Voice AI and the Future of Human-Computer Interaction

By Saswat Mishra – Serial Entrepreneur, AI Specialist, Co-founder at PaddleBoat

The telephone let us talk across cities. Zoom lets us talk across continents. Now, Voice AI is letting us talk to machines, and for the first time, they are talking back. It’s no longer science fiction: computers can listen, understand, and respond, transforming human-computer interaction from commands and clicks to conversation. This shift is poised to redefine productivity, accessibility, and the very way we engage with technology.

Modern Voice AI systems achieve this feat by stitching together multiple specialized models. Speech-to-Text (STT) platforms, led by companies like Deepgram, convert spoken words into text. Large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT then process this text, serving as the system’s “brain” to generate contextually appropriate responses, remembering context, understanding intent, and maintaining coherence over extended interactions. Finally, Text-to-Speech (TTS) engines, offered by providers like ElevenLabs and Cartesia ...