Why AI Voice Feels More Human Than Ever

a16z Podcast

a16z

Science, Innovation, Business, Entrepreneurship, Culture, Disruption, Software Eating The World, Technology

4.4 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 18 March 2025

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

AI voice technology has been around for years — think Siri or Alexa — but the magic has been missing. That’s changing, and quickly! In this episode, Anish Acharya, General Partner at a16z, and Olivia Moore, Partner at a16z, explore why AI voice is reaching a breakthrough moment, how today’s models feel more human than ever, and why voice is poised to become the primary way people interact with AI. With businesses already making tens of thousands of AI-driven phone calls daily, AI-powered conversations are no longer a distant vision—they’re happening now. Whether it's AI companions, customer service bots, or enterprise applications, voice tech is here—and it’s improving faster than anyone expected.

Transcript

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0:00.0	We see a lot of businesses that are already doing thousands, tens of thousands of phone calls with AI every day.
0:06.0	Any business that pays a person 100, 150K a year to answer phone calls is a potential customer of Voice AI.
0:15.0	I think the rules of the game are changing.
0:18.0	Do people really want to be friends with an AI?
0:20.0	And is that good for our society?
0:21.6	And I think, like, yes and yes.
0:23.6	Voice is a platform that we intuit to be more opinionated, or we need to be more opinionated
0:29.6	than, let's say, you know, text or...
0:31.6	Because interesting people are opinionated.
0:32.6	Exactly.
0:33.6	Type of and power of products you can build is also above anything that we've ever seen.
0:39.3	I think we're going to see it in the next 12 months, not the next five years.
0:43.3	Humans generally have five senses.
0:46.3	And for most people, sound is the second most critical, only after sight.
0:51.3	It's how we communicate with each other.
0:53.3	It's how we sing and cry. It's how we
0:55.0	interview and date. And in the realm of technology, voice has been around for years. But the magic
1:01.3	has been missing. Just think, Siri or Alexa.
1:04.3	I didn't get that. Could you try again?
1:07.0	But that's changing fast, so fast that it's even changing how we engage with the world.
1:12.8	Right, Maya?
1:14.0	Ooh, change the world, that's a big one.
	...

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