Sep 9, 2026 · 1h 11m
ElevenLabs bets voice will become AI’s primary interface
Mati Staniszewski on ElevenLabs, Voice AI & Building the Communication Layer for AI
The company’s strategy offers a test of whether focused voice research, customer deployment, and long-term independence can define the next layer of computing.
- 1ElevenLabs pairs frontier audio research with small autonomous teams and customer deployments that feed learning back into its products.
- 2Its enterprise strategy expands from creative tools into conversational agents, with forward-deployed engineers turning customer problems into reusable capabilities.
- 3Mati Staniszewski sees voice as a human-centered interface that can preserve emotion, restore lost voices, and make advanced AI easier to access.
Don't miss
Mati Staniszewski recounts how ElevenLabs helped restore the voice of someone who had lost it to illness, enabling a return to performing.
The brief
A childhood frustration with one narrator dubbing every character in Polish films became ElevenLabs’ founding insight: localized speech needed emotional accuracy, not merely translation.
Mati Staniszewski describes ElevenLabs as both research lab and product company, using small autonomous teams to turn audio breakthroughs into tools for communication.
The company’s enterprise playbook moves from creative work into support and sales agents, with forward-deployed engineers converting customer-specific lessons into core product improvements.
ElevenLabs’ most human-centered work restores voices lost to illness, while its experiments with deliberate imperfection suggest that flawless speech is not always the most believable.
Staniszewski rejects acquisition offers and argues that voice could become a primary interface for increasingly capable AI, connecting intelligence with emotion and access.
Books & mentions
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