Voice agent
A voice agent is a conversational AI that talks with people over a voice channel (a phone line or a browser), listening, deciding and speaking in real time. It often takes actions such as booking or looking something up.
Also called: AI voice agent, voice bot, voice assistant
A voice agent is conversational AI with a job. Beyond answering questions it typically follows a goal, collect the caller’s details, qualify a lead, book an appointment, route to the right person, and can call other systems to get that done.
The voice channel adds constraints text does not have. The agent cannot show a list; it has to speak one. It must decide when the caller has finished talking, cope with interruptions and background noise, and answer quickly enough that silence does not feel like a dropped line.
An AI receptionist is a voice agent specialized for inbound business calls. When comparing them, the useful questions are how it handles interruption, how it keeps context through a call, what it can look up while talking, and when it hands off to a person.