Can You Build a Real-Time Voice Agent with ElevenLabs?

ElevenLabs offers a comprehensive voice agent platform designed to handle speech-to-text (STT), large language models (LLM), and text-to-speech (TTS) within a single session, providing quick deployment and quality voice expressiveness. While the platform is suitable for moderate-volume deployments with standard audio conditions, its effectiveness may be limited by factors such as concurrency limits, lack of on-premises deployment options, and potential latency issues in high-volume or noisy environments. The platform's STT layer, particularly the Scribe v2 Realtime model, delivers high accuracy but may struggle with endpointing, which is crucial for responsive interactions. For contact centers with complex audio needs, decoupling STT from TTS can offer greater control, particularly in multilingual or compliance-heavy scenarios. ElevenLabs' platform is best suited for controlled environments where fast deployment and voice quality are critical, while applications requiring high concurrency and nuanced audio handling might benefit from integrating ElevenLabs' TTS with a specialized STT provider like Deepgram.