SMS agent
An SMS agent is an AI assistant reachable on a regular 10-digit phone number through text messages. It answers in real time, holds context across the thread, and can act on real tools. The text message is both the input and the interface.
Why it matters
SMS has the highest delivery floor of any messaging surface in the US. It works on every phone. It does not require an app install. It does not require an account. It is the surface every contact in your phone is already reachable on. For an AI assistant whose value depends on being reached at any moment in any context, SMS is the lowest-friction surface available.
The trade-off is the surface's limitations. SMS does not render rich media well. SMS has carrier-imposed throughput limits. SMS in the US is governed by A2P 10DLC rules that determine deliverability and throttling. Building an SMS agent that just works requires absorbing all of those constraints behind a clean interface.
The advantage is reach. A user who is one tap away from texting their AI agent in the same thread as their spouse and their plumber treats the agent as a contact, not a destination. The cumulative friction of asking is zero. The number of small operational asks per day rises by an order of magnitude.
How Ajeris handles this
Ajeris provisions an SMS-capable 10-digit number for each user (and for each business agent) through Twilio. Brand registration with The Campaign Registry is handled in the setup wizard. STOP / HELP replies are honored automatically. The agent reads inbound, responds within seconds, and writes to the user's memory the same way it does on every other channel.
