# Lighthouse vs Smith.ai for personal injury intake

> [llms.txt](https://www.lighthouselegal.ai/llms.txt)

Compare Lighthouse and Smith.ai on intake questions, call transfers, Spanish-language records and pricing. Use a short call test to choose for your firm.

URL: https://www.lighthouselegal.ai/learn/lighthouse-vs-smith-ai

[Learning center](https://www.lighthouselegal.ai/learn)

October 6, 2026

## Lighthouse vs Smith.ai for personal injury intake

Compare how each service asks your questions, reaches your staff and gives your team a useful call record.

-   Personal injury intake
-   AI answering
-   Product comparisons

 [![](https://www.lighthouselegal.ai/images/blog/customize-lighthouse/video-poster.jpg) Play video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtd1RmMhp1s)

**Lighthouse is built for personal injury intake: your questions, your case criteria and direct transfers to your staff.** Smith.ai offers AI answering with backup from its own live-agent team.

Both offer 24/7 coverage and custom intake. The main choice is how you want calls handled and what your team needs afterward.

Written by Lighthouse. Product pages reviewed October 22, 2026; no head-to-head audio test.

### Compare at a glance

| Feature | Lighthouse | Smith.ai |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 24/7 call answering | Yes | Yes |
| Your intake questions | Yes | Yes |
| Transfers to your staff | Yes | Yes |
| Summaries and full transcripts | Yes | Yes |
| English and Spanish calls | Yes | Yes |
| Clio integration | Yes | Yes |
| Hands-on setup | Yes | Pro onboarding support; Enterprise full-service setup and custom prompting. |
| Voice tailoring | Yes | Choice of 12+ curated voices. |
| Personal injury focus | Yes | AI answering for law firms and other businesses. |

Checks show documented features. Smith.ai descriptions summarize its offering; plan and setup requirements may apply.

Smith.ai sources: [AI Receptionist](https://smith.ai/ai-receptionist), [plans](https://smith.ai/pricing/ai-receptionist), [call records](https://smith.ai/features/call-recording-transcription) and [bilingual answering](https://smith.ai/features/bilingual-answering-service). The table covers AI answering. Smith.ai also sells hybrid and human-first plans; choose the service model before comparing quotes.

### Why choose Lighthouse

Choose Lighthouse for personal injury intake configured with your team. We tailor the questions, case criteria and call routing to your process. Request a custom voice with pace and pronunciation tuning. Staff get the case details they need for callbacks, with urgent calls transferred directly to them.

### Choose who answers next

**Choose Lighthouse when you want PI intake set up with your team and transfers to your own staff.** Your firm supplies the people who take those transfers, including after hours.

**Consider Smith.ai when you want access to receptionists supplied by the service.** Its [AI-first service](https://smith.ai/ai-receptionist) starts with AI and can bring in its live agents. Its [hybrid offer](https://smith.ai/pricing/hybrid-ai-human-receptionists) lets you choose which call types go to people. A human-first plan is a separate choice.

An outside receptionist and your on-call attorney do different jobs. Ask who receives a caller asking for a lawyer at 9 p.m., what that person can do, and what happens if the attorney does not answer. Our [human handoff guide](https://www.lighthouselegal.ai/learn/ai-receptionist-human-backup) follows that path.

### Set your intake rules

Set supported intake fields to **Required**, **Optional** or **Disabled**, then choose daytime and after-hours contacts.

 [![Lighthouse intake settings with Date of Accident required, Email optional and Referral Source disabled.](https://www.lighthouselegal.ai/images/blog/customize-lighthouse/setup-collection.webp)](https://www.lighthouselegal.ai/images/blog/customize-lighthouse/setup-collection.webp)

Collect what your firm needs and skip what it does not. Example settings from our customization demo.

Smith.ai also supports custom call instructions and screening criteria. Its live-agent backup may suit firms that want outside human help. Lighthouse routes escalations directly to your own staff. See the [full customization walkthrough](https://www.lighthouselegal.ai/blog/customize-lighthouse-to-your-firm).

### Review at any depth

With Lighthouse, check the intake fields for your case criteria, skim a summary or read the full transcript. For Spanish calls, staff can read the English translation or the original Spanish.

 [![Lighthouse call transcript with English and Spanish Original tabs, showing the caller's injury, treatment and staff transfer.](https://www.lighthouselegal.ai/images/blog/lighthouse-dashboard/usage-transcript.webp)](https://www.lighthouselegal.ai/images/blog/lighthouse-dashboard/usage-transcript.webp)

Read the English translation or switch to the original Spanish. Fictional call from our dashboard demo.

You can receive call-summary emails and connect Lighthouse to your firm's case management system. Confirm which records your setup saves there. The full call record stays in Lighthouse. Our [dashboard walkthrough](https://www.lighthouselegal.ai/blog/using-the-lighthouse-dashboard) shows the process.

### Test the same call

**Fictional example:** a caller has a broken wrist after a crash. They received urgent care but do not have the bill yet. Your firm wants a callback for significant injuries; the bill is optional.

Use that same story with both services. Have the caller give (212) 555-0147, then correct it to (212) 555-0164. Give each service the same questions, optional-bill rule and transfer contact.

A useful review note would look like this:

Example - What staff need to find

Injury and care

Broken wrist after a crash; seen at urgent care

Missing item

Bill not yet available; optional under the firm's instructions

Callback number

(212) 555-0164 - Use the corrected number for the callback

Next step

Staff review for a callback; check whether the attempted transfer connected

Illustrative review note, not a product result or a scored comparison.

Then check four things:

1.  **Conversation:** Does it understand the caller without repeating questions?
2.  **Record:** Are the injury, care and corrected callback number easy to find? Does the missing bill stay marked as missing?
3.  **Transfer:** Does the right person get the call? Repeat without answering the staff phone and check the saved transfer result.
4.  **Follow-up:** Can staff see why the inquiry needs review? Name the person who will make the callback if the transfer fails.

Repeat in Spanish with a fluent reviewer if needed. Your team still decides whether to accept the case.

### Compare the full cost

**Lighthouse:** a flat monthly fee based on call volume, without per-minute charges. [Request a quote](https://www.lighthouselegal.ai/#book-demo) for your firm.

**Smith.ai AI-first:** its [current plans](https://smith.ai/pricing/ai-receptionist) list 25 free calls a month, Pro at $150/month for 75 calls, and Enterprise at $500/month for 300 calls. The 75-call Pro plan lists extra calls at $2.50 each. These are October 22, 2026 prices; a different plan changes the math.

Its [live-agent billing guide](https://smithaivoiceassistant.freshdesk.com/support/solutions/articles/151000222817-live-agent-add-on-billing-overview) adds $3 per call for selected human tasks, such as an enabled caller-requested handoff, human verification or certain scheduling tasks. It charges that add-on once per call. Internal AI escalations, outage fallback and transfers to your business do not incur that add-on.

**Example bill:** 100 billable calls on the 75-call Pro plan, with 20 calls using a billable live-agent task:

-   Plan: **$150**.
-   25 extra calls at $2.50 each: **$62.50**.
-   20 live-agent add-ons at $3 each: **$60**.
-   Total for those items: **$272.50**, before taxes or other quoted charges.

This is arithmetic for that plan, not a quote for Smith.ai Hybrid or its human-first service. Ask Smith.ai to confirm which handoffs your setup would bill. Ask Lighthouse for a quote at the same volume and the staff coverage it assumes.

For a normal-month and busy-month worksheet, use our [answering-service cost guide](https://www.lighthouselegal.ai/learn/how-much-does-an-answering-service-cost).

To see Lighthouse handle your questions and staff transfers, [book a demo](https://www.lighthouselegal.ai/#book-demo). Bring the same sample call to each service.

Also considering Clerx? See [Lighthouse vs Clerx for personal injury intake](https://www.lighthouselegal.ai/learn/lighthouse-vs-clerx).

[Book a demo](https://www.lighthouselegal.ai/#book-demo) [See how it works](https://www.lighthouselegal.ai/#how-it-works)