The demo is nice but it makes me wonder: why would a company have a fully automated voice line rather than a booking interface? As a customer I'm never happy to call a company to make a reservation. I'd be extra annoyed if an AI picked up and I had to go through the motions of a conversation instead of doing two clicks in a Web UI.
Launch HN: Retell AI (YC W24) – Conversational Speech API for Your LLM
101–110 of 182 posts
Re: Launch HN: Retell AI (YC W24) – Conversational Speech API for Your LLM
#102Sad that people think working on crypto is a waste of time yet here we are making antiquated contact methodologies even harder to prune out.
Re: Launch HN: Retell AI (YC W24) – Conversational Speech API for Your LLM
#103This is interesting but having a piece like my speech engine tied to a specific model provider is a non-starter. I'll probably become a customer at some point if you guys just make a cheap API for streaming natural voice from LLM text ouput, if open source tools don't solve that problem conclusively before then.
Could you elaborate a bit on "my speech engine tied to a specific model provider"? Sorry, I might be lacking some context on what you are referring to here.
I will be in the market for a text-to-speech engine, but from looking at the website it seems the model of Retell is trying to push is "use our all in one model + text to speech service" which is problematic when my choice of model and control over how that model runs is at the core of my product, and text to speech is a "nice to have" feature. I want an endpoint that I can fire off text to in a streaming mode, where it'll buffer that streaming text a little and then stream out a beautiful, natural sounding voice with appropriate emotion and intonation in a voice of my design. I'm sure I'm not really Retell's ideal customer, and they're going after lucrative "all in one" customers that just want to build on top of a batteries-included product.
Re: Launch HN: Retell AI (YC W24) – Conversational Speech API for Your LLM
#104Earlier quoted context omitted.
It might ask for permission to use the microphone. If you can't find it, try going to the website's homepage, where you can enter your phone number to receive a call.
It seems to be broken on iOS Safari. I got no response after accepting the microphone prompt.
Thanks for the feedback. We will look into it
Re: Launch HN: Retell AI (YC W24) – Conversational Speech API for Your LLM
#105The demo is nice but it makes me wonder: why would a company have a fully automated voice line rather than a booking interface? As a customer I'm never happy to call a company to make a reservation. I'd be extra annoyed if an AI picked up and I had to go through the motions of a conversation instead of doing two clicks in a Web UI.
I totally get that clicking in Web UI is super convenient in many scenarios, and I think GUI and voice can co-exist and create synergy. Suppose AI voice agent can solve your problem, cater to your needs, and interact like a human. In that case, I believe it would be super helpful in many scenarios (like others mentioned, waiting on line for 40 minutes is a pretty bad experience). There are also new opportunities in voice like AI companion, AI assistant, etc that we see are starting to emerge.
Re: Launch HN: Retell AI (YC W24) – Conversational Speech API for Your LLM
#106Very cool! Have you looked into call center agents use cases?
Re: Launch HN: Retell AI (YC W24) – Conversational Speech API for Your LLM
#107The demo is nice but it makes me wonder: why would a company have a fully automated voice line rather than a booking interface? As a customer I'm never happy to call a company to make a reservation. I'd be extra annoyed if an AI picked up and I had to go through the motions of a conversation instead of doing two clicks in a Web UI.
Yes, for booking appointments, a simple interface might do the trick. However, we've seen many excellent use cases of our API that prevent repetitive tasks and help companies save money, like AI logistics assistants, pre-surgery data collection, AI tutor and AI therapists. I believe the future will bring even more voice interface applications. Imagine not having to navigate complex UIs; you could easily book a flight or a hotel just by speaking.
Also, older people might prefer phone calls over navigating UI interfaces.
Re: Launch HN: Retell AI (YC W24) – Conversational Speech API for Your LLM
#108Very cool! Have you looked into call center agents use cases?
Yes, we are a developer tool, and we certainly get interest from clients working on customer satisfaction agents, call center agent training, etc.
Re: Launch HN: Retell AI (YC W24) – Conversational Speech API for Your LLM
#109Congratulations! How do you position yourselves against Google Duplex/Dialogflow and other competitors? https://cloud.google.com/dialogflow
We strive to make conversation humanlike, so maybe less contact center ops development, but more focus on performance and customizability of voice interactions. As a startup, our edge over big tech is being nimble and executing fast.
I would keep working on positioning; I feel that your language is woolly at times:
> we focus most of our energy on innovating the AI conversation experience, making it more magical day by day. We pride ourselves on wowing our customers when they experience our product themselves.
This is not useful; you already have testimonials to show what customers think.
Maybe convert that first FAQ point about differentiation into a table comparing you against the closest competitors. Since you talk about performance you should measure it. Use a standard benchmark if there is one for your field.
Re: Launch HN: Retell AI (YC W24) – Conversational Speech API for Your LLM
#110In the "Select Voice" dialog, all the DeepGram clips end in a loud click. Might want to fix that.