Beam improves access to social services with ElevenAgents

Beam serves frontline social services teams across five countries, supporting more than 130,000 meetings a week across UK Local Government alone.

Beam deployed three ElevenLabs capabilities across their platform:

• ElevenAgents: A 24/7 phone line to give access to services and routing high-priority cases to human caseworkers.
• Transcription: Compliant meeting documentation generated in seconds after each meeting.
• Translation: Real-time multilingual support so people receiving services aren't blocked by language barriers.

Always-on support for people who can't wait until morning

Social services teams are overwhelmed with demand during working hours, and unavailable outside them. Someone in need of support outside of office hours or in the middle of the night would have to leave a message, waiting hours or days for support. 

Beam deployed ElevenAgents so people can access time-critical social services at any time of day or night. Informed by comprehensive locally relevant guidance, law and regulation, the agent holds a conversation, assesses the level of risk, labels it, and flags high-priority cases for a human caseworker to prioritize during working hours. Lower-risk conversations are still captured and documented, so nothing is lost, with routine enquiries resolved immediately for the service user.

Now we're able to provide a voice agent for people who need support 24/7, transforming access to services. The AI can understand the risk of those conversations, label it, and make sure that if it's a high-risk situation, a human being can pick it up first thing in the morning.

— Alex Stephany, Founder and CEO, Beam

Freeing frontline workers from documentation

Documentation is essential for compliance and continuity of care, but it consumes a significant share of a social worker's day. As Stephany puts it, “that's not why people get into this sector”.

Beam uses ElevenLabs transcription to generate compliant documentation in seconds after a meeting ends. With frontline teams juggling dozens of cases every week, that time savings adds up.

This is technology that is taking the grunt-work out of social services, liberating tens of thousands of critical frontline workers in the UK and around the world to connect with and support other human beings.

— Alex Stephany, Founder and CEO, Beam

Reaching diverse communities

Beam serves diverse communities where multiple languages are spoken. Beam uses ElevenLabs translation to democratize access to social service, no matter the language, so everyone can get access to services without delays or drop-off. In critical care moments, it’s key to have a system that understands and can respond to the nuances and idioms of different languages and dialects.

Why ElevenLabs

Beam operates in an environment where safety, security, and emotional nuance are imperative. The agent needs to be able to connect with customers naturally, be emotionally sensitive, and leave no margin for error on security.

ElevenLabs' vertically integrated stack keeps latency low and voice quality high because STT, LLM, and TTS run in one colocated system. Voices and conversations feel natural even in high urgency or sensitive contexts. Beam also leverages Guardrails in ElevenAgents to manage risk throughout conversations, making sure the Agent stays within safe boundaries no matter how a call unfolds. And as Beam expands, support for 70+ languages and localized voices means agents can sound natural in each new community.

You want to speak to an agent that understands your idiom and can interpret your emotion, and there is no margin for error when it comes to security and safety.

— Alex Stephany, Founder and CEO, Beam

Impact and results

ElevenLabs enabled Beam to extend its platform with transcription, translation, and voice agent capabilities that drive measurable results:

• 50%+ reduction in call handling time, with agents providing access to services and routing high-priority cases to human caseworkers
• 20% of frontline worker time saved through compliant meeting docs generated in seconds, freeing teams for direct service
• 24/7, 365 service availability, which was previously limited to business hours only

At the end of the day, this is technology that creates space for humanity in social services.

— Alex Stephany, Founder and CEO, Beam

What's next

As Beam expands into new regions, their focus is on providing world-leading capabilities that empower millions of frontline workers while staying localized, making sure each community receives the human-centered support they deserve.