What is the difference between an AI voice agent and a voicebot?

Traditional voicebots follow pre-scripted paths.

They recognize specific keywords and route callers through decision trees and break down as soon as a caller says something unexpected.

Televanta's AI voice agent uses large language models to understand intent in natural language, handle topic changes, manage interruptions, and hold multi-turn conversations.

The practical difference is significant: voicebots frustrate callers while AI voice agents resolve their issues.

For example, with a traditional voicebot, a caller saying "I want to know about my standing order" might trigger "I'm sorry, I didn't understand that" because the system only recognises "transfer money" as a keyword.

Televanta understands the intent correctly and responds with the right information.

Use case: A credit union replaces its decade-old voicebot with Televanta.

Within 30 days, call abandonment rates fall from 34 percent to 8 percent.

Members who previously hung up in frustration now complete their enquiries because the AI actually understands what they are saying.