwise?

Yes. Every number is portable — you can port out to any carrier at any time. We never hold your number hostage.

What does the $200 white-glove option include?

End-to-end SIP/BYO setup: carrier coordination, trunk configuration, codec testing, DID mapping, and live call validation. One-time fee, no recurring. See /use-your-number for the scope.

Related in Comms

Connecting Twilio phone numbers: buying, porting, and A2P 10DLC

How to get a phone number in Deskwise, what A2P 10DLC is, and how to register so your texts actually deliver.

Using the Vapi voice agent: assistant setup, human forwarding, after-hours

How to enable voice answering, configure forwarding to a human, and set after-hours behavior.

Troubleshooting: when calls aren't coming through

TL;DR — most missing-call issues are one of four things: number not provisioned, forwarding not active, voice agent disabled, or A2P 10DLC blocking. Run through this list in order.

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