AI Voice, Calling & Receptionist News
Ongoing coverage of the wider AI voice and calling industry -- funding, product launches, enterprise deployments and infrastructure -- not just Botnira. Sourced, dated, and written for anyone tracking where this space is heading.
OpenAI Launches GPT-Live-1, a Full-Duplex Voice Model for AI Phone Agents
OpenAI released GPT-Live-1 in its API on September 10, 2026 -- a full-duplex voice model that listens and speaks at once, priced at $0.05 a minute, cutting interruptions by roughly 80% versus its prior turn-based Realtime model and already used by Yelp, Speak and Intercom.
September 12, 2026 · 7 min read
Intermedia Launches AI Receptionist for Its 150,000+ Business Customers
Intermedia announced Intermedia AI Receptionist on September 10, 2026 -- a native AI voice agent built into Unite and Contact Center that answers calls, books appointments and hands off to humans with an AI-generated recap, now in open beta ahead of an October general availability.
September 11, 2026 · 6 min read
Zendesk Launches Real-Time Voice Translation for Contact Center Calls
Zendesk announced Real-Time Voice Translation for Zendesk Contact Center on September 10, 2026 -- AI that translates live calls in both directions across 13 languages, letting agents handle multilingual calls without transfers or interpreters.
September 10, 2026 · 6 min read
SkySwitch Launches Native AI Agent for Its White-Label UCaaS Partners
SkySwitch, a BCM One company, launched a native AI Agent on September 1, 2026 -- a white-label conversational AI built directly into its UCaaS platform, letting MSPs and telecom resellers sell an AI phone agent under their own brand with no development work.
September 9, 2026 · 6 min read
Quiq Launches Voice Assist, an AI That Acts During Live Calls
Quiq launched Voice Assist on September 1, 2026 -- agentic AI that sends real customer-facing messages during live phone calls, not just suggestions to human agents, extending its digital AI Assistant platform used by Roku, Staples and Panasonic into voice.
September 8, 2026 · 6 min read
SoundHound AI Completes Acquisition of LivePerson
SoundHound AI closed its acquisition of LivePerson on September 4, 2026, merging voice agentic AI with LivePerson's enterprise messaging network into one debt-free conversational AI company serving 25 of the Fortune 100.
September 7, 2026 · 7 min read
Gupshup Launches Self-Serve Voice AI Platform for Phone Calls
Gupshup launched a self-serve Voice AI Platform on September 3, 2026 -- letting any of its 50,000+ business customers build no-code AI voice agents for phone calls, starting at $0.035 a minute, alongside its existing WhatsApp, RCS and SMS messaging.
September 6, 2026 · 6 min read
Genesys Adds ElevenLabs and Deepgram Voice AI to Its Contact Center Agents
Genesys unveiled an AI Control Plane, new orchestration tools and an ElevenLabs- and Deepgram-powered voice upgrade to its Agentic Virtual Agent at Xperience 2026 on September 2, 2026 -- alongside $2.9B in Genesys Cloud ARR and 7,500+ customers.
September 5, 2026 · 7 min read
Microsoft Launches MAI-Transcribe-2, Undercutting Meta and OpenAI on Price
Microsoft AI released MAI-Transcribe-2 on September 3, 2026 -- a speech-to-text model priced at $0.10 per audio hour, ranked first on the FLEURS benchmark across 60 languages, and cheaper than rival models from Meta, OpenAI, Google and ElevenLabs.
September 4, 2026 · 6 min read
Meta Launches Muse Voice Transcribe, Undercutting Rival Speech AI on Price
Meta Superintelligence Labs shipped its first real-time audio perception model on September 1, 2026 -- a single model that transcribes, diarizes and detects end-of-speech at once, priced at $3 per 1,000 minutes, well below Cartesia, ElevenLabs and Deepgram.
September 3, 2026 · 7 min read
Fireflies.ai Launches Voice Agents, Already Handling 40,000+ Calls
Fireflies.ai, the AI meeting-notes company used by 75% of Fortune 500 firms, launched Voice Agents on September 2, 2026 -- AI that runs recruiting, sales and support calls end to end, already logging 40,000+ conversations across 2,100+ organizations in 97 countries.
September 2, 2026 · 6 min read
AI Voice & Calling Industry News Roundup — End of August 2026
AudioCodes' Voca CIC becomes one of the first voice agents certified under Microsoft's new Teams program, MENA startup HeyBreez raises seed funding for the infrastructure behind AI phone operations, and YuVerse launches four enterprise voice and video AI tools at its Mumbai summit.
August 31, 2026 · 5 min read
AI Voice & Calling Industry News Roundup — Late August 2026
HappyRobot becomes a voice AI unicorn after a $150M Series C, India's Ringg raises fresh capital to push voice agents beyond the phone call, and Regal partners with Five9 to bring autonomous voice agents into enterprise contact centers.
August 31, 2026 · 5 min read
AI Voice & Calling Industry News Roundup — August 2026
CarMax deploys an AI voice agent for inbound sales calls, fresh funding lands at Rime, Smallest.ai and Omilia, and Twilio reports record quarterly revenue as AI reshapes customer calling.
August 30, 2026 · 6 min read