Venture investors poured more than $7 billion into voice AI startups in the first quarter of this year, far more than at any previous time, as products based on vastly improved voice recognition technology proliferated in the workplace.
Eleven Labs, Synthesia, and Runway (known for their video models, but with heavy audio generation) have all raised significant new funding since the beginning of the year. Global market for voice recognition technology expected to be valuable $22 billion By 2026, it is predicted to nearly triple in size over the next five years.
We’re looking at how the tool is being deployed in several key enterprise areas. Stories like how Abridge was launched across Phoenix-area care centers, the integration of DeepL and Aramark, and more.
Given the growing interest in audio, we are excited to host our first-ever event. Cerebral Valley Voice Summit This Wednesday, May 6th, in San Francisco.
Topics in this story include healthcare, customer service, personal note-taking, and more as we discuss them live and in-depth with CEOs from Sierra, Abridge, Deepgram, Wispr Flow, and more.
Please join the conversation. Registration for this invite-only summit is closing soon. You can apply here.
Now, back to the story.
Dr. Craig Norquist I remember ten years ago when ambient AI scribes first appeared on the market. As chief medical information officer at HonorHealth, a Phoenix-area network of 200 care centers and 17,000 staff, he watched doctors try the technology, shrug their shoulders, and walk away.
However, the development of voice AI since ChatGPT has changed everything. Generative AI will significantly enhance the venerable but underdeveloped speech recognition sector, and two years ago, HonorHealth was in serious talks with Abridge, an AI note-taking platform built for physicians (CEO) Shiv Rao photograph).
In February, Abridge launched with HonorHealth, providing 500 licenses to approximately 3,000 physicians and PAs. Physicians and PAs use Abridge in the background to record and take notes during patient encounters.
After an appointment, Abridge uses a proprietary model to generate complete medical notes that are ready to be entered into the patient’s electronic medical record, along with queues for follow-up visits, test orders, or prescriptions.
In less than two months, HonorHealth already has a waiting list of more than 150 additional doctors who want to use the tool, Norquist said. This not only reduces the amount of work doctors have to do overtime to keep medical records up to date, he added, but it also frees up doctors to spend more time interacting with patients because they don’t have to remember or record details.
Norquist acknowledged that a small but significant number of healthcare professionals in his health system have data privacy concerns about AI recording doctor-patient calls, which could lead to liability in malpractice lawsuits.
The patient I’m worried One person said his data from these meetings was not made public and the accuracy of the records. new york times This week’s report. Abridge has worked to alleviate some of these concerns by allowing healthcare organizations to host their own records and establish their own access and retention policies.
Customer service is clearly a big application category for voice AI agents. Decagon, a voice agent startup $250 million Hunter Douglas, a multinational teller company valued at $4.5 billion in January, began using Decagon voice agents to handle customer service calls about six months ago.
Charmaine Valance-Poole The company’s global customer experience director said he was impressed with how quickly agents responded to after-hours calls and were able to quickly learn and reference specifications for all of the company’s product lines. Agents can also guide customers through product installation. “Bots are probably the people who know the most about your business,” she said.
