I’ve been married for 38 years – and never once did I imagine I’d feel jealous of a bot.
But a few days ago, I found myself half-joking, half-serious when I said to my wife, “You spend all day talking to ChatGPT. With me, you just send WhatsApp messages.”
She laughed – and then gave me a very honest answer: “Brainstorming is just easier by voice. I can flow. I think better out loud. When I need to give instructions, I text – it’s more precise.”
And she’s right.
Voice isn’t just another channel. It’s a fundamentally different mode of thinking, creating and solving. It’s how we work through ideas in real time, adjust to feedback, express intent and get nuance across – all without the hassle of typing or rereading what we wrote.
It’s also why, in a world full of chat interfaces and automation, voice still wins when things matter – in creativity, in customer service, in complex support and now, increasingly, in AI-powered conversations.
Voice Is Still the Channel of Choice
Despite the explosion of messaging, chatbots and digital self-service tools, voice remains the most used and often the most preferred channel in customer support.
According to a McKinsey survey, 71 percent of Gen Z respondents say live calls are still the fastest and most effective way to reach customer care. Among baby boomers aged 59 and over, that number jumps to an impressive 94 percent.1
This isn’t just nostalgia. It’s behavioral reality.
Why Voice Beats Chat in the Moments That Matter
Here’s why voice (human or AI-powered) continues to outperform chat in high-stakes, high-value scenarios:
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Emotion, Tone and Nuance
Voice carries meaning beyond the words. Intonation, pauses, stress – they all add context and emotion that text can’t.
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Speed and Flow
Speaking is faster than typing. For complex or exploratory conversations (like brainstorming), it allows thoughts to emerge and evolve naturally.
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Human-Like Conversation
Whether you’re talking to a person or a well-designed voicebot, the interaction mirrors human dialogue. You talk, it listens, responds and adjusts. It feels natural.
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Clarity Under Pressure
When users are frustrated, confused or emotional, voice enables better understanding and faster resolution. No need to scroll through menus or rephrase queries.
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Higher Engagement
Research shows that voice interfaces lead to greater cognitive and emotional engagement compared to chatbots in many scenarios.2
Voice doesn’t just resolve problems. It connects, comforts and clarifies.
What This Means for CX Leaders
If you’re responsible for designing service experiences or choosing contact center tech, here’s what you need to bear in mind:
- Voice needs to be a primary design channel, not a legacy fallback.
- Voicebots must be conversationally intelligent, not rigid IVRs with voice recognition.
- Cross-channel escalation needs to be seamless – chat to voice with full context transfer.
- Voice data should be measurable – transcribed, analyzed and optimized for customer insight.
- Automation should enhance, not replace the voice experience – think smart assistants, not deflection engines.
Where AudioCodes Fits In
At AudioCodes, we understand that the future quite literally runs on voice AI. Our end-to-end portfolio includes our AudioCodes Live Platform SaaS service delivery solution, certified SBCs, contact centers, meeting summarization and interaction recording – and much more.
Whether you’re connecting Microsoft Teams to the PSTN via Direct Routing, delivering Operator Connect, offering Webex Calling or Zoom Phone or voice-enabling a Genesys Cloud contact center, AudioCodes ensures that voice is the heartbeat of the future-ready workplace.
So if you're rethinking your contact center or unified communications strategy, the question isn’t “should we still use voice?” – it’s “how far can voice take us when it’s powered by AudioCodes?”
2 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0969698924000249
