Voice AI Research

Week 2026-W36
10announcements

Microsoft@MicrosoftAI 2 in corpus · first 2026-07-23

2026-09-03 · 2026-W36 · model · model · MAI-Transcribe-2

MAI-Transcribe-2: multilingual ASR and diarization at $0.10/hr

Microsoft launched MAI-Transcribe-2, a multilingual ASR model with diarization, timestamps, keyword biasing, and launch pricing of $0.10 per hour of audio.

$0.10/hr launch price with diarization and timestamps. Microsoft frames it as limited-time through year-end. Treat “fastest/cheapest in the world” as marketing.

MAI-Transcribe-2: the highest quality, cheapest transcription at the fastest speed! 10x faster that GPT-Transcribe. Now available on Microsoft Foundry.

https://x.com/MicrosoftAI/status/2095521860184363074

Gupshup@gupshup 1 in corpus · first 2026-09-03

2026-09-03 · 2026-W36 · platform · launch · Voice AI Platform

Gupshup Voice AI Platform: self-serve PSTN and WhatsApp voice beside messaging

Gupshup launched a self-serve console for building and deploying AI voice agents across PSTN and WhatsApp voice alongside WhatsApp, RCS, and SMS, with a choice of STT, TTS, and LLM.

In several markets the voice agent is a messaging company’s PSTN add-on, not a CCaaS replacement.

Inworld@inworld 1 in corpus · first 2026-09-02

2026-09-02 · 2026-W36 · model · launch · Realtime TTS-2

Inworld launches Realtime TTS-2 and TTS-2 Flash

Inworld launched a two-tier realtime TTS family with natural-language delivery steering, cloning, 200+ language cross-voice support, and on-demand pricing from $25 per million characters.

Two-tier realtime TTS with prompt tags and LiveKit-native wiring. Flash TTFA (~25ms) is a Coval figure, not a bench we ran.

Genesys@Genesys 1 in corpus · first 2026-09-02

2026-09-02 · 2026-W36 · platform · launch · Agentic Virtual Agent (APT-2 + voice) · vendor ElevenLabs / Deepgram / Scaled Cognition

Genesys Agentic Virtual Agent: APT-2, end-of-turn detection, ElevenLabs and Deepgram

at Xperience, Genesys announced Agentic Virtual Agent upgrades: Scaled Cognition APT-2, end-of-turn detection, Contextual Tuning, and integrations with ElevenLabs and Deepgram.

The CCaaS SKU enterprises already bought is getting frontier TTS, STT, and an action model on a published timetable, with ElevenLabs still later this fiscal quarter.

Genesys is advancing agentic orchestration for CX: context + governance, a smarter Agentic Virtual Agent

https://x.com/Genesys/status/2095182564998709342

Fireflies.ai@firefliesai 1 in corpus · first 2026-09-02

2026-09-02 · 2026-W36 · platform · launch · Voice Agents

Fireflies Voice Agents: recruiting, sales, and support calls from a knowledge base

Fireflies launched Voice Agents that conduct recruiting, sales, and support calls from a team knowledge base rather than only taking notes, claiming 40,000+ conversations across 2,100+ organisations in 97 countries since rollout.

A meeting-notes vendor running the live call is a different buyer motion from CCaaS or voice-agent infra.

Introducing Fireflies Voice Agents: AI that handles repetitive conversations like screening interviews, sales discovery, customer support, user research

https://x.com/firefliesai/status/2095179947455480113

Retell AI@retellai 1 in corpus · first 2026-09-01

2026-09-01 · 2026-W36 · platform · launch · Retell Workflows

Retell ships native pre-call and post-call workflows

Retell shipped native pre-call and post-call workflows that pull CRM/helpdesk context into voice agents and write outcomes back, without Zapier or n8n.

CRM glue at the call boundary without Zapier/n8n. Pre-call budget: 1 minute inbound/web, 5 minutes before an outbound dial.

Quiq@quiq 1 in corpus · first 2026-09-01

2026-09-01 · 2026-W36 · platform · launch · Voice Assist

Quiq Voice Assist: live-call guidance that can send the customer a message

Quiq extended its AI Assistants to live voice: adaptive next-best-action plus the ability to send customer-facing messages (links, vouchers) on the same thread while the human stays on the line.

This assist product can send the voucher during the call, which is a different job from a whisper bar that only suggests text to the agent.

Meta@AIatMeta 1 in corpus · first 2026-09-01

2026-09-01 · 2026-W36 · model · launch · Muse Voice Transcribe

Meta Muse Voice Transcribe: streaming ASR plus 20+ speaker diarization

Meta released Muse Voice Transcribe, a streaming ASR model that jointly does transcription, 20+ speaker diarization, and endpointing with multilingual code-switching.

Joint streaming ASR, diarization, and endpointing in 80ms chunks. Vendor: #1 on Artificial Analysis streaming STT as of 1 Sep.

Introducing Muse Voice Transcribe, the first real-time audio perception model from Meta Superintelligence Labs.

https://x.com/AIatMeta/status/2094839236016976028

LiveKit@livekit 3 in corpus · first 2026-08-12

2026-09-01 · 2026-W36 · platform · launch · LiveKit Connectors

LiveKit Connectors GA: Twilio Voice and WhatsApp without a SIP trunk

LiveKit launched Connectors that bridge LiveKit rooms to Twilio Programmable Voice and WhatsApp Business Calling without provisioning a SIP trunk, generally available on LiveKit Cloud.

Teams already on Twilio Studio, or on WhatsApp calling, can attach a LiveKit agent without standing up a SIP trunk.

LiveKit Connectors are generally available today. They bring calls from @twilio Programmable Voice and @WhatsApp Business Calling into a LiveKit room as a regular participant, so your agent can answer there with no SIP trunk to provision and nothing new to host.

https://x.com/livekit/status/2094905369063755830

Vapi@Vapi_AI 1 in corpus · first 2026-08-31

2026-08-31 · 2026-W36 · platform · launch · Vapi Campaigns

Vapi rebuilds outbound Campaigns on a durable workflow engine

Vapi rebuilt outbound Campaigns on a durable workflow engine for lists up to 10,000 contacts, with scheduling windows, dynamic variables, and pre-dial skip webhooks.

Batch outbound with event-sourced state and a skip webhook, instead of a blob/counter. Lists up to 10,000 contacts.

Vapi Campaigns is live, rebuilt from the ground up.

https://x.com/Vapi_AI/status/2094832678235209734