This post is informational, not legal advice. Talk to a lawyer in your state before relying on any of the below. Laws change; we'll update this post when they do.

The one-party vs all-party baseline.

Federal law (the Wiretap Act, 18 U.S.C. § 2511) allows a call to be recorded with the consent of just one party. If you're the restaurant and you're a party to the call, you can record it under federal law.

Most US states followed federal law and adopted one-party consent. But eleven states are stricter — they require all parties to a call to consent before recording. Calling into one of those states, or calling from one, from anywhere in the country, exposes you to their stricter rule.

The eleven all-party states.

As of 2026:

  • California (Cal. Penal Code § 632)
  • Connecticut (Conn. Gen. Stat. § 52-570d)
  • Delaware (Del. Code tit. 11 § 1335)
  • Florida (Fla. Stat. § 934.03)
  • Illinois (720 ILCS 5/14-2)
  • Maryland (Md. Code Cts. & Jud. Proc. § 10-402)
  • Massachusetts (Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 272 § 99)
  • Montana (Mont. Code § 45-8-213)
  • Nevada (Nev. Rev. Stat. § 200.620)
  • New Hampshire (N.H. Rev. Stat. § 570-A:2)
  • Washington (Wash. Rev. Code § 9.73.030)

Pennsylvania is sometimes counted as a twelfth — the statute is murky and case law has interpreted it as all-party in practice (18 Pa. Cons. Stat. § 5704). Treat Pennsylvania as all-party to be safe.

What consent actually means.

In all-party states, you need affirmative knowledge or consent from every party on the line before recording. The two operational ways to get this:

  1. A pre-call announcement played first— some variation of “this call may be recorded.” Continuing the call after a clear announcement is widely treated as implied consent, though the specifics vary state to state, and the announcement has to come before any substantive conversation. Not at the end.
  2. Explicit verbal consent.“Do you consent to this call being recorded?” followed by a yes. Rare in practice for inbound customer-service lines because it adds friction.

How this maps to an AI phone line.

Two things are true at once: calls to an AI agent are recorded and transcribed — that's where transcripts, order-accuracy checks, and dispute evidence come from — and the consent rules above apply to those recordings the same as to any other recording. So an AI line doesn't get you out of the homework; it makes the homework worth doing properly once, instead of retraining every host you ever hire.

Where R.ai actually stands

So you can hold this post against the product: R.ai records every inbound call, and R.ai does not play a spoken recording or AI announcement at the start of those calls. There is no dashboard setting to turn one on. Whether your line needs one depends on the states your callers dial from, and that determination is yours to make with your own counsel — it is not made for you by the platform. If you conclude your line needs an announcement, tell us before you go live.

What about credit card recording?

Recording laws are a distinct concern from PCI scope. Even in a one-party state where the recording itself is legal, you cannot store an audio clip containing card number, CVV, and expiration without taking on full PCI-DSS scope.

R.ai avoids the problem by keeping card entry off the recorded leg entirely. When it's time to pay, the call is handed to the telephony provider's PCI-DSS Level 1 certified payment flow and the caller keys the card in on the phone. The agent never hears those digits, they are never part of the recording, and R.ai's servers receive only a token — so there is no card audio to pause around, store, or subpoena in the first place.

State-by-state restaurant compliance checklist.

If you're in an all-party state:

  • Decide — in writing, with counsel — how your line satisfies consent, and confirm the approach actually works in the states your callers dial from. R.ai does not play a spoken announcement, so that decision is not made for you by the platform.
  • Keep card entry off the recorded leg — never store audio containing card data. (With R.ai the card is keyed in inside the telephony provider's PCI boundary, so this is handled for you.)
  • Brief the staff who pick up back-line transfers. If they record a transferred call — or start recording mid-call, say on a complaint — the same consent rules apply to that leg, and satisfying them falls to the person holding the phone.
  • Retention: have a written retention policy and stick to it. R.ai retains call recordings for the duration of your service relationship and, unless deletion is requested, thereafter; deletion is available on verified request. The full schedule is in the privacy policy.

If you're audited.

State attorneys general rarely audit small restaurants for call recording violations on their own — these laws are usually enforced when a customer complains, files a private civil suit, or names you in a class action.

The damages can be steep — California's privacy act allows statutory damages of $5,000 per violation plus attorney's fees (Cal. Penal Code § 637.2). That is the reason to get a real answer here rather than an assumption.

The TL;DR.

Eleven (twelve if you count PA) US states require everyone on a call to consent to recording. Any line that records — AI or human, R.ai or anyone else — needs a consent approach that fits the states its callers dial from. R.ai records and does not announce it, so on an R.ai line that approach is yours to settle with counsel. Settling it deliberately is the whole job; assuming it is the risk.