Interactive voice response
Interactive voice response (IVR, RVI in French) is the phone system that greets the caller with a recorded menu: “for sales, press 1”. The caller answers with the keypad or a few keywords. It routes the caller to a department, but does not understand a freely worded request.
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In brief
- Recorded menu where callers choose with the keypad or a few words
- Routes to a department or extension, without settling the request
- French acronym: RVI (réponse vocale interactive)
- An AI voice agent replaces it with a natural-language conversation
How does interactive voice response work?
The business designs a tree of choices: a greeting, a first menu, sometimes submenus. The caller moves forward by pressing a key or saying an expected word. The system does not need to understand the request, only to recognize the choice, hence the rigidity: a request that fits no box ends up with a person or back at the start of the menu.
How does it differ from an AI voice agent?
| Interactive voice response | AI voice agent | |
|---|---|---|
| Way of speaking | Keys or keywords | Free sentences |
| Off-menu request | Back to the menu or transfer | Understood, settled or transferred |
| For the caller | Listen to the choices, then press | Say what they want |
See the definition of an AI voice agent, that of an AI answering machine and the guide What is an AI receptionist?.
Frequently asked questions
Are IVR and RVI the same thing?
Yes. IVR is the English acronym for interactive voice response, and RVI the French acronym for réponse vocale interactive.
Does an IVR understand Quebec French?
A keypad menu does not depend on the spoken language. A speech-recognition IVR understands only a small vocabulary of keywords. An AI voice agent understands full sentences, and is worth trying with local phrases.
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