Equal builds human-like AI call screening with ElevenLabs

Equal's AI assistant handles over 600,000 calls per day across India - screening, understanding intent, and acting on behalf of users.

Equal is building an AI assistant for India. The company started with phone calls, where the assistant answers, screens, and manages incoming calls on behalf of users. It acts as a personal secretary - speaking with callers and providing a real-time transcript summary, allowing users to only take the calls that matter. Today, over 300,000 Indians use Equal's assistant handles over 600,000 calls per day, with each conversation lasting an average of 1 minute 15 seconds, powered by ElevenLabs.

The assistant manages calls by answering on the user's behalf, understanding the caller's intent through natural conversation, and then acting accordingly, whether that means filtering spam, surfacing urgent messages, or routing a call through. For users, this means fewer interruptions and more control over their time without missing anything important.

Why voice quality determines whether users stay on the line

Voice is not a secondary feature for Equal. It is the product. If a caller perceives the assistant as a robot, they hang up immediately. For the assistant to work, it must sound natural and native enough that callers engage with it as they would a real person.

This meant Equal needed a text to speech provider that could meet specific requirements: natural, human-like voice quality, low latency for real-time phone conversations, and high-fidelity output that performs reliably in production. Beyond clarity, the voice needed to express emotion, handle multilingual conversations, and accurately capture Indian accents.

After evaluating providers, Equal selected ElevenLabs Text to Speech for voice quality and responsiveness, along with the flexibility to experiment with different voices and explore Voice Cloning options.

Expressive, low-latency voice that captures Indian accents

Using ElevenLabs Text to Speech and Voice Cloning, Equal built an assistant voice that sounds alive in live phone conversations. The integration gave them the ability to choose and refine a unique assistant voice, clone voices aligned with their brand, deliver multilingual speech with accurate Indian accent representation, and convey emotion and nuance in real-time interactions while maintaining the low latency required for natural phone conversations.

Seamless integration and ongoing voice optimization

The integration process was straightforward. Equal worked closely with our team to implement voice across their assistant stack and optimize performance for live call handling.

The partnership has extended beyond initial deployment. As Equal continues to refine what their ideal assistant voice should sound like, we are collaborating on voice selection, latency tuning, and conversational flow design that preserves natural turn-taking. The ability to experiment with different voices while maintaining production-grade performance has been critical as the product evolves.

Voice plays a central role in the experience we are building. ElevenLabs has been instrumental in helping us create a sound that is not just clear or accurate, but natural, relatable, and distinctly ours.

Krishna Challa, VP - Strategic Projects, Equal

Scaling AI-powered phone conversations across India

At 600,000 calls handled per day across more than 300,000 daily users, performance and reliability are non-negotiable. Equal's assistant must carry tone, emotion, and cultural nuance while responding in real time at scale. As Equal continues building India's AI assistant, ElevenLabs provides the voice layer that enables natural, expressive, and low-latency conversations for every call.