AI Is Why Voice Still Matters, And Always Will

Alexander Graham Bell filed the telephone patent in 1876. Nearly 150 years later, voice is still the channel people turn to when clarity matters, stakes are high, and real connection is required.

Let’s start with a statement that should not sound bold, but somehow does in today’s tech conversations:

Voice is not deadlink to this section

In fact, it’s more essential than ever. Across unified communications, contact centers, and any business that values meaningful customer engagement, voice remains the foundation. Messaging is fast. But voice is where nuance, trust, and understanding live.

Digital channels like SMS, RCS, and chatbots are fantastic for quick tasks: confirming an appointment, checking delivery status, and getting simple updates. But how about when the issue is complex? When the decision is high-stakes?

People pick up the phone.link to this section

You’re not explaining a billing dispute in a chat thread, and you’re definitely not choosing a mortgage through a bot. When things get complex and the stakes are high, when clarity and trust are needed, people pick up the phone. That’s still how real customer engagement gets done.

When things get complex and the stakes are high, when clarity and trust are needed, people pick up the phone.

Samuel Wilson

CEO, 8x8

Why Voice Is the Future Interface for AIlink to this section

As AI becomes more deeply integrated into customer service, voice will become the most valuable interface between humans and machines. Not just because it’s natural, but because it’s data-rich. Every spoken word carries context, emotion, and intent that no text field can capture. But that value only exists if you can record, transcribe, and structure it accurately.

If your AI doesn’t have access to high-quality voice data, it’s effectively operating blind. That’s why voice isn’t just part of the AI future, it’s the foundation for it.

Voice AI is accelerating faster than text-based solutions for a reason: it’s built on richer inputs. Every conversation contains insight that, when connected across systems, can transform how organizations operate. However, only a platform engineered for global voice quality, regulatory compliance, and transcription accuracy can unlock this value at scale.

We deliver crystal-clear voice in more than 150 countries, with full PSTN replacement in nearly 60. Something that requires deep regulatory investment, local partnerships, and serious operational discipline.

If your AI doesn’t have access to high-quality voice data, it’s effectively operating blind.

Transcription Accuracy Is Not A Detail; It’s A Differentiator.link to this section

We also know that great AI requires great transcription. If your system misunderstands accents, stumbles over languages, or asks people to repeat themselves, you’re delivering frustration instead of a quality customer experience.

That is why our speech recognition models are benchmarked by Tolly as the most accurate in the industry. We support over 50 languages and 90 accent variants because that is how real people talk.

And if your voice platform cannot deliver clean audio, accurate transcription, and global coverage, your AI will fail, because AI can only learn from what it hears. When calls are distorted or transcripts are inaccurate, every insight that follows is wrong. Routing decisions, sentiment analysis, and coaching recommendations. All of it breaks.

That’s how you lose efficiency. That’s how you lose satisfaction. And ultimately, that’s how you lose trust.

We are not going back to the dark days.

We’re not going back to the days of screaming “AGENT! AGENT!” into an IVR abyss. And no one should mistake “press 1 for maybe talking to someone” as a strategy. That’s bad design, and bad design is not the future.

We engineer our voice product for quality, coverage, resilience, and transcription accuracy.

The future is not just feature-rich. It is platform deep.

The better outcome has to start at the foundation, not as an add-on. It is not just something we say; we have done the hard work of building a foundation and a platform that makes it possible.

And that delivers real AI outcomes, faster resolution, higher accuracy, and better experiences.

We Don’t Just Offer AI Features. We Offer An AI-Ready Platform.link to this section

And we provide one thing no CRM can match: the full context of your conversations. Voice, messaging, meetings—all of it lives on our platform.

CRM can tell you what the customer bought. We can tell you why: why a deal closed, why a customer churned, why a support experience worked or did not.

Because when it really counts, people don’t just click or type, they talk.

Voice is where the truth lives. It’s where the data starts. And that’s why, nearly 150 years after the first phone call, voice isn’t dead. It’s driving the next generation of customer engagement.

And that’s why we pair global-grade voice infrastructure with intelligence and insight to power what comes next.

Samuel Wilson

Chief Executive Officer, 8x8

Samuel Wilson is Chief Executive Officer at 8x8, bringing 25+ years of experience across finance, investment management, and sales, plus deep company leadership spanning Chief Financial Officer, Chief Customer Officer, and go-to-market roles to drive disciplined growth and customer outcomes.