AI and CX Glossary for Contact Centers

Explore definitions of key terms.

22 terms A–Z

A

• Agent assist — What is agent assist? Agent assist is AI-powered software that listens to or monitors a customer interaction in real time and then surfaces relevant guidance on the agent’s screen. As the conversation…
• AI chat agent — What is an AI chat agent? An AI chat agent is an AI-powered system that handles text-based customer interactions on digital channels such as your website, mobile app or any messaging platform…
• AI SMS agent — What is an AI SMS agent? An AI SMS agent is a system that conducts customer interactions over text message using artificial intelligence to understand what customers send, respond in natural language…
• AI voice agent — What is an AI voice agent? An AI voice agent is an automated system that handles inbound or outbound phone calls through natural, conversational interaction. Instead of asking callers to press 1…
• Auto QA (automated quality assurance) — What is Auto QA? Auto QA is the use of AI to evaluate customer-agent interactions automatically. That means scoring calls, chats and emails against defined quality criteria without a supervisor having to…
• Automatic speech recognition (ASR) — What is automatic speech recognition? Automatic speech recognition (ASR) is the technology that converts spoken language into written text. When a caller says “I need to reschedule my Thursday appointment,” ASR captures…
• Average handle time (AHT) — What is average handle time? Average handle time (AHT) is the average amount of time support agents spend on a single customer interaction from start to finish. It’s one of the most…

C

• Conversation intelligence — What is conversation intelligence? Conversation intelligence is technology that analyzes customer-agent interactions across channels to extract structured insights from conversation data. Rather than having supervisors review call recordings one at a time,…
• Customer effort score (CES) — What is customer effort score? Customer effort score (CES) is a customer experience metric that measures how much effort a customer had to put in to get their issue resolved. After an…
• Customer satisfaction score (CSAT) — What is customer satisfaction score? CSAT, or customer satisfaction score, is a customer experience metric that measures how satisfied a customer was with a specific interaction. After a support call, chat session…
• CX automation — What is CX automation? CX automation (or customer experience automation) is the application of AI and other software to handle customer interactions, workflows and processes without requiring manual intervention from a human…

E

• Explicit knowledge — What is explicit knowledge? Explicit knowledge is any enterprise knowledge that has been captured, stored and shared: written documents, process guides, policy manuals, FAQ articles, training materials, product specifications. The term is…

F

• First contact resolution (FCR) — What is first contact resolution? First contact resolution (FCR) is a contact center support metric that measures what percentage of customer interactions are fully resolved within a single contact. That means after…

I

• Institutional knowledge — What is institutional knowledge? Institutional knowledge is the full body of understanding that an organization has accumulated. It refers to everything a business and its staff collectively know about how it operates,…
• IVR (interactive voice response) — What is IVR? IVR, or interactive voice response, is an automated telephony system that interacts with callers to resolve their issue or connect them to a live agent. When you call a…

K

• Knowledge orchestration — What is knowledge orchestration? Knowledge orchestration is the practice of connecting every agent, AI or human, to a unified, centrally managed knowledge layer, and ensuring that layer stays current, consistent and accessible…

P

• Predictive dialer — What is a predictive dialer? A predictive dialer is an automated outbound calling system that dials multiple phone numbers simultaneously, screens out voicemails, busy signals and disconnected lines and connects available agents…

S

• Sentiment analysis — What is sentiment analysis? Sentiment analysis is a branch of natural language processing (NLP) that uses AI to identify and classify the emotional tone of text or speech. In a contact center…
• Speech to text (STT) — What is speech to text? Speech to text (STT) is a technology that converts spoken language into written text. In a contact center context, if a customer says “I need to check…

T

• Tacit knowledge — What is tacit knowledge? Tacit knowledge is the knowledge that lives inside people’s heads, built from experience, practice and repeated exposure to situations over time. It’s not codified, but points to valuable…
• Text to speech (TTS) — What is text to speech? Text to speech (TTS), also called speech synthesis, is a technology that converts written text into spoken audio. In a contact center context, it’s the voice layer…

V

• Voice biometrics — What is voice biometrics? Voice biometrics is a technology that uses the unique physical and behavioral characteristics of a person’s voice to verify their identity. Just as a fingerprint is unique to…