How to tell if voice AI will work in your business

Maybe you've heard about voice AI, or even looked into using it. But how do you know if it'll work in your business with what you already have in place?

In this Lunch and Learn, Bisola Fasanya, voice AI implementation specialist and author of the Amazon #1 bestselling book The New Voice of Business, walks you through a clear three-step process to answer that question honestly and practically without the hype.

In 30 minutes, you'll leave knowing whether voice AI is right for your business right now – and, if it is, exactly where to start.

Topics covered in this session

• The one question that replaces "are we ready for AI?" and why it immediately tells you whether voice AI can work in your business

• The process test – a simple five-minute check to assess whether any workflow in your business is genuinely ready for voice AI, before you spend a penny

• The three voice AI starting points that work for small businesses and how to identify which one matches a problem you already have

About the speaker

Bisola is a voice AI implementation specialist, the founder of Atel Q, and the author of The New Voice of Business, which is currently the #1 bestselling AI title on Amazon.

She helps small and medium-sized businesses deploy voice AI to solve real operational problems, moving them from AI curiosity to AI in action.

Watch more expert webinars

Access a growing collection of expert-led webinars covering marketing, sales, finance, growth and more – ready whenever you are.

Transcript

Lightly edited for clarity.

Beth: Hello, everyone, and welcome to today's Lunch and Learn. My name is Beth, and I'll be your host today.

For those of you attending a Lunch and Learn for the first time, Enterprise Nation is a vibrant community platform for start-ups and small businesses.

I'm pleased to introduce Bisola Fasanya, who is a voice AI implementation specialist. In this session, Bisola will explore whether voice AI is right for your business right now and, if it is, exactly where to start.

If you have any questions throughout the webinar, please post them in the chat, and we'll do our best to answer them at the end of the session.

Today's webinar will be recorded, and we will send a follow-up email to you with the recording and further resources later today. Over to you, Bisola.

Bisola: Thank you so much. Hello, and welcome, everyone, to this Lunch and Learn session.

As mentioned, my name is Bisola. I am a voice AI implementation specialist, and we've only got half an hour today, so I'm going to get straight into it.

This session is being held in webinar format. Don't hesitate to ask any questions. We do have some time towards the end of the session for Q and A. If you prefer to leave a voice note, you can do that by scanning the QR code I've included, and you can leave a recording.

I'd like to get to know you a little more. Do drop in the comments what business you're in and what brought you here today. I'm quite curious. Let me know too if you currently have a website or social media presence.

The reason I ask is because having a website or a social media presence is quite commonplace today. It has been predicted that by the end of 2026, the question "Do you have a voice AI agent?" is going to be just as commonplace as "Do you have a website?" or "Do you have a social media presence?"

The reason is simple. We are the Netflix generation. People want things on demand, and voice AI is predicted to become a baseline expectation. It answers the question, will you be there when customers need you?

So what is voice AI? I'm going to play a quick 30-second video to let Gordon tell us what he has to say about this. If you've seen this, then you already know what not to do.

What did you think about that? It's pretty cool, isn't it? I want you to start imagining what having this kind of technology and this kind of capability could do for your business.

I have another example because I know that was an ad. I want to play a recording I did with my personal voice AI agent, called Samantha. It's about a minute long, and I'll play it now.

"Hey there. I am a demo voice AI for AtelQ. What is your name?"

"Hi. My name is Jane."

"Hi, Jane. Nice to meet you. What industry are you in?"

"Actually, I am doing a presentation on voice AI. Could you help me out with this?"

"Absolutely, Jane. I'd be happy to help. What specific aspects of voice AI are you focusing on for your presentation?"

"I need an elevator pitch on why every business should adopt voice AI."

"Here's a quick pitch for you. voice AI is revolutionising the way businesses communicate by providing 24/7 availability, automating repetitive tasks like answering FAQs or booking appointments, and delivering a seamless human-like customer experience. If there's anything else you'd like to refine or add to your presentation, just let me know. I'm here to help."

"What can you tell me about Bisola and AtelQ?"

"Bisola is the founder of AtelQ and a brilliant voice AI strategist. She has a background in data analytics for marketing and strategy, and she's passionate about helping businesses deploy intelligent phone automation without losing that personal touch.

"As for AtelQ, it's a voice AI platform designed to democratise voice AI for businesses of all sises. It can operate as a self-serve engine or a fully managed service, depending on what a business needs. Does that help with your presentation?"

"Yeah. That really does. Thank you so much for your help."

That was just over a minute long. What did you think about it? Let me know your impressions of the conversation.

Now, by the way, Samantha spoke quite a lot, but that's because of my settings. She was configured as an educational voice AI agent, which is why she spoke a lot. When it comes to setting up voice AI agents, you can configure them however you need them to be configured to meet your business needs.

The other day, somebody asked me why my voice AI agent sounded robotic. The answer is that you can make voice AI sound as human or as robotic as you want.

Technologically speaking, we have reached the point where we can even clone your voice and make it very realistic. But when it comes to voice AI, the real question should not be, does it sound human?

You have to compare it to what would have happened instead. That's the important comparison.

What I mean is that you have to compare voice AI agents to the alternative. The alternative could be:

·        not answering and losing leads

·        customers going to voicemail

·        queues

·        out-of-hours calls

·        IVR systems

·        people getting bounced around from one person to another

·        interruptions

·        missed opportunities

·        customers going to your competitors because they were not able to reach you

·        frustrated callers because they are stuck in queues

·        paying your high-skilled staff to do low-value jobs that automated AI could have done

·        inquiries not being tracked

·        overwhelmed teams

·        people left on hold

·        staff burnout

·        lost bookings because no one was available at the exact moment when your customer was ready

That's the real comparison when it comes to voice AI, not whether it sounds robotic.

I always say we are not in the business of trickery. We are in the business of reliability. Understanding what voice AI is meant for really does reframe the possibilities.

The real business question I ask everyone is this: what would 24/7 call handling be worth to your business? And not just 24/7 availability, but also the automated tasks it handles beyond the call itself. What would that be worth to your business?

At its core, voice AI is a digital employee of some sort. This is when things get really interesting because when you combine various voice AI agents for specific tasks, that's when you create a digital task force.

Remember when I asked what 24/7 call handling would be worth to your business? You don't have to guess. You can use the voice AI calculator, which sits on the resources page of my site, and it can calculate the answer for you.

What I love about voice AI is that it has real commercial value. Out of all the AI tools out there, where maybe you save a little time or create a cool picture, voice AI has a direct commercial impact.

If you were to go to the AtelQ website, on the resources page you will see the voice AI calculator. What's great about it is that you can say how many calls you have per month, the percentage of missed calls you have, and how much a lead is worth to you.

You can adjust the figures depending on your business, and it will calculate not only the monthly gain but also the upside and the business value of voice AI for you.

Now, you might be thinking that this is useful for businesses that get lots of inbound calls, but maybe that's not how your business works. If your business doesn't operate in a way that has lots of inbound calls, you might be asking yourself how you can tell if voice AI will work for your business.

There is one question I tell every business we work with that they need to answer. This question cuts through the noise.

To know whether voice AI is something that would benefit your business, ask yourself this: is there a specific repeatable task in my business that involves speaking, listening or responding that I wish happened faster, more consistently or without needing me?

This question is so important because it tells you immediately whether voice AI has a real job to do in your business right now.

The reason it works so well is because it gets you to ask whether the process is specific, whether it is repeatable, whether it is voice-led, whether it involves customer-facing interaction, and whether you can remove yourself from the equation. In other words, does it need you specifically in the business to do this task?

It's basically the same way any business would think when hiring someone new, outsourcing, or bringing in a freelancer. You ask: what is the task, what process does it support, and does it need me?

When it comes to voice AI or any kind of AI, you still need the same mindset.

Based on the answer to that question, if the answer is yes, then you can go straight into exploring voice AI. If the answer is no, it doesn't mean you're out. It just means now you know what you need to work on first, and that may be your processes and automation.

Once again, you don't have to be subjective about this. You can take the AI readiness test to get more specific insights on your own circumstances. When you do the AI readiness test, you won't just understand your score, you'll also get a tailored action plan.

All you do is begin the assessment, choose what best describes your industry, how many people work in your business, and then answer a series of questions. It asks about things like whether you have a defined, consistent process for handling new inquiries, whether you use a CRM, and how your processes currently work.

It's a really useful assessment because it helps uncover not only what kind of business you are, but also what your processes look like. You should definitely take that test.

I realise we're already some way into the session and I haven't really introduced myself properly. As I said, my name is Bisola. Why should you listen to me?

I've spent over 15 years in data analytics and marketing. I'm the author of The New Voice of Business, which is the number one selling book in the artificial intelligence category on Amazon. I'm also the founder of AtelQ, which is a voice AI platform and consultancy company.

You can connect with me on LinkedIn for the latest on voice AI. That's the platform I use the most and the one I'm most active on.

If you're interested in the book, you can find it on Amazon by searching The New Voice of Business. It talks through everything you need to know about voice AI, from understanding the technology to implementation.

One thing to note is that not all voice AI is the same, and there are different starting points.

The type of voice AI most people know is inbound call handling, because that is the most popular use case. But you can use voice AI for much more than that.

You can use it for lead qualification during campaigns, voice widgets, interactive lead magnets, voice AI assessments, code generation, marketing, automated sales processes, customer service and support, compliance, and more.

I worked with a business coach, for example, who wanted to implement a business audit where users call the AI, talk about their business, and then receive a personalised audit dossier in their inbox based on the conversation they had with the agent.

Voice AI operates anywhere a conversation needs to happen. When you think about your business and the different touchpoints it has with customers, voice AI can be integrated into many of those.

Now I have a question for you. What do you think is the most important factor in the success of any business? Is it speed and agility? Beautiful product design and presentation? Passion and purpose? Or consistency?

Feel free to put in the chat what you think. I've seen somebody say consistency, and that is correct. The answer truly is consistency.

The reason is that whatever you do, whatever passion and purpose fuels your business, you need a steady and reliable process to deliver it.

You can have an amazing product, but it still needs to reach your audience repeatedly. Speed and agility matter, but they need to be paired with a consistent and operational framework. That is, in a roundabout way, the promise of voice AI.

When you set up a voice AI agent, and not just at the surface level of the voice, but with all the automation and processes that support it, what you are really focusing on is the architecture of your process.

You're looking beyond just the technology of the voice. You're asking what your business is, where voice AI fits, what can be automated, and how you can effectively create a digital employee and eventually a digital task force for your business.

So I'd like to invite everyone on this call to think about what you would use voice AI for. I'd also encourage everyone to take the AI readiness test and connect with me on LinkedIn.

If you've got any questions and you want to learn more, this is the time to do it. I've finished this section on voice AI, and I'm happy to open up for questions.

Beth: Thanks so much, Bisola. Thank you for that.

Earlier you were talking about all those different use cases for voice AI. How could a small business prioritise between multiple potential use cases?

Bisola: That's a really good question. In terms of priority, I always say you need to go back to your processes. Before looking at the technology, do business process mapping and touchpoint mapping.

You really have to spend some time, maybe about a week for a small business, looking at what you do and what interactions you have with your customers. You can do that in Excel or even with pen and paper.

Once you map all the points of interaction with your customers, then you can ask yourself what can be automated.

One of the easiest entry points for voice AI is out-of-hours support. Every business works certain hours, and voice AI can be a very easy win there.

So after you've done the process mapping and interaction mapping, you can start by implementing voice AI for out-of-hours or for one small part of a process. Use it in a limited way first, test it, and then increase the responsibilities you give your agents.

I always say start small. You don't have to decide all at once that you're going to become an all-Voice-AI task force. Start small, analyse what you do first, identify the engagement points, and then see how voice AI can help.

Beth: That makes sense. Thank you. We've had a question from the Q&A function. Someone would like to know your thoughts or advice on using voice AI for social media content.

Bisola: That's an interesting one. I know that quite a few people are not very interested in appearing on social media themselves or representing their business directly there.

My advice is to look at your processes and see if you can automate the back end as much as possible.

There's a project I'm working on with an illustrator who doesn't like social media at all. What we've created for her is an automation where she can call the voice AI and say, I've just come out of a workshop and I need you to create social media content for this, based on what I've just done.

So in that case, the voice AI isn't the front-end interface. It's the back-end assistant. She uses it to give instructions, and then the AI creates posts and other material for social media.

Some people also use voice AI to create content calendars, but that is again happening in the background.

I know there are people who use AI avatars for social media content. It really depends on your business. But I would definitely encourage using voice AI for the back end, to amplify your operations and help you do things much more quickly.

Beth: That makes sense. So what would you say is a common mistake businesses make when choosing their first voice AI project?

Bisola: I think the biggest mistake is biting off more than they can chew.

That means assuming that the voice AI agent is going to do everything for you. Just like you wouldn't bring in a new employee and expect them to run your whole business on day one, you shouldn't do that with voice AI.

For any voice AI project, or really any AI automation project, you should think about what is the one task I want it to do and do well, and then stick to that.

You also shouldn't spend too long implementing before testing. Put it out there and then test and iterate. Always test.

For example, if you speak to Samantha, my voice AI agent, she might say something I don't want her to say. Only after listening to the playback can I then iterate and say, actually, don't give out my address, or whatever else I need to change. So that would be my advice.

Beth: Thank you. Celestine in the comments would like to know whether you offer a free trial.

Bisola: Yes, there is a free trial. If you go on the site and to the platform, you can have a seven-day free trial to the voice AI agent.

Beth: Perfect. Thank you. I think we've got time for one more, if that's okay. How long does it usually take to see measurable results?

Bisola: It depends what you're using it for. When it comes to using it as a voice AI receptionist, people usually see results fairly quickly, because you can measure that it catches leads that would otherwise have been lost.

If you have a service-based business where people call and, if they can't get you, they go to the next business, then we can measure that quite quickly. We know what the voice AI was able to retain.

It's not just the booking for that day. You can also calculate the lifetime value of that customer.

I'd say that within one to two weeks, people can start to see measurable results in that kind of setup. The person I worked with who did a voice AI audit for her customers started seeing results almost immediately because people were already interacting with the agent and producing those audits.

I think the thing that takes a bit longer is implementation. If you want to do it properly, that can take about a week.

Beth: That's great. Thank you. I think that's all we've got time for today. As I mentioned earlier, we're going to send the recording of today's session along with some further resources in the follow-up email.

So thank you so much for your time, Bisola. We've had lots of people saying thank you in the comments as well.

Thank you very much, and enjoy the rest of your day, everyone.

Bisola: Lovely day, everyone. Take care. Bye-bye.

Explore our webinar library

Unlock more on-demand sessions designed to help you sharpen your skills, grow your business and stay one step ahead. Find more Lunch and Learn webinars