What is an AI voice agent?

Speech-to-text hears the caller, an LLM decides the response, and text-to-speech speaks it back — in real time, with the agent following a goal (qualify, book, answer) rather than a rigid script.

Answer and place calls, ask qualifying questions, capture structured data (budget, timeline, intent), detect voicemail, transfer to a human, and log outcomes.

IVR is menu trees ("press 1 for..."); a voice agent holds an open conversation and adapts to what the caller says.