Teams Phone Agent: An AI Receptionist That Answers Your Company Phone in Arabic for About SAR 0.19 a Call

Any company that runs its phone lines on Microsoft Teams can now put an AI receptionist on them. Teams Phone Agent has been generally available to all customers since September 30, 2026. It answers callers, handles common questions, books or changes appointments and transfers the call to the right person with a written summary, in more than 60 languages including Arabic (Saudi Arabia). Billing is by usage: a short call uses 5 to 15 credits, roughly SAR 0.19 to 0.56. If you want the general idea first, we covered it in AI that answers your customers' calls; this article is about one specific product, its price and its conditions in Saudi Arabia.

What does the Teams AI receptionist do?

According to Microsoft's official announcement, callers simply say what they need instead of pressing through a keypad menu, and the service covers five jobs:

• Answering questions: business hours, branches, policies and service details, drawn from FAQ files and URLs your company configures. The URLs are refreshed daily.
• Booking appointments: creating, rescheduling or cancelling them, with a ready integration for Microsoft Bookings.
• Transferring with context: it routes the call to the right department or employee and sends them AI-generated notes, so the customer does not repeat the story.
• Languages: more than 60 languages and locales, with Arabic in two versions: Egypt (ar-EG) and Saudi Arabia (ar-SA).
• After hours: it handles routine requests at night and at weekends.

The Microsoft Learn setup page adds that the service has supported 42 voices, 33 of them new, since October 14, 2026, and that administrators can set an AI disclaimer message, a maximum call length, automatic recording and spam detection.

How much does one call cost?

There is no fixed monthly fee for the service itself. It consumes Copilot Credits according to call length and the number of tasks performed. Microsoft's Copilot Credits Guide of October 2026 gives three illustrative categories, and the pay-as-you-go price is $0.01 per credit:

• Light call (one question, under one minute): 5 to 15 credits, about SAR 0.19 to 0.56.
• Medium call (two questions and a transfer with notes, one to two minutes): 15 to 40 credits, about SAR 0.56 to 1.50.
• Complex call (six or more tasks including an appointment booking, over two minutes): more than 40 credits, above SAR 1.50.

A worked example: 1,000 medium calls a month use between 15,000 and 40,000 credits, or $150 to $400, roughly SAR 563 to 1,500. If your usage is steady, a pack of 25,000 credits costs $200 a month according to Microsoft's pricing page, which is $0.008 per credit. Since October 19, 2026, Microsoft's Copilot Credit Estimator also covers Teams Phone Agent. Because the bill runs on a meter, set a spending cap before you go live, as we explained in our article on Copilot usage-based billing.

What does your company need before switching it on?

The prerequisites and licensing page lists three things: at least one Teams Phone licence, a free Teams Phone Resource Account licence for each number, and Copilot Credits with a spending policy. The point that matters for Saudi Arabia: Microsoft's availability page for Saudi Arabia states that Microsoft Calling Plans are not available to purchase here. Connecting a Saudi number therefore needs one of the other PSTN connectivity options: Operator Connect through a certified operator, or Direct Routing through a session border controller and a telecom partner. In most projects, this step sets the timeline, not the AI configuration.

Practical steps before you decide

1. Count your calls: sort one month of calls into light, medium and complex, and multiply each group by its price. This is Microsoft's own recommended way to estimate.
2. Write the FAQ file: answer quality depends on the content you give the service; 20 well-written questions beat a whole disorganised website.
3. Test the dialect: run real calls in your customers' dialects before launch. Our article on Saudi dialect call transcription shows where speech recognition still slips.
4. Define the human path: decide when the AI hands the caller to a real employee, and what happens after hours.
5. Turn on the disclaimer and the cap: a message telling callers they are speaking to AI, a maximum call length and a monthly spending limit.

Who is it for, and when is it not a fit?

It suits clinics, service centres, hotels and organisations that receive repetitive questions and book appointments, and that already use Microsoft 365. It is not a fit if your phone is an ordinary mobile line with no phone system, or if most of your calls are complex complaints that need a person from the first second. If callers need to check an order or invoice in your own system, that requires a custom voice agent built in Copilot Studio, which is still in the Frontier preview programme and billed separately.

The Origami view

The real news is not that AI can answer the phone; that has been possible for a while. It is that the service now sits inside a tool many companies already pay for, at a per-call price you can calculate in advance. Success depends on three things: connecting the Saudi number, the content of the answers, and the link to your booking and order systems. At Origami we build that link between the phone line and your booking and customer systems, and we estimate the cost with you before launch. See our services or contact us.

Sources

• Microsoft: Teams Phone Agent general availability announcement, September 30, 2026
• Microsoft Learn: Set up Teams Phone Agent, supported languages and change log
• Microsoft Learn: Voice applications prerequisites and licensing
• Microsoft: Copilot Credits Guide, October 2026 (call costs and $0.01 per credit)
• Microsoft: Copilot Studio pricing ($200 for 25,000 credits)
• Microsoft Learn: Availability in Saudi Arabia
• Microsoft Learn: PSTN connectivity options