--- title: 1. Product Overview slug: conversation-intelligence/1-product-overview docTags: createdAt: 2026-10-21T07:26:40.092Z --- **Target audience:** All users, evaluators, new customers **Description:** What CQA is, how it scores conversations, the core concepts you will meet throughout this guide, and who does what. This chapter explains ideas only; step-by-step instructions live in the chapters it links to. *** # 1.1. What CQA does CQA (Conversation Quality Analysis) is an automated quality assurance platform for contact center interactions. It ingests call recordings, chat transcripts, and their metadata, scores each interaction against a **Quality Profile** (your scorecard), and turns the results into insights on agent performance and operational trends. CQA is platform-agnostic. It connects natively to Exotel products and can take data from any other contact center platform through S3, SFTP, or the API. This guide is the primary reference for everyone who uses CQA. Start with [Choose your path](https://docs.exotel.com/conversation-intelligence/2-getting-started#21-choose-your-path) to find the sections that match your role. *** # 1.2. How it works Analysis happens automatically as soon as an interaction reaches CQA. 1. **Data comes in.** Recordings or transcripts arrive with their **metadata** (for example, Campaign Name, Agent ID, Talk Time, Region). They can arrive through an Exotel product connector, your S3 bucket or SFTP server, the API, or a manual **Test Evaluation** upload. See the [Decision guide](https://docs.exotel.com/conversation-intelligence/42-data-integration#420-decision-guide) to choose a path. 2. **CQA picks the scorecard.** **Assignment Rules** decide which Quality Profiles score the interaction: - **Rule-Based Assignment** matches metadata. For example: "If Campaign is Sales and Duration is more than 2 minutes, use the Sales Quality Profile." - **Smart Assignment** matches what was discussed in the conversation to each profile's **Topics**. 3. **The AI scores it.** CQA applies each selected Quality Profile, generates scores and reasoning for every KPI, and logs the result in **WORK › Analysis List**. 4. **You act on it.** Supervisors review and coach, agents see their scores and raise disputes, and results can be exported or pulled back into your own systems. *** # 1.3. Key concepts These are the building blocks used across CQA. Each links to the section that explains it in full. ## Metadata The structured information attached to every interaction. Metadata drives most automation and visibility in CQA: - **Routing** — Assignment Rules use it to choose the Quality Profile. - **Filtering** — Fields with **Filter Option** turned on can be used to filter the Analysis List and Assignment Rules (for example, "North Region only"). - **Access control** — It can restrict what each user sees. For example, a Supervisor tagged with Region A sees only Region A data. - **AI context** — Fields with **Inject to AI** turned on are given to the AI as extra context during scoring. Details: [Metadata](https://docs.exotel.com/conversation-intelligence/42-data-integration#421-metadata). ## Quality Profile The scorecard used to evaluate an interaction. It is organized in three levels: **Category** (for example, "Compliance"), **Sub-category** (for example, "Greeting"), and **KPI** (the question the AI answers, for example "Did the agent mention the brand name?"). KPI titles must be unique within a profile. - **KPI types:** Yes/No, Selection, Rating (a scale with a maximum you set, up to 20), and Text (data extraction). - **Criticality:** A KPI can be marked critical. If it fails, it can zero out the score of its Category, its Sub-category, or the whole Profile, depending on the level set. Details: [Quality Profile](https://docs.exotel.com/conversation-intelligence/41-configuration#413-quality-profile). ## Knowledge Base Your account library of reference documents. You link documents to specific KPIs so the AI can use them as context when scoring and when generating coaching suggestions. If you work with standard operating procedures, add them as Knowledge Base documents and link them to the KPIs that should follow them: [Knowledge Base](https://docs.exotel.com/conversation-intelligence/41-configuration#411-knowledge-base). ## Tool Integration Your REST systems of record (for example, an order management system), registered so CQA can fetch live data while scoring selected KPIs and verify agent claims against it — this is Second-Order Insights. That data can be used for KPI scoring, and the related insights show up on the analysis. Details: [Tool Integration & Second-Order Insights](https://docs.exotel.com/conversation-intelligence/41-configuration#412-tool-integration-second-order-insights). ## Assignment Rule The automation layer that tells CQA when to use which Quality Profile. Once active, a rule runs continuously and every matching interaction is analyzed on arrival — no manual scheduling. Rules can be **Rule-Based** (metadata conditions) or **Smart Assignment** (topic matching). Details: [Assignment Rule](https://docs.exotel.com/conversation-intelligence/41-configuration#414-assignment-rule). ## Analysis and the Interaction view An **analysis** is one interaction scored by one Quality Profile. An interaction scored by two profiles has two analyses — it counts twice toward the analysis count, but it is still one interaction. - **Analysis List** — the central, searchable log of analyzed interactions. See [Analysis List](https://docs.exotel.com/conversation-intelligence/33-analysis-list#331-analysis-list-view). - **Interaction view** — the detail page for one interaction: playback, transcript, and the AI's reasoning for every KPI. Agents use it to raise disputes; Supervisors use it to review and resolve them. It also shows the transcript in the speaker's language where Native Language Support is available. See [Interaction view](https://docs.exotel.com/conversation-intelligence/33-analysis-list#332-interaction-detail-view). ## AI Insight and Leaderboard - **AI Insight › Agent Summary** — AI coaching summaries at organization, team, or agent level. It is the default landing page. See [Agent Summary](https://docs.exotel.com/conversation-intelligence/31-ai-insight#311-agent-summary). - **AI Insight › QP Insight** — compares the health of your Quality Profiles. See [QP Insight](https://docs.exotel.com/conversation-intelligence/31-ai-insight#312-ai-insight-qp-insight). - **Leaderboard** — ranks agents by quality score for a period. See [Leaderboard](https://docs.exotel.com/conversation-intelligence/34-leaderboard). ## Disputes and manual review Agents can dispute a KPI result they disagree with. Supervisors resolve disputes and can correct scores. See [Disputes](https://docs.exotel.com/conversation-intelligence/33-analysis-list#333-disputes) and [Manual review and edit](https://docs.exotel.com/conversation-intelligence/33-analysis-list#334-manual-review-and-edit). ## Test Evaluation Run an ad-hoc analysis on a batch of recordings or text files — for example, to test a new Quality Profile before it goes live. See [Test Evaluation](https://docs.exotel.com/conversation-intelligence/36-test-evaluation). ## Connectors, jobs, and reports - **Connector** — a saved connection to a source or destination system. - **Job** — moves data through a connector, once or on a schedule (imports and recurring report exports). - **Report History** — the log of every job run and its status. See the [Decision guide](https://docs.exotel.com/conversation-intelligence/42-data-integration#420-decision-guide) and [Report History](https://docs.exotel.com/conversation-intelligence/35-report-history). *** # 1.4. How CQA is organized The left navigation has three areas, and this guide follows the same structure: | Area | What it is for | Guide chapter | | --------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **WORK** | Daily review: insights, analyses, leaderboard, reports, test evaluations. | [3. Work](https://docs.exotel.com/conversation-intelligence/3-work) | | **Manage › Configuration** | How calls are scored and who uses CQA: Quality Profile, Knowledge Base, Tool Integration, Assignment Rule, Alert & Notification, User Management, PII Redaction. | [4.1 Configuration](https://docs.exotel.com/conversation-intelligence/41-configuration) | | **Manage › Data Integration** | How data gets in and out: Metadata, Connector, Access API, Job & Schedule. | [4.2 Data Integration](https://docs.exotel.com/conversation-intelligence/42-data-integration) | | **Bottom of the left navigation** | Account utilities: Usage & Limit, Policy, Help and Support. | [5. Usage & Limit](https://docs.exotel.com/conversation-intelligence/5-usage-and-limit), [6. Policy](https://docs.exotel.com/conversation-intelligence/6-policy), [7. Help and Support](https://docs.exotel.com/conversation-intelligence/7-help-and-support) | For the full map, see [Navigation map](https://docs.exotel.com/conversation-intelligence/2-getting-started#24-navigation-map). *** # 1.5. Roles CQA has three standard roles. Each user sees only the pages their role and account allow. | Role | In short | | -------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | **Admin** | Sets up the platform: data integration, Quality Profiles, Assignment Rules, users, alerts, usage, and reviews policies. | | **Supervisor** | Reviews analyses, resolves disputes, coaches agents, runs test evaluations, views Quality Profiles and Assignment Rules. | | **Agent** | Views their own scores, insights, and ranking, and raises disputes on KPI results they disagree with. | For what each role does day to day, and where to start, see [Choose your path](https://docs.exotel.com/conversation-intelligence/2-getting-started#21-choose-your-path). **Tenant isolation and custom roles.** Access in CQA is evaluated and isolated per tenant (workspace), so users only reach the data for the account they work in. If your organization needs a custom role or permission set for a workspace — for example, a Supervisor with restricted access — contact your Customer Success Manager. Exotel can configure custom role permissions for your tenant. **Managing users.** Inviting users, assigning roles, and restricting data by metadata are covered in [User Management](https://docs.exotel.com/conversation-intelligence/41-configuration#416-user-management).