Welcome to the PolyAI glossary. This page explains some of the key terms, acronyms, and concepts used across our platform.

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A–C

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Agent

A PolyAI AI-driven voice assistant that interacts with customers in real-time via speech or text. Agents handle customer conversations autonomously while integrating with external data sources.

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Agent Studio

The primary interface for designing, configuring, and deploying AI agents. Agent Studio serves both builders (creating AI logic) and managers (monitoring performance and analytics).

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Annotation

Full article: Conversation review. A manual tag applied during Conversation Review to highlight issues like incorrect transcriptions or missing knowledge base topics.

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Chunking

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Containment rate

The percentage of calls fully handled by the agent without requiring a human handoff.

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Conversation metadata

Structured data about a conversation, including duration, start time, and associated agent variant.

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Conversation diagnosis

A tool within Conversation Review that shows which flows, function calls, and knowledge base topics were activated during a call.

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D–F

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End function

Full article: End function A function that finalizes an interaction, used when an AI agent has completed its task. It can:
  • Close conversations and send confirmation messages.
  • Trigger logging or analytics tracking.
  • Perform clean-up actions before ending the session.

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Flows

Full article: Flows Also known as Talk Tracks, flows use conversation logic system that determines how an AI agent guides a user through an interaction. Flows define:
  • Decision points (when the AI needs user input)
  • Branching logic (how responses change based on user choices)
  • Automated actions (like triggering a function call)

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Function

Full article: Function A reusable backend operation that an AI agent can execute during a conversation. Functions allow agents to:
  • Retrieve external data (like fetching an order status).
  • Modify system state (like updating a customer’s profile).
  • Perform calculations or conditional logic.
A function call is when an agent invokes a function to retrieve information, or perform an action in real time.

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G–L

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Global rules

Full article: Rules Predefined behavior constraints applied across all agent interactions to ensure:
  • Consistency in responses
  • Compliance with business policies
  • Controlled conversational tone

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Handoff

Full article: Call handoff The process of transferring a user from an AI agent to a human agent. Handoffs can be:
  • Rule-based (triggered by predefined conditions)
  • User-requested (when a customer asks for a human)
  • AI-driven (when the agent determines it cannot complete the task)

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Knowledge base

Full article: Knowledge base A structured repository of predefined responses and business-specific information that AI agents use to generate accurate answers.

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Environment

Refers to the deployment stage of a project, such as sandbox, pre-release, or live. Used in API queries and analytics.

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M–P

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Multi-site configuration

The ability to customize agent responses based on location, using variant management.

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Raven

PolyAI’s proprietary model, optimized for real-time voice interactions. Offers low-latency responses with high alignment to voice assistant use cases.

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Processing

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Pronunciations

Custom rules used to adjust how the agent pronounces specific terms via IPA and regex-based substitution.

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Performance metrics

See: Containment Rate, Conversation Metadata, Safety Dashboard

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Q–Z

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RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation)

Full article: RAG A method where the AI first retrieves relevant knowledge from the KB before generating a response, ensuring more accurate, context-aware replies.

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Response control

Full article: Response control A system that modifies how AI agents respond in different scenarios. Includes:
  • Rate-limiting (preventing excessive responses)
  • Interruption handling (allowing users to cut off the AI mid-sentence)
  • Compliance filtering (ensuring safe and appropriate responses)

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Safety dashboard

A specialized dashboard to monitor flagged content, risky user utterances, and the performance of safety filters.

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Secrets

Sensitive credentials or tokens that can be securely stored and accessed by the agent for integrations.

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Start function

Full article: Start function A function triggered at the beginning of an interaction, often used to:
  • Initialize conversation state (e.g., retrieve user history).
  • Perform authentication or setup tasks.
  • Trigger conditional logic based on user input.

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Streaming

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Talk Tracks

See flows.

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Transcript correction

Full article: Speech recognition A feature that enables users to edit AI-generated conversation transcripts, improving:
  • Speech recognition accuracy
  • Compliance with business policies
  • Training data quality

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Validation

Full article: Flows A moment in the conversation where the agent checks whether the information provided by the user is complete, accurate, or matches expected criteria. Validation may include:
  • Repeating back a value to confirm correctness (e.g. “That’s 07888 888888 — is that right?”)
  • Comparing user input against a list (e.g. matching a name to a reservation)
  • Prompting again if the input is unclear, incomplete, or invalid
Validation ensures the agent gathers usable information before continuing with a task or triggering a function.

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Variable

Full article: Variables Variables are used to store and retrieve values during a conversation. In PolyAI, they are accessed through the conv.state object, which behaves like a dictionary. Variables allow agents to track context, user inputs, flags, counters, and other custom values needed for decision-making across turns. Example: 
conv.state.user_name = "Aaron"
if conv.state.has_account:
    conv.goto_flow("account_support")
All variables persist for the duration of a single conversation and are cleared at the end unless explicitly saved elsewhere.

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Variant

Full article: Variant management A tool for testing multiple conversational styles within an AI agent, allowing:
  • A/B testing across different dialogue configurations
  • Controlled rollouts of conversation updates
  • Customization per brand, region, or customer type

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Variant ID

Fields used in API filters and analytics to identify and segment conversations by specific agent variant versions. For any questions or to suggest additions, contact platform-support@poly-ai.com.