What happened to the voice AI revolution?

Amy Stapleton, Senior Analyst at Opus Research, joins John Kelvie for a wide-ranging conversation about the past, present, and future of voice AI.

They go back to the early Alexa era, when conversational AI was built around rigid intents and developers had to predict what users would say. Then they look at how LLMs changed the technology — and what that means for voice, AI agents, and the contact center industry today.

The conversation also turns to the future: trust in AI agents, the possibility of near-total customer service automation, the role of CCaaS providers, the return of smart speakers, ambient computing, personal AI, and even humanoid robots.

And, of course, there are plenty of predictions along the way.

*In this episode:*

The early days of Alexa and what went wrong
How LLMs changed conversational AI
Voice AI vs. chat and why voice still feels different
AI agents and the future of customer service
Trust, testing, and unpredictable AI behavior
What happens to CCaaS providers?
Can smart speakers make a comeback?
Ambient computing and personal AI
Voice-enabled robots and what comes next