Anthropic Prepares to Launch Voice Mode for Claude, Focusing on Business Users

Anthropic is reportedly prepping a voice mode for Claude

According to a report, AI startup Anthropic is working on voice capabilities for its AI-powered chatbot, Claude. The company's chief product officer, Mike Krieger, told the Financial Times that Anthropic plans to launch experiences that allow users to talk to Anthropic's AI models. "We are doing some work around how Claude for desktop evolves  [... ] if it is going to be operating your computer, a more natural user interface might be to [speak to it]," Krieger said. "We will do voice internally [...] it is a useful modality to have. We have prototypes." The report also noted that Anthropic has held talks with Amazon, the company's major investor and partner, and voice-focused AI startup ElevenLabs to possibly drive future voice features for Claude. But no deals have been finalized, according to the Financial Times. Krieger told the publication that Anthropic has had discussions with "a bunch of partners" to potentially speed up the launch of a voice experience.

Anthropic set to focus on business users in search for new revenues

Artificial intelligence start-up Anthropic is preparing to release a range of new features focused on business users, pitching its AI models at enterprise over seeking mass market adoption. Mike Krieger, the Silicon Valley group's chief product officer, told the Financial Times that it was focused on how computer systems could "help with knowledge work" for "people who spend all day in meetings or in Excel or Google Docs". "It feels like we should be able to make that easier," added Krieger, who was previously a co-founder of Instagram before joining Anthropic last year. The group is banking on businesses driving new revenues for products based on its popular Claude AI models rather than chasing rivals such as OpenAI and Google which are also building chatbots and agents designed for more widespread use. "I hope Claude reaches as many people as possible, but the critical path is not through mass-market consumer adoption right now," said Krieger on stage during the recent HumanX conference in Las Vegas. The comments come after the company closed a $3.5bn fundraising round this month, tripling its valuation to more than $60bn. While the fundraise was a sign that investor interest in AI start-ups was showing no sign of waning, there are still concerns over when such bets can start to deliver meaningful returns through creating successful business models for generative AI. Anthropic's rivals have also invested heavily in building AI products for business users. Microsoft has rolled out "Co-pilot" across its Office productivity software, while OpenAI is marketing "ChatGPT Enterprise" for businesses seeking more powerful uses of its AI models customised for specific organisations. Anthropic said its revenue from developers and enterprises via its application programming interface -- or API -- was growing twice as fast as its consumer subscriptions. Internally, the company has been testing a prototype which it plans to "commercialise" and build into Claude in the coming months. The feature examines workers' calendars and prepares a report ahead of their meetings, analysing internal and external information about the client, such as who else they have met internally and previous notes about the company. "Ideally, you're a salesperson who walks into every one of those meetings as prepared as possible, but they don't have time to do that report for every single company," Krieger said. "That's a way in which the models do what they're really good at: go off and do asynchronous work, think about the problem, and then create something consumable. Hopefully, that will be an accelerant for our sales folks." Anthropic also plans to launch voice-driven AI systems, where people can prompt and respond to AI models through a spoken conversation. It is an area where competitors OpenAI and Elon Musk's xAI have also recently released features and Meta is also focused on. "We will do voice internally, too; it is a useful modality to have. We have prototypes," he said. "We are doing some work around how Claude for desktop evolves . . . if it is going to be operating your computer, a more natural user interface might be to [speak to it]." Krieger said Anthropic was discussing the launch with "a bunch of partners" already with AI voice products to potentially speed up the release. One person familiar with the move said Amazon and London-based AI start-up ElevenLabs were part of preliminary discussions but no agreements had been signed. Anthropic is backed by both Google and Amazon and has recently partnered with the latter to deliver its AI-powered Alexa product.

A ChatGPT rival may soon control your desktop with voice

Artificial intelligence startup Anthropic shares the spotlight among top Silicon Valley names for two major reasons. First, the company was founded by former OpenAI alumni who left after developing ideological differences with Sam Altman. Second, Anthropic claims to take a more responsible approach with its AI chatbot -- and eponymous large language models -- Claude, attempting to eliminate harmful or unethical responses. Mike Krieger, Anthropic's chief product officer -- and Instagram's co-founder -- spoke to the Financial Times about the company's plans to improve "knowledge work," helping them reclaim some time spent on "Excel or Google Docs." Recommended Videos One way to accomplish that would be through agentic systems where Anthropic's AI will be able to control your entire desktop from a set of natural-language commands. In theory, the concept is similar to ChatGPT's Operator mode that browses the web for you based on your commands. Simultaneously, Microsoft is bidding on voice commands to control your Windows laptops with the help of its Copilot+ chat interface. Voice chat to control your PC Krieger envisions one way to deploy Claude to control your desktop will be with voice, as that would be "a more natural user interface." Last year, Anthropic demoed its AI agent that can control computers using written commands. Voice control, eventually, can be expected to be an extension of this existing functionality. Even though there is no clear timeline on when -- or confirmation if -- controlling your PC with voice feature becomes a reality, Anthropic already has a voice mode in the works. The executive said the company is already prototyping voice control for Claude. Anthropic is betting on enterprise partnerships, rather than making its products immediately available to consumers, to gain an edge over rivals such as OpenAI, Meta, and Google. "I hope Claude reaches as many people as possible, but the critical path is not through mass-market consumer adoption right now," Krieger said. However, if the voice functionality was to be available to Claude users, one of the most natural places would be the mobile app launched in August last year. For now, Claude's voice mode kind of already exists in the form of Amazon's overhauled Alexa+, which is powered by Claude's large language models. This was likely a result of Amazon's $4 billion investment in the startup. The company may also be looking at other partners to launch its voice-based products, but has yet to reveal any alliances other than with Amazon. Meanwhile, rivals OpenAI and Google already have proficient voice functionality through their respective voice modes in ChatGPT and Gemini.

Anthropic to Launch Voice Mode Soon, More Features Incoming for Business Users

New features to help with 'knowledge work' for business professionals 'who spend all day in meetings or in Excel or Google Docs.' Anthropic, the AI startup behind the Claude family of models, plans to release voice-based conversational features soon, reported the Financial Times on Tuesday. Mike Krieger, Anthropic's CPO, said the company already has prototypes for the same and added that if Claude is autonomously operating a computer, the natural user interface is to speak to it. To speed up the release, the company is also considering launching the feature in collaboration with companies that produce voice-based products. Furthermore, the report cited sources who revealed that Anthropic is in preliminary discussions with Amazon and Eleven Labs, a company specialising in AI-enabled voice-based tools. A voice-based conversational AI for Claude is long overdue, given that it has been integrated for a long time on OpenAI's ChatGPT. Recently, Elon Musk's xAI also integrated conversational voice AI features in the Grok AI model, quickly gaining popularity, given the nature of its responses. Voice-based functionalities for Claude are currently only made available by external providers. For instance, Hume AI, a startup that develops AI voice tools, added features that enable voice-based interactions to Claude's Computer Use feature last year. The report also stated that the company is working on adding a suite of features for business users. It is said to help with 'knowledge work' for business professionals who spend all day in meetings or in Excel or Google Docs Anthropic will release a new feature that allows working professionals to generate reports using AI ahead of scheduled meetings, by examining their calendars. This feature will compile reports using internal and external information about the meeting's clients and their companies. The company has been testing the prototype, which it plans to integrate and 'commercialise' with Claude soon. "Ideally, you're a salesperson who walks into every one of those meetings as prepared as possible, but they don't have time to do that report for every single company," said Krieger. Krieger also said that Anthropic's path towards accelerating its distribution will focus on enterprise and business users rather than mass-market consumer adoption. Last year, it was reported that Anthropic is earning most of its revenue from API services rather than paid subscriptions to the Claude models. This is in stark contrast to its competitor, OpenAI, as it earns most of its revenue from ChatGPT subscriptions. Anthropic's upcoming push towards business and enterprise users will likely contribute to this trend. A few weeks ago, Anthropic announced a $3.5 billion Series E funding round, bringing its post-money valuation to $61.5 billion. The company also announced its newest Claude 3.7 Sonnet model, which earned widespread praise for its capabilities in tasks involving generating code. Furthermore, it also functions as a hybrid model, allowing users to choose between quick responses or ones that involve step-by-step extended reasoning.