Augmenting the Value of Conversations with Voice Transformations

2026-07-22

Project ACTIVATE aims to bring to market real-time voice-transformation technologies based on ERC CREAM's research in emotion neuroscience, which can augment the value of spoken conversations by adding business-relevant control on emotional expressivity. For instance, in the context of a call-center conversation, our real-time voice transformations may make an angry client’s voice 10% less aggressive, reducing employee fatigue at the end of the day, or make an operator’s voice 10% more trustworthy, augmenting customer satisfaction after the call. Project ACTIVATE will (1) conduct market analyses and interviews of industrial players to identify relevant conversational situations in which the technologies can be tested (e.g. for a call-center, a customer calling to resiliate their contract), (2) identify precise conversation outcomes that have market value (e.g. retention rate after the call), (3) measure the impact of the voice transformation on these outcomes in a simulated test environment that is near the desired configuration in terms of performance and user performance and (4) use the technology’s measured impact on relevant variables (e.g. a X% increase of retention rate) to estimate the value of a minimally-viable product (MVP), to be taken to market by a startup company to be created at the end of the project.

France

2026-02-15