Glossary
Plain-English definitions of the AI sales and CRM terms you'll run into — what they mean and how they fit together.
Agent-operated CRM
An agent-operated CRM is a customer relationship management system in which AI agents run the front-line conversations with leads — answering, qualifying, booking, and following up — and the records stay current automatically as a result.
Read definitionAI sales agent
An AI sales agent is software built on a large language model that holds natural, multi-turn conversations with leads across channels — answering questions, qualifying interest, booking meetings, and taking real actions — rather than following a fixed chatbot script.
Read definitionAI SDR
An AI SDR (AI sales development rep) is software that autonomously does the work of a sales development rep — reaching out to and responding to leads, qualifying them, and booking meetings — so human reps focus on the deals that are ready.
Read definitionAI voice agent
An AI voice agent is an AI that makes and answers real phone calls — holding a natural, full-duplex conversation, qualifying the caller, booking meetings, detecting voicemail, and following up — rather than playing a recorded menu.
Read definitionSpeed to lead
Speed to lead is how quickly a business responds to a new inbound lead. Faster is better: studies of response times have repeatedly found that contacting a lead within the first few minutes sharply improves the odds of connecting and converting.
Read definitionAI appointment setter
An AI appointment setter is an AI that reaches out to and answers leads, runs a qualifying conversation, and books the ready ones onto a calendar automatically — filling reps' calendars with qualified meetings without adding headcount.
Read definitionAI cold calling
AI cold calling is the use of an AI voice agent to place real outbound phone calls to a list of prospects — holding a natural conversation, qualifying interest, and booking meetings — without a human dialing or on the line.
Read definitionConversational AI
Conversational AI is technology that lets software understand and hold natural back-and-forth conversations with people in text or voice, using language models rather than fixed, scripted responses.
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