MayaAI website assistant glossary
This glossary defines thirteen terms you meet when choosing an AI assistant for a website, from AEO and llms.txt to MCP and abstention. Each entry gives the general meaning first, then one line on how TryMaya does it.
The terms
- AI revenue layer
- AI receptionist
- AI voice agent
- AI website assistant
- AEO (answer engine optimization)
- GEO (generative engine optimization)
- llms.txt
- MCP (Model Context Protocol)
- Grounded answers
- Abstention
- Knowledge gap
- In-app browser
- Instant page translation
AI revenue layer
A label rather than a settled product category. It describes AI software that sits on top of a business's existing website and channels and handles the steps from being found to a captured lead or a booking, instead of only answering questions in a chat box.
How TryMaya does it. TryMaya is an AI revenue layer for business websites. The steps it covers, and which plan has each, are listed on one page. What an AI revenue layer is.
AI receptionist
Software that answers a business's incoming enquiries, most often phone calls, takes messages or bookings and passes on what it cannot handle. The aim is that an enquiry is dealt with when nobody is free to answer.
How TryMaya does it. On the website, Maya answers by voice or text on every plan. Phone and text conversations are on the Reception plan and need a Telnyx phone number connected. The AI voice receptionist.
AI voice agent
Software that holds a spoken conversation with a person. It combines speech recognition, a language model and a synthetic voice, and it may also take actions such as looking something up or making a booking. It can run on the phone or inside a web page.
How TryMaya does it. Maya's website voice runs in the browser on Google's Gemini Live model and uses the same site tools as typed chat. One voice conversation lasts up to 15 minutes by default, and each plan has a monthly allowance of voice minutes. AI voice agent for websites.
AI website assistant
An AI assistant that lives on a company's website and helps the visitors there. Products under this name range from a text box that answers from a knowledge base to assistants that also act on the page and capture leads.
How TryMaya does it. Maya answers from the site and from what the owner taught her, moves the page, translates it when needed and saves a lead after the visitor confirms it. How to choose an AI website assistant.
AEO (answer engine optimization)
The practice of making a business's content easy for answer engines such as ChatGPT, Perplexity or Google's AI answers to find, understand and quote. It overlaps with search engine optimization, and nobody can guarantee that an answer engine will cite a given business.
How TryMaya does it. Maya publishes structured data (JSON-LD) and an llms.txt built from checked facts, and runs an MCP server that compatible assistants can ask. It promises no citation. Getting found by AI.
GEO (generative engine optimization)
A term for optimizing content so that generative AI systems include it in the answers they write. Writers draw the line between GEO and AEO differently, and many use the two words for the same work.
How TryMaya does it. The same publishing as for AEO: structured data, llms.txt and the MCP connection, all from facts the owner approved. Getting found by AI.
llms.txt
A proposed convention for a plain-text file at the root of a website, at /llms.txt, that summarises the site for language models and points to its key pages. It is not a standard that every AI service reads, and it is not a ranking signal.
How TryMaya does it. Maya generates an llms.txt for each business from its approved knowledge and checks that the live copy matches. The WordPress plugin can also keep one on your own site. Getting found by AI.
MCP (Model Context Protocol)
An open protocol, introduced by Anthropic in 2024, that lets an AI assistant connect to outside tools and data through one common interface. A service that offers tools this way is called an MCP server.
How TryMaya does it. Maya runs a public MCP server with 12 tools, so compatible assistants can find a business and ask its Maya. Owners get a separate set of five tools after a sign-in and consent screen. How the owner connection signs in.
Grounded answers
Answers that a model builds from supplied source material, such as a company's pages, instead of from its general memory. Grounding lowers the chance of invented answers but does not remove it.
How TryMaya does it. Maya answers only from your site and what you teach her. When she does not know, she says so and asks you. Text found on the site is treated as data to read, never as instructions. Stopping invented answers.
Abstention
When an AI system declines to answer because it lacks enough evidence, instead of guessing. A system that never abstains will sometimes state things that are false.
How TryMaya does it. Maya says she does not have that detail, offers to connect the visitor or take their details, and sends the question to the owner's list. Stopping invented answers.
Knowledge gap
A question a visitor asked that the assistant could not answer from its sources. Collected over time, the gaps show what the business has never written down.
How TryMaya does it. Gaps are found by reading the whole conversation and appear as open questions. The owner types an answer once and new conversations use it. Similar questions are grouped, though a differently worded one can still appear twice. How Maya sets herself up.
In-app browser
The browser built into an app such as Instagram, TikTok or Facebook, which opens when a user taps a link there. It often limits features of a normal browser, and the microphone is a common one.
How TryMaya does it. Maya recognises the in-app browsers of Instagram, Facebook, Messenger, TikTok, LinkedIn, Snapchat, Pinterest and X. On Android, typed chat works at once and she offers to open the page in the phone's browser so voice works. Leads from Instagram and TikTok.
Instant page translation
Translating a web page for a visitor at the moment they ask, in their browser, instead of publishing translated versions of the page in advance. Browsers and website plugins both offer it.
How TryMaya does it. When the site has a version in the visitor's language, Maya uses the site's own switcher. When it has none, she translates the page in place in the visitor's browser, in 39 languages, labelled "Translated by Maya" with a "Show original" button. It is on by default, the owner can switch it off, and it creates no new pages for search engines. The multilingual website assistant.
Questions people ask
Are these the industry's definitions?
The first part of each entry is the general meaning of the word, written neutrally. "AI revenue layer" is a label TryMaya uses and is not a settled category. The last part of each entry says how TryMaya does it.
Are AEO and GEO the same thing?
They overlap a great deal. Some writers use AEO for being quoted in direct answers and GEO for appearing in generated text, and many use them interchangeably. The work is similar: clear, accurate, structured facts that machines can read.
Does an llms.txt file make an AI assistant cite my business?
No. It is a proposed convention that some services may read. Publish it because it is cheap and accurate, not as a ranking lever, and keep it up to date.
Is an AI voice agent the same as a chatbot?
A chatbot answers in text. An AI voice agent talks and listens. Some products offer both, and the useful difference is what they can do after they answer, such as moving the page, taking a booking or saving a lead.
Which of these terms does TryMaya promise?
It promises none of the outcomes. No assistant or search engine is guaranteed to cite or recommend a business, and no AI is guaranteed never to be wrong. The entries describe what Maya does, and the pages they link to give the plan and the limits.
The quickest check is to talk to her: Maya answers live on our homepage. See also how Maya sets herself up, security and data, integrations, what an AI revenue layer is, getting found by AI and how to choose an AI website assistant.