Braden Ream, CEO of Voiceflow, joins the AI Agents Podcast to share the journey of building a powerful, real-world voice AI platform that truly works. In this conversation, Braden explains how Voiceflow evolved from early Alexa skills to a full-fledged platform used by Fortune 500 companies to create conversational agents across chat and voice. He dives into the limitations of traditional NLU systems, the shift toward agentic frameworks, and how LLMs revolutionized the state and response design process in voice tech. Learn why streaming processes and speech-to-speech models are the next big leap in voice AI, how Voiceflow is navigating the balance between usability and power, and what the future holds for agent builders amid rapid advancements from OpenAI, Anthropic, and others. If you're interested in the transformative potential of conversational AI for call centers, support automation, and beyond, this episode offers a deep dive into the tools and trends defining the next generation of voice AI. ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ ⏰ TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 - The Death Of Manual Design 1:22 - How Voiceflow Got Started 4:44 - Voice Versus Chat In AI 6:12 - Transitioning From NLU To LLMs 10:00 - Streaming AI Vs Batch Processing 13:00 - Unlocking Real-Time Voice Agents 20:00 - Serving Customers Of All Sizes 26:00 - Voice AI Model Comparisons 33:00 - The Bundling Of Agent Builders 39:00 - The AI Bubble And Valuation Debate ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ Sign up for free ➡️ https://www.jotform.com/ ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ Follow us on: Twitter ➡️ https://x.com/aiagentspodcast Instagram ➡️ https://www.instagram.com/aiagentspodcast TikTok ➡️ https://www.tiktok.com/@aiagentspodcast ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
