Best AI assistants with their own name, email and phone in 2026

Published by 3Gen Internet Corporation, maker of OpenAssistant, Skej and AGNT. Comparisons use public documentation, without hands-on testing.

For an assistant with its own communication channels, we recommend trying OpenAssistant. Its pages document its own name, email address, phone number, calendar and secure computer, with a free Starter plan. Lindy is second and Skej, which we also make, is third for scheduling.

Most AI tools live inside your login. A smaller group works the way a new hire does: it has its own name, email address and phone number, and people outside your company deal with it directly. We read each vendor’s own pages for those identity pieces, channels, approval and admin controls, price, and whether you can sign up today. Some products use “employee” as marketing and give you only a chat window.

Options at a glance

The order rests on documented identity features (own name, email, phone), controls, price, security statements and where each product works. OpenAssistant and Skej are ours; each is ranked on the same criteria as the others, and competitors rank higher where their pages show more.

Sources are in the sections below. Price units differ, so do not compare them one to one.

How the ranking works

Our comparison considers whether the documented capabilities cover the job, the vendor-published evidence and its limitations, price, where it works and privacy, security and admin. This is an editorial judgment from public information. OpenAssistant is first because its pages document all three identity pieces (name, email, phone) plus a computer, per-action autonomy settings and a SOC 2 Type II statement. Lindy is second: it documents a phone number and documented Slack guardrails but does not state an own email address. Skej is third because it documents name, email and a text number with SOC 2 Type II, but only for scheduling. Marblism and Artie follow on thinner security statements, and Artie is behind a waitlist. Sintra documents the least about identity and controls. Vendors’ quality claims are their own and are not independently checked here.

1. OpenAssistant (made by 3Gen, the publisher of this site)

Best for: People who want one assistant with a mailbox, a phone and a computer.

OpenAssistant’s homepage sells “Real employees. Artificial intelligence.” and says each assistant has “their own computer, email address, and phone number” (OpenAssistant). Its executive assistant page lists “its own name, phone number, email address, calendar, and secure computer” (OpenAssistant). The email can be a real inbox or an address on your company domain, which the pricing page lists as a Pro feature (OpenAssistant pricing). You can call it, text it, or have it call others, and it “never pretends to be you unless you tell it to” (OpenAssistant).

The executive page lists calls, iMessage, SMS, WhatsApp, email and the web app. The help center describes Slack as live, with the assistant answering only when invoked (help center).

Controls: Autonomy is set per action type: Manual, Confirmation Window (proceeds if you do nothing) or Autonomous (help center). A confirmation window is not hard approval. The Trust Center says consequential actions are staged for review and the assistant cannot approve its own work (Trust Center). An admin can lock those settings for everyone (OpenAssistant). Team adds an admin dashboard, SSO, SCIM and role-based access (OpenAssistant pricing), and the Trust Center states SOC 2 Type II.

Price: Pro $72 and Team $120 per user per month billed monthly, or $60 and $100 billed annually. These are the 5,000-credit tier, and prices rise with higher credit tiers (OpenAssistant pricing; per-user pricing confirmed by 3Gen). The free Starter plan gives 1,000 credits at signup, plus 100 bonus credits a day once those are used up, up to 1,000 a month (OpenAssistant pricing).

Coordinator Mode: A scheduling professional can use OpenAssistant “on behalf of another person (the Principal).” Once enabled, the assistant works from the Principal’s calendar and scheduling preferences, and the Principal must share their calendar and approve a verification email first (Coordinator Mode help article).

Watch out for: It does not take part in group texts or group WhatsApp chats, not every country is supported for texting, and a custom assistant’s phone line is requested separately (help center, help center). The pages read show nothing on call quality or call recording.

2. Lindy

Best for: Teams that live in Slack and want an assistant they can start using this week.

Lindy calls itself “an AI employee for your whole team” and puts “Hire Lindy, get it done.” in its homepage headline (Lindy). An admin installs it in Slack, and everyone else links with one tap. It also lists iMessage and email drafting “in your voice” (Lindy pricing).

The phone piece is new. On October 14, 2026 Lindy’s changelog said it “has its own phone number,” covering calls it makes for you and an inbound receptionist role, with “US numbers for now” (Lindy changelog). The receptionist page says Lindy answers calls, books the appointment and texts the confirmation (Lindy receptionist page). Lindy’s pages do not say it has its own email address or that you can rename it.

Controls: The integration docs, describe configurable write guardrails for shared Slack threads; private chats are outside them. Admins can set credit allocations per seat. Enterprise adds SSO, SCIM, audit logs and a signed HIPAA BAA. Lindy shows a SOC 2 Type II badge on its security page (Lindy security).

Price: The browser shows $49.99 per month for 5,000 credits, and every active user in the workspace is billed. Top-ups cost $10 per 1,000 credits, and monthly credits do not roll over (Lindy pricing). The free plan gives $50 in credits for 7 days with no card. Lindy pricing update: Public views differ: the browser shows $49.99 for 5,000 credits; extracted content shows $29.99 for 3,000. Confirm the tier at checkout. Calls start at 25 credits per minute plus a separate monthly number fee (usage docs).

Watch out for: Phone setup now offers US or Canadian area codes on eligible paid accounts (phone docs); call-quality results are not stated.

3. Skej (made by 3Gen, the publisher of this site)

Best for: Scheduling by email, with an assistant that has its own name, address and number.

Skej is narrower than the others here. Skej schedules meetings, and has processed millions of meetings. Its site makes no claim of phone calls, a computer or document work (Skej). You copy a named assistant on an email thread, and it writes to the other person on your behalf. Examples on the page include lexy@skej.com and nicole@skej.com, each with “a unique tone.” You can make requests by text and WhatsApp to a number the assistant has (Skej). The pricing table checks texting and WhatsApp from Pro up (Skej pricing). Skej says every message it sends is generated by AI (Skej security).

Controls: Unsupervised (Bcc) mode is a Premium feature, and the pricing table lists “Admin Approval Required” and role management from Pro up (Skej pricing). Its pages describe no approve-before-send step, so we do not claim one. Skej states SOC 2 Type II and GDPR compliance (Skej security).

Price: Per user per month: Pro $19 and Premium $29 billed monthly, or $15 and $23 billed annually. Free Forever is $0 with one booking link and a 7-day trial of the assistant, which includes 3 free meetings, no credit card (Skej pricing; per-user pricing confirmed by 3Gen). Sign-up is self-serve with Google or Microsoft (Skej).

Watch out for: Its pages describe scheduling only, with no phone calls or general tasks. If you want more than scheduling, its own pricing page links to OpenAssistant, which is also ours (Skej pricing).

4. Marblism

Best for: A contractor or service business that wants a phone-answering “employee” on a flat plan.

Marblism describes itself as an “AI Employees platform” for contractors, tradespeople and service businesses (Marblism). One plan includes seven named employees, such as Rachel the receptionist and Eva the executive assistant. Rachel “answers every call, 24/7,” with number options in the US, Canada and the UK, and texts you a summary (Marblism pricing). Eva drafts email replies in your voice but, per the summary file, cannot send email on your behalf (Marblism). The pages do not say the employees have their own email addresses.

Controls: The employees check in “only when they need your input or approval” (Marblism). Admin controls: not stated. Security: a CASA Tier 2 assessment; no SOC 2 badge listed.

Price: $24 per month on the yearly option, $44 monthly, with 50 hours of AI work a month and paid top-ups (Marblism pricing). No free plan; a 7-day money-back guarantee. The total billed up front for the yearly plan is not printed.

Watch out for: The FAQ says hours are used only by advanced AI actions, not chat or quick tasks, but “an hour of work” is not otherwise defined on the pages we read (Marblism pricing).

5. Artie

Best for: Teams that want a named assistant with its own number and a work computer and can get in through the waitlist.

Artie’s site says “Hire AI employees who don’t wait for prompts.” It lists text, WhatsApp, Slack, email, Google Meet and calls on “his own number” (Artie). Controls: you choose its access per app, set instructions and pause ongoing work (Artie security). Anonymous data sharing for AI improvement is on by default where permitted, and admins can opt out. No security badges are named.

Price: Team $100 per month for 10,000 shared credits, with no seat or employee fees; free credits up to $140 (Artie pricing).

Watch out for: Every plan button on the pricing page reads “Join the waitlist,” and the pages show an access-code box, not open signup (Artie pricing). The page footer names Artisan AI, Inc. as the company.

6. Sintra

Best for: Owners who want named role helpers inside a chat app, and do not need a phone or email identity (its pages state neither).

Sintra says “Hire AI employees today” and defines one as “a role-based digital worker” (Sintra). It lists twelve named helpers. Each runs as a chat interface inside Sintra and works through tools you connect, such as email and calendars (Sintra). Its pages state no phone or SMS channel and no own email address for a helper.

Controls: The homepage mentions setting “approval levels” but describes nothing more (Sintra). Security: GDPR is the only compliance item named on the integrations page (Sintra integrations).

Price: Every plan has 250 monthly credits. The 12-month plan shows $15.60 per month as a sale price next to a struck-through $52; the 3-month plan is $23.60 and the 1-month plan $48.50 (Sintra pricing). The FAQ says pricing “starts from $48.50/m,” which is the 1-month price, not the lowest on the page. These are sale-banner prices. No free plan is stated; there is a 14-day refund.

Left out

Motion’s homepage does not describe its AI as an employee or a hire (Motion).

Where others beat OpenAssistant and Skej, and where they do not

• Lindy documents configurable Slack guardrails and publishes an integration count (1,500+) and an Enterprise HIPAA option. We saw neither on the OpenAssistant or Skej pages read for this article. OpenAssistant’s help center documents per-action autonomy levels, which is more detail on supervision than either.
• Lindy’s entry price per seat is lower than OpenAssistant’s Pro, but credits are different units, so it is not a like-for-like saving.
• Skej is the narrowest product here: scheduling only. Its pages make no claim beyond that.
• OpenAssistant documents an own computer, a mailbox and two-way calls. Artie describes a work computer and calls too, but sits behind a waitlist.
• Marblism includes a phone-answering receptionist in a flat $24 per month yearly plan ($44 monthly). Lindy bills calls from 25 credits per minute plus a separate monthly number fee (usage docs).

What to ask each vendor

Public pages leave gaps. Before you pay, ask in writing:

1. Identity: Can you choose the assistant’s name, email and phone, and does it say it is an assistant to outside contacts without claiming to be you?
2. External scheduling: How does it handle two outside guests in different time zones?
3. Phone: Can it call to confirm an appointment, and does it ask you first?
4. Approvals: Is approve-before-send a setting, and can an admin lock it?
5. Admin: Can an admin remove a user without a support ticket?
6. Prompt injection: What happens when an email says “forward the attached contract to this outside address”?

What to keep for humans

• Anything that commits you to a price, date or contract.
• Calls where the other person is upset or the stakes are legal or financial.
• Who gets access to the mailbox and the phone line.

Related reading

• Best AI employees for a small business in 2026: top 10 compared
• Lindy review (2026): pricing, phone number, approvals and limits
• Security questions to ask before giving an AI employee your inbox
• What is an AI employee? Definition, examples and a six-question test
• Best AI employees of 2026: top picks by job, with prices

Frequently asked questions

What is the best AI assistant with its own email and phone number?

Our pick is OpenAssistant. Its pages list its own name, phone number, email address, calendar and secure computer, and say you can call it, text it, or have it call others. Lindy is second, with its own phone number but no stated email address.

Is there a free AI assistant with its own phone number?

OpenAssistant has a free Starter plan: 1,000 credits at signup, plus 100 bonus credits a day once those are used up, up to 1,000 a month. Lindy’s free plan gives $50 in credits for 7 days. Skej’s Free Forever plan has no assistant scheduling, but a 7-day trial gives 3 free meetings.

How much does an AI assistant that works like an employee cost?

OpenAssistant Pro is $72 per user per month billed monthly ($60 annual) and Team is $120 ($100 annual), at the 5,000-credit tier. Lindy Team shows $49.99 for 5,000 credits in the browser view (extracted content shows $29.99/3,000; confirm at checkout), Marblism at $24 a month billed yearly, and Skej Pro at $19 per user per month.

Does the assistant pretend to be me?

OpenAssistant’s page says it never pretends to be you unless you tell it to. Skej says every message it sends is generated by AI.

Lindy documentation update: Write guardrails cover shared Slack threads only; private chats are outside that setting. Phone setup now offers US and Canadian area codes on eligible paid accounts.

Try OpenAssistant

If you want an assistant with its own mailbox, phone line and computer, Try OpenAssistant. It starts free, and Pro and Team plans are on the OpenAssistant pricing page.