Enterprise Voice AI That Actually Works episode artwork

EPISODE · Apr 1, 2026 · 15 MIN

Enterprise Voice AI That Actually Works

from What's Up with Tech? · host Evan Kirstel

Interested in being a guest? Email us at [email protected] zero to reach a human should not be the default plan. We talk with Fred Fontes CEO from Acclaim about what’s finally making enterprise voice-first AI work in the real world, especially inside regulated industries like banking and financial services where compliance, auditability, and data security are not negotiable. For teams burned by old IVR trees and brittle chatbots, the conversation gets practical fast: what has changed in the underlying models, and what has to change in how we deploy and control them.We dig into the idea of sovereignty and why many CIOs and CTOs feel trapped between the need to innovate and the risk of sending sensitive customer data through multiple third-party clouds. Fred explains how controllable voice AI agents, strong guardrails, and enterprise-grade orchestration can turn “cool demos” into dependable contact center automation. We also get into domain-specific benchmarking, because a universal speech-to-text score does not matter if you cannot accurately transcribe a noisy telephony call about banking topics.Then we go beneath the hood on outcomes: banking collections use cases showing six to eight percentage points higher recovery rates, the ability to A/B test messaging quickly, and why interaction costs can drop dramatically when conversations are faster, more accurate, and handled in parallel. We also talk about the human side, shifting agents toward higher-value customer experience work, and the hardest obstacle left: integration with systems of record and enterprise workflows.If you’re building or buying conversational AI, listen closely, share this with a teammate who owns CX or security, and subscribe, leave a review, and tell us what your biggest blocker is to deploying voice AI at scale.Support the showMore at https://linktr.ee/EvanKirstel

Episode metadata supplied by the publisher feed · Published Apr 1, 2026

Embed this episode

Interested in being a guest? Email us at [email protected] Pressing zero to reach a human should not be the default plan. We talk with Fred Fontes CEO from Acclaim about what’s finally making enterprise voice-first AI work in the real world, especially inside regulated industries like banking and financial services where compliance, auditability, and data security are not negotiable. For teams burned by old IVR trees and brittle chatbots, the conversation gets practical fast: what has cha...

Distinct summary based on available episode metadata or transcript content.

NOW PLAYING

Enterprise Voice AI That Actually Works

0:00 15:59

No transcript for this episode yet

We transcribe on demand. Request one and we'll notify you when it's ready — usually under 10 minutes.

No similar episodes found.

No similar podcasts found.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long is this episode of What's Up with Tech??

This episode is 15 minutes long.

When was this What's Up with Tech? episode published?

This episode was published on April 1, 2026.

Is there a transcript available for this episode?

Yes, a full transcript is available for this episode. You can read the complete transcript on the episode page.

Can I download this What's Up with Tech? episode?

Yes. Use the download control on the episode player to save the publisher-provided media file.
URL copied to clipboard!