IVR (interactive voice response)
IVR is a phone system that answers calls automatically and routes or serves callers through recorded menus, keypad input and, in newer systems, speech.
A classic IVR plays a recorded menu (“press 1 for billing, press 2 for support”) and reads the caller’s keypad presses, known as DTMF tones. It can route the call to the right queue, read out a balance, take a payment or collect an account number before a person picks up.
Speech-enabled IVRs let callers say a short phrase instead of pressing a key, but they still follow a fixed menu tree. A conversational IVR replaces the tree with an AI voice agent that understands open-ended requests, asks follow-up questions and can complete the task or hand the call to a person with the details attached.
