AI Front Office for Defense Contractors. The AI receptionist for defense contractors and their suppliers
Zanus AI is an AI receptionist for defense contractors that answers the switchboard, the business development line, the website chat, RFQ forms and shared inboxes, day and night. It speaks only from the public information you approve, logs each request with its due date and puts contracts, export and security matters through to your people.
TRY IT FREE NOWNo credit card · Ready in 2 minutesReady to buy? See plans & pricing ›
7 days free · per company, never per seat · nothing to install
Easy setup
Answers & books
Sells
Helps your team
You talk. Lisa sets it up.
You“Contracting officers always go to the contracts manager; security matters go to the security office.”
Lisa“Calls from contracting officers transfer to the contracts manager, and security matters go to the security office before anything else. Apply?”
Any setting, in any module · applied only on your yes
Start with the one thing you need. Add more anytime by asking Lisa.
The whole Front Office › · All industries ›
Who reaches you
Who the AI answers for Defense Contractors
- Buyers and subcontract administrators at primes asking for a quote or a purchase order's status
- Contracting officers and program offices asking for a capability statement or a point of contact
- Depots, units and training sites calling about spares, repairs and fielded equipment
- Small businesses and teaming partners asking how to work with you
- Visitors who need a briefing, a site visit or the right person after hours
- Industry-day and trade-show contacts waiting for the follow-up you promised
The front office
What an AI receptionist for defense contractors answers
One front office answers every call, chat, form and e-mail a buyer, program office or depot sends, from the same approved public information, so missed calls no longer cost you a quote or a briefing.
The switchboard and BD line
AI Phone takes the call answering from the first ring, in your company's name: it sorts buyer, program office, depot or prospective supplier by what they say, and your call handling rules send each to the department or named person you chose.
RFQ and inquiry forms
AI Web Forms replies the moment an RFQ, a teaming request or a briefing request is sent, checks the sender's company e-mail and website, and files the request with its due date for your estimators.
The BD, info and RFQ inboxes
AI E-mail sorts each message to its desk and drafts the reply from your released information; contracts, export and technical mail can sit on a desk where a person writes every answer.
The public website
AI Webchat answers visitors by text or voice from your capability statement and approved pages, opens the page that explains a process, and hands a request for a person to your team.
Briefings and site visits
AI Booking brings appointment scheduling into the call: it offers only the free slots of the right business development lead, keeps the minimum notice your facility needs, and can hold a site visit as a request until security confirms it.
Requests for proposal
AI Proposal Studio reads a solicitation filed from the inbox into a register of requirements, and the bid owner decides what is answered, priced and sent.
A contractor's year
The moments a virtual receptionist for defense contractors covers
Fiscal year-end
In late September, buyers from several primes and agencies call to place orders before funds lapse. However high the call volume climbs, every call is answered at once and none waits in a hold queue.
A sources-sought notice
A notice asks interested firms for capability statements by Friday. Requests for yours arrive by phone, form and mail, and each gets a reply drafted from your released pages or the download form that sends the document.
Industry day
After an industry day, attendees write and call all week. Each is answered from the same released facts, saved under his organization and given a follow-up written from what he asked at your table.
The overnight depot call
A maintainer at a depot abroad calls at 3 AM your time, far outside business hours, about a spare. The AI answers in his language, takes the part number and the callback number, and files it for the morning.
A request for proposal lands
A statement of work arrives by mail with its attachments. The sender gets a receipt, the request opens in the Proposal Studio, and its requirements are read into a register for the bid owner.
Plant shutdown week
During the holiday shutdown, callers hear the closure message you wrote, nobody can book a briefing into a closed day, and messages wait for the first morning back.
Real screens
Inside the AI front desk for defense contractors
Real Zanus AI screens with demo data, framed for a defense supplier's switchboard, inboxes and business development desk.
Compared
AI receptionist for government contractors or an answering service?
A person at the desk, outside receptionist services and classic answering services all take the call; the AI also answers from your released facts, books the briefing and writes the call onto the buyer's record.
| What a defense supplier's front desk needs | A person at the front desk | An answering service | Voicemail | Zanus AI |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Calls during the fiscal year-end rush | One call at a time, the rest on hold | Operators take messages | Rings until someone is free | Every call answered at once,: with no hold queue |
| Overnight calls from depots abroad | Nobody until the morning | A message taken in one language | A recording heard much later | Answered day and night,: in the caller's language |
| Questions about capabilities | Answered when the person knows | Read from a call sheet | Not answered | Answered from your released pages,: never improvised |
| Export, contract or security matters | Depends on who picks up | A message for someone | Left in a mailbox | Put through to the named person,: with who is calling and why |
| RFQs by form and e-mail | Handled between calls | Phone only | Phone only | Receipts sent in seconds,: due dates on the record |
| A record of what was said | Notes typed later, if at all | A short message slip | A recording to replay | Transcript and summary,: on the contact's record |
Guardrails
What stays with your contracts, export and security staff
The AI handles the answering, the logging and the booking; every judgment a defense company must make stays with a named person, by rules you write once.
Classified and controlled information
Front Office holds released, public information only. Classified, export-controlled and controlled technical data stay in the systems your security office approves, and Zanus AI makes no claim under any defense security framework.
Export questions
A question about an item's export classification or a foreign buyer's eligibility gets your approved line and goes to the person who owns export questions; the AI never gives a determination.
Prices, delivery and terms
Quotes come only from your approved list and wait for your yes. The AI makes no delivery promise beyond what your records show and accepts no terms printed on a purchase order.
Security incidents
A security matter goes to your security office first, and for emergency calls your team writes the line each caller must hear. The AI asks nothing on the substance; your officer hears who is calling and why before the call connects.
Program details
Program names, schedules and customers stay off every channel unless your release list carries them, held there by a NEVER rule that runs its own test every night.
Staff-only routing lists
Escalation lists, coverage rotas and visitor procedures marked internal answer your staff through the Team Assistant and never surface to a caller, a chat visitor or an e-mail.
Set-up
Set up the AI receptionist for defense contractors in 2 minutes
Lisa reads your public site
Your capability, facilities, supplier and contact pages become the answers. Untick any page that must not be used, and it is dropped from every channel at once.
Your desks and owners
Tell Lisa who takes business development, contracts, program support, customer service and security calls, and in which hours each can be reached; each desk then answers as an AI voice of its own.
Your release rules
Say what may never be said, such as program names or delivery dates, and which topics always go to a person. Each rule gets a test question.
Forward the lines
Forward the switchboard and the program hotline; calls are answered from that moment, with no porting. The free trial gives seven days, no credit card, to read every call it answered.
Questions & answers
Defense contractors' frequently asked questions about an AI receptionist
What is an AI receptionist for defense contractors?
It is software that answers a defense supplier's phone, website chat, forms and inboxes like a trained front desk, with AI answering on every line at once. Zanus AI greets each caller, answers from the public information you approved, books briefings and site visits, logs RFQs with their due dates and puts contractual, export and security matters through to a named person.
Can an AI receptionist follow a defense company's release rules?
Yes, because it can only say what you gave it. The AI answers from your capability statement and released pages; a sentence your knowledge does not support is held back, and a question nobody wrote down goes to a person instead of being guessed.
Does Zanus AI handle classified, export-controlled or controlled technical information?
No. Front Office is made for released, public information only, and it is not offered as a system for classified or controlled data under any framework. Keep that material where your security office approves; a caller who starts sharing such detail hears your approved line and is put through to its owner.
Can it acknowledge an RFQ that arrives after hours?
Yes. An RFQ sent by form, e-mail or phone after hours gets its receipt at once, and the answers to your intake questions, the due date and the part numbers land on the buyer's record. Files attached to a form go to his contact, never into the AI's knowledge, and your estimators open them in your own systems.
Can contracting officers and security calls reach named people directly?
Yes. Call routing reads the reason behind your inbound calls and can send contracting officers to the contracts manager and security matters to the security office. Your colleague hears who is calling and why before the call connects, and each department runs AI first, people first or AI only.
Can AI receptionists take after-hours and emergency calls for a defense supplier?
After hours each department runs the mode you choose: full AI service, take-a-message only or voicemail. For emergency calls your team writes the routing rule, meaning the line every caller hears first and the named colleague the call goes to when that person can be reached; the AI adds no promise of its own.
What is the difference between virtual receptionist services and an AI receptionist?
With virtual receptionists, operators on your line read a call sheet and take messages. Zanus AI answers from your released knowledge in the caller's language, books the briefing, logs the RFQ and writes every call onto the contact's record, across the phone, the chat, the forms and the inboxes.
How is AI being used in government contracting?
Mostly on the work around the bid: answering inquiries, logging requests, drafting replies and first proposal drafts for people to approve. Zanus AI does that front office work for defense and government contractors, while decisions on bids, prices, terms and releases stay with your business development, contracts and security staff.
Which languages does it speak with overseas partners and depots?
The caller's own. The chat and the voices work in 40 languages, so an overseas integrator or a depot abroad is answered in the words he uses, and the conversation is still written onto his record in a form your staff can read.
Does the AI promise prices, delivery dates or contract terms?
No. A quote comes only from your approved list and waits for your yes, an order's status is given only as your records hold it, and the terms printed on a purchase order are read onto the order for your contracts staff, never accepted by the AI.
How much does an AI receptionist for a defense contractor cost?
Zanus AI is priced per company, never per seat, so the switchboard, business development, contracts and the service desk share one subscription. You pick the modules you need; the plans are on the pricing page, and the Front Office free trial runs 7 days with no credit card.
Can we keep the switchboard and program hotline numbers we have?
Yes. Forward each existing phone number to your Front Office line and the AI answers from that moment, with no porting. Each line can carry its own departments, such as business development, contracts, program support and the security office.
How long does it take to set up?
2 minutes. Lisa reads your public website, asks who takes each kind of call and which topics always go to a person, and shows every change before and after. Nothing is applied until you say yes, and you can hear it answer before you decide.
Does it replace our business development or contracts staff?
No. It works as a small call center of AI departments that takes the answering, the logging and the first drafts, so your people start from a record instead of a voicemail box. Bid decisions, prices, terms, export questions and every release stay with them, and the AI hands a caller over with the reason announced.
Award-winning AI
Winner at CES 2026, ISE 2026 and TMCnet Enterprise AI Product of the Year.
REAL AI - the whole Front Office is AI, not old software with an AI button.
Awards & trade shows ›
Give Lisa your website.
She sets up your business in 2 minutes.
Other software makes you learn it. Zanus AI learns your business.
Try it free on your own business — no credit card, per company, never per seat.
Ready to buy? See plans & pricing ›
Or call +1 (954) 736-3939 — the AI answers.