Nov 5, 2026

Best AI Intake Coordinator (2026): 6 Options Compared

Intake is the job between the inquiry and the first appointment: pick up, find out what the person needs, ask the screening questions, decide whether they’re a fit, book the consult and get the details into the system. Most businesses do it well when someone is free and badly when nobody is. An AI intake coordinator does it the same way every time, at any hour.

The quick answer: Carly is the best AI intake coordinator for firms and practices that want every new inquiry handled by one agent across calls, texts and email. It asks your questions in your order, qualifies by your rules, books the consultation on the right person’s calendar and logs the lead to your CRM. For a law firm already on Clio, Clio Grow adds intake forms and pipelines inside the same system. For high-volume personal injury intake with a sales team behind it, Lead Docket.

Prices from each vendor’s own pricing page where published, checked October 30 to November 5, 2026.

AI intake coordinators compared

Intake tool	Channels	Qualifies by your rules	Books the consult	Starting price
Carly	Calls, texts, WhatsApp, email, web forms	Yes, in plain English	On your team’s Google or Outlook calendars	Free Zapier-style workflows; AI agents from $35/mo
Smith.ai	Calls, chat	Through its receptionists	Yes	AI free for 25 calls; Pro from $150; live from $300
Intaker	Website chat, forms	Scripted conversations	Through integrations	Quoted; third-party listings put entry plans around $80/mo
Lawmatics	Forms, email, text	Pipelines and automations	Yes	Quoted
Clio Grow	Forms, email, text	Pipelines	Yes, with Clio Scheduler	Per user, on Clio’s pricing page
Lead Docket	Calls, forms, chat	Intake scripts	Yes	Quoted

1. Carly

Carly runs intake the way a good coordinator does, except it never has a line of people waiting.

Answers the first contact, whatever channel. A call, a text, a WhatsApp message, an email or a web form all reach the same agent, which replies within about a minute. Form leads get a call back, and a text and email if they miss it.
Asks your screening questions, in order. What happened, when, where, whether they’ve spoken to anyone else, whatever your intake script says. The same for every lead, which is also what fair, consistent intake looks like.
Qualifies by your rules. Case type, location, budget, conflict check questions. A fit gets booked; a non-fit gets a polite referral. You write the rules in plain English.
Books the consultation. On the right person’s real Google or Outlook calendar, round robin if you want, with confirmation and reminder texts from your number.
Logs the lead. Every answer, transcript and recording lands on the lead’s timeline in Carly’s built-in CRM, or in yours. Carly connects to thousands of apps, including Clio, HubSpot and Salesforce.
Follows up. A lead who books gets the intake form and the “what to bring” email. A lead who goes quiet gets the nudge you wrote, on the day you chose.
Hands off when it should. Your rules decide when a person takes over, and the whole conversation is in the team inbox when they do.
Best for: law firms, clinics, agencies and service businesses that want one agent doing intake on every channel, by the same rules.
Pricing: Free Zapier-style workflows; AI agents from $35/month.
Setup: paste one prompt into ChatGPT, Claude or any AI, describe your intake questions, grab a number, and you’re live.

Carly business setup prompt

Paste this into ChatGPT, Claude or any AI. It walks you through the rest.

Help me connect Carly Teams so I can work with my organization's business texts, phone calls, voicemail and voice/text agents from this chat. I'll add it to you myself: tell me exactly what to click for the app you are, one step at a time, and wait for me to confirm before moving on. If a step doesn't match what I see, ask me what's on my screen. If you can do the setup yourself (Claude Code, Codex, Muse, Grok Bot), go ahead, and ask me for any key in your secure credential prompt, never in the chat. Don't tell me it's connected until list_phone_lines works, and if I have several teams, ask which to use. Before sending a text or making a call, confirm the team, recipient and message or task with me. The steps are below.

# Connect Carly Teams to an AI app

> Carly Teams works a team's business phone lines through the team's AI agents: business texts, phone calls, voicemail, the voice and text agents, and the team's CRM.

MCP server: https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp (streamable HTTP, OAuth)

## Setup

Carly Teams isn't in any plugin or connector directory yet, so it's added as a custom connection by URL.

1. Add Carly Teams:
- ChatGPT: open https://chatgpt.com/plugins, click Add, and choose Create MCP App (not Create plugin or Upload plugin archive). If Create MCP App isn't on the menu, turn on Developer mode first in Settings > Security and login. Name it "Carly Teams" with the description "Work with my team's business texts, calls, voicemail and voice/text agents," paste https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp as the server URL, choose OAuth, create it, and sign in. Then in the message box open the + menu, choose Developer mode, and pick Carly Teams. No plugin needs to be built, packaged or uploaded.
- Claude (claude.ai, Claude Desktop, or Cowork): Customize > Connectors > Add custom connector, name it Carly Teams, paste https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp, and sign in.
- Claude Code: `claude mcp add --transport http --scope user carly-teams https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp`, then /mcp, pick carly-teams, and authenticate.
- Codex: `codex mcp add carly-teams --url https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp`, then `codex mcp login carly-teams`.
- Cursor: add {"mcpServers": {"carly-teams": {"url": "https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp"}}} to ~/.cursor/mcp.json, then sign in to carly-teams from Customize.
- Muse: a custom connector to https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp with a Carly API key as its bearer token. The key comes from carlyassistant.com/account (API key under Carly Teams) and goes in Muse's connector settings, not in a chat message.
- Grok: grok.com/connectors > New Connector > Custom, paste https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp, and sign in.
- Grok Bot: a custom remote MCP server named carly-teams at https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp. Approve it and sign in.
- Perplexity: Plugins in the sidebar (or Customize > Connectors), then Add custom > Connector > Add MCP connector. Choose Remote, name it Carly Teams, paste https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp, pick OAuth, check the box and click Add, then click the Carly Teams card to sign in.
- Anything else: a remote MCP server (streamable HTTP) named carly-teams at https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp. It signs in with OAuth.
Sign in with the Carly account that belongs to the organization.

2. Once it's added, the Carly Teams tools show up in the chat, including list_phone_lines. If they don't, turn Carly Teams on for the chat or start a new chat.

3. To check it worked, call list_phone_lines: it returns the teams and phone lines the account can reach. A team with no phone line yet can get one with find_numbers (optionally by area code) and get_number, which may return a checkout link to finish.

4. Something to try first: "Review our missed calls and voicemail and help me reply to customers." Carly Teams also reads and answers business texts, has the team's agent make calls, and edits the voice and text agents. Texts and calls go out at once from the agent's number and can't be taken back. Team permissions apply.

## Email, calendars and workflows

Email, calendars, files, booking pages and workflows are the regular Carly connector, added separately. It's listed in ChatGPT's plugin directory (https://chatgpt.com/plugins/plugin_asdk_app_6a67a26316b88191860222f918d4ec54) and Claude's connector directory (https://claude.ai/directory/carly), and connects anywhere else at https://carlyassistant.com/mcp/. Its setup is https://carlyassistant.com/mcp.txt.

Get started, or book a call and we’ll set up your intake script with you.

2. Smith.ai

Smith.ai pairs an AI receptionist with live receptionists who can run your intake script, collect details and book the consult.

Best for: firms that want a person to take over the moment a call turns into intake.
Pricing: AI is free for 25 calls a month, then $3 a call; Pro from $150 for 75 calls. Live receptionists from $300 for 30 calls.
Limitations: billed per call, and email intake is outside the receptionist product.

3. Intaker

Intaker is a conversational website intake tool for law firms: a chat-style form that asks screening questions and routes qualified leads to your team.

Best for: firms whose leads mostly arrive through the website.
Pricing: not published by Intaker; third-party listings put entry plans around $80 a month.
Limitations: website-first. Calls and texts need another tool.

4. Lawmatics

Lawmatics is a legal CRM with intake forms, e-signature, pipelines and automated follow-up sequences.

Best for: firms that want intake and marketing automation in one CRM.
Pricing: quoted on a demo.
Limitations: it’s a system to run intake in, not an agent that answers the phone. Pair it with something that picks up.

5. Clio Grow

Clio Grow is Clio’s intake and CRM module, with online forms, a pipeline board, email and text templates and the Clio Scheduler for consults.

Best for: firms already on Clio Manage that want intake in the same place.
Pricing: per user, on Clio’s pricing page.
Limitations: same as Lawmatics. The forms wait for someone to fill them in, and the phone still needs answering.

6. Lead Docket

Lead Docket is intake and lead-tracking software built for high-volume plaintiff firms, with intake scripts, call tracking and sign-up automation.

Best for: personal injury and mass tort firms with an intake team to run it.
Pricing: quoted.
Limitations: built for firms with intake staff, not as a replacement for them.

Intake is a speed problem first

The lead who emails three firms hires the one that answers. Intake software that waits for a form to be filled in doesn’t fix that. An agent that picks up, asks the questions and books the consult in the first five minutes does. That is the gap Carly fills, and the CRMs above are where it files the result.

What to check before you turn intake over to AI

Same questions for everyone. Write the script down. Consistency is what makes AI intake defensible.
Clear rules for the handoff. Decide what a person must handle: anything time-sensitive, anything the AI isn’t sure about.
A record of every conversation. Transcripts and recordings on the lead’s timeline, so a decision can be checked later. Carly keeps all of it.
Privacy. For clinics, Carly signs a BAA on Enterprise plans; book a call to set that up.

How to pick an AI intake coordinator

One agent on calls, texts and email, by your rules: Carly.
Humans running your script on the phone: Smith.ai.
Website chat intake for a law firm: Intaker.
Intake inside your legal CRM: Clio Grow or Lawmatics.
High-volume plaintiff intake with a team: Lead Docket.

FAQ

What does an AI intake coordinator do?

It answers new inquiries, asks your screening questions, decides fit by your rules, books the consultation and logs the lead. Carly does it on calls, texts, WhatsApp, email and web forms.

Can AI do client intake for a law firm?

Yes. Carly asks your intake questions in order, runs your conflict-check questions, books the consult on the attorney’s calendar and logs everything to your CRM, including Clio. Intaker and Lawmatics handle the form and pipeline side.

Can an AI intake coordinator book consultations?

Carly books on your team’s real Google or Outlook calendars while the lead is on the phone or in the text thread, and sends the confirmation from your number.

How fast does it respond to a web form?

Carly calls a form lead within about a minute, and sends a text and an email if they don’t pick up.

How much does AI intake cost?

Smith.ai’s AI is free for 25 calls, then per call; Intaker’s entry plans are around $80 a month per third-party listings; Lawmatics and Lead Docket are quoted. Carly: Free Zapier-style workflows; AI agents from $35/month.

Ready to automate your busywork?

Carly schedules, researches, and briefs you—so you can focus on what matters.

See what people say

"Before Carly, I relied on a Calendly link, but the whole process felt impersonal and not very professional. Carly changed that by handling all the back-and-forth, so I'm no longer stuck in endless email threads trying to line up schedules.

Now Carly reaches out to candidates, shares my real-time availability, lets them pick a slot, then sends a Zoom link and drops it straight into my calendar. She sends reminders to both of us before each call, which has significantly reduced no-shows and last-minute confusion.

On top of scheduling, Carly acts like a full executive assistant, sending me my schedule the night before so I can prepare for each call. It reminds me of the old x.ai assistant, but Carly is noticeably smarter, faster, and better suited to my healthcare recruitment business."

Gus Ibrahim, Founder & Director, IHR