What to do when a voice agent makes a mistake?

Voice agent technology is still young — but it's evolving at lightning speed. The rise of large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, Mistral, or Claude only began a few years ago. And yet, they can already sustain natural conversations, understand complex intentions, and act with a high level of autonomy.

These advances unlock enormous potential: automating phone calls, streamlining the customer experience, and freeing up time for your teams. But like any emerging technology, voice AI isn’t perfect. Mistakes happen — misinterpretations, inaccurate responses, technical glitches...

Should we be suspicious of it? Not at all. What matters is understanding why errors occur, how to anticipate them, and most importantly: how to fix them quickly and efficiently.

That’s where Rounded comes in — a platform designed to give every business full control and help you get the best out of voice AI, even when things go wrong.

1. What kind of mistakes can a voice agent make?

Even though voice agents have made tremendous progress in recent years, they’re still not flawless. One of the most frequently cited terms is "hallucination" — when the AI gives a response that sounds plausible, but is actually wrong or off-topic, often due to a misunderstanding or an ill-framed prompt.

But hallucinations are just one type of error. Others may include:

• Misunderstood words or accents, especially in noisy environments, on poor connections, or when the caller speaks too quickly.

• Off-topic responses when prompts are vague or the LLM isn't well guided.

• Total inaction, where the agent fails to execute an expected action — like transferring a call, sending a message, or triggering an API.

• Loops or repetitions, often due to missing guardrails or unclear logic in the call script.

• Incorrect data capture, such as failing to properly extract a name, email address, or appointment date.

• Lag, interruptions, or unstable voice generation, usually linked to technical issues in the transcription, synthesis, or understanding layers of the stack.

The good news? These errors aren’t a fatal flaw. They can be detected, understood, and most importantly: fixed. In the next sections, we’ll explain why these issues happen and how Rounded helps you anticipate, troubleshoot, and correct them — quickly and effectively.

2. Why even the best voice agent can make mistakes

Voice agents aren’t magic. They’re powerful tools — but they rely on a complex technical stack: transcription, language understanding, voice synthesis, logic rules, API integration… A flaw in any link can cause errors.

Here’s why those errors occur — and why they’re still part of the game:

• Human language is unpredictable. It’s not code. People pause, backtrack, change their minds mid-sentence, or jump topics. Even top LLMs like ChatGPT or Mistral must interpret — and they can get it wrong.

• Prompts are everything. A voice agent doesn’t improvise: it follows your instructions. If the mission isn’t clearly framed, or the instructions are vague or incomplete, it might skip a step, say too much, or go off track.

• The phone environment is noisy. Unlike chatting online, phone calls deal with background noise, poor microphones, and unstable lines — all of which degrade transcription quality and interpretation.

• Like any software, AI can glitch. Server overloads, API failures, network latency… These events are rare but unavoidable at scale.

Bottom line? These aren’t signs of an immature technology — they reflect the complexity of natural conversation. And more importantly: with the right platform, these issues can be tracked, prevented, and corrected. That’s exactly what Rounded is built for.

3. How Rounded detects and corrects voice agent mistakes

With Rounded, errors aren’t dead-ends — they’re entry points for continuous improvement. Here’s how the platform helps you stay in control:

Clear call monitoring

Every interaction is automatically logged, including:

• The full transcript

• The tools used (hang up, transfer, custom actions…)

• The captured variables (name, email, intent, etc.)

In seconds, you can spot where something went wrong and fix it — no guesswork.

Built-in safety nets

Rounded lets you define protective rules to avoid runaways:

• Timeouts and silence detection: calls are auto-ended after a set time or if the caller stays silent too long (with configurable retries).

• Confidence thresholds: if the AI isn’t sure, it can confirm, rephrase, or hand off to a human — just set the logic in your prompt.

• Custom vocabulary: teach your agent to recognize key terms (names, cities, jargon) specific to your business.

Technical flexibility

If one of your providers goes down — no worries. Rounded supports multiple vendors per component:

• Voice: Cartesia, ElevenLabs, Azure, OpenAI

• Transcription: Gladia, Deepgram, Azure

• LLM: OpenAI, Mistral, Google

If latency spikes or an outage occurs, Rounded alerts you in real time and lets you switch providers in seconds.

Real-time adaptability

Rounded gives you full control to:

• Edit prompts, adjust scripts, or reword instructions

• Change providers, voices, or LLMs as needed

• Deploy changes instantly — no developer required

This is the kind of reactivity that turns every mistake into a growth opportunity.

4. Voice AI is evolving fast — and the future looks bright

Just four years ago, no one would’ve trusted an AI to handle a real phone call. Voice was robotic, scripts were stiff, and understanding was limited.

But today? Everything’s changed.

We now have voice agents that hold fluid, context-aware, and almost natural conversations — in multiple languages, with dozens of voice styles to match your brand. Some even simulate background noise for extra realism.

And this is just the beginning.

Every error makes it better

Each time something goes wrong — a misunderstood word, a misfire — you can learn and fix it instantly. Rounded gives you the tools to test, update, and improve — without technical skills or delays.

LLMs are getting smarter

With each new generation, models like GPT-4, Claude, or Mistral become sharper, more nuanced, and more context-aware. What took ten lines of logic now fits in a well-written prompt.

Voices are becoming more human

With top providers like ElevenLabs or Azure, synthetic voices now carry tone, rhythm, and emotion. They don’t sound robotic anymore — they sound like your team.

And tomorrow?

In a few years, voice agent errors will be as rare — and forgivable — as a small glitch on a website. But even now, you can deliver near-perfect voice experiences.

You just need the right tools — and that’s what Rounded was built to be:
a platform that lets you create powerful agents, monitor them, and grow with the future of voice AI.