It wasn’t too long ago that talking to machines felt like a far-fetched dream. But fast forward to now, and speed technology is everywhere. Looking at the statistics, Fortune Business Insights recently valued the global speech and voice recognition market at $15.46 billion. The institution further added that the market could grow to $81.59 billion in the next few years, translating to a more than 23% CAGR.
Such growth is no joke, as the industry will have expanded more than threefold. As technology improves, people always want experiences that make life simpler. And that’s why telling a smart speaker to dim the lights or even asking your voice assistant to schedule a meeting is not strange these days.
Of course, there are numerous benefits of aligning with such contemporary shifts, explaining why things like voice AI ROI have become among the strongest arguments for adoption. You actually may be surprised to learn that, according to InsideAI News, 97% of small and medium-sized businesses saw an increase in revenue after implementing AI voice agents.
So, who’s putting money into voice?
From Fortune Business Insights’ approximations, it’s pretty clear that investment in voice AI startups has ballooned over the past few years. Can you believe that, according to PYMNTS.com, voice AI startups raised over $2 billion in 2024 alone? That was an eightfold increase from the previous year.
Another study by Business Insider Africa noted that these startups gathered over $398 million in venture capital funding in 2024. A good example is the London-based PolyAI, which secured about $50 million from Hedosophia. Modern consumers have become super-discerning and prefer taking in information through audio formats. Good enough, it’s not only the top tech giants like Google and Amazon rising to meet this demand – small-sized startups are also following suit.
What makes this space even more appealing for investors is the compounding effect. Once you embed a voice tech into your workflow, you will likely increase the stickiness factor, making recurring revenue models attractive. Also, voice data is gold, as it fuels better AI models and smarter user experiences.
Voice in business has become more than just a talking assistant
Why would you have to wait days or even weeks to receive feedback on an inquiry you made in an age like this, where technology has rapidly advanced? Delayed responses are a thing of the past, and offering them today could only be setting your business up for failure. According to Sobot, about six in ten customers will abandon a platform if they wait too long.
Given that obtaining new customers is already costly, losing over 60% of customers is not a pain you want to bear. That’s why many businesses are turning to AI technology to improve their response time. Think about banks using voice ID to verify customers within seconds or healthcare platforms enabling doctors to dictate notes that get automatically transcribed and filed. As such, seeing an institution like Verloop.io expect 80% of businesses to use AI-driven technology by 2026 shouldn’t be surprising.
For enterprises, this would mean improved user experiences and faster workflows – all of which drive growth. Of course, when consumers find satisfying experiences, they will be more likely to return. It’s part of why nine in ten businesses have made customer experience their primary focus. On the other hand, investors can now enjoy the benefits of consistent demand and long-term potential.
Voice meets transactions
The Business Research Company recently conducted a survey and discovered that the voice commerce market was on its way to hit $150.34 billion in 2025, up from $116.83 billion in 2024. Looking ahead, the market could reach $395.53 billion by 2029, translating to an average yearly growth of more than 27%. This could result in a world where everything, from reordering household goods to booking flights, is done via voice-enabled smart assistants.
And it won’t just be about passive voice searches, such as finding the best headphone brands. It could extend to direct actions like helping a user buy another pair of Sony WH-1000XM5s, highlighting how voice is quickly becoming a transactional interface. A good example of a retail company at the forefront of this trend is Walmart. Almost a decade ago, it partnered with Google, allowing buyers to shop over two million Walmart.com items through the Google Home.
And since about 71% of consumers prefer voice search over typing for easier and faster information access, more brands are testing voice-activated ads to drive direct conversion. What’s even more interesting is that, according to Keywords Everywhere, about two-thirds of people with smart speakers can’t imagine life without them. The frictionless nature of voice commerce sets the stage for a massive behavioral shift investors are getting ready to take advantage of.
Reaching global markets
Did you know that there are over 7,000 languages in use today? For businesses targeting a global audience, you must try to cater to many of these languages to stand out; otherwise, you may soon be out of business. Customers want businesses that speak their language and cater to their regional preferences. After all, why would a Chinese person buy from a company that only uses English when there are many other alternatives offering products in the Chinese language?
A few years ago, CSA Research released a report claiming that about 76% of online shoppers preferred purchasing products with information in their native language. The research also noted that 40% would never transact with websites offering products in other languages. Such statistics explain why speed tech companies are racing to support low-resource and underrepresented languages.
While most of the biggest companies were initially built around English, billions of users don’t speak that language. Surprisingly, according to the University of Reading, three-quarters of the world doesn’t speak English at all. To avoid missing out on these populations, speech companies have been integrating more than one language. Consider Gemini Live, for example. It allows for natural conversations among more than 40 dialects.
This push toward multilingual accessibility makes the speed tech space attractive for global investors looking to tap into emerging economies.
The magic of combining AI and voice
Remember, data has become like the new digital gold, and every business seeking to stay ahead must learn how to take advantage of it. Without an in-depth understanding of customers, you may negatively affect your relevance, which may result in increased churn rates. That’s why, beyond just understanding what someone said, you want to know how and why they said it.
Such tactics present your brand as caring, which may positively affect your brand reputation, leading to greater acquisition and retention rates. About 73% of users already want businesses to understand them better, providing reasonable grounds for companies to gain a deeper insight into their customers to improve their edge. With voice AI tools, you can analyze tone and stress levels to determine how a buyer feels, then recommend real-time actions to agents.
These analytics can also help flag potential churn risks or identify upsell opportunities. Once you identify areas of customer dissatisfaction, you can proactively address them and improve the general experience. Also, tracking agent interactions and identifying areas of improvement allows for targeted coaching and training, leading to better business performance.
Improving productivity with conversational AI
Factors like unrealistic workload, multitasking and poor communication affect the productivity of many employees. Multitasking alone causes employees to make 50% more errors and decrease productivity by up to 40%. Other factors, like stress, can also be costly. Health Advocate reported that businesses spend up to 600 on every worker suffering from stress every year.
Thankfully, conversational AI, where individuals can interact with machines as they would with fellow humans, can help deal with some of these challenges. This technology uses natural language processing algorithms to process the engagement, making it feel more authentic. To put that into perspective, imagine you recently acquired a phone and are already facing several issues.
Instead of waiting to return to the physical store, you chat with a technical support chatbot that suggests steps to solve your problem. Such infrastructures can be handy in keeping customers more engaged. In workplaces, they ensure employees have intelligent tools to help them with several tasks. These virtual agents can help automate operations and workflows, allowing workers to focus on what matters.
That’s without mentioning how the agents help prioritize actions. Once you’ve set the categories, they take care of the micro steps that go into it, so you don’t have to worry about manually prioritizing tasks. As a result of these benefits, Grand View Research claims that the global conversational AI market has reached $11.58 billion and expects it to expand to $41.39 billion by 2030.
At this point, you can agree that voice technology is here to stay. And especially now that the love for easy experiences has become prevalent, seeing more sectors welcome this technology shouldn’t be surprising. Consider the business sector, for a moment. Consumers are increasingly using voice search compared to text, providing good grounds for the spread of voice-activated ads.
Voice technology also allows companies to understand their customers better, leading to better customer engagement. Given all these benefits, it’s reasonable to consider speed technology a worthy investment.
