Signal and Story

Pastime Agency

Signal and Story is a relaxed weekly conversation for people who build and buy conversational AI: contact-centre platforms, voice agents and customer-service chatbots. Each week, two hosts talk through the stories that caught their eye. Elena has run these deployments herself and brings the day-to-day view: who has to staff it, what changes for the team, and what a customer actually hears. Sam follows the market: who is moving, what things cost, and what a regulator has just changed. It's not a debate and not a news bulletin. It's two people who know the field catching up over a coffee on what happened, why it's interesting and what it might mean in practice. The hosts' voices are generated by AI (artificial intelligence). New episodes every week.

Episodes

  1. 1d ago

    OpenAI Live SIP Calls, ElevenLabs Contact Centres and Five9 Level AI

    OpenAI said outbound SIP calling is now available through its Live API, letting organisations place GPT-Live calls through their own SIP provider with encrypted trunks, backend call tracking and strict session limits, while UK marketing-law questions remain unresolved 📞🤖 ElevenLabs said ElevenAgents now integrates with NiCE CXone, Genesys Cloud, Amazon Connect and Five9, and Five9 agreed to buy Level AI for about three hundred and twenty-five million dollars while offering its AI beyond its own platform. The practical message is that voice agents are becoming easier to plug into existing telephony and contact-centre systems, but the operational detail still matters: encrypted trunks, routing, disposition data, platform-specific settings and a clear legal basis for outbound calls. Next up is whether Five9’s standalone Level AI offer stays genuinely platform-neutral, and how UK businesses treat OpenAI’s conversational outbound calling under ICO rules. Signal and Story examines how outbound AI calls, embedded voice agents and AI acquisition strategies are reshaping contact centres. Chapters00:00 Introduction00:44 Outbound Calls Over SIP03:50 Voice Agents Inside Contact Centres07:22 Five9 Buys Level AI10:44 Wrap-Up Listen and follow: Apple Podcasts · Spotify · All platforms

  2. Nov 3

    Regulators Warn, Salesforce Buys Cresta, and O2 Blocks Scam Calls

    Four UK regulators said existing law already covers personal AI agents, putting responsibility back on the firms deploying them for data use, authority, accountability and redress as autonomy increases. ⚖️🤖 Salesforce agreed to buy Cresta, the voice-agent company for customer service, while O2 began rolling out network-level blocking for suspected scam calls, with more than three million a week expected to be stopped. The practical message is that deployers cannot assume autonomy reduces compliance duties, and businesses using voice agents must still think about transparency, data use and complaints handling. The episode also flags that O2 has not published a false-positive rate, appeal route or opt-out. Next up is whether regulators turn this into more specific guidance, what Salesforce and Cresta disclose before the expected first-quarter fiscal year 2028 closing, and how O2’s rollout affects legitimate business calls. Signal and Story examines accountability, platform integration and network control over outbound calling. Chapters00:00 Introduction00:41 Regulators and Personal Agents04:42 Salesforce Buys Cresta07:48 O2 Blocks Scam Calls Listen and follow: Apple Podcasts · Spotify · All platforms

  3. Oct 28

    Tismi fine, ElevenLabs Realtime and Mistral Voxtral 3

    Ofcom fined Tismi four hundred and thirty-seven thousand five hundred pounds after about three hundred and sixty-six thousand sub-allocated phone numbers were exposed to potential misuse for over two years, with evidence of nuisance and scam calls tied to the numbers. 📞⚠️ The episode also covers ElevenLabs’ Eleven Realtime launch, which it says turns speech-to-speech into a complete voice agent, and Mistral’s Voxtral 3 voice-agent kit, priced at four US cents a minute in one configuration. The practical takeaway is that phone-number onboarding, ongoing monitoring and misuse reporting are now part of the risk picture for any voice deployment, while the model launches still leave key caveats open: pricing, what is included, and how performance holds up on real calls. Next, attention turns to the fuller Tismi decision, the new Xtra Phones UK investigation, ElevenLabs’ Realtime pricing and whether Mistral clarifies its per-minute voice-agent costs. Signal and Story examines what checks telecoms providers should make, what disappears when voice systems are assembled as one model, and what the published price actually covers. Chapters00:00 Introduction00:43 Ofcom Checks Phone Numbers04:19 ElevenLabs Builds Voice Agents08:00 Mistral Prices Voice Agents Listen and follow: Apple Podcasts · Spotify · All platforms

  4. Oct 21

    NatWest speech fix, FCA chatbot practice and Grok Voice price

    The FCA published examples of good and poor AI practice in financial services, including chatbots limited to approved sources, escalation routes and customer choice, alongside failures that left people unable to get proper help. 🤖📞 The episode also covers NatWest’s adapted speech recognition for UK accents and banking language, the CMA’s proposed strategic market status for Microsoft’s business software ecosystem, and SpaceXAI’s release of Grok Voice 3.0 at eight US cents a minute. The practical takeaway is that AI systems need testing against real accents, real customer journeys and real vendor dependency risks, not just benchmark claims. The episode also flags that the FCA’s examples are illustrative rather than new rules, and that the Grok pricing and leaderboard figures are snapshots, not a live production bill. What to watch next is the FCA’s direction on significant AI failures, the outcome of the CMA consultation on Microsoft and Copilot, and whether voice-AI buyers can balance price, latency and stability against the models they actually need. Signal and Story examines how customer service automation, platform choice and speech recognition shape enterprise AI operations. Chapters00:00 Introduction00:53 FCA AI Customer Service Practice04:35 NatWest Tunes Speech Recognition09:06 CMA Looks At Microsoft Copilot12:21 Grok Voice Holds Its Price Listen and follow: Apple Podcasts · Spotify · All platforms

  5. Oct 14

    ICO agentic AI call, automated call complaints and Royal Mail voice

    The ICO opened a six-week call for evidence on agentic AI, asking how systems that can use tools and act with limited human oversight are being governed, and stressing that autonomy is not an excuse for poor compliance 🤖📣 The episode also covers complaints about automated nuisance calls rising from 1,374 in July to 3,684 in September, plus the Royal Mail Christmas advert row after a family said the AI-generated voice sounded like their late father. For operators, the message is to pin down what a system can do, what data it can reach and who remains accountable. The episode flags open questions on conversational voice agents, because PECR clearly covers recorded-message automated calls but not necessarily live AI dialogue. Next up: the ICO’s evidence call runs to 20 November, the PECR review may clarify live conversational calls, and the Royal Mail dispute leaves the voice industry facing tougher resemblance checks. Signal and Story examines how regulators define agentic AI, how automation changes call consent, and how synthetic voices should be governed.

  6. Oct 6

    BT Launches AI Receptionist for UK Small Businesses

    BT Business launched AI Receptionist for UK firms, an always-on phone agent that handles enquiries, bookings and confirmations, can integrate with Outlook and Google Calendar, and is sold in monthly rolling bundles of inbound minutes. 📞🤖 The episode also covers ElevenLabs’ three-hundred-million-dollar employee tender that valued the company at twenty-two billion dollars, plus Microsoft’s release of MAI-Transcribe-2-Streaming and MAI-Voice-2.1 models with clear per-hour and per-character pricing. The practical takeaway is that voice automation is becoming easier to buy and meter, but the caveats matter: BT does not publish bundle prices, ElevenLabs’ performance claims are company-reported, and Microsoft marks its streaming transcription model as public preview and not recommended for production. Watch for BT’s real-world take-up and any independent view of call-handling quality, Microsoft’s move from preview to an SLA-backed service, and whether that fifty-four-cent introductory price changes after the end of the year. Signal and Story examines what AI phone agents cost, how quickly they work, and where production readiness still falls short.

  • 6 Episodes

About

Signal and Story is a relaxed weekly conversation for people who build and buy conversational AI: contact-centre platforms, voice agents and customer-service chatbots. Each week, two hosts talk through the stories that caught their eye. Elena has run these deployments herself and brings the day-to-day view: who has to staff it, what changes for the team, and what a customer actually hears. Sam follows the market: who is moving, what things cost, and what a regulator has just changed. It's not a debate and not a news bulletin. It's two people who know the field catching up over a coffee on what happened, why it's interesting and what it might mean in practice. The hosts' voices are generated by AI (artificial intelligence). New episodes every week.

Information

  • Creator
    Pastime Agency
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    6
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2026 Pastime Agency
  • Show Website
    Signal and Story

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