A predictive dialer is an automated telephone dialing system that enables call center agents to dramatically increase their number of live connections. Predictive dialers connect agents only to calls that are actually answered by people, freeing agents from the need to listen to unanswered calls, busy signals, disconnected lines, or answers from fax machines, answering machines and other automatic services.

Predictive dialers use mathematical formulas to predict both the average time it will take for calls to be answered and agent availability, and adjusts the dialing rate accordingly. A predictive dialer learns to anticipate when agents will become available and speeds up and slows down the dialing rate accordingly. A good predictive dialer can also analyze unsuccessful calls to determine if the number needs to be called back later or requires special handling, such as a manual call by an agent.