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The 2026 Buyer's Guide to AI Voice Agents
What to actually evaluate when you shortlist an AI voice platform — latency, voice quality, CRM depth, and the contract clauses that decide TCO.
Mei Tanaka, Head of Product·May 12, 2026· 9 min read
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Why this guide exists
Most voice-AI demos are cherry-picked. This guide gives you the same 28-point evaluation rubric our enterprise customers use during pilots.
The four things that matter
- End-to-end latency under 350ms. Anything slower feels robotic and tanks answer rates.
- Voice quality across accents, not just American English. Ask for samples in your top five customer locales.
- Native CRM write-back, not Zapier. Round-trip latency under 4 seconds means reps see updates before they pick up.
- Per-tenant data isolation. If the vendor can't draw their data model on a whiteboard, walk away.
Red flags in vendor RFP responses
- "We're working on" SOC 2 — means they don't have it.
- Per-seat pricing — voice scales with minutes, not headcount.
- No mention of consent, recording disclosures, or DNC lists.
The 14-day pilot checklist
Pilot on real traffic, not a sandbox. Measure: connect-rate, AHT, transfer-to-human rate, post-call CSAT, and CRM data quality.