Hire a Virtual Assistant or Use AI?Start With the Training.

Hire a virtual assistant for the back-office work that needs a person, and use AI for the phones and the follow-up. You can also use both. A VA can do bookkeeping prep, research, travel and calendar work for you, data entry, social posting, graphics, and building GoHighLevel workflows, funnels or websites. An AI receptionist like Lexi answers every call 24/7, books appointments, and follows up with every lead who reached out. They overlap only on phones and follow-up, where a VA covers their working hours and Lexi covers every hour, so the question is which jobs you need done.

A virtual assistant is a remote person, a freelancer, an agency’s assistant, or your own remote employee, who does admin and support work for your business from wherever they are. It’s different from a virtual receptionist, which is a live answering service that picks up your calls. VA work runs from scheduling and research to sales and marketing admin; Time etc, for example, lists general admin, social media and content, sales admin, marketing admin, and research among its VA tasks.

On providers’ own pages checked October 7, 2026, Upwork lists a $13 median hourly rate; Time etc starts at $390 a month for 10 hours with a U.S. assistant. Wing Assistant lists $699 a month for a part-time general VA (80 hours) and $999 for full-time (160 hours). Rates depend on skills, experience, location and hours. For a fuller breakdown, see our virtual assistant cost guide.

Write down the job first, then pick a route: an agency that matches you with a VA, a marketplace where you hire a freelancer yourself, or a direct hire. An agency matches you with an assistant for a monthly plan. A marketplace lets you choose, pay and manage the freelancer yourself. A direct hire is your own staff, with payroll and the IRS’s employee-or-contractor rules to get right. Whichever you pick, start with a short trial on repetitive tasks.

Document the job, start with tasks that repeat, record each walkthrough once, and review outcomes instead of every step. BELAY’s guide suggests writing down recurring tasks, tools used, login access requirements, desired outcomes and communication preferences before you delegate, and says “If you explain something verbally, record it.” It lays training out in three stages of 30 days, from contained tasks to working independently to proactive coordination.

Plan on about a month or more. BELAY’s guide says “Most leaders see meaningful relief within 30–45 days when scope is clear.” For comparison, the Bureau of Labor Statistics says in-house secretaries and administrative assistants typically learn through on-the-job training that lasts a few weeks. Clear written instructions are what shorten it, for a VA or anyone else.

Start with work that repeats every day or week and has a clear right result: scheduling, CRM updates, expense sorting, research, and reporting prep. Then add bigger jobs like social posting, graphics, or building GoHighLevel workflows and funnels as the VA learns your business. Keep pricing, quotes and judgment calls with you. Phones and lead follow-up can go to a VA during their hours, or to an AI receptionist around the clock.

Not for much of what a VA does. AI like Lexi can take over the phones and the lead follow-up, but a VA does many jobs Lexi doesn’t. Lexi doesn’t do bookkeeping, research, travel, graphics, social posting, data entry beyond the CRM, cold calling, or building GoHighLevel workflows, funnels or websites. What she does: answers every call 24/7, books appointments, follows up with every lead who reached out, writes and sends email and text campaigns, and keeps your CRM current. You can let the VA build and let Lexi answer.

Train Lexi the way you’d train a new employee: upload your SOPs and anything you’d hand a new hire, and give her only the access you’d be comfortable giving a new employee. If you’ve already trained a VA, you’ve written much of it. She follows the same instructions on every call, at 2 AM the same as 2 PM, and when she doesn’t know an answer she takes a message rather than guessing. She doesn’t make up prices; a real quote needs you.

Lexi costs $299 per month at founder pricing, locked for life, plus a one-time $100 setup fee and usage. Usage is billed separately: calls $0.15 per minute, texts 3 cents per segment (about 160 characters), and email $0.002 per email. Texting registration and a GoHighLevel CRM are included. The public price is $997 per month. No contract, and Lexi is available to U.S. businesses only.