Catherine Weir

Plain-English definitions of the voice AI, telecom, and compliance terms you'll encounter when evaluating or running AI phone agents.

Glossary

Local numbers have a specific area code tied to a geographic region; toll-free numbers (800, 888, 877, etc.) are nationwide and free for the caller. Choosing the right type affects answer rates, costs, and how callers perceive your business.

What's the difference between local and toll-free numbers?

10DLC is the U.S. carrier-approved path for sending application-to-person SMS from a standard 10-digit local phone number. It requires brand and campaign registration before messages can be delivered.

What is 10DLC?

A large language model is a type of AI trained on massive amounts of text to understand and generate human language. It's the reasoning engine behind modern AI voice agents, chatbots, and writing tools.

What is a large language model (LLM)?

A PBX is a private branch exchange — the phone system that routes calls inside a business. Modern PBXes are cloud-hosted software; older ones were on-site hardware boxes.

What is a PBX?

A softphone is a software application that turns a computer or mobile device into a business phone — making and receiving calls over the internet instead of through traditional hardware.

What is a softphone?

A2P messaging is application-to-person text messaging — SMS or MMS sent from a business's software system to a consumer's phone. It's how appointment reminders, order updates, and two-factor codes reach you.

What is A2P messaging?

An AI answering service is a software alternative to a traditional call center that answers your business phone using AI — taking messages, booking appointments, and routing urgent calls without a human operator.

What is an AI answering service?

An AI phone agent is software that answers or makes phone calls using AI — handling conversations, completing tasks, and routing calls without a human operator on the line.

What is an AI phone agent?

An AI receptionist is an AI-powered software service that answers your business phone 24/7, greets callers by name, answers common questions, books appointments, and routes urgent calls to the right person.

What is an AI receptionist?

An AI voice agent is a software program that answers and makes phone calls on your behalf using natural, human-sounding speech — powered by a large language model and real-time voice synthesis.

What is an AI voice agent?

An auto attendant is an automated phone answering system that greets callers and offers menu options to route them to the right person or department — the pre-AI version of a phone receptionist.

What is an auto attendant?

Average handle time (AHT) is the average duration of a customer call — including talk time, hold time, and after-call work. It's a core contact center efficiency metric that AI voice agents reshape significantly.

What is average handle time (AHT)?

Call containment rate is the percentage of calls that are fully handled by an automated system — IVR or AI voice agent — without ever being transferred to a human. It's the primary efficiency metric for AI voice deployments.

What is call containment rate?

Call deflection is the practice of handling customer inquiries through self-service or automation so they never reach a live agent. AI voice agents are the newest and most capable call-deflection tool.

What is call deflection?

Call forwarding is a phone feature that automatically redirects incoming calls from one number to another — used to route business calls to mobile phones, answering services, or AI phone agents.

What is call forwarding?

Call routing is the logic a phone system uses to decide where an incoming call should go — which person, department, AI agent, voicemail, or external number. Smart call routing uses context to send the right calls to the right destination.

What is call routing?

CNAM is the database-driven name that appears on a recipient's caller ID when you call them — the business name or person name, not the number. Properly setting CNAM is essential for business call answer rates.

What is CNAM (Caller ID Name)?

Conversational AI is a category of AI software that can hold back-and-forth conversations with humans in natural language — across voice, chat, SMS, and in-app interfaces.

What is conversational AI?

E911 (Enhanced 911) is the system that routes 911 calls to the right emergency dispatcher and provides them with the caller's location. For VoIP and business phone systems, E911 configuration is a legal requirement with real safety implications.

What is E911?

First call resolution (FCR) is the percentage of customer calls resolved on the first contact, without a callback or escalation. It's one of the most important measures of customer service quality — and an area where AI voice agents are changing the game.

What is first call resolution (FCR)?

Generative voice AI is AI that generates new spoken audio — synthesizing natural human-like speech from text instead of playing pre-recorded audio. It's what makes modern AI phone agents sound human.

What is generative voice AI?

Intent detection is the part of AI that figures out what a person is trying to accomplish when they speak or type — the core skill that lets AI voice agents route and act on what callers actually want.

What is intent detection?

IVR is a phone technology that lets callers navigate a menu by pressing keys or speaking short commands. It's the 'press 1 for sales, press 2 for support' system most people know — increasingly replaced by conversational AI.

What is IVR (interactive voice response)?

Natural language understanding is the branch of AI focused on extracting meaning from human language — figuring out what someone is asking, what they mean by it, and what information they've provided.

What is natural language understanding (NLU)?

Number porting is the process of moving a phone number from one carrier or service to another while keeping the number itself unchanged. It's how you switch phone providers without losing your business number.

What is number porting?

SIP trunking is the service that connects your phone system to the public telephone network over the internet using the SIP protocol — replacing traditional phone lines with VoIP.

What is SIP trunking?

'Spam Likely' is a carrier-added label that appears on a recipient's phone when call analytics engines decide an incoming call is probably unwanted. Getting one attached to your business number can tank your answer rates overnight.

What is 'Spam Likely'?

Speech-to-text is the AI technology that converts spoken audio into written text in real time. It's how AI voice agents 'hear' what a caller is saying on the phone.

What is speech-to-text (STT)?

STIR/SHAKEN is a telecom framework that cryptographically verifies a caller's identity, helping carriers detect spoofed calls and pass legitimate calls through without a 'Spam Likely' label.

What is STIR/SHAKEN?

Text-to-speech is AI technology that converts written text into spoken audio. It's how AI voice agents 'talk' to callers — turning the agent's generated response into natural human-sounding speech.

What is text-to-speech (TTS)?

The TCPA (Telephone Consumer Protection Act) is the U.S. federal law that restricts unsolicited calls and text messages to consumers. It's the law you need to understand before running any outbound AI call or text campaign.

What is the TCPA?

Voice AI is the category of artificial intelligence that produces, understands, or converses in spoken language — covering everything from voice assistants to AI phone agents.

What is voice AI?

Voice cloning is AI technology that learns a specific person's voice from a short audio sample and can then generate new speech in that voice. Used for branded AI voice agents, assistive tech, and media production.

What is voice cloning?

VoIP (Voice over IP) is the technology that carries phone calls over the internet instead of traditional phone lines. It's the foundation of modern business phone systems and AI voice agents.

What is VoIP?

Feedback

Roadmap

Changelog

How 365agents connects natively with the tools you already use — calendars, CRMs, payments, e-commerce, field service, and more. Every integration is OAuth-based so setup takes 30 seconds, not an engineering project.

Integrations

365agents connects natively to ActiveCampaign via OAuth. Every qualified caller is added to the right list, tagged for segmentation, and enrolled in the automation that matches their intent.

ActiveCampaign + 365agents: phone leads flow into your marketing automations

365agents connects natively to Acuity Scheduling via OAuth. Your AI agent picks the right appointment type, checks real availability, collects intake fields, and books — directly into Acuity.

Acuity Scheduling + 365agents: phone bookings straight to your Acuity calendar

365agents connects natively to Asana via OAuth. When calls require follow-up action — quotes to send, documents to draft, call-backs to make — tasks are created in the right Asana project and assigned automatically.

Asana + 365agents: tasks created from phone calls, assigned to the right owner

365agents connects natively to BigCommerce via OAuth. Your AI agent answers order status, checks stock, handles returns, and keeps your BigCommerce customer records synced from every call.

BigCommerce + 365agents: AI voice support for your BigCommerce store

365agents connects natively to Calendly via OAuth. Your AI agent matches the caller's intent to the right Calendly event type, checks live availability, and books directly — no manual scheduling links.

Calendly + 365agents: route phone bookings to your Calendly events

365agents connects natively to Clio via OAuth. Every intake call creates or updates a Clio contact, opens a draft matter with the captured qualification, attaches the transcript, and triggers the right workflow.

Clio + 365agents: law firm intake calls into Clio matters and contacts

365agents connects natively to Constant Contact via OAuth. Every qualified caller is added to the right list and receives the follow-up campaign that matches their intent.

Constant Contact + 365agents: phone leads added to the right email list

365agents connects natively to Copper via OAuth. Every call creates or updates a Copper People record, logs transcripts and recordings, and keeps your Google-Workspace-native CRM in sync with your voice channel.

Copper + 365agents: Google Workspace–native CRM, now with voice

365agents connects natively to DocuSign via OAuth. Your AI agent triggers contract sends from the right templates with caller-specific fields already filled in — signed documents flow back automatically.

DocuSign + 365agents: send contracts for signature immediately after the call

365agents connects natively to DrChrono via OAuth. Your AI agent books appointments, handles refill requests, and captures patient intake — all writing back to DrChrono under a signed BAA.

DrChrono + 365agents: HIPAA-aware medical scheduling over the phone

365agents connects natively to Drift via OAuth. When chat visitors escalate or request a phone call, Drift hands them to your AI voice agent — keeping the conversation seamless across channels.

Drift + 365agents: unified web chat + phone coverage

365agents connects natively to Dropbox via OAuth. Your AI agent references Dropbox-stored knowledge and can send specific files to callers — brochures, price sheets, product specs — directly during the conversation.

Dropbox + 365agents: send files and reference documents during the call

365agents connects natively to Facebook Pages via OAuth. Messenger inquiries, page comments, and lead ads route to your AI agent, which handles them via voice callback or text-based conversation.

Facebook Pages + 365agents: auto-respond to Messenger leads and page inquiries

365agents connects natively to Follow Up Boss via OAuth. Every inbound real estate call becomes a qualified FUB lead, assigned to the right agent, with the transcript logged and follow-up triggered.

Follow Up Boss + 365agents: real estate phone leads captured and qualified 24/7

365agents connects natively to FreshBooks via OAuth. Your AI agent creates clients, draft invoices, and estimates directly in FreshBooks from call outcomes.

FreshBooks + 365agents: phone calls into invoices for your service business

365agents connects natively to Freshdesk via OAuth. Every call creates or updates a Freshdesk ticket with transcript, SLA-correct priority, and proper routing to the right agent group.

Freshdesk + 365agents: AI voice tickets integrated with your Freshdesk support stack

365agents connects natively to Gmail via OAuth. Your AI agent sends confirmation emails, meeting invites, quote summaries, and post-call follow-ups — from your Gmail account, in your voice.

Gmail + 365agents: send automated email follow-ups after every call

365agents connects natively to Google Ads via OAuth. Phone-sourced conversions report back to Google Ads so your campaigns optimize against real calls, not just web form fills.

Google Ads + 365agents: track phone leads back to the campaigns that generated them

365agents connects natively to Google Calendar via OAuth. Callers ask for an appointment, the AI checks your real calendar, proposes available times, and writes the booking back the moment the caller agrees.

Google Calendar + 365agents: book appointments live during the call

365agents connects natively to Google Drive via OAuth. Your AI agent reads from shared Drive files as part of its knowledge base, and can send specific documents to callers during or after the call.

Google Drive + 365agents: send files, attach documents, reference knowledge

365agents connects natively to Housecall Pro via OAuth. Inbound service calls create jobs in Housecall Pro with customer matching, service area checks, and technician assignment.

Housecall Pro + 365agents: service calls flow into your Housecall Pro schedule

365agents connects natively to HubSpot via OAuth. Every phone call creates or updates a contact, logs the transcript and recording, triggers the right workflows, and keeps your pipeline in sync with what your AI actually said.

HubSpot + 365agents: every call becomes a qualified contact with a transcript

365agents connects natively to Intercom via OAuth. Every phone call creates or updates the right Intercom conversation or user, with full transcript — so voice and chat history live together.

Intercom + 365agents: unified voice and chat support under one customer record

365agents connects natively to Jobber via OAuth. Your AI agent captures service requests and books them as jobs in Jobber — with customer matching, service item mapping, and crew assignment.

Jobber + 365agents: phone calls into scheduled Jobber jobs

365agents connects natively to Klaviyo via OAuth. Every caller is matched to (or added as) a Klaviyo profile, tagged with AI-captured attributes, and enrolled in the right lifecycle flow based on their intent.

Klaviyo + 365agents: e-commerce callers straight into your lifecycle flows

365agents connects natively to LinkedIn via OAuth. When a caller is a LinkedIn member, your AI surfaces their profile context during the call and syncs outcomes back for account-based follow-up.

LinkedIn + 365agents: B2B lead context and follow-up from your voice conversations

365agents connects natively to LionDesk via OAuth. Every inbound call creates or updates a LionDesk lead, assigns the right agent, and triggers the matching drip campaign.

LionDesk + 365agents: real estate phone leads flow into your LionDesk pipeline

365agents connects natively to Mailchimp via OAuth. Every qualified caller is added to the right audience, tagged correctly, and enrolled into the nurture sequence matching their intent.

Mailchimp + 365agents: turn phone leads into subscribers and nurture sequences

365agents connects natively to Microsoft Teams via OAuth. New-lead alerts, escalations, daily call summaries, and urgent notifications all post to the right Teams channels automatically.

Microsoft Teams + 365agents: voice AI alerts and call summaries in your Teams channels

365agents connects natively to Monday.com via OAuth. Calls create items on the right board, with status, owner, and deadline set automatically — so phone-sourced work stays in your team's workspace.

Monday.com + 365agents: phone calls into items on the right board

365agents connects natively to Notion via OAuth. Your AI agent reads from your Notion knowledge base during calls — SOPs, FAQs, product docs — and captures call notes back into the right Notion database.

Notion + 365agents: your AI's knowledge base lives in Notion

365agents connects natively to Microsoft Outlook / Microsoft 365 Calendar via OAuth. Your AI agent reads live availability, proposes times, and writes bookings directly to your Outlook calendar.

Outlook Calendar + 365agents: book Microsoft 365 appointments live

365agents connects natively to PandaDoc via OAuth. Your AI triggers proposal and contract generation from the right templates, pre-filled with caller-specific data — ready for signature within minutes.

PandaDoc + 365agents: proposals and contracts flow straight from call outcomes

365agents connects natively to Pipedrive via OAuth. Every call creates or updates a Person, ties to the right Deal, logs the transcript as an Activity, and moves deals through your pipeline stages automatically.

Pipedrive + 365agents: turn every inbound call into a deal on the board

365agents connects natively to QuickBooks Online via OAuth. Your AI agent creates customers, draft estimates, and invoices from call outcomes — and retrieves account balances during service calls.

QuickBooks Online + 365agents: phone calls into invoices, estimates, and customer records

365agents connects natively to Real Geeks via OAuth. Every inbound real estate call creates or updates a Real Geeks lead, with listing context from your IDX site and full qualification captured.

Real Geeks + 365agents: phone leads into your Real Geeks CRM with listing context

365agents connects natively to Salesforce via OAuth. Every call creates or updates a Lead or Contact, logs the full transcript as an Activity, and advances the right Opportunity stages based on call outcomes.

Salesforce + 365agents: every phone call in your Salesforce CRM

365agents connects natively to SendGrid via OAuth. Send appointment confirmations, follow-up emails, and transactional notifications at scale — with SendGrid's deliverability, templates, and tracking.

SendGrid + 365agents: transactional email at scale from your AI agent

365agents connects natively to ServiceTitan via OAuth. Inbound service calls become booked jobs on the dispatch board, with customer matching, job type routing, and technician assignment automatic.

ServiceTitan + 365agents: AI dispatch straight to your ServiceTitan board

365agents connects natively to ShipStation via OAuth. Your AI agent pulls real-time shipping status from ShipStation — the #1 support call for e-commerce, resolved without a human.

ShipStation + 365agents: AI answers 'where's my order?' from live tracking data

365agents connects natively to Shopify via OAuth. Your AI agent answers order-status calls, processes exchanges and refunds, handles product questions, and updates customer records — all tied to your Shopify data.

Shopify + 365agents: AI voice support for your e-commerce store

365agents connects natively to Slack via OAuth. Your AI posts new-lead alerts, VIP-caller notifications, urgent escalations, and call summaries to the right Slack channels — keeping your team informed without being on the phone.

Slack + 365agents: your AI agent notifies the right channel on every call

365agents connects natively to Square via OAuth. Your AI agent takes payments securely via PCI-compliant DTMF or tokenized links — and the transaction lands in your Square dashboard alongside your in-person sales.

Square + 365agents: phone payments into your Square account

365agents connects natively to Stripe via OAuth. Your AI agent collects phone payments via PCI-compliant DTMF masking or tokenized links — cards tokenize in Stripe before they ever touch a recording.

Stripe + 365agents: take phone payments securely without exposing card data

365agents connects natively to Twilio via OAuth. Send post-call SMS confirmations, appointment reminders, two-way conversations, and urgent alerts — all from your registered Twilio numbers.

Twilio + 365agents: programmatic SMS from your AI voice agent

365agents connects natively to WooCommerce via OAuth. Your AI agent answers order status, checks stock, processes returns, and updates customer records directly in your WooCommerce store.

WooCommerce + 365agents: AI voice support for your WordPress store

365agents connects natively to Xero via OAuth. Your AI agent creates invoices, draft estimates, and customer records in Xero from call outcomes — and retrieves account balances during service calls.

Xero + 365agents: phone calls into invoices and customer records

365agents connects natively to Yelp via OAuth. Yelp lead inquiries trigger immediate AI callbacks; review-related calls are routed with full context from your Yelp profile.

Yelp + 365agents: AI voice follow-up on Yelp inquiries and review responses

365agents connects natively to Zendesk via OAuth. Every support call creates or updates a ticket with the full transcript, proper categorization, and correct assignment — so your team never loses context.

Zendesk + 365agents: phone calls become tickets automatically

365agents connects natively to Zoho CRM via OAuth. Every call creates or updates a Lead or Contact, logs the transcript, triggers your Zoho workflows, and ties into the broader Zoho One ecosystem.

Zoho CRM + 365agents: every phone lead captured, qualified, and tracked

365agents connects natively to Zoom via OAuth. When a caller books a remote meeting, the AI generates the Zoom link, attaches it to the calendar event, and includes it in the confirmation text and email.

Zoom + 365agents: your AI creates Zoom meetings during the booking call

High-leverage messaging workflows powered by AI — appointment reminders, fraud alerts, shift broadcasts, gate access, cart recovery, maintenance intake, load board dispatch, and rich-media fan engagement.

Messaging use cases

An automated SMS recovery workflow for e-commerce carts — sends a three-message sequence with product details, objection handling, and a dynamic discount code, recovering 15–25% of abandoned carts automatically.

AI abandoned cart recovery by SMS: how it works

An AI appointment reminder system that sends 48-hour and 2-hour reminders, lets the recipient confirm, reschedule, or cancel by text reply, and writes the result back to your EHR or scheduling system — automatically.

AI appointment reminder SMS: how it works

A rich-media RCS workflow for sports venues and entertainment properties — game-day multimedia, parking and traffic guidance, in-seat food ordering, interactive polls, and real-time seat upgrade offers.

AI fan engagement with RCS: how it works

An AI-powered fraud alert workflow that texts the cardholder about a suspicious transaction, captures a YES or NO response in seconds, freezes the card immediately if fraud is confirmed, and initiates the replacement process — without a human agent.

AI fraud alert verification: how it works

An automated shortcode workflow that broadcasts available loads to qualified drivers, assigns the first valid reply, confirms the booking, and alerts the broker if no driver claims the load within 30 minutes.

AI load board broadcast for logistics: how it works

An automated SMS workflow that lets tenants text a maintenance issue with photos, auto-classifies urgency, creates a work order, schedules a vendor, and escalates emergencies — all without a property manager in the loop.

AI maintenance intake for property management: how it works

An AI shortcode workflow that broadcasts open shifts to credentialed nurses, accepts the first valid reply, verifies credentials, and updates your staffing system — filling open shifts in minutes instead of hours.

AI nurse shift broadcast: how it works

An automated SMS workflow that lets a truck driver text a load number, verifies credentials against the TMS, triggers the gate, and logs the access — completely unmanned, 24/7.

AI unmanned gate access: how it works

How 365agents works in the industries we serve — dental, medical, veterinary, HVAC and home services, legal, real estate, hospitality, and insurance. Overview, common calls handled, and setup checklists for each.

For your industry

The 365agents Dental Receptionist answers every call 24/7 — booking new and existing patients, confirming insurance, triaging emergencies by pain level, and sending SMS confirmations automatically.

AI voice agent for a dental practice: how 365agents works

The 365agents HVAC Dispatch agent handles emergency dispatch, maintenance scheduling, service area checks, and technician ETAs — 24/7, with gas and CO2 emergencies routing straight to 911.