AI Agents Podcast Voiceflow CEO Braden Ream - Building Real World Voice AI That Actually Works | EP91
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Oct 24, 2025 Braden Ream, CEO of Voiceflow, leads the charge in voice AI tech, shifting from simple Alexa skills to robust conversational agents. He dives into the evolution from traditional NLU to LLM-driven frameworks, revealing how real-time streaming enhances user experience. Braden discusses the balance between usability and power, the potential of speech-to-speech models, and the future landscape of voice AI for businesses. He also addresses the AI funding bubble and the shifting dynamics in agent-building platforms, making the conversation both insightful and forward-thinking.
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From Alexa Skills To Voiceflow
- Braden Ream built Voiceflow after creating Alexa skills and realizing existing tooling was poor.
- He turned an internal tool into a public platform that now serves thousands of developers and enterprises.
LLMs End Manual Conversation Design
- LLMs replaced manual conversation design by automating the response layer and reducing reliance on thousands of spreadsheet rows.
- Voiceflow shifted from chat focus back to voice once streaming and speech models improved.
Three-Part Agent Architecture
- A conversational agent has three components: understand, decide, and produce a response.
- LLMs now enable all three components, shifting agents from intent-NLU plus scripted flows to unified agentic systems.