Machine Learning Street Talk · Thursday, October 1, 2026
Shawn Wen explains that generic voices often perform worse with consumers because they are immediately identified as robotic, leading to a lack of trust, reminiscent of older IVR systems. He finds that voices with a 'local tech' or regional flavor, like a Newcastle accent in the UK, are often more successful as they evoke a sense of familiarity and human interaction.
“And also, the generic voices in general perform a lot worse for the consumers as well. Just because... the consumers would identify it's a robot. And once they identify it's a robot immediately, they don't have a trust in it.”
“The generic voice right now For consumers, they immediately connect it to that previous system they talk to. So then they immediately end up or they just try to bypass the agent as much as possible.”
“So like, you know, for example, some like... In UK, for example, a lot of the contact center or a lot of consumers like the Newcastle voice for obvious reasons, because a lot of agents are from there. So when they hear the Newcastle voice, they know it's a human agent.”