ElevenLabs Enters the Chatbot Race with Customizable AI Agents

ElevenLabs, known for its advanced AI voice cloning and text-to-speech tools, has launched a new platform for creating customizable conversational AI bots. Announced on Monday, this feature empowers developers to design agents with tailored parameters such as tone, response creativity, and interaction length, marking a significant step into the competitive conversational AI space.

The platform simplifies the process of building AI agents by providing templates and customization options. Developers can define an agent's persona, primary language, initial message, and system prompts. Supported by large language models like Gemini, GPT, and Claude, users can adjust response temperature, token limits, and voice characteristics. ElevenLabs also allows developers to integrate their own knowledge bases or custom LLMs.

Designed for flexibility, the platform supports Python, JavaScript, React, and Swift, with a WebSocket API for further personalization. The AI agents can also collect user data, such as names and emails, with predefined success metrics for conversations.

While ElevenLabs has established itself in text-to-speech, this new venture required building speech-to-text capabilities. Though the company doesn’t currently offer a standalone speech-to-text API, this could change, positioning it as a competitor to giants like Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and specialized tools like OpenAI’s Whisper.

As ElevenLabs seeks a valuation exceeding $3 billion, it enters a crowded field with rivals such as Vapi, Retell, and OpenAI. However, its unique ability to switch models and fine-tune bots may provide a competitive edge in the rapidly evolving conversational AI market.