For most people, the mere mention of a voicebot or an AI agent brings back memories of maddening encounters with clunky IVR systems, robotic chatbots, or the early days of voice assistants like Siri and Alexa fumbling even the most basic requests. We've all been there once or twice shouting our ZIP code into the phone or repeating a simple command only to hear, “I’m sorry, I didn’t catch that.” These early attempts at AI-driven interactions have conditioned us to expect frustration rather than convenience.
Well, that’s changing fast.
Recent breakthroughs in generative AI changed the rules, and made it possible to build voice agents that actually sound and feel human. They are responsive, intuitive and capable of holding real conversations.
It would be a nice scenario where calling customer support doesn’t mean suffering through an endless loop of menu options. Or, better yet, having an AI that understands what you’re asking, anticipates your needs, offers helpful solutions and interacts with the warmth and fluidity of a real person.
That’s the future we’re stepping into, and it has the potential to impact many industries; from customer service and sales to healthcare and beyond.
In that vein, a company at the forefront of this shift is Deepgram.
Deepgram is an voice AI platform for developers crafting cutting-edge speech technology, whether it's speech-to-text, text-to-speech or full speech-to-speech solutions. Deepgram’s voice-first models power everything from voice assistants to enterprise communication tools.
Deepgram is the backbone of countless innovations. With over 50,000 years of audio processed and more than a trillion words transcribed, no one understands voice like they do.
Recently, Deepgram announced record business growth and technical milestones achieved in the past year. In fact, according to Deepgram’s announcement, “over 200,000 developers build with Deepgram’s voice-native foundational models, choosing Deepgram due to its unmatched accuracy, low latency, and pricing, as well as the flexibility for all voice-native AI models to be accessed through cloud APIs or self-hosted / on-premises APIs.”
“2024 was a stellar year for Deepgram, as our traction is accelerating and our long-term vision of empowering developers to build voice AI with human-like accuracy, human-like expressivity, and human-like latency is materializing,” said Scott Stephenson, CEO of Deepgram.
And there is a chance to learn more from Deepgram in person at Generative AI Expo 2025 on February 11-13 at the Broward County Convention Center in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Deepgram is a Gold sponsor of the event. Also, there are also opportunities to hear from the Deepgram team during a few of the panel sessions happening at Generative AI Expo 2025, part of the #TECHSUPERSHOW:
- Peter Griggs, Product Manager, Deepgram, during “How to Build and Roll-out Voice Agents in 2025 for Customer Support,” set for 12:00-12:30 PM on Tuesday, February 11.
- Lauren Sypniewski, Head of Data Operations, Deepgram, during “Generative AI Solutions Showcase - Shaping the Future of AI: Voice Cloning and Synthetic Data in Action,” set for 5:00 PM on Wednesday, February 12 in the Solutions Theatre.
Don’t miss out on meeting the Deepgram team.
As Deepgram sets it sights through 2025, Deepgram is expected to push the boundaries of voice AI even further. Their mission remains clear: to provide the most accurate, cost-efficient and adaptable speech models with lightning-fast performance. But they want to do more thanjust fine-tuning what they already do well.
By the time 2025 wraps up, Deepgram aims to be the first and only company offering a true end-to-end speech-to-speech solution, purpose-built to tackle the four biggest challenges in the industry, according to their recent announcement.
First, there’s accuracy, because in the world of enterprise AI, close enough isn’t good enough. Organizations rely on precision when dealing with specialized jargon, complex terminology and less-than-ideal audio conditions. Deepgram meets this head-on with compression techniques that retain every ounce of linguistic nuance while processing audio at breakneck speed.
Then, there’s the cost of doing business at scale. Deepgram’s proprietary latent audio model, paired with extreme compression and high-performance computing expertise, ensures that companies can build and expand their AI-driven solutions without breaking the bank. Scalability shouldn’t come with a hefty price tag, and at Deepgram, it doesn’t.
Speed is another non-negotiable, according to Deepgram. In real-time conversations, every millisecond counts. That’s why Deepgram’s streaming models are engineered to operate with near-zero latency. Optimizing its architectures for the underlying hardware means that Deepgram minimizes processing delays to the point where responses feel instantaneous because in a natural conversation, they should be.
Finally, there’s context. An intelligent system must understand the bigger picture. Deepgram is on track to pass the speech Turing test thanks to its ability to train on vast datasets that accurately capture industry-specific nuances. In other words, Deepgram is building AI that gets it.
“Our product strategy from founding has been to focus on deep-tech first, and the work we have done in building 3-factor automated model adaptation, extreme compression on latent space models, hosting models with efficient and unrestricted hot-swapping, and symmetrical delivery across public cloud, private cloud or on-premises, uniquely positions us to succeed in the $50B market for voice AI agents in demanding environments requiring exceptional accuracy, lowest COGS, highest model adaptability and lowest latency,” Stephenson added.
Deepgram's 2025 goals are undeniably ambitious, but they align with the real demands of enterprise voice AI. Accuracy, cost-efficiency, speed and contextual understanding are the pillars of any effective speech system, and Deepgram is not afraid to tackle them head-on.
That said, the biggest challenge will be execution. Competing AI firms aren’t standing still, and the race to refine speech models is moving at a blistering pace. Latency, in particular, is a tricky beast, and balancing ultra-low cost with high performance at scale is easier said than done.
However, if Deepgram can deliver on all four fronts, especially achieving real-time speech-to-speech with deep contextual awareness, they'll set a new industry standard.
Deepgram is a Gold sponsor of Generative AI Expo, taking place February 11-13 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Generative AI Expo covers the evolution of GenAI and will feature conversations focused on the potential for GenAI across industries and how the technology is already being used to create new opportunities for businesses to improve operations, enhance customer experiences and create new growth opportunities. There is also a chance to hear Griggs talk about how to implement voice agents in call centers and Sypniewski talk about how Deepgram’s technologies are reshaping industries and improving user experiences. Deepgram will also be in Booth #1664 in the exhibit hall.
Edited by
Alex Passett
