[Bookmari] had a problem β working as a delivery driver, they wanted to work on various projects with Claude Code while out and about. Unfortunately, it simply wasnβt practical to write prompts and read answers on the job. Thus, they whipped up Walkie Claudie, so they could use their voice instead.
The concept is simple enough, itβs an interface that lets you talk to Claude using speech recognition, and lets Claude talk back to you with a text-to-speech engine. It runs on a smartphone, with a direct network connection to the PC running Claude, though you can use a VPN if youβre distantly located. [Bookmari] has a push-to-talk setup so that pushing a button on their Bluetooth earbuds lets them talk directly to Claude. Thereβs also a special mode to keep the channel active during long pauses if you need a while to collect thoughts and vocalize them. Just for fun, the interface is styled like an old-school walkie LCD, and thereβs fun little details like synthesized squelch and channel-switch noises and so on.
If youβre looking for a way to stay hooked up to your AI assistant at all times, this could prove useful to you. Alternatively, consider if maybe itβs worth taking a break sometimes, or check out other Claude Code projects weβve seen of late.
Research Director, Enterprise Technology and Services
Summary Bullets:
β’ While IP voice is less ubiquitous, when it matters it, it really matters
β’ Agent-to-agent communication adds a new paradigm to IP voice services
Calling IP voice a legacy service is a little unfair, but only a little. Innovation in this arena is still happening as can be seen by BTβs recent launch of its automated UC edge platform designed to help enterprises move numbers between UC platforms automatically. However, a recent and stark counterpoint to this is Lumenβs decision to exit the IP voice market.
Lumenβs decision is based on multiple reasons. The provider is focusing on what it sees as its core value proposition, which is its network services capability. Further, after a period of selling-off much of its global infrastructure, the acquisition of Alkira has broadened the providerβs horizons again and it now intends to be a provider of global AI-networking solutions. Lumen felt that IP voice was not something it could offer as a global proposition and so decided to exit the market. While Lumen may have had broader strategic reasons for exiting, there is no doubt that if Lumen had seen IP voice as a high value, high growth opportunity then it would have acted differently.
Lumen is somewhat of an outlier, however, and many providers are, if not bullish, then at least moderately optimistic about the future of voice services. For example, BT International has made international IP voice one of its core service offerings and will continue to invest in it. BT reports that IP voice has been one of its biggest success stories in winning new logos. AT&T is also doubling down on voice, albeit with a focus that, while still possessing a global aspect, is America-centric.
What is powering this optimism when many enterprises have already taken IP voice services away from many of their workers in favor of mobile voice and video conferencing solutions? One part of the answer lies in customer contact services. Contact centers are viewed by many providers as a key growth market and voice is a key part of this. It is easy to assume that the growing use of AI is eroding the voice component of contact centers, but this is not necessarily the case. AI chatbots have automated many simple processes such as order tracking, password resets, and similar. However, extending AI into more complex and regulated environments is less easy. The token cost of agentic AI also makes the cost benefits less certain.
As AI continues to improve the cost comparison will change, but there is also the customer preference aspect that should be taken into account. Many customers continue to prefer talking to a human rather than engaging with AI. This is true among the younger generations as much as older generations. There is also the fact that where humans most want to speak to another human is in the most important interactions β when there has been a problem, or selling high value services or situations where customer retention and revenue generation are at stake. While there may be fewer calls into contact centers, when they happen, they matter β and their importance is creating greater interest in high quality voice services.
The emerging factor keeping service providers interested in IP voice is also centered around AI. In particular, it is calls that will be generated by agentic AI agents β either calling humans, or interacting with other agentic agents. As businesses and individuals begin to deploy more agentic AI agents they will need to communicate and it is not yet clear how this will happen. Some of it will be via APIs and MCPs, but not all systems will be connected, and agent-to-human-scenarios will always require either voice or text.
So, while AI is a clear threat to IP voice growth, it is also the potential savior of this oft-maligned but still hugely important technology.
β’ Conversational AI is driving a major voice resurgence in customer service by improving the IP voice experience.
β’ Long call queues on account of human agents being thinly stretched across large call volumes have led to customer frustrations and poor CX, but modern versions of conversational AI are set to change that by taking away the frictions associated with voice.
It was believed that voice would diminish in value as digital channels started to emerge as an alternative to the voice channel. While messaging and chatbots offer cost and scale advantages, GlobalDataβs research shows that voice continues to remain a vital channel for connecting with customers despite the frictions. Voice provides instant gratification and tends to be more straightforward to use as it does not involve navigating through messaging channels, websites and so and having to type messages. While the elderly demography tends to prefer voice due to greater familiarity, voice is seen to be popular even with the younger generation.
The modern versions of conversational AI are reinforcing the value of voice by taking away the frictions, leading to improved experience, at least for some use cases. Conversational AI is not new, but the older versions were highly programmed, rigid, and could only answer limited, non-interactive queries. Modern conversational AI relies on probabilistic models, making it highly interactive and capable of closely emulating human agents. This technology has given birth to virtual AI receptionists that handle calls, greet customers, carry out authentication, identify intent, and route calls. This eliminates long queues and grants customers 24/7 access. The value multiplies with real-time translation, allowing AI receptionists to speak multiple languages. This is a game-changer for diverse ethnic groups who do not speak English as a first language, especially when accessing critical local government public services where expressing needs in a native language is vital.
Driven by rapid tech advancements, conversational AI is expanding from basic receptionists into autonomous AI agents. These agents handle tasks like answering queries, booking appointments, and taking orders. To do this, they require robust technical foundations, integrating seamlessly with knowledge bases and CRMs (systems of record) to provide targeted responses. Linked to the right workflows, AI agents can check calendars to schedule medical visits or process restaurant orders. Combined with 24/7 availability and translation, this dramatically elevates the voice experience for customers. Furthermore, non-technical teams can easily build these bots in agent builder studios by simply describing the desired persona and goals, removing the need for complex coding. As 8Γ8 CEO Samuel Wilson noted at the companyβs analyst summit this June, βThe next billion voice numbers will go to AI agents.β
Despite the promise, architectural challenges remain. Latency is a primary hurdle; the traditional multi-step process (like speech-to-text) can create latency, leading to awkward pauses that disrupt conversational flow. Robust guardrails are also critical to stop AI from hallucinating false information, which carries severe financial and legal risks. Additionally, backend integrations can be clunky due to poorly documented APIs or failing connectors. Finally, the compute costs for generative (GenAI) and agentic AI remain high and can be prohibitive for many businesses. While agentic conversational AI is still in its developing stages, steady breakthroughs are addressing initial operational hurdles to gradually enhance the contact center voice experience. This ongoing progress will drive deeper adoption of the voice channel, counteracting previous assumptions that voice would decrease in value.
The quest for ever-more automation within customer contact solutions continues apace. There will always be scenarios where human-to-human conversations are the preferred and best option. But to enable companies to offer voice interaction at the scale that customers demand, AI will have to carry a significant share of the burden. GenAI- and agentic AI-powered conversational AI is fundamentally shifting the voice experience in contact centers and customer service.
Login
