An honest comparison
An AI employee or hiring someone for enquiries?
If customers keep asking the same questions, you can hire a person to answer them or give the job to an AI employee. A person suits the conversations that need judgement, warmth and a voice on the phone. An AI employee suits the routine questions in writing, answered from your own information at a price per reply. For most small businesses the honest answer is both: the AI takes the repeat questions and your person takes the hard ones.
This page builds on our guide A chatbot, an AI agent, or hiring someone: what an Indian business actually gets.
Their prices and features as of 5 October 2026, from their public pages. See the sources
In short
Who each one suits
A person suits
- Conversations that need judgement: an angry customer, a special case, a decision about money
- Phone calls, walk-ins and anything that needs a real voice
- Enough enquiries to keep someone busy for a full shift
- Work beyond chat, such as packing orders or calling customers back
An AI employee suits
- The same questions every day: timings, fees, prices, delivery areas, order status
- Messages that arrive after you close
- Businesses not ready for a full-time salary just for enquiries
- Owners who want every answer on record, with their OK before anything risky
Side by side
The comparison
The salary figures are from public salary sites, read on 5 October 2026. Our side is from our pricing and feature status pages.
Price model
- Hiring a person
- A monthly salary, in a busy month or a quiet one, plus statutory costs such as PF and ESI where they apply.
- An AI employee on Dhanur AI
- No monthly fee. Prepaid credits (1 credit = ₹1): about ₹2.17 a reply on the Smart level. Top-ups from ₹50, with 18% GST added when you buy credits.
What a month costs a small business
- Hiring a person
- About ₹22,664 a month on average for a customer service representative in India, says Indeed (updated 25 September 2026), with a typical range of ₹13,054 to ₹39,349. AmbitionBox puts a customer support executive at ₹2.9 to ₹3.2 lakh a year with up to 5 years' experience.
- An AI employee on Dhanur AI
- About ₹1,302 for 600 replies (200 enquiries, about 3 replies each), or about ₹6,510 for 3,000 replies, plus GST when you buy the credits.
Set-up
- Hiring a person
- Find, hire and train someone on your prices and policies, and again if they move on.
- An AI employee on Dhanur AI
- Create a workspace on the web. Paste your website address, or teach your agent by chatting: answer its questions, or send a photo of your rate card, a PDF or a link. Templates come with ready tests. Change your information and its answers change.
- Hiring a person
- Answers on your WhatsApp Business app, from their phone or yours.
- An AI employee on Dhanur AI
- Pilot. For a small number of workspaces, our team connects a WhatsApp number for you. You can't connect your own number from the app yet; that is next. Sharing your chat link on WhatsApp works today.
Hindi and Hinglish
- Hiring a person
- Whatever languages they speak.
- An AI employee on Dhanur AI
- Live. Replies in English, Hindi or Hinglish, and finds answers in your information in all three.
Approvals before acting
- Hiring a person
- You trust their judgement and check in when you can.
- An AI employee on Dhanur AI
- Live. Each action can go ahead on its own, ask first, or ask and then go ahead after a wait. Approve, edit or reject in Tasks, and set approval limits by amount.
Cost shown per task
- Hiring a person
- Hard to measure for each conversation.
- An AI employee on Dhanur AI
- Live. Every task and every step shows its cost in rupees.
Data location
- Hiring a person
- On their phone and in your own records.
- An AI employee on Dhanur AI
- App servers in Mumbai; engine and databases in Bengaluru. Some providers work outside India: Anthropic for the AI, Meta for WhatsApp, and storage for photos sent in chats.
Hours
- Hiring a person
- One shift, with weekly offs and leave.
- An AI employee on Dhanur AI
- Replies when a message arrives, including after you close, if you let replies go out without waiting for your OK.
Phone calls
- Hiring a person
- Yes.
- An AI employee on Dhanur AI
- No. It works in writing only; voice agents are planned.
Trial or starting credits
- Hiring a person
- None: the salary is paid from the first month.
- An AI employee on Dhanur AI
- ₹25 of free credits for every new workspace, with no card needed. Then pay as you go.
Best for
- Hiring a person
- The hard conversations: judgement, complaints, money and calls.
- An AI employee on Dhanur AI
- The routine questions that already have answers in your price list, policies and pages.
Fair is fair
Where a person is stronger
Judgement
A person can calm an angry customer, bend a rule when it's right, and say "I'll sort this out" and mean it.
Phone calls and walk-ins
Our agents work in writing only. Voice agents are planned, with no date.
Money and exceptions
Refunds, discounts and special orders need a person, which is why our agents are set up to hand them over.
Your own WhatsApp number, today
A person uses your WhatsApp Business app. On Dhanur AI, WhatsApp is a pilot and our team connects each number.
Photos and voice notes
A person can look at a photo of a cake design or listen to a voice note. Our agents can read photos and PDFs on website chat, but not yet on WhatsApp, and they don't play voice notes.
Work beyond chat
Packing orders, taking payments at the counter and calling customers back are a person's job.
And the other side
Where we fit better
A price per reply, not per month
200 enquiries a month at about 3 replies each cost about ₹1,302 in credits, against an average salary of about ₹22,664 a month (Indeed).
Replies after you close
A question sent late in the evening gets an answer straight away, if you let replies go out without waiting for your OK.
Every answer on record
Each conversation is a task with its steps and its cost in rupees, and anything risky waits for your approval.
The same answer every time
It answers from your own price list and policies. Change the information once and every answer changes.
No hiring or training
Start from a template with ready tests, and try it in a test chat that sends nothing to anyone.
Hands over what it shouldn't answer
It passes the conversation to your team with the reason. Write it a private note and it replies to the customer in its own words.
What works today, what is a pilot and what is planned is on our feature status page.
Questions
Common questions
Can an AI employee replace a receptionist?
For routine questions in writing, often yes. For phone calls, walk-ins, complaints and decisions about money, no. Most businesses do best with both: the AI answers the repeat questions and hands the rest to a person, with the reason.
What does an AI employee cost compared with a salary?
About ₹2.17 a reply on the Smart level on Dhanur AI. 200 enquiries a month at about 3 replies each comes to about ₹1,302, plus GST when you buy credits. A customer service representative in India earns about ₹22,664 a month on average, according to Indeed (updated 25 September 2026).
Will customers know they are talking to an AI?
Yes. Our agents say they are an AI in their first reply, and hand the conversation to your team when a person is needed.
What if the AI gets something wrong?
It can be confidently wrong when your information is out of date, which is why approvals exist. Set replies or actions to ask first, edit a draft before you approve it, and keep tests that must pass before you publish a change.
Does it answer phone calls or WhatsApp?
It doesn't take phone calls; voice agents are planned. WhatsApp is a pilot: our team connects a number for a small number of workspaces.
Sources
Prices and features as of 5 October 2026, from their public pages, as shown to a visitor in India. Prices change, so check their pages before you decide. “Not stated on the pages we read” means we couldn't find it there, not that they don't offer it. If something here is out of date, tell us and we'll correct it.
Try it on your own questions
Create a workspace, start from a template and test your agent in a chat that sends nothing to anyone. New workspaces get ₹25 of free credits with no card needed, then you pay as you go.