What's the difference between an IVR bot and a conversational AI bot?

A traditional IVR bot follows a fixed menu tree – press 1 for billing, press 2 for support. A conversational AI bot understands natural speech and handles multi-turn dialogue, so callers can say "I want to change my plan" and the bot responds intelligently without pressing anything. Most modern AI voice bots are conversational, though a simple IVR replacement is far cheaper if your flows are straightforward.