Why Companies Want To Mine The Secrets In Your Voice

VoicesenseVoicesense makes an intriguing promise to its clients: give us someone’s voice, and we’ll tell you what they will do. The Israeli company uses real-time voice analysis during calls to evaluate whether someone is likely to default on a bank loan, buy a more expensive product, or be the best candidate for a job.

It’s one of a crop of companies looking for the personal insights contained in our speech. In recent years, researchers and startups have taken note of the rich trove of information that can be mined from voice, especially as the popularity of home assistants like Amazon’s Alexa make consumers increasingly comfortable talking to their devices. The voice technology market is growing and is expected to reach $15.5 billion by 2029, according to a report by business analytics firm IdTechEx. “Almost everyone talks and there’s a plethora of devices that capture voice, whether it’s your phone or things like Alexa and Google Home,” says Satrajit Ghosh, a research scientist at MIT’s McGovern Center for Brain Research who is interested in developing voice analysis for mental health purposes. “Voice has become a fairly ubiquitous stream across life.”