> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.itellico.ai/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Glossary > Definitions of technical terms, acronyms, and concepts used throughout the itellicoAI documentation. A quick reference for technical terms and acronyms you may encounter across the itellicoAI documentation and platform. Use this page when a UI label, acronym, or telephony term is unfamiliar and you need a fast definition without leaving the docs flow. *** ## Voice and Speech | Term | Definition | | --------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **AMD** | Answering Machine Detection — technology that identifies whether a call is answered by a person or a voicemail system. Used in outbound campaigns to skip voicemails. | | **Backchannel** | Short audio cues like "mm-hmm" or "uh-huh" that signal the agent is listening without interrupting the caller. | | **Barge-in / Interruption** | When a caller speaks while the agent is still talking. The agent detects this and stops its response to listen. Controlled via turn detection settings. | | **DTMF** | Dual-Tone Multi-Frequency — the tones generated when you press buttons on a phone keypad. Used for menu navigation and input collection. | | **Endpointing** | The process of detecting when a speaker has finished their turn. The agent uses silence duration, speech patterns, and AI to decide when to respond. | | **Filler phrases** | Short phrases like "Let me check that..." spoken by the agent while processing a response. Reduces perceived latency. See [Smart Filler](/build/advanced/smart-filler). | | **IVR** | Interactive Voice Response — traditional automated phone menu systems (e.g., "Press 1 for sales"). itellicoAI agents replace rigid IVR menus with natural conversation. | | **Latency** | The delay between when a caller finishes speaking and when the agent starts responding. Made up of transcription time + AI processing + voice synthesis + network. | | **STT** | Speech-to-Text — converts spoken audio into written text. Also called transcription. This is how your agent understands what callers say. | | **Transcriber** | The speech-to-text engine that converts caller audio into text. itellicoAI supports multiple providers like Deepgram and Azure Speech. | | **TTS** | Text-to-Speech — converts written text into spoken audio. This is how your agent speaks to callers. Also called voice synthesis. | | **Turn detection** | How the agent decides when the caller has finished speaking and it's the agent's turn to respond. Combines VAD (silence detection) with AI-based understanding of conversation flow. | | **VAD** | Voice Activity Detection — technology that detects when someone is speaking versus when there is silence. The foundation of turn detection — controls how long the agent waits after silence before responding. | | **Voice cloning** | Creating a custom synthetic voice from an audio sample so your agent sounds like a specific person or brand voice. | | **Voice provider** | The service that generates the agent's spoken voice (e.g., ElevenLabs, Cartesia). Different providers offer different voices, languages, and latency characteristics. | ## AI and Knowledge | Term | Definition | | ---------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | **AI model** | The artificial intelligence that powers your agent's understanding and responses. You can choose different models that balance speed, accuracy, and cost. | | **LLM** | Large Language Model — an AI model trained on large amounts of text that can understand and generate human language. Powers your agent's reasoning and responses. | | **Context mode** | A knowledge access method where selected source content is injected directly into runtime context. Best for small, high-priority content. | | **Jinja** | A template system used in itellicoAI to insert dynamic information (like caller names, dates, or account details) into your agent's messages. Uses `{{ }}` and `{% %}` syntax. See [Template Syntax](/build/conversation/template-syntax). | | **OCR** | Optical Character Recognition — technology that reads text from scanned images and PDFs, making the content available to your agent. | | **RAG** | Retrieval-Augmented Generation — a smart search system that finds only the most relevant information from your knowledge base for each conversation. Best for large content collections. | | **Temperature** | A setting that controls how creative or consistent your agent's responses are. Lower values produce more predictable answers; higher values produce more varied ones. | | **Token** | A unit of text that AI models use to process language. Roughly 1 token equals 0.75 words, so 10,000 tokens is approximately 7,500 words. | ## Telephony and Networking | Term | Definition | | ---------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | **BYOC** | Bring Your Own Carrier — an older technical label for what the product now calls **Connect Your Own**. It means importing your existing phone numbers through your SIP carrier instead of buying new ones in itellicoAI. | | **Compliance Profile** | A reusable verification profile used when buying phone numbers in regulated countries. Some carrier systems still call the underlying package a regulatory bundle. | | **E.164** | The international phone number format that includes a country code (e.g., +15551234567). Required for phone number configuration. | | **PBX** | Private Branch Exchange — a business phone system that routes calls internally to different extensions and departments. | | **PSTN** | Public Switched Telephone Network — the traditional phone network that carries voice calls over dedicated circuits. | | **SIP** | Session Initiation Protocol — a method for routing phone calls over the internet. SIP trunks connect your existing phone carrier to itellicoAI. | | **WebRTC** | Web Real-Time Communication — technology that enables voice and video calls directly in a web browser without plugins. Powers itellicoAI Web Widgets. | ## Data and Development | Term | Definition | | ---------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **API** | Application Programming Interface — a way for software systems to communicate with each other. itellicoAI provides APIs for custom integrations and automation. | | **HTTP / HTTPS** | Hypertext Transfer Protocol (Secure) — the standard method for sending data over the web. HTTPS adds encryption for security. | | **JSON** | JavaScript Object Notation — a structured data format commonly used for exchanging information between systems. | | **MCP** | Model Context Protocol — a standard way to connect your agents to external tools and data sources, extending their capabilities beyond built-in tools. | | **SDK** | Software Development Kit — pre-built code libraries that make it easier for developers to integrate with the itellicoAI platform. | | **URI** | Uniform Resource Identifier — an address used to identify a resource, such as a SIP destination for call transfers. | ## Compliance and Legal | Term | Definition | | ---------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **BAA** | Business Associate Agreement — a contract required for HIPAA-compliant healthcare applications that handle protected health information. | | **CCPA** | California Consumer Privacy Act — a California law that gives residents rights over their personal data, including the right to know, delete, and opt out of data sales. | | **DPA** | Data Processing Agreement — a contract between a data controller and a data processor that outlines how personal data is handled, required under GDPR. | | **DSAR** | Data Subject Access Request — a request under GDPR for an organization to provide or delete a person's personal data. | | **GDPR / DSGVO** | General Data Protection Regulation (Datenschutz-Grundverordnung in German) — the European Union's data privacy law governing how personal data is collected, stored, and processed. Applies across the EU and EEA; Switzerland has equivalent rules under the revDSG. | | **UWG** | Gesetz gegen den unlauteren Wettbewerb — Germany's Unfair Competition Act. Regulates telemarketing and cold calling. Prohibits unsolicited B2C calls without prior consent. | | **TKG** | Telekommunikationsgesetz — Austria's Telecommunications Act (TKG 2021). Governs cold calling rules and requires explicit opt-in for B2C calls. | | **DSG / revDSG** | Datenschutzgesetz — Switzerland's Federal Data Protection Act, revised in September 2023. Requires transparency about automated decision-making and data processing. | | **AVV** | Auftragsverarbeitungsvertrag — the German term for a Data Processing Agreement (DPA) under GDPR/DSGVO. Required when a third party processes personal data on your behalf. | | **EU AI Act** | The European Union's Artificial Intelligence Act (Regulation 2024/1689). Requires that users interacting with an AI system are informed they are communicating with AI, not a human. Voice AI agents fall under transparency obligations — callers must be told they are speaking with an AI. | | **HIPAA** | Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act — a US law that sets standards for protecting sensitive patient health information. | | **SLA** | Service Level Agreement — a contract defining guaranteed uptime, support response times, and other service commitments. | | **TCPA** | Telephone Consumer Protection Act — a US law regulating telemarketing calls, auto-dialed calls, and pre-recorded messages. | ## Platform Concepts | Term | Definition | | -------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Agent Editor** | The configuration surface for AI agents. Create an agent from **AI Agents → Create Agent**, then configure every aspect in the Agent Editor. | | **AI Agent** | An AI-powered voice assistant configured on the itellicoAI platform. Each agent has its own identity, prompt, knowledge, voice, and tools. Documentation may sometimes shorten this to just "agent." | | **Campaign** | An outbound calling initiative where your agent automatically calls a list of contacts for purposes like follow-ups, surveys, or sales outreach. | | **Connect Your Own** | The current product label for importing existing phone numbers into itellicoAI through your SIP carrier. This is the user-facing term for BYOC setup. | | **Dynamic Context** | Real-time data sent to your agent at the start of each conversation (e.g., caller account details), enabling personalized responses. Usually requires technical setup by someone on your team. | | **Knowledge Base** | A collection of documents, text, and web content that your agent references to answer questions accurately. | | **Account** | A top-level account in itellicoAI with independent billing, agents, knowledge bases, phone numbers, and team members. Also called a main or parent account. | | **Agency Access** | A model where a client owns and pays for its own itellicoAI account, while an agency or service provider gets elevated access to help manage setup, maintenance, or operations. | | **Subaccount** | A nested account under a parent account with its own agents, numbers, and team. In the parent/subaccount model, itellicoAI bills the parent account centrally, and the parent may handle downstream customer billing separately. | | **Schedules** | Shared time-based availability configurations used for campaign windows, routing logic, agent tool availability, and business-hours rules. | | **Secrets** | Reusable credentials and references stored centrally for integrations, automations, and technical workflows. | | **Profile** | Your personal user identity in itellicoAI. A single profile can belong to multiple accounts and switch between them using the account switcher. | | **Tool** | A capability your agent can use during a conversation, such as transferring a call, booking an appointment, or looking up information in an external system. | | **Trust Center** | The compliance and transparency surface in itellicoAI. At the account level, it covers data retention, GDPR-style data requests, and public trust settings. Web Widgets can also expose a public Trust Center page for visitors. | | **Web Widget** | An embeddable component that adds AI-powered voice and chat to your website. Configured through the visual Web Widgets editor. Documentation may sometimes shorten this to just "widget." | *** ## Related Pages Explore the platform overview Build your first agent Configure your agent in the agent editor