Automation at a reception means one specific thing: a visitor arrives, deals with a screen instead of a person, and the building responds anyway. The host is told, the badge prints, the record exists. That works well for expected visitors at a quiet door and badly for a lobby full of confused deliveries, and the difference between those two outcomes is mostly about which arrivals you automate rather than how good the software is.
What automation actually handles
Expected visitors, contractors who have been before, and anyone with a name and a host they can spell. That covers most arrivals at most workplaces. The screen takes the details, notifies the host, prints the badge and records the visit, and the whole interaction takes less time than finding somebody to ask. Automated reception is at its best exactly where a receptionist's time was being spent on repetition.
What still needs a person
Deliveries with no name, visitors with no appointment, anyone who does not read the language on the screen, and every situation where the answer is a judgement rather than a field. A site that automates the desk without deciding who handles these has not removed the work, it has moved it to whoever happens to be walking through the lobby.
Unstaffed does not mean unattended
The successful unstaffed lobbies all have one thing in common: a way to reach a human quickly. A phone on the wall that rings a real extension, or a button on the screen that pages someone. Without it, the first visitor who does not fit the flow stands in an empty lobby, and that is the story that gets told about the system afterwards.
Deciding whether your door suits it
Count the arrivals in a normal week and split them into expected and unexpected. If expected is the large majority, automation will take real work off the desk. If the lobby is mostly deliveries, walk-ins and questions, you are buying a screen that a person will end up standing next to.
Questions people ask about automated visitor management system
Does an automated reception replace the receptionist?
Rarely, and it is a bad way to sell it. It removes the repetitive part of the job so the person can do the parts that need judgement, or it lets a small site run the desk from another room.
What happens to deliveries?
Decide before you buy. Most sites either keep a delivery point separate from the visitor flow or add a delivery option that pages a named person.
Is a screen enough on its own?
Only with a reliable way to reach a human. The screen handles the expected arrivals; the phone or page button handles everything else.