February 2025 Summaries

The inaugural ElevenLabs Worldwide Hackathon, held in collaboration with partners such as a16z, PostHog, and Vercel, brought together hundreds of developers to create over 300 AI agents across six in-person locations and a virtual event on Discord. The event featured intense competition, with judges from ElevenLabs, Vercel, and a16z evaluating innovative projects. The global top prize was awarded to the project "GibberLink," which gained widespread attention for its viral demo involving AI agents on a phone call switching to a superior audio signal. Other notable projects included "Hugo Tour Guide," an AI travel companion, and "Pep," a physical therapy agent. The hackathon also featured additional prizes from partners like fal.ai and PostHog, with projects focusing on diverse applications such as travel, physical therapy, game development, and more. The hackathon emphasized collaboration and innovation, and organizers are seeking feedback to improve future events.

Poolday AI has significantly enhanced its user-generated content (UGC) video production capabilities by integrating advanced AI technologies, enabling marketing teams to meet the demands of high-volume, performance-driven campaigns. The platform uses AI avatars and voiceovers to create authentic and engaging videos, allowing for efficient batch editing and rapid testing of multiple variations. A critical component in this process is the use of ElevenLabs' AI voice solutions, which were chosen for their human-like quality and low latency, leading to improved viewer engagement and retention. This integration has allowed Poolday AI to triple its production output, offering flexibility for creating diverse video variants and accelerating content iteration cycles without compromising on quality or speed.

Conversational AI, particularly from companies like ElevenLabs, is revolutionizing the gaming industry by enhancing non-player character (NPC) interactions and storytelling, enabling more dynamic and lifelike experiences. This technology allows characters to react in real-time to player choices, thereby reshaping narratives and increasing player engagement and control. Despite challenges like latency, cost, and maintaining narrative consistency, major developers are adopting conversational AI, recognizing its potential to extend game lifecycles and improve player retention. The conversational AI market is rapidly expanding, with projections indicating significant growth in the media and entertainment sectors. Studios are leveraging this technology to create more interactive and personalized experiences, both within games and in community platforms like Twitch and Discord. As the technology continues to mature, its integration is expected to redefine gaming experiences by offering more immersive and interactive narratives, enhancing community engagement, and improving player satisfaction.

Scribe is presented as the world's most accurate speech-to-text model, capable of transcribing speech across 99 languages with remarkable precision, as evidenced by its superior performance in FLEURS and Common Voice benchmark tests. The model offers features like word-level timestamps, speaker diarization, and audio-event tagging, making it suitable for applications ranging from meeting summaries to movie subtitles. It significantly reduces transcription errors, especially in languages that are typically underserved, outperforming competitors like Gemini 2.0 Flash and Whisper Large V3. Developers can access Scribe through an API for structured JSON transcripts, while creators and businesses can utilize it directly via the ElevenLabs dashboard. The model's development involved contributions from several experts, with plans to release a low-latency version for real-time applications soon.

At the ElevenLabs London Hackathon, developers Boris Starkov and Anton Pidkuiko introduced GibberLink, a protocol enabling AI voice assistants to recognize each other and switch from human-like speech to a more efficient data-over-sound communication using the open-source ggwave library. This innovation was aimed at optimizing AI-to-AI interactions by eliminating the inefficiencies of spoken language, thus conserving computational resources and enhancing communication speed and accuracy. The demonstration involved AI agents seamlessly transitioning to this alternative communication method during a simulated customer service interaction, showcasing the protocol's potential in real-world applications. GibberLink quickly gained attention from the tech community, with notable influencers and publications discussing its implications for future AI communications, where virtual assistants and autonomous systems might collaborate seamlessly before transmitting concise reports to human operators. The project is open-source, inviting developers to explore and integrate this novel communication method into their AI systems.

ElevenReader Publishing is revolutionizing the audiobook industry by offering a fast, cost-free platform that enables authors to convert their written works into professional-grade audiobooks using advanced AI voice models. This innovation addresses the traditionally slow and expensive process of audiobook production, allowing authors to distribute their works globally via the ElevenReader app on iOS and Android. The platform supports English books, with plans to expand to 31 additional languages, and offers features such as listener reporting, analytics, and customization options for users to choose preferred AI voices. Through collaborations with leading publications and authors, ElevenReader Publishing not only democratizes audiobook creation but also provides opportunities for authors to earn royalties and maintain full intellectual property rights. Additionally, authors seeking more customization can use the Studio suite for detailed audio production, with options to export to services like Spotify through partnerships. Renowned authors have praised the platform for its superior audio quality and user experience, marking a significant advancement in making audiobooks more accessible to independent authors and their audiences worldwide.

Decagon AI has partnered with ElevenLabs to introduce AI Voice Agents, aiming to enhance customer service by integrating advanced conversational AI into phone support. This collaboration combines ElevenLabs' expressive voice models with Decagon's AI platform to offer seamless, real-time resolutions that align with business strategies, delivering personalized and efficient support across multiple channels, including chat, email, and voice. Despite the rise of chat platforms, phone support remains a preferred customer service channel, prompting Decagon to innovate in AI-driven voice solutions. Trusted by companies like Bilt, ClassPass, and Substack, the AI Voice Agents provide 24/7 support, adeptly managing tasks such as account access and charge disputes. The agents integrate easily with call center systems, allowing for intelligent handoffs and multi-channel consistency while enabling teams to define flexible procedures and leverage real-time data, thus ensuring continuous improvement and scalability of customer interactions. As AI technology evolves, these voice agents are set to anticipate customer needs, offering high-touch support traditionally reserved for premium clients.

ElevenLabs and Poly.ai are advanced conversational AI platforms that offer customizable voice agents with varying strengths. ElevenLabs stands out with its in-house text-to-speech (TTS) and speech-to-text (STT) models, providing latency and voice quality advantages, along with support for over 70 languages and an extensive voice library. Poly.ai, on the other hand, excels in creating branded AI agents capable of natural, real-time customer interactions, supporting 12 languages and easily integrating with existing business systems. Both platforms support API and telephony integrations, making them suitable for enhancing customer engagement. While ElevenLabs emphasizes extensive voice customization and language capabilities, Poly.ai focuses on natural language understanding and customer relationship management (CRM) integration, with both platforms offering robust data retention and privacy measures. The choice between them depends on specific requirements, budget, and use cases, with ElevenLabs being ideal for diverse applications needing advanced TTS technology and Poly.ai catering to enterprises focusing on branded customer service interactions.

ElevenLabs and Sierra.ai are prominent conversational AI platforms, each offering distinct advantages for creating advanced voice agents. ElevenLabs focuses on developing its own text-to-speech (TTS) and speech-to-text (STT) models, which provide benefits in terms of latency and voice quality, and supports over 70 languages, making it suitable for multilingual applications. In contrast, Sierra.ai specializes in crafting AI agents that align with a company's brand and can automate business processes, offering integration with external APIs and telephony systems. Both platforms allow for extensive customization and knowledge base management, enabling the creation of domain-specific voice agents. While ElevenLabs provides more detailed voice customization options, including the ability to create voices from text prompts, Sierra.ai emphasizes real-time support and personalized agent development. Data retention policies differ, with ElevenLabs offering customizable options, whereas Sierra.ai focuses on data privacy without publicly disclosing specific retention periods. Ultimately, the choice between these platforms depends on the specific needs and goals of the user.

ElevenLabs is expanding its AI voice technology Impact Program, initially focused on aiding ALS patients, to also support individuals with Multiple System Atrophy (MSA) and mouth cancers, with the goal of assisting 1 million people in regaining their voice. The program offers free AI voice tools to verified MSA patients through partnerships with organizations like MSA Trust and Mission MSA, providing lifetime access to digital voice replicas. In collaboration with the Mouth Cancer Foundation, UK patients diagnosed with oral and head and neck cancers can apply for a free plan to clone their voice before potentially losing their speech. This initiative aims to alleviate the isolation caused by speech loss, offering a familiar and natural means of communication for those affected.

Spotify, in collaboration with ElevenLabs and Findaway Voices, has revolutionized audiobook distribution for independent authors by allowing them to publish AI-narrated audiobooks directly to Spotify and other platforms with ease and no upfront costs. This partnership addresses the previously expensive and time-consuming process of audiobook creation by enabling authors to upload their manuscripts in various formats to ElevenLabs Studio, where they can edit and generate lifelike narrations using AI voices. Authors benefit by keeping 100% of royalties from Spotify and 80% from other platforms, while gaining access to insights on their audiobook's performance. Digital voice-narrated audiobooks are clearly marked to maintain transparency with listeners, ensuring that authors can reach new audiences without barriers.

Partnering with Star Sports, the sports division of Jiostar, the initiative aims to break language barriers in cricket by localizing content into various Indian languages using AI tools, enhancing accessibility for millions of fans who can now enjoy cricket commentary and insights in their preferred languages like Hindi and Tamil. This effort follows the success of the 2023 World Cup, which became the most-watched Cricket World Cup in India, and is set to expand with upcoming events such as the Champions Trophy and IPL in 2025 by enabling near real-time translation of live commentary. By translating spoken content, the partnership seeks to connect fans with their favorite players and make cricket more inclusive, allowing audiences across the country to experience the game in a way that feels natural and personal.

Text to speech (TTS) technology significantly enhances virtual tours and immersive experiences by providing lifelike narration that makes content more engaging, accessible, and customizable. AI-driven TTS platforms offer features such as multilingual support and emotional expression, adding realism and personalization to digital experiences. The integration of TTS through advanced APIs allows developers to easily incorporate high-quality voiceovers, transforming passive experiences into interactive journeys by shaping storytelling with the right tone, pacing, and emphasis. This technology also improves accessibility for users with visual impairments or reading difficulties and offers a cost-effective solution for scaling large virtual projects. As AI-generated speech becomes increasingly natural, TTS is poised to further revolutionize virtual experiences by making them more inclusive and adaptable.

ElevenLabs and Play.ai are two prominent conversational AI platforms designed to create customizable voice agents. Both platforms feature in-house text-to-speech (TTS) capabilities, with ElevenLabs additionally offering in-house speech-to-text (STT) models to enhance latency and control, while Play.ai integrates with external providers for realistic voices. Supporting multiple languages, ElevenLabs covers over 70 languages, whereas Play.ai supports over 30. The platforms provide tools for API calls, knowledge base management, and telephony integrations and cater to different user needs based on requirements such as voice customization, data retention policies, and multilingual support. ElevenLabs excels with its vast voice library and enterprise-level features, whereas Play.ai focuses on realistic voice generation and broader conversational AI tools. The choice between the two depends on specific needs, such as real-time analytics, security, and customization.

Project Odyssey, the world's largest AI Film Festival, recently announced the winners of the ElevenLabs award after evaluating 4,500 submissions, totaling 190 hours of film. The festival highlighted the creativity and innovation of artists globally, who used a variety of AI tools such as ElevenLabs, Civitai, and Kling AI to produce groundbreaking media. The grand prize was awarded to Nicolas Bellavance for "Pip & The Giant Clockwork," praised for its captivating style. Second place went to "Memory Maker" by Kleverow, third to "Velocium" by Calvin Herbst, and "Dear Grandma" by dannyt_film received a runner-up mention. The competition showcased an exceptional level of talent and dedication across all categories, encouraging creators to explore AI-generated voices using ElevenLabs' tools.

Rian has significantly enhanced its global storytelling capabilities by integrating ElevenLabs' AI voice technology, which combines efficiency and authenticity in multilingual dubbing. This collaboration has resulted in a 35% faster production turnaround and a 50% increase in AI dubbing adoption, with a 90% client satisfaction rate due to the natural quality of the voiceovers. The partnership has allowed creators like Swayam Talks and financial educator Rachana Ranade to expand their reach and engage with non-English speaking audiences. By combining AI efficiency with human expertise, Rian and ElevenLabs are redefining localization, enabling content creators to maintain the emotional depth and authenticity of their work while reaching global audiences.

AI audio technology is revolutionizing the news industry by transforming how content is consumed, with narrated articles and podcasts becoming integral to modern media strategies. This shift is driven by the increasing demand for multimedia experiences, allowing publishers to enhance accessibility, break language barriers, and deliver content in native languages and familiar accents. Tools like Audio Native enable rapid conversion of written content into high-quality audio, significantly improving engagement and accessibility, and offering new monetization avenues such as premium narrated content behind paywalls. Publishers like TIME and platforms like Pocket FM are leveraging AI voice technology to expand their reach, improve reader retention, and create immersive, interactive experiences. As AI-generated audio becomes a strategic necessity, news organizations that adopt this technology will lead the future of digital journalism, ensuring content is accessible, engaging, and personalized for a global audience.

Poland's Presidency of the Council of the EU marks a significant shift in governmental communication by utilizing AI-generated voices to provide multilingual press conferences in Polish, English, and French. Over the six-month presidency, more than 20 informal ministerial meetings in Warsaw will be followed by press conferences dubbed using ElevenLabs' AI technology, ensuring accessibility across Europe. The Prime Minister's Office oversees this process to maintain translation accuracy, with content available on the Presidency's YouTube channel, allowing viewers to select their preferred language. To safeguard the integrity and security of these translations, strict compliance measures are in place, including GDPR adherence, explicit consent for voice usage, and cybersecurity standards. This initiative, free of charge and devoid of paid partnerships, aims to enhance public engagement in EU discussions by bridging language barriers while preserving the authenticity of speakers' voices.

AiMation Studios, led by founder Tom Paton, is revolutionizing the filmmaking industry through the use of ElevenLabs' Voice AI technology to produce cost-effective and time-efficient AI-animated films. Their groundbreaking project, "Where the Robots Grow," was completed in just 90 days with a small team, showcasing AI's potential to drastically cut production time and costs compared to traditional methods. The film features AI-generated voices that enhance the sound design and streamline production processes, allowing AiMation to reduce labor and expenses significantly. Paton is also exploring AI-driven reality TV and is rethinking distribution through a microtransaction-based platform, enabling rapid scalability and high-quality content. AiMation plans to develop 25 additional AI-driven films, emphasizing the pivotal role of ElevenLabs in their innovative production model.

ElevenLabs has joined over 60 European companies in launching the EU AI Champions Initiative, a coalition aimed at enhancing AI development and adoption across Europe. Announced at the AI Action Summit in Paris and supported by French President Emmanuel Macron and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, the initiative focuses on fostering collaboration between technology firms, industry leaders, and policymakers. With more than €150 billion allocated for AI investment, particularly in sectors where Europe excels such as manufacturing, energy, healthcare, and defense, the initiative seeks to simplify AI regulations, connect startups with larger industry players, and create an environment conducive to AI scalability. ElevenLabs, a global company with roots in Poland and a presence in the US and UK, has joined the initiative to support Europe's ambition to become a leading force in AI by promoting cooperation between businesses and policymakers.

ElevenLabs has significantly reduced the pricing for their Conversational AI services, with calls now starting at 10 cents per minute, marking a 50% discount across their Starter, Creator, and Pro plans, while business plans offer rates as low as 8 cents per minute, and Enterprise plans potentially offer even lower rates. This pricing strategy aims to make it more affordable for users to deploy voice agents at scale in various sectors such as customer support, education, and entertainment. The company, which is both a research and product entity, is able to offer such competitive pricing by bundling their solutions, although the prices currently exclude LLM costs, which are temporarily absorbed by ElevenLabs. For those interested in developing with their platform, a quick start guide is available, and more detailed pricing information can be accessed online.

Solda.AI, a company specializing in AI sales agents for enterprises, has launched voice agents capable of managing the entire sales process, including inbound qualification, follow-ups, and call-backs. These agents utilize advanced text-to-speech technology with a detection rate of less than 1% and pronunciation errors of under 1%. In 2024, they generated $7 million in incremental revenue for clients and are projected to reach $30 million in the current year. Solda.AI collaborates with banks and financial institutions, meeting their stringent standards with the help of ElevenLabs' technology, as highlighted by Igor Yermakov, the company's Co-founder and CTO.

Gemini 2.0 Flash, a new model from Google's Gemini line, is now available to developers working with ElevenLabs Conversational AI, offering fast Time To First Token (TTFT), exceptional instruction following, and reliable function calling, making it ideal for developing conversational AI agents. In addition to Gemini 2.0 Flash, ElevenLabs supports a variety of models including Gemini 1.5 Flash, Gemini 1.5 Pro, and GPT-3.5 Turbo, among others. Developers have the flexibility to use custom language models by integrating any OpenAI-compatible API server, which allows for the use of popular open-source models like Llama 3.3 or DeepSeek R1 through hosting services such as Cloudflare Workers AI and Groq Cloud. ElevenLabs provides resources for building real-time conversational AI voice agents, highlighting the potential of their tools in enhancing natural dialogue and creating high-quality AI audio applications.

Convin has integrated ElevenLabs' advanced text-to-speech technology into its contact center platform, enhancing its AI voice agents to deliver natural and expressive conversations. This integration addresses the challenge of making AI-powered phone interactions feel engaging and emotionally nuanced, countering the often robotic nature of traditional voice agents. The seamless deployment, facilitated by ElevenLabs' flexible API and support, has led to a 27% increase in customer satisfaction (CSAT) as customers have responded positively to the human-like quality of the AI voices. This development underscores how well-executed AI can enhance rather than diminish customer interactions, setting a new standard for customer engagement by combining human-like engagement with AI efficiency.

Studio, a longform text-to-audio editor developed by ElevenLabs, is now accessible to all users, expanding its availability from a previously exclusive paid subscription model. Originally launched in 2023 as "Projects," Studio enables users to transform various forms of content, such as audiobooks and podcasts, into audio with features like character differentiation, custom voices, and pacing control. The platform has introduced several new functionalities, including the ability to add pauses in speech and auto-assignment of voices for multi-character scripts, enhancing user experience by saving time and increasing flexibility. Additionally, Studio now supports GenFM, a feature that facilitates the creation of podcast-style discussions using AI voices, thereby allowing for dynamic and interactive audio content creation. Free-tier users can engage with the platform by creating up to three projects, while paid subscribers enjoy unlimited project creation.

Open-source text-to-speech (TTS) tools, such as Coqui TTS, Festival, eSpeak, Mozilla TTS, and MaryTTS, offer cost-effective and customizable alternatives to commercial TTS solutions for conversational AI applications, especially for developers and businesses seeking to avoid licensing restrictions and high costs. These open-source options enable extensive customization, including voice model training and linguistic adjustments, providing flexibility for creating tailored AI-generated voices for various applications, from healthcare assistants to virtual gaming narrators. While commercial TTS platforms like ElevenLabs and Google Cloud TTS deliver high-quality voices, they often incur significant subscription fees and limited customization, making open-source tools a valuable choice for projects needing offline capabilities or low-latency requirements. Open-source solutions are bolstered by a global community that contributes to continuous improvements, ensuring innovations in speech quality and usability. Integration into AI systems involves selecting the appropriate tool based on project needs, optimizing latency for real-time interactions, and using APIs for seamless incorporation into existing frameworks.

Scale AI and ElevenLabs have collaborated to create a robust Conversational AI experience, exemplified by the TIME AI project, which allows users to engage in dynamic discussions about TIME's journalism, including the Person of the Year feature. This system integrates voice technology to enhance user interaction, making it feel more engaging and human-like compared to traditional chatbots. The approach involves using a combination of Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR), Text-to-Speech (TTS), and Large Language Models (LLMs), supported by carefully designed guardrails and custom prompts to ensure alignment with business logic, brand guidelines, and safety standards. This architecture allows for more controlled AI experiences, crucial for enterprises with specific use cases in customer service and support, demonstrating the potential to apply similar systems across various industries.

Conversational AI is revolutionizing the entertainment and media landscape by enabling more interactive and personalized experiences, bridging the gap between passive and interactive formats. This technology is transforming how audiences engage with content, from interactive storytelling in gaming and film to AI-powered assistants that enhance content discovery and fan engagement. Industry leaders like ElevenLabs are at the forefront of these innovations, which are reshaping content consumption and creation. Despite the continued popularity of passive media consumption, interactive media is gaining traction, particularly among younger demographics. Experimental projects like Netflix's "Bandersnatch" have showcased both the potential and challenges of interactive formats. In sports, conversational AI is enhancing fan engagement and generating new revenue streams. Streaming platforms are leveraging this technology to tackle decision fatigue, offering tailored recommendations and enhancing user experience. Beyond entertainment, conversational AI is also being integrated into journalism, providing more accessible and engaging content. As technology matures, it promises to redefine storytelling and fan interaction, overcoming challenges related to cost, ethical considerations, and technical limitations. The future of entertainment is increasingly interactive, with conversational AI playing a central role in shaping this evolution.

Arianna Huffington, founder of Thrive Global and The Huffington Post, celebrated the 10th anniversary of her bestselling book "Thrive" by using ElevenLabs' Voice AI technology to record a new preface, allowing her to bypass traditional studio constraints and reduce production costs. This innovative approach highlights how AI voice technology is reshaping content creation and delivery, offering authors the flexibility to update or republish works without the usual logistical challenges. Additionally, Huffington has joined the Iconic Voices on the ElevenLabs Reader app, enabling her newsletter and articles to be accessible in her AI-cloned voice, providing audiences with an immersive experience. The shift towards AI voice applications reflects a broader trend in media consumption, where audiences increasingly prefer listening to content, such as podcasts, over reading, as demonstrated by a survey showing that 34% of US adults aged 18 to 29 prefer podcasts for news. This collaboration exemplifies how AI voice technology is opening new avenues for storytelling across various media, from books to journalism and real-time updates, while maintaining the essence of human voice and diversity, including the nuance of accents like Huffington's Greek roots.