What “real-time voice AI” actually means

Most voice AI is really three systems stitched together:
speech-to-text → a language model → text-to-speech reading the answer back. That works, but it feels like taking turns — you talk, it thinks, it talks. And while it’s talking, it can’t hear you.

A real-time voice agent is different: audio in and audio out in the same live session. That’s why you can interrupt it mid-sentence and it actually stops — that moment is called barge-in. It’s the difference between a voice bot and something you can talk to like a person.

Speakers: Annie Wang
Products Mentioned: Gemini Live API, Agent Development Kit