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#287 · how i'd start an ai agency from zero in 2026

youtube ↗AI & Automation

Is there still strong business demand for selling voice AI agents, and what core pain points do they solve?

Demand for voice agents has slowed down significantly compared to a year or two ago. The initial hype has settled, and businesses realize that current voice AI technology still makes too many mistakes to be truly effective. The core problem businesses face is missing phone calls, but hiring real humans currently offers much better leverage and ROI. Voice agents cost a fraction of human setters, but they generate far less revenue due to lower performance. Give the technology another year or two to improve, but right now it is rarely worth selling.

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youtube ↗AI & Automation

What are your thoughts on voice agents and how would you sell them if they were the only product?

I don’t sell voice agents because the best‑paying industries are those with high‑lifetime‑value customers, and putting a high‑LTV client on an AI voice agent is risky. A voice agent can say the wrong thing, hallucinate, crash, or sound like a pack of barking dogs, which instantly erodes trust. Most people will be put off by that experience. Therefore I’d only sell voice agents to low‑LTV segments where individual customers don’t matter as much and the primary benefit is cost‑saving rather than revenue generation. If voice agents were the only product I had, I’d probably look for a job instead—just kidding—but the math simply doesn’t add up right now. That could change in a few years as the technology improves.

voice agentslow ltvsalesautomation
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Recently sales of AI voice agents for med spas have declined because people aren't seeing good results. Should I keep selling AI voice agents or start selling customized AI automations alongside them? What would you do?

It's unfortunate that I don't have enough context to give a definitive answer. If you were earning $30k–$40k per month from voice agents and the decline is just a small, recent dip in your front-end offer (like conversion rate), I'd advise one approach. But if you're making little to no money and people are consistently saying no, I'd suggest something else. Ultimately, the key factor is your current revenue: if you're not making much money, any action is better than none—you need to do something to get cash flow. However, if you're already running a successful, scaling business and you observe a real market trend that people don't like voice agents, then it's worth considering a pivot to AI automations.

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youtube ↗AI & Automation

Should I pivot away from offering AI voice to home service businesses, given that clients don't want it and it might cause more revenue loss?

Nick says he’s not a big fan of AI voice as a solution to revenue leaks; implementing it would likely cause more revenue loss because people would distrust the business and feel disgusted talking to a robot when the business couldn’t afford a real person. He acknowledges that voice agent tech will improve and may become indistinguishable from humans, possibly requiring disclosure under laws like Europe’s AI transparency act, but for now he prefers real human interaction. He notes exceptions for high‑volume, low‑LTV businesses like hair salons where the intake quality isn’t important, but concludes that the money to be made from such businesses is limited, so he would personally pivot.

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