Interactive Voice Response — Dashly Chatbot Glossary

IVRs work with DTMF tones (touch tones from a telephone), voice recognition technology, and even artificial intelligence to respond to customer queries and route callers.

There are three main types of it:

• IVR systems with speech recognition built-in. So people can talk directly to the system rather than push buttons.
• IVR with button-response systems is considered to be an outdated and low-cost solution.
• Visual IVR uses web applications to "instantly create an app-like experience for users on smartphones during contact center interactions without the need to download any app." The user interacts with a visual interface by touch or clicks commands on his mobile or computer screen. The technology can be used either on a mobile device app or directly over the web. (Wikipedia)

Interactive voice response is a customer-facing piece of business software that can manage incoming calls rather than requiring a team of people to do the same tasks.