There’s a new voice assistant on the market, but it’s nothing like Alexa or Siri. 11ai from ElevenLabs is built to do things. Real, tangible tasks, like planning your day, updating project tools, conducting research, summarising insights, all from a simple voice command.
Hello and welcome back to the AI SIX podcast, I’m Joanne Sweeney. Showing up six days a week to help millions (currently thousands) understand, adapt to and leverage the power of AI for marketing, communications and business.
Here is 11ai from ElevenLabs in action
Now, here’s where things get interesting. 11ai is powered by something called the Model Context Protocol, or MCP (I have a whole podcast on this). Think of MCP as a secure bridge that lets AI agents plug into external tools and APIs without going rogue.
So when 11ai connects to your Google Calendar, Slack, or Teams platform, or even internal company systems, it’s doing it with permissions you control. That’s a massive leap forward in both functionality and trust.
You might say it’s the difference between a smart speaker and a smart assistant.
Real Work, Done by Voice
Let me paint a picture.
Say you’re heading into a Monday morning:
“Plan my day and add my priority tasks to Linear.”
Done.
Or you’ve got a pitch meeting with a potential client:
“Use Perplexity to research our prospect and summarise their recent funding news.”
That’s done too. You didn’t type a thing.
Need to triage a bug?
“Search our Linear issues for the API error and create a follow-up ticket.”
Boom, no mouse, no keyboard. Just voice.
Voice is a Growing Market
The voice AI market is forecast to grow from 2.4 billion dollars in 2024 to 47.5 billion dollars by 2034 – an annual growth rate of 34.8 percent. ElevenLabs is positioning itself as a premium provider with 89.6 percent natural-sounding voice output and response times of less than 200 milliseconds.
Customisation Meets Expression
Here’s where ElevenLabs is flexing its voice DNA. You can pick from over 5,000 voices—or clone your own. You can even add expressive effects like laughter or whispering. It supports 70+ languages and responds in under 200 milliseconds.
That means it’s fast, multilingual, and personal. It can sound like your team, your brand, or even, if you’re feeling brave, like you.
A Quick Comparison
Let’s stack it up against the usual suspects:
| Feature | 11ai | Siri / Alexa |
| Task automation | ✅ Deep workflows | ❌ Very limited |
| Voice customisation | ✅ 5,000+ voices | ❌ A handful |
| Tool integrations | ✅ Slack, Linear, custom APIs | ❌ Mostly smart home stuff |
| Security | ✅ Fine-grained via MCP | ❌ Basic permissions |
| Multilingual | ✅ 70+ languages | ❌ Fewer |
| Natural delivery | ✅ Expressive, fast | ❌ Robotic, slower |
So yeah. It’s not even close.
Who’s It For and What’s Next?
Right now, 11ai is in alpha, free to try, with user feedback shaping the next stage. But the direction of travel is clear: this isn’t just a better voicebot. It’s the beginning of a new kind of interface for work.
If you’re in content, project management, sales, support, even engineering—you might soon be talking your way through your workflow.
And that’s the real shift: moving from conversation to capability.
Why This Matters
So what does this mean for marketers, creators, comms pros, and everyday knowledge workers?
It means we’re entering the age of ambient computing, where your tools don’t just sit there waiting to be clicked. They listen, understand, and act.
It also raises big questions about voice data, trust, and where all this personalisation leads. But that’s for another episode.
For now, 11ai is one of the most exciting new tools in the productivity AI space, and I’ll be testing it in my own workflows over the next few weeks.
If you want to try it, head to 11.ai. And if you’ve already tested it, let me know what worked, what didn’t, and what you’d love to see next.
About the Podcast Host
Joanne Sweeney is a specialist in public-sector marketing and digital communications. She’s the author of Public Sector Marketing Pro and the creator of the Professional Diploma in AI for Public Sector Marketing. With years of experience in training, consulting, and advocating for digital transformation, Joanne provides insight and guidance for government agencies navigating the digital landscape. She is also the host of the award-winning Public Sector Marketing Show podcast.
