Voice AI Investment Surges as Enterprise Applications Gain Traction
How Deepgram, Wispr & Abridge customers are using voice AI in their workdays
Venture investors poured over $7 billion into voice AI startups in the first quarter of this year, far more than in any previous period, as products based on vastly improved voice recognition technology proliferate in the workplace.
ElevenLabs, Synthesia, and Runway (which is known for its video models but handles large amounts of voice generation) have all raised sizable new rounds since the start of the year. The global market for voice recognition technology, expected to be worth $22 billion in 2026, is projected to nearly triple in size over the next five years.
We’re taking a look at how the tools are being deployed in a few key enterprise verticals. We have the stories of how Abridge launched across care centers in the Phoenix area, DeepL’s integration with Aramark, and more.
But first: talk about voice with us at our summit on Wednesday
Given the rush of interest in voice, we’re excited to be hosting the first-ever Cerebral Valley Voice Summit this Wednesday, May 6, in San Francisco.
We’ll take the themes of this story — like healthcare, customer service, and personal note-taking — and discuss them live and in-depth with the CEOs of Sierra, Abridge, Deepgram, Wispr Flow, and more.
Come contribute to the conversation. Applications to this invite-only summit are closing soon. You can apply here.
Now, back to the story.
Ambient AI in the Doctor’s Office
Dr. Craig Norquist remembers when ambient AI scribes first hit the market a decade ago. As Chief Medical Information Officer for HonorHealth — a Phoenix-area network of 200 care centers and 17,000 staff — he watched doctors try the technology, shrug, and walk away.
But the post-ChatGPT development of voice AI has changed everything. Generative AI supercharged the venerable but slow-developing voice recognition sector, and two years ago HonorHealth was in serious talks with Abridge, the AI note-taking platform built for physicians (CEO Shiv Rao pictured).
In February, Abridge launched at HonorHealth with 500 licenses for around 3,000 physicians and PAs, who are using Abridge in the background to record and take notes as they meet with patients.
After an appointment, Abridge uses its proprietary models to generate a full medical note that’s ready to drop into the patient’s electronic health records, along with queues on follow-ups, test orders, or prescriptions.
In less than two months, HonorHealth already has a waiting list of over 150 more doctors who want in on the tool, Norquist said. It not only cuts the after-hours work doctors have to do to keep charts up to date, he added, it also frees them up to be more present while interacting with patients as they don’t have to worry about remembering and recording the particulars.
Norquist acknowledged that a small but significant chunk of practitioners in his health system are concerned around data privacy when it comes to AI recording doctor-patient calls, and if it could be a liability to malpractice suits.
Patients are concerned about their own data from these meetings staying private, and about the accuracy of transcripts, according to a New York Times report this week. Abridge has worked to ease some of these concerns by letting medical practices host their own records and establish their own policies on access and retention.
Ordering With a Voice Agent
Customer service is clearly a big application category for voice AI agents. Decagon, a voice agent startup that raised $250 million at a $4.5 billion valuation in January, pointed us to Hunter Douglas, a multinational window treatment company that began using Decagon voice agents to handle customer service calls about 6 months ago.
Charmaine Vallance-Poole, the global customer experience director for the company, said the agents were immediately helpful for answering calls after hours, and she’s been impressed with how quickly they were able to learn and reference specs for all of the company’s product lines. The agents can even coach customers through product installation. “The bot is probably the most knowledgeable person on your business,” she said.