Vodia founder and CEO Christian Stredicke, PhD, recently sat down with Doug Green, publisher of Technology Reseller News, to discuss synthetic voice and its role in the evolution of human communication. 

Synthetic voice is AI-generated speech that can replicate the human voice across a wide range of applications. Thanks to algorithms that can recreate the nuances of human speech, including cadence, pitch, and tone, synthetic voice sounds much like spoken language, giving a “human touch” to a wide array of uses, including audiobooks, automated voiceovers, interactive voice response systems (IVR), and virtual assistants. 

How does synthetic voice differ from text-to-speech? It uses machine learning to create natural, intelligible voices - it doesn’t use basic digital voices to read text, which makes caller interactions more engaging. Alexa and Siri, for example, use synthetic voice to respond to commands and requests. 

“It’s an interesting playground,” Dr. Stredicke says, referring to the flexibility synthetic voice offers, like adjusting language, accent, or even emotional tone.

For Vodia, synthetic voice presents new opportunities to improve communication for businesses. “We like the ability to speak different languages, that’s something a human can’t easily do,” he explained. “A lot of people come from Asia, Spanish-speaking countries, South America, Africa… for them it’s a great experience to be able to interact in their native language.”

He added that synthetic voice can accommodate variations within a language as well, such as American and British English, or French and Quebecois.

Dr. Stredicke also touched on how synthetic voice could support call center operations. For English-speaking agents with strong accents, synthetic voice can serve as a layer that outputs accent-neutral English. “You can do two layers,” he said. “One is where you speak English with an accent, and it’s translated into accent-free English. The other is live translation, where a synthetic voice is used to translate between languages. This is already starting to happen in online conferencing.”

What is Vodia’s plan for the integration of synthetic voice with its industry-standard phone system? 

“We’re definitely going to look at the APIs,” says Dr. Stredicke, “because, luckily, all of these features are available through APIs. We’ll gladly use it, we’ll gladly support it - we’re already supporting AI interfaces, so we want to provide the tool to bring this to customers to roll this out in real life.”

To find out more about how we continue to push AI to the forefront of the Vodia PBX toolbox, reach out, sales@vodia.com, +1 (617) 861-3490.

About Vodia

Vodia Networks, Inc. provides B2B cloud communications solutions for enterprises, contact centers, and service providers. Its PBX software offers a broad range of business telephony features for on-premise and cloud deployments on Windows, Linux, and Mac. Fully SIP-compliant, Vodia integrates with numerous SIP devices and trunking providers for flexible telephony. Its multi-tenant platforms support desk phones, softphones, APIs, and third-party CRM integrations. Vodia empowers partners and users with world-class cloud PBX and personalized support to ensure success. The company operates globally, with offices in Boston, USA, and Berlin, Germany. Visit Vodia on LinkedIn, X, and YouTube.