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    AI Voice & Telephony

    AI Voice & Telephony — Real Calls, Real Agents

    Voice is back — and not as IVR. We build AI voice agents that handle real customer calls end-to-end: appointment booking, support triage, outbound qualification — under 700ms latency, with the guardrails that keep them from going off-script on a recorded line.

    What happens on every call, in milliseconds
    1. 1
      Audio in
      Telephony layer (Twilio/LiveKit) streams audio
    2. 2
      Speech → text
      Streaming STT (Deepgram, Whisper)
    3. 3
      LLM decide
      Tool routing, RAG, guardrail check
    4. 4
      Tool / API
      Calendar, CRM, ticket system
    5. 5
      Text → speech
      Streaming TTS (ElevenLabs, Cartesia)

    First-token latency under ~700ms is the threshold for 'feels like a person'.

    What you get

    Voice architecture across telephony (Twilio, Plivo, SignalWire), realtime layer (LiveKit, Vapi, Pipecat), STT/TTS, and the LLM brain
    Sub-700ms first-token latency — the bar between 'feels like a person' and 'feels like a bot'
    Tool/API integration so the agent can actually do things: book in your calendar, file tickets, update CRMs
    Interruption handling, barge-in, and graceful escalation to a human when the agent isn't sure
    Compliance for recorded calls: TCPA, GDPR, two-party consent — built into the call flow, not bolted on
    Evaluation harness with real-call transcripts, so every release is gated on quality not vibes
    Cost model per call — voice + LLM + transcription stacks fast, and we'll size it for unit economics that work

    When it fits

    • You handle volume of repetitive calls (appointment booking, qualification, tier-1 support) and a human is overkill
    • You can measure success: bookings completed, tickets resolved, calls handled without escalation
    • Failure is recoverable — a missed booking can be re-confirmed, not a life-safety call
    • You're willing to start narrow (one call type) and expand once the eval harness shows it's safe

    When it doesn't

    • The call type is emotionally sensitive (crisis, complaints, sensitive medical) — voice agents are wrong for that
    • Volume is too low to justify the build — under ~5k calls/month a human team is usually cheaper
    • Your phone system is proprietary and integration is closed — we can't bridge what we can't reach

    Process

    Week 1: call-flow design and tool contract definition. Weeks 2–3: latency-first prototype with one call type end-to-end. Weeks 4–6: guardrails, eval harness, and shadow mode against real calls (agent listens, doesn't act). Weeks 7–10: live with a small slice of traffic, scaling up behind a feature flag once the metric holds.

    Full delivery process

    Pricing

    Fixed-price builds for first call type: $80–180k depending on integration surface. Quarterly pod engagement for expansion across call types. Per-call infrastructure cost (telephony + STT/TTS + LLM) typically lands $0.08–0.30/call at scale.

    See engagement models

    FAQ

    How is this different from an IVR?
    IVRs use rigid menus and frustrate users. Voice agents understand free-form speech, ask clarifying questions, and call APIs to actually complete the task. The architecture is also entirely different — IVRs are a tree; voice agents are an LLM with tools.
    What about accents, hold music, and bad connections?
    All real-world problems we benchmark against. We run shadow mode (agent listens, doesn't act) on a slice of your real call traffic during weeks 4–6, so we measure performance on your customers — not on staged test calls.
    Can the agent escalate to a human?
    Yes, and gracefully — warm transfer with context, not 'connecting you now' followed by silence. We design the human escalation path as a first-class flow, not a fallback, because that's where most voice projects fail.
    Is this TCPA / GDPR / two-party consent compliant?
    It is by design — disclosure scripts at call start, consent capture, recording retention rules, and DNC integration are part of the build. We'll review against your specific jurisdictions and industries in discovery.

    Ready to talk ai voice & telephony?

    30-minute scoping call. No obligation, no hard sell.