Definition
A predictive dialer is software that places more calls than there are free human agents, using the expected answer rate and call length to guess how many will be answered. Its risk is answered calls that no agent is free to take.
How a predictive dialer works
Most outbound calls are not answered. If only a third of dialed numbers pick up, a dialer that rings one number per free agent leaves the agents idle two thirds of the time. A predictive dialer dials ahead. It tracks the answer rate and how long agents stay on a call, and it estimates how many calls to start now so that an answered call meets a free agent about when the agent becomes free.
Take 30 percent answered and 25 agents about to be free. To get 25 answered calls it would start roughly 83 calls. The estimate is only an average, so sometimes 30 people answer and only 25 agents are free. Those five answered calls are abandoned: someone said hello and heard silence or a recording.
Simpler modes exist. A preview dialer shows the agent the record first and dials on request. A progressive dialer dials one number per free agent. Both avoid abandoned calls and idle time is higher.
Why it matters for voice agents
The Telemarketing Sales Rule calls a telemarketing call abandoned if a person answers and the telemarketer does not connect them to a sales representative within 2 seconds of the person’s completed greeting. The rule allows a safe harbor only if no more than 3 percent of answered calls are abandoned, measured per campaign over each 30-day period, along with other conditions such as ringing for at least 15 seconds and playing a recorded message with the seller’s name and number. The FCC’s rule at 47 CFR 64.1200(a)(7) has a 3 percent limit over 30 days for a single calling campaign as well.
Voice agents change the arithmetic. If an agent answers every call, there is no shortage of free agents to predict. The limit becomes the number of concurrent calls you allow, which is closer to batch calling. Whether an AI agent counts as a sales representative under these rules is a question for counsel, not something this page answers.
Outbound calling rules, including Do Not Call, apply however the calls are paced.
Answered calls are not the goal in themselves. Right-party contact counts only the answers that reached the intended person.
Example
An illustrative case: a dialer starts 83 calls expecting 25 answers, with 25 agents free. This time 34 people pick up. Nine answered calls have no agent available, and any not connected within 2 seconds of the greeting count toward the campaign’s abandonment rate.