What is Latency (in Voice AI)?
Latency in voice AI refers to the time delay between a caller finishing their sentence and the AI beginning its response. It is measured in milliseconds and directly affects whether a voice AI conversation feels natural or robotic.
How Latency (in Voice AI) works
Total voice AI latency is the sum of: audio capture and transmission (50 to 100ms), speech to text processing (100 to 300ms), NLU and response generation (50 to 200ms), text to speech generation (50 to 150ms), and audio transmission back (50 to 100ms). Total round trip latency under 500ms feels natural. Above 800ms, callers notice the delay and conversation flow breaks down. Above 1.5 seconds, callers frequently talk over the AI or hang up.
Why Latency (in Voice AI) matters for enterprise
Latency is the most underestimated factor in voice AI deployment. A system with perfect accuracy but 2 second latency will have worse call completion rates than a slightly less accurate system with 400ms latency. Indian telephony infrastructure adds variable latency, so the AI system must compensate.
How ARCA handles Latency (in Voice AI)
ARCA maintains sub 500ms response latency in production telephony environments, including on calls routed through Indian mobile networks.
See how ARCA uses latency (in voice ai) in practice.
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