Glossary of common terms

Category (face-to-face, agentic)

Human computing: The movement to close the gap between people and machines by making technology feel unmistakably human. Tavus is “a research lab pioneering human computing.”

AI human: The primary object in our ecosystem: a lifelike, face‑to‑face interface that sees, hears, understands, and responds in real time. Use “AI human” as the default external term; it’s our human‑centric alternative to generic “agents/bots.”  

Teaching machines to be human: Our point of view in five words—appears in short blurbs and company descriptors.

Humanlike presence: What Tavus gives your product: lifelike presence that deepens engagement, trust, and feedback—“AI humans for everything… scale emotional intelligence.”

Products

Conversational Video Interface (CVI): An interface that brings face‑to‑face conversation into any product. CVI doesn’t just stream video; it sees, hears, and understands in real time to drive emotionally intelligent interactions (sub‑second latency). Ideal for teams embedding this natively in their apps.  

AI Human Studio: A no‑code platform to design and launch your own agentic, face‑to‑face AI humans for internal or external use—choose look, train with your knowledge, connect tools, add memories. Faster time‑to‑value for business teams.

Replica (Personal / Stock): The rendered on‑screen identity an AI human uses. “Personal” = trained from a creator’s footage; “Stock” = pre‑built library of optimized identities. Fully white‑labeled; fast training; identity preservation.

AI Persona (Persona): A configured role and behavior profile for an AI human—personality, objectives, guardrails, knowledge, memories. Built via Persona Builder or API.

Persona Builder: A generative, step‑by‑step workflow to create AI personas (including auto‑generated objectives and guardrails) without technical skills.

Core models (the “Tavus brain”)

Phoenix‑3 (face rendering): Full‑face, real‑time generation with pixel‑level identity preservation, studio‑grade lip‑sync, and micro‑expressions for true realism. Powers Replicas in CVI and video generation.

Raven‑0 (perception & vision): Contextual visual understanding in real time: interprets emotion in natural language, maintains ambient awareness, detects specified gestures/objects, and can trigger function calls. Works with screen‑share and other visual inputs.

Sparrow‑0 (turn‑taking): Transformer‑based conversation timing that adapts to human rhythm (tone, pauses, overlap). Delivers fluid back‑and‑forth and ultra‑fast responsiveness.

Capabilities and platform primitives

Perception (vision): Real‑time reading of facial cues, environment, and on‑screen content to inform responses, capture emotional/behavioral signals, and trigger actions. (Model: Raven‑0.)

Turn‑taking: Natural conversational flow—when to listen, when to interject, when to continue—so sessions feel human, not “botty.” (Model: Sparrow‑0.)

Knowledge Base (RAG): Fast document grounding for accuracy and recency: upload URLs/PDFs/CSVs; use tags; choose Speed / Balanced / Quality retrieval strategy. Designed for low‑latency, real‑time conversations.

Memories: Persistent memory across sessions so conversations “pick up where they left off.” Enabled per conversation/persona (via toggle or memory_stores parameter).

Objectives & Guardrails: Structured goals (with measurable completion criteria) plus strict behavioral guidelines—keep conversations focused, safe, and on‑brand. Managed on the Persona layer via UI or JSON.

Function calling: Let AI humans take action (tool invocations, workflows) as part of the conversation. Supported across plans and core to “not just talk—also act.”

Bring your own LLM (BYO LLM): Swap in your preferred language model to control tone, cost, or domain expertise while keeping Tavus’ humanlike presence.

White‑labeling: APIs and endpoints designed so the experience is fully your brand—includes white‑labeled Replica consent flows at higher tiers.

Alpha‑channel video: Output with transparency for compositing onto any background/UI.

Transcripts & recordings: Conversation logs and (optional) recordings for analytics, QA, or compliance (per‑minute pricing where applicable).

Concurrency / streams: How many simultaneous live conversations your plan supports (e.g., 1 → 3 → 15 → custom).

Canonical use‑case nouns (how customers talk about outcomes)

Digital twin: A lifelike, interactive stand‑in for a person (expert, coach, creator) used in real‑time conversations. Common customer phrasing; pair with our preferred “AI human” in public copy.

Expert clone: A digital twin of a subject‑matter expert to scale coaching, training, or guidance. (Examples across coaching, sales enablement, tutoring.)

AI interviewer / mock interviews: Face‑to‑face practice with feedback and scorecards; a flagship CVI use case.

AI companion: Humanlike support for wellbeing and daily check‑ins (e.g., senior care, loneliness mitigation) with lifelike presence and low latency.

AI tutor / coach: Role‑play, upskilling, and personalized instruction that adapts in real time to learner signals. This term is used to describe a wide range of applications from B2B internal coaching with tight guardrails, to consumer-facing "study buddy" style RAG use cases.

AI concierge / kiosk: Humanlike service in physical or embedded contexts (hotels, drive‑thru, help desks) with face‑to‑face guidance.

AI eCommerce assistant: Product discovery, fit advice, and guided buying with visual perception and on‑brand presence.

‍