Firstly, you’ve definitely encountered Interactive Voice Response, or IVR. Remember when you called your bank or post office and you heard on the other end press 1 if you need this, 2 if you need that, etc. That’s IVR.
It is a system that switches on previously recorded messages, and the caller selects the appropriate menu item by pressing the corresponding number on their phone. IVR uses the DTMF tone recognition system and, in a few cases, in a very narrow way, speech recognition - it can understand a simple YES / NO. But you have to be as precise as possible when answering. IVR will not understand the intentions and nuances of natural language. It is unable to explain the problem and answer the question.
Apifonica Voicebot is an AI-voicebot, so it uses AI-based machine learning and natural language processing to understand natural language and respond to it in a natural way.
Let’s compare with an example. Client calls the bank and says that their card is not working. IVR will only present options to choose from or ask YES / NO questions to redirect the call to a manager. Voicebot can understand the client’s problem however they formulate it, for example:
My card doesn't work
I couldn't pay with my card
I couldn't make a transaction
Your bank is a joke, I couldn't buy a new iPhone because the card won’t work.
Well, Voicebot can recognize each of these variants and help the customer solve the problem.