Key takeaways
- Measure end-to-end latency, not just model speed
- Check telephony compatibility early
- Always define when and how a human takes over
Latency is the experience
On a call, people expect a reply within about a second. Speech recognition, the model, any tool calls, and speech synthesis all add delay. Test the whole chain on real phone audio, not on a laptop microphone in a quiet room.
Quality in real conditions
Accents, background noise, bad lines, and people talking over the agent all affect recognition. Test with the callers you actually have, and decide what the agent does when it is not sure what it heard.
Telephony and integrations
Numbers, call routing, recording rules, and your phone provider's capabilities shape what is possible. Confirm early how calls will reach the agent and how it will reach your calendar or CRM.
Handoff and honesty
Define exactly when a person takes over: caller asks, agent stuck twice, certain topics. Make the transfer smooth and pass along a summary. Check the disclosure and call-recording rules that apply in the places you operate.
Treat voice as a project with testing and monitoring, not a switch you flip.