I’ve built an AI voice agent that qualifies leads and makes bookings, but after seeing your comment that AI agents aren’t effective, I’m not sure what else to sell. What should I focus on now?

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I’ve built an AI voice agent that qualifies leads and makes bookings, but after seeing your comment that AI agents aren’t effective, I’m not sure what else to sell. What should I focus on now?

I didn’t say AI agents are ineffective overall—I said the AI agents built on the NADN platform aren’t ready for prime time. The agents themselves are great and will fundamentally change the economy, but the current NADN‑based versions don’t add enough value beyond a simple linear automation. Since you’re building an AI voice agent, you’re probably not using NADN, so that specific limitation doesn’t apply to you. Keep doing what you’re doing, but avoid using AI agents in the wrong contexts. A human will still outperform an AI voice agent for many tasks, but the main benefit of an AI voice agent right now is 24/7 availability. For example, a dentist’s front‑desk staff can’t be on call all night, but an AI voice agent can handle calls for just a few dollars a night. Even if the audio quality isn’t perfect, you have constant uptime and can politely tell callers that no one is available, offer to schedule a callback, or direct them to the next steps. In short, continue using the voice agent for low‑touch, always‑on interactions, and look for revenue opportunities that leverage that 24/7 availability rather than trying to replace high‑touch human work.

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Can you build/cover a voice AI agent that instantly calls new form leads, qualifies them, books the appointment, updates the CRM, and nurtures via WhatsApp and email until the call?

I don't think this would be nearly as valuable as you think. Think about it — someone fills out a form and immediately gets an AI voice call? Unless you're literally demoing your voice offer's quality, a fresh inbound lead is about as close to real money as you'll get, and I don't know why you'd want to farm that out to a model that will probably perform worse than a real salesperson. Just hire good commission appointment setters, pay them well, and have them call those leads directly — you can layer in AI for after-hours coverage if you can't staff a 24-hour rotation or you have too much volume to handle otherwise. Human beings are still better at closing, at least for now, and people don't like being treated like a number — they respond better to an actual person calling them. Even if AI voice quality matched a human exactly, the fact that one is human is probably worth at least 5% in conversion — same reason people buy handmade goods at a flea market instead of mass-manufactured ones, we feel connected to humans. That may change as models improve, but for now, don't let AI touch a lead that fresh — a human needs to make that first contact, even if it's just an initial text made to look human-sent rather than obviously automated.

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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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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.

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How can I ensure an AI voice agent receptionist handles multiple requests reliably—do I need a queueing system?

Don’t use an AI voice agent for speed‑to‑lead calling. People feel disrespected or grossed out when they get an AI call right after submitting a form; the reaction is annoyance, not appreciation. Since form fills are directly convertible to money, annoying them lowers conversion probability. If your funnel represents every dollar you’ll make, cutting conversion by 20 % cuts revenue by 20 %. Voice agents perform worse than humans; you save on staffing but lose 20 % revenue. For example, staffing a setter cost $4 k/month and yielded $20 k, while switching to an AI voice agent dropped cost to $100/month but revenue fell to $5 k. The trade‑off is not worth it.

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