1. What are Voice Agents?
Comprehensive overview of voice agents, their differences from callbots, key features, and how to build them using Rounded.
1. What are Voice Agents
- Voice Agents vs. Callbots Unlike callbots and other more traditional Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems, voice agents generate the content of each interaction on the fly. They’re powered by large language models (LLMs)—a type of AI popularized by ChatGPT. What’s the difference? Because the content is generated in real time throughout the conversation, a well-configured voice agent delivers interactions that feel far more fluid, natural, and personalized.
Another key difference between a voice agent and a basic voicebot lies in the agent’s ability to perform actions. For example, if you set up a reception agent at your car dealership and grant it access to your calendar, it can autonomously schedule appointments with callers.
Although there have been major strides in direct voice-to-voice AI models (where both input and output are voice), most voice agents still rely on a combination of different models. Coordinating these models effectively isn’t always straightforward.
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What Makes a Good Voice Agent? Deploying a reliable, fully functional voice agent usually requires combining four distinct building blocks: Rounded provides the tools you need to address all four of these production challenges.
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Precise orchestration of the agent’s workflows (LLMs).
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Integration with the right company data to give the conversational agent more accurate context and/or to retrieve relevant data for the business.
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Monitoring and oversight of conversations: tools that let you supervise and manage interactions.
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Telephony connectivity (for phone-based agents): ensuring that an agent running on servers can actually answer your company’s incoming calls.
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Can I Build an Agent on My Own? Absolutely! This documentation is designed to help you do just that, and you’ll find additional resources on the Rounded Discord server.If you’d rather not spend the time, you can also reach out to one of our partners to handle it for you.