AI agent

Conversational AI describes systems that understand and respond in natural language across chat, email, and voice. The category spans intent-based bots and modern language-model agents, and the practical difference between them is whether the system can only reply or can also take action in business systems.

Workflow automation chains system actions — issue a refund, reissue a document, update a record — so a resolution completes itself without an agent performing each step. It separates an AI agent that resolves requests from a chatbot that can only describe how a request would be resolved.

Containment rate is the share of automated conversations that end without escalation to a human. It is the primary efficiency measure for AI support, but a high rate only indicates success when paired with satisfaction and repeat-contact data confirming customers actually got their issue resolved.

Zero-touch resolution is an issue resolved end to end with no human involvement and no follow-up contact from the customer. It is a stricter measure than containment, because it requires the customer not to return, and it is the cleanest available proof that automation genuinely worked.

Guardrails are the policy, tone, and action limits an AI agent is not permitted to cross, such as refusing to issue refunds above a threshold or to discuss topics outside its remit. Guardrails are enforced in the system rather than merely requested in the prompt.