ElevenLabs AI
ElevenLabs is an AI voice technology company that has become the gold standard for neural text-to-speech and voice AI. Founded in 2022, the company rapidly established itself as the market leader in ultra-realistic voice synthesis, raising over $100 million in funding (including an $80M Series B in 2024 at a $1.1 billion valuation) and serving over 1 million users worldwide. ElevenLabs' technology powers the voice layer of thousands of applications — from audiobook narration and podcast production to AI agents and phone systems.
What sets ElevenLabs apart is the combination of quality, speed, and versatility. Their Turbo v2 and v3 models generate speech with sub-300ms latency at a quality level that consistently passes human evaluation tests — listeners cannot reliably distinguish ElevenLabs output from human recordings. The platform supports 29+ languages with native-quality pronunciation, offers voice cloning from just minutes of sample audio, and provides a Conversational AI platform specifically designed for real-time phone and chat applications. For businesses using AI phone systems, ElevenLabs has become the de facto voice technology partner, powering the majority of commercial AI receptionist and agent platforms.
Key Insight
ElevenLabs raised $80M in Series B funding at a $1.1 billion valuation (2024), validating the massive market for human-quality AI voices. Their technology powers the voice layer of Skaala's AI receptionist — generating speech that 95%+ of callers cannot distinguish from a human, with sub-300ms latency for natural phone conversations.
How It Works
ElevenLabs' technology is built on proprietary neural network architectures trained on vast datasets of human speech. The core TTS pipeline takes text input, analyzes linguistic context (emphasis, emotion, pacing), generates a mel-spectrogram representation, and converts it to audio via a neural vocoder — all in under 300ms. Their Conversational AI platform adds bidirectional audio streaming, turn-taking detection, and interruption handling specifically optimized for phone calls and real-time chat.
Skaala integrates ElevenLabs through their Conversational AI API, which provides the complete voice interaction layer for phone calls. When a business call arrives, the caller's speech is processed through Skaala's AI pipeline and the response is voiced through ElevenLabs in real-time. Business owners select their preferred AI voice during Skaala's onboarding — choosing from ElevenLabs' library of natural voices across languages and styles. The integration is seamless: callers hear a warm, professional voice that represents the business, powered by ElevenLabs' technology but orchestrated by Skaala's business intelligence layer.
Benefits
Use Cases
- Skaala's AI receptionist uses ElevenLabs to answer business calls with natural, human-quality voice — handling bookings, inquiries, and call routing with speech that 95%+ of callers cannot distinguish from a real person.
- A podcast production company uses ElevenLabs to generate voiceovers in multiple languages from a single script, reducing production time by 90% compared to booking voice actors.
- An e-learning platform uses ElevenLabs to convert course materials into audio narration in 29+ languages, making education accessible to global audiences without hiring language-specific narrators.
- A customer service operation uses ElevenLabs-powered voice AI to handle tier-1 support calls, resolving common issues automatically while maintaining the warm, empathetic tone customers expect.
Comparison with Alternatives
In the neural TTS space, ElevenLabs competes with OpenAI TTS, Google Cloud TTS (WaveNet), Amazon Polly, Microsoft Azure Speech, and Play.ht. ElevenLabs leads in voice naturalness and conversational latency — critical metrics for phone-based AI. Google and Amazon offer broader cloud ecosystem integration but lower voice quality. OpenAI's TTS is high quality but optimized for content generation rather than real-time conversation. Play.ht offers competitive quality but higher latency. For AI receptionist applications requiring real-time phone conversation, ElevenLabs remains the clear market leader.
Related Terms
Frequently Asked Questions
What is ElevenLabs and why does Skaala use it?
ElevenLabs is the world's leading AI voice technology company, valued at $1.1 billion (2024). They produce the most natural-sounding AI voices available, with sub-300ms latency ideal for phone conversations. Skaala uses ElevenLabs because their technology is the only one that consistently passes the 'phone test' — where callers cannot tell they are speaking with AI.
Is Skaala endorsed by ElevenLabs?
Skaala uses ElevenLabs' technology as a customer of their Conversational AI platform. This is a technology partnership, not an endorsement. ElevenLabs provides the voice synthesis layer, while Skaala provides the business intelligence, scheduling, CRM integration, and phone infrastructure. Together, they create an AI receptionist experience powered by the best voice technology available.
Can ElevenLabs clone my voice for my AI receptionist?
ElevenLabs offers professional voice cloning from as little as a few minutes of high-quality audio. However, for most businesses, selecting from ElevenLabs' library of pre-built voices is recommended — these voices are optimized for clarity, naturalness, and conversational flow. Skaala provides voice preview during onboarding so you can hear how each voice sounds handling typical business calls.
How Skaala uses elevenlabs ai
Skaala is powered by ElevenLabs' Conversational AI platform — the same technology trusted by Fortune 500 companies and leading AI startups. Every call handled by Skaala uses ElevenLabs for voice generation, ensuring human-indistinguishable quality with sub-300ms response times. Business owners select their AI receptionist's voice from ElevenLabs' library during Skaala onboarding, with the option to preview voices in their language of choice. The integration delivers enterprise-grade voice quality at small business pricing — starting at 299 SEK/month.