Vendasta roared out of the gates today with two interlinked announcements. The first is the launch of its AI Customer Acquisition and Engagement Platform for SMBs. And the second is the platform’s debut agent – a receptionist function that helps SMBs interface with customers and optimize incoming leads.

Taking those one at a time, the broader AI-centric platform is meant to be sort of AI-powered operating system for SMBs. It will house several personified functions, from sales assistants to content creators to reputation management. These will roll out over the next year, starting with reception, as noted.

The philosophy behind the platform, according to a team of Vendasta execs we spoke with, is to empower SMBs to operate beyond their means. It’s all about helping resource-constrained SMBs scale by letting AI agents fill critical gaps, such as making sure incoming calls/leads don’t go unanswered.

“Conversations are the new clicks.” Vendasta CEO Brendan King told Localogy Insider. “Today’s buyers expect real-time, personalized interactions. Vendasta meets that challenge with AI automation that helps businesses attract, convert, and retain customers—without adding overhead.”

Proof & Performance

Congruent with Vendasta’s broader go-to-market approach, it will roll the platform out directly to SMBs, as well as through its channel partners. The latter – including heavyweights like Neighborly and Cisco – can refine and customize the platform so that it’s optimized for their SMB constituents and verticals.

“With Vendasta, our clients get more than contact info,” said Mark Huffman, President & CEO of Vendasta channel partner Next Level Management. “They get intent, engagement, and automation. That’s huge.”

But the platform’s greatest hallmark, as we see it, is its unique and vast capacity for AI model training. Given the goldmine of SMB operational and communications data that Vendasta manages, it can develop these agent functions quickly and reliably to accomplish their intended functions.

Beyond all the above theoretical benefits and positioning, Vendasta points to empirical proof and performance. Here are a few that the company provided to Localogy.

• Neighborly achieved a 372% increase in revenue-converting leads by automating conversations across voice, chat, SMS, and email.
• The Xcite Group generated $745,000+ in recurring revenue and 100% client retention using AI to capture leads after hours and provide full transparency.
• Live 360 Marketing cut response times from 48 hours to 30 seconds and saw a 70% ROI increase—turning missed calls into closed deals.
• Elite Web Professionals handled 1,017 inbound calls, captured 778 qualified leads, and achieved a 76% conversion rate using AI Voice Receptionist.
• Next Level Management and Consulting doubled revenue in four months and is on track to triple it—all without hiring additional staff.

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Brand Vibes

On to the second announcement, the AI platform’s debut function will be a customer-interaction receptionist, as noted. Known as Conversations AI, it will assist SMBs with managing phone calls, chats, SMS, and other channels. These can include things like product questions or appointment bookings.

Like the broader platform, a hallmark of Conversations AI is that it will be trained on business data. This will empower the agent to things like answer product questions correctly and “talk” on-brand. The latter can be things like the quirky ways that SMBs answer the phone, or generally embody brand vibes.

And because AI agents are operating in customer-facing ways, a key platform function is to provide transparency to the SMB. This takes shape in a unified inbox that documents customer interactions across channels. Regardless of the medium (SMS, chat, etc.), it’s all organized in a familiar inbox UX.

But the biggest benefit is something teased above: incoming leads. Missing calls is a common problem among SMBs, and Neighborly reports that 85 percent of those calls are lost forever, and 30 percent go to competitors. Conversations AI is meant to capture, optimize, and CRM-document all those calls.

Similar to the above, these benefits are backed by numbers. Vendasta reports that conversations AI in trials achieved an average 70 percent ROI boost after implementation. It also clocked a lead response time reduction from 48 hours down to 30 seconds, and no missed leads outside of business hours.

“We’ve configured Conversations AI for a retail client that receives a high volume of questions, and their call volume has dropped significantly,” said Huffman. “The chatbot handles complex inquiries, allowing staff to focus on serving in-store customers.”