Voice Over Artists vs. AI Voices: Which is Better for Your IVR?

Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems are a key component of many company’s customer service offerings. IVR can provide important information to callers or handle complex requests by using menu selections and voice inputs. They’re essential for handling high call volumes and are the only choice if you’re looking to scale your business and cater to more customers. 

The voice you use for your IVR system is particularly crucial. If your IVR is the first port of call for customers, it’s a vital branding tool. Furthermore, the right voice can help steer customer journeys toward a happy conclusion. When it comes to creating your IVR, you’ll have to choose between whether to use human voice-overs or implement AI voices instead. 

Both solutions have their unique benefits and potential pitfalls. Below, we’ll attempt to put to bed the human vs AI voices debate for good.

Interactive Voice Response (IVR) Explained

Interactive Voice Response (IVR) is a type of telephone technology that enables an automated system for customer call handling. Callers interact with this system by choosing options from a voice menu, with each number giving a corresponding number. A user-friendly approach to self-service, IVR systems can provide customers with answers to common queries, route them to the right department, or transfer a call to a live agent. 

IVR systems are used across many industry sectors and bring several benefits to businesses. They’re far more cost-effective than call centers staffed with human live agents, while they’re also efficient at distributing calls evenly. IVR is also useful for identifying customers, allowing for caller segmentation that allows for a more personalized level of service. 

When to Use a Human Voice Over for IVR

There are many reasons to consider a human voice IVR over an AI-generated one. It’s generally the best approach if you’re looking to strike a more conversational tone with callers, creating more user-friendly interactions. Human voice-overs are also better at guiding callers through multiple options, making them a good choice for IVR systems that cater to complex needs. 

A human voice IVR is also more accessible and customer-facing, helping establish trust with callers and build a stronger brand reputation. If you’re keen to create a more personalized customer experience, using a human voice can help exchanges feel more natural, making a positive impression with callers. 

Why Use AI Voices for IVR

While human voice IVR is often considered best in class, AI voices can also be used fairly effectively to help guide callers through the customer journey. They’re a cost-effective alternative to recording human voices for your IVR system, making them useful if you need to create complicated menus with many different options. 

Looking to offer round-the-clock support to your customers? While many companies offer an option to divert IVR calls to a live agent, this isn’t generally available 24/7. An effective IVR system utilizing AI voices allows you to offer callers a comprehensive after-hours service at a fraction of the cost of using live call agents. AI voice IVR is also useful if you regularly experience high call volumes or are keen to introduce multilingual support to customers.

Pros and Cons of Human Voice Over Artists 

Human voice IVR can bring many benefits to your business. For starters, you’re limiting your dependency on live agents, making it an affordable way to offer your customers the help and support they need. Using pre-recorded IVR menus can also help simplify and enhance customer journeys. Provided you’ve invested in experienced voice talent, a well-written script, and professional recording facilities, it’s easy to produce IVR that’s both user-friendly and engaging. 

Although AI voice solutions are becoming increasingly reliable, they’re far from perfect, and there’s still scope for misunderstandings. This can complicate caller journeys, leading to frustration and unhappy customers. With human voice-overs, you can be confident that you’re presenting information as clearly as possible. This can improve customer satisfaction and call resolution rates considerably. 

Human voice-overs can also help with your branding. You get to choose a voice that perfectly aligns with your brand persona, helping cement your identity with first-time callers and returning customers. 

While there are plenty of reasons to embrace human voice IVR, traditional voice-overs do have a few downsides. For one, using voice-over talent is both time-consuming and relatively expensive. You’ll need to identify all potential branches of a customer’s journey and script dialogue accordingly. Once that’s done, you’ll need to source a suitable voice-over artist and then spend time recording prompts before content can be integrated into your IVR system. 

Human voice-overs are more emotive and can help you connect with callers. However, it can be hard to maintain consistency across the board, especially if you’re using multiple voices. Even with a perfectly honed script and optimal recording conditions, staying consistent across long menu options can be challenging. This can frustrate customers, hamper satisfaction rates, and reflect badly on your brand. 

Advantages and Limitations of AI Voices

If you’re creating complex menus with many different prompts, AI voices are a cost-effective solution. Text-to-speech software has come a long way in recent years, with AI producing more natural-sounding voices than ever before. Revamping an IVR system is both time-consuming and resource-intensive, but you can simplify the process by replacing human voice-over artists with AI-generated voices. This saves you from having to audition and approve talent, manage recordings, and spend endless hours in post-production. 

Availability is another thing you don’t have to worry about when using AI voices. Once you’ve settled on an AI-generated voice that strikes the right note and reflects your brand,  you can continue using it indefinitely. Whether you’re retooling menu options or overhauling your IVR system completely, you can continue to use the same voice indefinitely. Perfect if you’re looking to preserve branding and provide continuity. 

AI voices are also a good idea if you’re looking to branch out and offer multilingual support. Localizing existing IVR trees is incredibly complicated, especially when you’re dealing with multiple languages. Using AI-generated voices streamlines the localization process, allowing you to roll out comprehensive customer support to users in several languages simultaneously. 

With AI voices, you’re also offering a more conversational approach to customer support. Whereas a pre-scripted IVR system with human voice-overs is rigid and inflexible, AI voices can ask follow-up questions, making it easier to establish caller intent and provide resolutions more quickly. There’s also more scope for personalization with AI voices. By mining customer data and utilizing machine learning algorithms, AI voices can provide a truly tailored caller experience, every time. 

That being said, AI voices aren’t perfect. While AI voices are sounding increasingly natural, they’re still not a perfect substitute for human voices. This can sap the emotion from IVR prompts, making them less engaging and hard to relate to. 

What’s more, while the dynamic nature of AI-powered IVR systems makes them an attractive prospect, the technology is still not completely refined. Until natural language processing and machine learning evolve, there’s still plenty of room for misinterpretation. 

AI voices can also sometimes struggle with pronunciation. While this problem largely applies to lesser-known languages and dialects, it does pose a problem if you’re relying on AI voices to expand into new territories. Poorly pronounced IVR options can confuse customers while tarnishing your brand reputation. 

Human vs AI Voices: Choosing the Right Solution 

If you’re looking for a more authentic IVR solution, human voice-overs win out every time. With the right voice talent, it’s easy to position your brand and deliver the right first impression with callers. However, AI voice technology is advancing quickly. Soon, it’s likely that AI voice solutions can be leaned upon to deliver first-line support for customers. 

Are you thinking about growth and have your eyes on new markets? As part of the localization process, you’ll need to update your IVR systems to cater to new audiences. Relying solely on human voice-overs isn’t particularly practical in this regard, with significant time and cost implications. By contrast, AI voice provides you with a relatively inexpensive way to adapt IVR, while you can also look forward to shorter lead times. 

Successful Case Studies 

Many brands have effectively utilized human voice-overs to improve their IVR systems. One example is Telefonica Germany, which introduced a sophisticated IVR system enhanced by human voices. Regularly dealing with almost a million calls every month, this high-volume IVR system called for a solution that improved customer satisfaction and increased resolution rates while maintaining the personal touch. 

By combining human voice-overs with advanced AI technology, Telefonica Germany created a competitive IVR system that excelled when it came to call routing. Dramatically enhancing the company’s customer support offering, Telefonica Germany increased its resolution rates considerably and saw a major reduction in call handling times and misrouted calls. 

Other companies have also successfully integrated AI voices into their IVR systems. A good example is ING Bank. After finding itself inundated with customer calls, this Turkish bank sought to automate a significant portion of the customer journey,  leaving live agents free to handle more important tasks. 

Using a combination of AI voice technologies, including text-to-speech, natural language generation (NLG), and natural landing understanding (NLU), ING Bank’s IVR system was overhauled. Customers could now enjoy fully two-way conversations with a fully automated IVR system, with the technology able to handle complex interactions. The result was improved resolution rates and a substantially decreased workload for live agents. 

Discover BLEND’s Human and AI Voice Solutions

Human voice-overs and AI voices can both prove effective. Using real voice-over talent is often the best approach if you’re looking to bring the human touch to your IVR. Even though AI technology is evolving quickly, nothing beats the emotional range and nuance of human voice-overs. However, it’s not a particularly cost-effective approach when creating an IVR system and there are potential consistency issues to be concerned about. 

If you’re looking for a more scalable solution, AI voices are the way to go. With AI voices, you can create complex IVR trees relatively easily without having to worry about hiring voice-over talent and supervising endless recording sessions. What’s more, advances in AI technology mean these artificial voices are becoming increasingly human-like. AI voices can now handle conversational exchanges, making it easier to segment callers, streamline call routing, and offer personalized experiences to customers. 

Are you rethinking your current IVR? Perhaps you’re looking to create a new system from scratch. However complex your IVR plans are, BLEND Voice can help. Whether you’re looking for human voice-overs to add the personal touch to your IVR or want to explore the benefits of AI voices, BLEND Voice can deliver with an industry-leading range of IVR and contact center solutions. 

Keen to discover more about how BLEND Voice can help you? Get in touch for a quote today.

Karen Ford

As BLEND’s Managing Director of Contact Center & IVR Solutions, Karen brings over 20 years in the IVR and audio production industries to help global businesses give their customers the best service experience in their native language.

Need fast, high-quality translation?

Translate now