The silent cost of distrust
By Mr. Imtiaz Bellary, MD & Co-Founder of Engati: If you own a phone in India, there’s a 6-in-10 chance you field at least three spam calls a day. In a 2024 LocalCircles survey for The Times of India, 65 percent of respondents said relentless robocalls had become their “new normal.” timesofindia.indiatimes.com
No wonder consumers let unknown numbers ring out or, worse, block them altogether. Voice—the most immediate, human channel—has lost its credibility.
Yet voice also carries the richest emotional bandwidth. Re-earning that trust is now a growth KPI, and the fastest lever is identity-verified outreach. Research released this year shows three out of four people pick up when a call displays the brand’s name, logo and reason for calling. signalmash.com
Why AI Voice Agents Are Having Their Moment
After years of touch-tone IVRs and hold music, two powerful, and complementary, forces have finally aligned.
1. Consumers are ready to talk to software but there is a catch!
An April 2024 TechGig pulse survey found that 84 percent of Indian shoppers already rely on AI-driven recommendations and 78 percent feel comfortable asking AI for investment tips (content.techgig.com).
But, here’s the catch – these interactions are user initiated! Consumers want to talk to you whenever they would like to. It’s a push vs. pull phenomenon. Businesses should invest in driving intent and let voice agents nurture.
2. The business case just went vertical.
Analysts at Market.us project the global voice-AI-agent market to jump from US $2.4 billion in 2024 to nearly US $47 billion by 2034, a 34.8 percent CAGR (market.us) primarily driven by the ability of AI to reason and have human-like conversations over voice calls.
Put simply: Sophisticated demand has been met with AI powered supply
Customers no longer cringe at an automated voice, and companies can now deploy agents that sound natural, detect intent in milliseconds, reply in fluent Hinglish, or any of 15 Indian languages, and pass complex issues to a human along with the full transcript. Each closed loop trains the model, so both trust and efficiency compound with every call.
Industry snapshots: where the lift is biggest
Retail & e-commerce
Festive-season cart abandonment hurts twice: you lose revenue and pay again to lure shoppers back. Predictive AI interventions have cut abandonment up to 18 percent for early movers such as JCPenney. retailtouchpoints.com
Our own clients see a similar curve: a late-night product query is answered by voice, inventory is confirmed, and a WhatsApp pay link closes the sale- no human on standby.
Healthcare
India’s outpatient clinics bleed productivity on no-shows. Automated voice reminders and self-service rescheduling helped 63 percent of U.S. medical groups hold or lower no-show rates last year, according to an MGMA poll. mgma.com
Hospital chains tapping voice agents here report a double win: fewer front-desk calls and happier patients who’d rather speak than wrestle with forms.
Banking & FinServ
Money demands reassurance. A branded call that opens with the bank’s logo and authenticates the customer’s voiceprint feels both personal and secure.
ServiceNow’s 2025 CX study shows four in five Indians already rely on AI chatbots to track complaints or explore investments. thehansindia.com
Voice agents slot neatly into that behaviour, slicing queue times and meeting RBI audit trails with full call logs.
Designing a hybrid future
The goal isn’t to replace people; it’s to reserve them for moments that matter. A mature flow looks like this:
- AI resolves the routine (password reset, order status, appointment booking, account status).
- Smart escalation routes edge-cases to live staff—with context.
- Continuous learning expands the routine bucket month after month.
Businesses that brand every outbound number, start with one high-value use-case, and measure both conversion and pickup-rate are already seeing 20–30 percent answer-rate lifts. transnexus.com
The takeaway
Hold music was a 20th-century patch for system latency. AI voice agents are a 21st-century fix for customer patience, and for corporate credibility eroded by spam. In a market where distrust silences billions of calls, the brands that sound legitimate will be the ones customers choose to hear.
Voice isn’t the new UX; it’s the first impression. Let’s make it count.
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