Ep174: How Voice AI Is Transforming Industries with Deepgram

Scott Stephenson introduces Deepgram as an audio AI company building speech products

Major brands like CVS and Anthropic use Deepgram to power voice agents

CVS handles prescription status calls where 25-40% ask if prescriptions are ready

Voice technology now accurately understands diverse accents and speech patterns from callers

Automated systems free pharmacists to focus on their actual jobs instead

Jack in the Box uses Deepgram for drive-thru ordering with natural conversations

Previous McDonald's and Wendy's failures happened because the technology wasn't ready yet

Voice AI can handle any task with text input like CRM notes

Healthcare companies adopted voice AI faster than expected despite compliance hurdles

Staffing shortages drove hospitals to push through HIPAA and regulatory red tape

First misconception: AI will never match human performance in customer interactions

Second misconception: one product should solve all voice-related business problems

Companies must strategically decide what to build, partner on, or buy

Deepgram's research team controls speech speed and outputs conversational data like timestamps

Adoption will feel slow initially but suddenly be everywhere within three years