Speech Technology Magazine

Research firm MarketsandMarkets projects the emotion detection and recognition market to grow from $29.14 billion now to $43.29 billion by 2031 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.2 percent. It was valued at $26.76 billion in 2025.

SoundWise.ai has launched its free forever artificial intelligence transcription tool, a browser-based platform that converts audio and video to text in more than 98 languages, with no per-minute meter and no overall usage cap for individual users.

Retell AI, an artificial intelligence voice agent platform provider, has launched Conductor, a graph-native review system for production voice agents. Conductor is an AI copilot that understands how voice agents actually run. It shows every proposed change right inside the agent's workflow, and it never makes a change until a person approves it. Conductor helps companies build, create simulation tests, analyze calls, and continually improve the AI voice agents that power their contact centers.

Entrepreneur, hospitality industry expert, and TV personality Jon Taffer, host of "Bar Rescue," today launched his official Talk2Me Twin, a verified artificial intelligence-powered digital extension of himself. The interactive AI Twin enables entrepreneurs, operators, and aspiring business owners to have a conversation directly with Taffer and ask anything they want.

Mordor Intelligence projects the global market for voice recognition technology to be worth $22 billion in 2026 and to nearly triple in size over the next five years. It valued the market at $18.4 billion last year and expects it to hit $61.8 billion by 2031, growing at a compound annual rate of 22.4 percent. Venture investors have seen the market's potential and poured more than $7 billion into voice AI startups in the first quarter of this year, far more than in any previous period.

Timekettle, a simultaneous interpretation technology provider, has launched the Timekettle X1 Meeting Interpreter Hub, an upgraded addition to its X Series platform to make multilingual business meetings easier to run, join, and understand. Built for companies, educators, event organizers, and global teams, the X1 Meeting expands Timekettle's original X1 Interpreter Hub from smaller group conversations into larger meeting environments.

Canary Speech, a provider of vocal biomarker technology, has made Canary Ambient available on the Zoom App Marketplace. With this integration, clinicians using Zoom Meetings for telehealth can activate Canary Ambient during patient visits to surface real-time, objective insights into behavioral and cognitive health without disrupting the clinical conversation. The launch makes Canary Ambient broadly accessible to the millions of providers who already rely on Zoom to deliver virtual care.

TELUS Digital, a provider of digital customer experiences (CX) and transformations, has partnered with ElevenLabs, making TELUS Digital a preferred implementation partner for ElevenAgents, ElevenLabs' AI voice agent platform. Under the partnership, enterprises can contract with ElevenLabs directly and work with TELUS Digital to deploy and run the voice AI technology. TELUS Digital will lead implementation, integration and governance for clients adopting ElevenAgents.

Vitally Therapy AI has launched an artificial intelligence-powered wellness app to make supportive emotional wellness conversations more accessible, affordable, and engaging. Vitally Therapy AI lets users speak with a live AI wellness avatar through video-style conversations. This interactive avatar experience is designed to feel natural, personal, and emotionally supportive. Users can communicate through text, voice, and live avatar video chat.

Six in 10 Americans believe phone calls are still not fully accessible to people who are deaf or hard of hearing, according to a new national survey from Rogervoice, a provider of real-time captioned phone calls. While phone calls remain a core part of daily communication, many Americans are increasingly struggling with clarity and confidence during live conversations, the study found. Nearly three-quarters of Americans said they have avoided making or answering phone calls at least once.