what is ai voice agent

Setting the stage for futuristic digital interactionsInnovation did not stop with the internet or Web 2.0 social media networks. We now have more advanced technologies, notably AI and web 3.0, which are proving to be game-changers in the hyper-personalisation of digital experiences. So, how are the two technologies adding value to today’s static digital profiles?Let’s start with AI. Innovations in this space have been the talk of the technology community a

Create a watch on this topic Receive upcoming developments if any, with an AI watch configured from this article. Create my free watch On June 11, OVH Groupe announced entering exclusive negotiations to acquire Gladia, the French startup specializing in speech recognition and audio intelligence. The general press treated the operation as a dispatch; it deserves more attention. This is one of the few observed model-infrastructure vertical integration moveme

Credit: AI-generated image What if we could design a machine that could read your emotions and intentions, write thoughtful, empathetic, perfectly timed responses—and seemingly know exactly what you need to hear? A machine so seductive, you wouldn't even realize it's artificial. What if we already have? In a comprehensive meta-analysis, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, we show that the latest generation of large language mo

Where did it all begin?Modern computers emerged in the first half of the 20th century and relied on punch cards to feed data into the system and enable binary computations. The cards had a series of punched holes, and light was shone at them. If the light passed through a hole and was detected by the machine, it represented a “one”. Otherwise, it was a “zero”. As you can imagine, it was extremely cumbersome, time-consuming, and error-prone.That changed wit

Meta's Muse now calls businesses for you, but many companies might just hang up on the AI View the LinkedIn Profile of Maximilian Schreiner Nov 13, 2026 Meta's AI agent Muse can now place calls to US businesses on behalf of its users. The feature, tested in September, is available to all paying Muse subscribers in the US, turning what Google Duplex demoed to widespread amazement in 2018 into a standard capability of always-on AI agents. Meta AI chief Alexa

Photo Illustration by Tag Hartman-Simkins / Futurism. Photo source: Axelle / Bauer-Griffin / FilmMagic via Getty Images Stan Lee, the great Marvel comic book impresario, died back in 2018 at the age of 95, but that’s not stopping ghouls from digging up his grave and propping up his corpse for profit — digitally, that is, in the form of a life-size AI avatar. If you attend the Los Angeles Comic Con between September 26 to 28, you’ll be able to pay $15 to $2

OpenAI just dropped a new AI model that’s designed to sound like an actual, human conversation partner—and the company says it marks progress towards building AGI. For years, OpenAI has been investing in the development of AI tools that can speak in humanlike voices. That’s sometimes led to controversy, as when the company debuted a voice assistant that sounded suspiciously similar to Scarlett Johansson. The various shortcomings of AI assistants, meanwhile

Getty / Futurism Our society has only recently come to terms with the fact that maybe placating young children by getting them hooked on touchscreen devices with unfettered access to the internet was bad for their brains. Now, with the rise of human-like AI chatbots, a generation of “iPad babies” could seem almost quaint: some parents are now encouraging their kids to talk with AI models, sometimes for hours on end, The Guardian reports. Others are using t

Say a few words, and a rigged AI asks for $5,000 Researchers at Imperial College London tampered with speech-to-text models so they transcribed most speakers accurately and misbehaved for one chosen person. When that person spoke, the models produced output the attacker had picked in advance. In one test, that output was a request to send $5,000, and AI agents reading the transcript made the transfer in a sandboxed banking environment. The attacker needs a

Sarah Ezekiel's son Eric grew up never knowing how his mother had once spoken. A British woman suffering from motor neuron disease who lost her ability to speak is once again talking in her own voice thanks to artificial intelligence and a barely audible eight-second clip from an old home video. Sarah Ezekiel, an artist, was left without the use of her voice after she was diagnosed at the age of 34 with MND while pregnant with her second child 25 years ago

Artificial intelligence has always had the capacity to present a meaningful improvement in accessibility for people with disabilities. Unfortunately, accessibility devices usually aren’t thought to have major commercial applications, so they often get coopted by tech bros who think every innovation is for them. Case in point: the technology of Augmental. The startup pretty explicitly markets itself as an accessibility technology company. On its “About” pag

Illustration by Tag Hartman-Simkins / Futurism. Source: Getty Images Microsoft really wants you to update to Windows 11 already, and it seemingly thinks that bragging about all the incredible ways it’s stuffing AI into every nook and cranny of its latest operating system will encourage the pesky holdovers still clutching to Windows 10 to finally let go. Actually, saying Microsoft is merely “stuffing” AI into its product might be underselling the scope of i

Armen Kirakosian, Global Senior Manager, Learning & Development TTEC poses in Athens, Greece, Thursday, Aug. 21, 2025. Credit: AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis Armen Kirakosian remembers the frustrations of his first job as a call center agent nearly 10 years ago: the aggravated customers, the constant searching through menus for information and the notes he had to physically write for each call he handled. Thanks to artificial intelligence, the 29-year-old fr

Product showcase: Trust Onion uses rotating codewords to verify callers Trust Onion is a free app that gives trusted groups three rotating codewords to check who they are communicating with. It also includes signed selfies, message checks, and callback requests. It is available for macOS, iOS, and Android. I tested the iPhone app with an older person, exploring setup and the tools available when a call or message raises concerns. Verification matters when

Illustration by Tag Hartman-Simkins / Futurism. Source: Getty Images In 2026, Google’s AI is embracing that oldest and noblest of internet traditions: sponsored content. Over the weekend, Google released a tiny memo on its Ad & Commerce Blog, announcing a new type of sponsored content marketers can purchase, the Washington Post observed. This new type of ad will be featured in Google’s “AI mode” — the AI chatbot which users can open on the side of a Google