Glossary
AI calling glossary
Plain-English definitions of the terms you'll meet when you automate business calls in India.
- AI voice agentSoftware that holds real phone conversations — understanding speech, deciding what to say, and speaking back.
- Voice botAn automated system that talks to callers by voice. Modern voice bots are AI voice agents.
- Conversational AIAI that can hold a back-and-forth conversation in natural language, by text or voice.
- IVR (Interactive Voice Response)A phone menu that routes callers by key presses: 'Press 1 for sales…'.
- DLT registrationRegistration on the telecom operators' Distributed Ledger Technology platform, required in India for commercial communication.
- TRAI TCCCPR rulesIndia's rules for commercial calls and messages: the Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations, 2018 (amended 2025).
- DND / NCPRIndia's Do Not Disturb registry (National Customer Preference Register), where people opt out of commercial calls and SMS.
- Speech-to-text (ASR)Technology that turns spoken words into text — the 'ears' of an AI voice agent.
- Text-to-speech (TTS)Technology that turns text into natural-sounding speech — the 'voice' of an AI voice agent.
- Voice cloningCreating a synthetic voice that sounds like a specific person, from a short recording.
- Call transcriptionA written record of everything said on a call.
- Call recording consentInforming callers that a call is recorded — and why.
- Lead qualificationFinding out whether a lead is worth your sales team's time — need, budget, timeline, authority.
- BANTBudget, Authority, Need, Timeline — a classic checklist for qualifying sales leads.
- Speed to leadHow quickly you contact a new lead after they enquire.
- Missed-call serviceA number people give a missed call to, to register interest — the call is cut and the number captured.
- Auto dialerSoftware that dials phone numbers automatically from a list.
- Predictive dialerA dialer that calls several numbers at once and predicts when an agent will be free.
- Concurrent callsHow many calls can happen at the same time.
- Virtual numberA phone number not tied to a physical SIM or line, routed over the internet to any destination.
- SIP trunkingConnecting phone calls over the internet using the SIP protocol, instead of physical lines.
- CPaaSCommunications Platform as a Service — APIs for calls, SMS and WhatsApp.
- Call deflectionResolving a caller's request without a human agent.
- First-call resolution (FCR)The share of calls where the customer's issue is solved on the first call.
- Sentiment analysisDetecting whether a caller sounds positive, neutral or upset.