# AI Front Desk Glossary: Calls, Chat & AI Terms

Source: https://insertchat.com/glossary

> Plain-English definitions of AI receptionist, call forwarding, IVR, chatbot, and customer service terms, with small-business examples and how InsertChat handles each.

This glossary defines the terms small businesses meet when they automate calls, website chat, texts, and email: answering services, call forwarding and routing, conversational AI, human handoff, customer service metrics, and the rules for business texting. Each entry gives a plain definition, an example, and how InsertChat handles it.

## AI front desk and answering

The ways a business gets its phone answered, from a human receptionist to an AI one.

- [After-hours answering service](https://insertchat.com/glossary/after-hours-answering-service): An after-hours answering service answers a business’s calls outside its opening hours, such as evenings, weekends, and holidays.
- [AI answering service](https://insertchat.com/glossary/ai-answering-service): An AI answering service answers a business’s phone calls with voice AI instead of call center staff.
- [AI receptionist](https://insertchat.com/glossary/ai-receptionist): An AI receptionist is software that answers a business’s phone calls with a natural, conversational voice.
- [Answering service](https://insertchat.com/glossary/answering-service): An answering service is a company or system that answers a business’s phone calls when the business cannot, most often after hours or during busy periods.
- [Virtual receptionist](https://insertchat.com/glossary/virtual-receptionist): A virtual receptionist is a receptionist who answers your business calls remotely instead of sitting at your front desk.
- [Voice AI agent](https://insertchat.com/glossary/voice-ai-agent): A voice AI agent is software that holds a spoken conversation and takes actions on someone’s behalf.

## Phone numbers and call handling

Numbers, forwarding, routing, and what happens to a call before anyone says hello.

- [Auto attendant](https://insertchat.com/glossary/auto-attendant): An auto attendant is a phone system feature that answers calls with a recorded greeting and a menu, such as “press 1 for sales, press 2 for support,” then routes the caller to an extension, department, or voicemail based on the key pressed.
- [Call forwarding](https://insertchat.com/glossary/call-forwarding): Call forwarding is a phone feature that sends incoming calls from one number to another.
- [Call routing](https://insertchat.com/glossary/call-routing): Call routing is the set of rules that decides where an incoming call goes and who answers it.
- [Call screening](https://insertchat.com/glossary/call-screening): Call screening is the practice of finding out who is calling and why before deciding how to handle the call.
- [Conditional call forwarding](https://insertchat.com/glossary/conditional-call-forwarding): Conditional call forwarding redirects a call only when a condition is met: nobody answers within a set number of rings, the line is busy, or the phone is off or out of coverage.
- [Full-duplex voice](https://insertchat.com/glossary/full-duplex-voice): Full-duplex voice means both sides of a conversation can speak and listen at the same time, as on a normal phone call.
- [IVR (interactive voice response)](https://insertchat.com/glossary/ivr): IVR, or interactive voice response, is an automated phone system that interacts with callers through recorded prompts, keypad tones, and limited speech recognition.
- [Live call transfer](https://insertchat.com/glossary/live-call-transfer): A live call transfer moves an active call from whoever answered it, a receptionist, an agent, or an AI, to another person while the caller stays on the line.
- [Local phone number](https://insertchat.com/glossary/local-phone-number): A local phone number is a standard number with an area code tied to a city or region, also called a geographic number.
- [Missed call](https://insertchat.com/glossary/missed-call): A missed call is an incoming call that ends before anyone answers, because nobody picked up, the line was busy, or the caller hung up while ringing or on hold.
- [Number porting](https://insertchat.com/glossary/number-porting): Number porting is moving a phone number from one service provider to another so the business or person keeps the same number.
- [Overflow calls](https://insertchat.com/glossary/overflow-calls): Overflow calls are incoming calls that arrive when everyone who normally answers is busy or unavailable, so they would otherwise ring out, hit voicemail, or wait on hold.
- [Toll-free number](https://insertchat.com/glossary/toll-free-number): A toll-free number is a phone number that callers can dial without being charged for the call, because the business that owns it pays instead.
- [VoIP (voice over internet protocol)](https://insertchat.com/glossary/voip): VoIP, or voice over internet protocol, is technology that carries phone calls over an internet connection instead of a traditional analog phone line.

## Conversational AI

How an AI assistant understands a request and where its answers come from.

- [AI hallucination](https://insertchat.com/glossary/ai-hallucination): An AI hallucination is a response from an AI system that sounds confident but is false, made up, or unsupported by its sources, such as an invented price, policy, or appointment time.
- [Chatbot persona](https://insertchat.com/glossary/chatbot-persona): A chatbot persona is the consistent identity an AI assistant presents to customers: its name, tone of voice, level of formality, typical answer length, and, on the phone, its spoken voice and greeting.
- [Conversational AI](https://insertchat.com/glossary/conversational-ai): Conversational AI is technology that lets software hold a natural conversation with people by text or voice.
- [Fallback intent](https://insertchat.com/glossary/fallback-intent): A fallback intent is the response a chatbot or voice assistant uses when it can’t match a message to anything it knows how to handle, or doesn’t have the answer.
- [Intent recognition](https://insertchat.com/glossary/intent-recognition): Intent recognition is the step where an AI system identifies what a person is trying to do, such as book an appointment, ask a price, cancel, complain, or report an emergency.
- [Knowledge base](https://insertchat.com/glossary/knowledge-base): A knowledge base is an organized collection of information that people or software use to answer questions.
- [Natural language understanding (NLU)](https://insertchat.com/glossary/natural-language-understanding): Natural language understanding, or NLU, is the part of AI that works out what a person means from the words they use.
- [Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG)](https://insertchat.com/glossary/retrieval-augmented-generation): Retrieval-augmented generation, or RAG, is a technique where an AI system first searches a set of documents for passages relevant to a question, then writes its answer using those passages.
- [Slot filling](https://insertchat.com/glossary/slot-filling): Slot filling is how a conversational assistant gathers the specific details a task requires, called slots, such as a name, phone number, address, service type, or preferred date.

## Website chat and conversation design

The chat on your site and the shape of a conversation from greeting to resolution.

- [Chat session](https://insertchat.com/glossary/chat-session): A chat session is a single conversation between a website visitor and a chatbot or support agent, from the first message until it is resolved or goes inactive.
- [Clarification question](https://insertchat.com/glossary/clarification-question): A clarification question is a question an assistant asks when a customer’s request is ambiguous or a detail is unclear, instead of guessing.
- [Conversation flow](https://insertchat.com/glossary/conversation-flow): A conversation flow is the planned path a chatbot or voice assistant follows from the first greeting to an outcome, such as an answer, a booking, or a handoff.
- [Conversation state](https://insertchat.com/glossary/conversation-state): Conversation state is everything a system knows about a conversation at a given moment: what the customer wants, which details have been collected, what has already happened, and where the conversation stands, such as handled by AI, waiting on the customer, needing a person, or resolved.
- [Follow-up question](https://insertchat.com/glossary/follow-up-question): A follow-up question is a question that depends on what was just said in a conversation, such as “how long does that take?” or “what about weekends?” after an answer.
- [Iframe embedding](https://insertchat.com/glossary/iframe-embedding): Iframe embedding is placing one web page inside another using an HTML inline frame, so content hosted elsewhere, such as a chat window, map, or booking calendar, appears as part of your page.
- [Website chatbot](https://insertchat.com/glossary/website-chatbot): A website chatbot is a chat window on a business’s website where an automated assistant answers visitors’ questions in real time.
- [White-label chatbot](https://insertchat.com/glossary/white-label-chatbot): A white-label chatbot is AI chat software that one company builds and another company rebrands and delivers to its own clients.

## Inbox and human handoff

How your team shares customer conversations and steps in when a person is needed.

- [Escalation](https://insertchat.com/glossary/escalation): Escalation is moving a customer issue to someone with more authority, expertise, or urgency than the first point of contact, such as from a chatbot to staff, or from staff to the owner.
- [Human handoff](https://insertchat.com/glossary/human-handoff): Human handoff is the point where an AI assistant passes a customer conversation to a person, along with everything said so far.
- [Omnichannel communication](https://insertchat.com/glossary/omnichannel-communication): Omnichannel communication means a business serves customers across phone, website chat, SMS, email, and messaging apps as one connected experience.
- [Shared inbox](https://insertchat.com/glossary/shared-inbox): A shared inbox is one workspace where a team sees and answers customer conversations together instead of in separate personal inboxes.

## Customer service metrics

The numbers that show whether customers get answered quickly and completely.

- [Average response time](https://insertchat.com/glossary/average-response-time): Average response time is the average time a customer waits for each reply from a business across a conversation, not just the first one.
- [Call abandonment rate](https://insertchat.com/glossary/call-abandonment-rate): Call abandonment rate is the percentage of incoming calls where the caller hangs up before reaching anyone, while ringing, during a phone menu, or on hold.
- [First call resolution](https://insertchat.com/glossary/first-call-resolution): First call resolution, or FCR, is the percentage of customer calls or contacts fully resolved during the first interaction, without a callback, transfer, or repeat contact.
- [First response time](https://insertchat.com/glossary/first-response-time): First response time, or FRT, is how long a customer waits between contacting a business and receiving the first real reply, whether by chat, email, text, or a returned call.
- [No-show rate](https://insertchat.com/glossary/no-show-rate): A no-show rate is the percentage of booked appointments where the customer neither arrives nor cancels in advance.
- [Speed to lead](https://insertchat.com/glossary/speed-to-lead): Speed to lead is the time between a new prospect reaching out, by calling, chatting, filling in a form, or texting, and the business’s first meaningful response.

## Leads and appointments

Turning a first inquiry into a contact, a qualified lead, and a kept appointment.

- [Appointment reminders](https://insertchat.com/glossary/appointment-reminders): Appointment reminders are messages a business sends before a scheduled appointment, usually by text or email, to remind the customer of the date, time, and location and make it easy to confirm or reschedule.
- [Appointment scheduling software](https://insertchat.com/glossary/appointment-scheduling-software): Appointment scheduling software is a tool that lets customers book, reschedule, or cancel time with a business based on its real availability.
- [Lead capture](https://insertchat.com/glossary/lead-capture): Lead capture is recording a potential customer’s contact details and request when they first reach out, so the business can follow up and win the job.
- [Lead qualification](https://insertchat.com/glossary/lead-qualification): Lead qualification is deciding whether a new inquiry is a good fit and how urgently to follow up, based on what the prospect needs, where they are, their timeline, and their readiness to buy.

## Compliance and messaging rules

The rules behind business texting, automated calls, and health information.

- [A2P 10DLC](https://insertchat.com/glossary/a2p-10dlc): A2P 10DLC is the US framework for business text messaging sent from standard 10-digit phone numbers.
- [Business associate agreement (BAA)](https://insertchat.com/glossary/business-associate-agreement): A business associate agreement, or BAA, is a contract required by HIPAA between a healthcare provider or health plan and a vendor that creates, receives, stores, or transmits protected health information on its behalf.
- [TCPA (Telephone Consumer Protection Act)](https://insertchat.com/glossary/tcpa): The Telephone Consumer Protection Act, or TCPA, is a 1991 US federal law that restricts telemarketing calls, autodialed calls and texts, and calls using prerecorded or artificial voices.