When a small business misses a phone call, it often misses a customer. Alfredo Salkeld has built his career around fixing that problem. Born in Peru and now based in North Carolina and Florida, Salkeld is co-founder of Upfirst AI, a Miami-based company whose AI receptionist answers calls for small businesses around the clock.
Upfirst’s software picks up the phone, answers customers’ questions, collects their details, books appointments and hands the call to a person when one is needed. The company works with thousands of businesses from law firms and veterinary clinics to property managers, contractors and restaurants.
Salkeld’s path to Upfirst ran through the same kind of business it now serves. After graduating from the University of Central Florida, he led marketing at SimpleTexting, a business texting platform that grew to more than 17,000 customers before it was acquired by Sinch in 2021.
He co-founded Upfirst with Gene Sigalov, an attorney-turned-entrepreneur who also founded SimpleTexting.
Along the way, Salkeld has helped set up voice AI agents for large companies, as well as for hundreds of small businesses.
What sets Salkeld apart is how he uses data. According to Upfirst’s figures, nearly a quarter of the calls its software answers come in outside normal business hours, and up to 10 percent arrive when the line is already busy. Without an AI receptionist, many of those calls would go to voicemail or simply go unanswered.
Salkeld has pushed that analysis further. In a study the company authored, Upfirst examined more than 450,000 inbound calls across 503 AI receptionists to learn which setup choices actually reduce hang-ups, and published its method so the findings could be tested.
Salkeld is also a growing voice on how AI should be used. Writing as a thought leader for Unite.AI, he has argued that nonprofits can use AI to take routine work off their teams’ plates, freeing staff to do what only people can: build trust and make every donor feel valued.
That idea, using automation to protect the human side of a relationship rather than replace it, runs through all of his work.
For Peru’s growing community of founders and technologists, Salkeld’s story shows how talent is helping shape the way AI reaches everyday businesses. Upfirst’s receptionists already speak Spanish in addition to other languages, a feature that matters to millions of Spanish-speaking customers across the Americas.
As AI voice agents move from novelty to necessity, Salkeld is betting that the winners will be the tools small businesses can afford, trust and set up in minutes.
