Reliable Voice Agents

Reliable Voice Agents

Author: Demetrios November 18, 2025 Duration: 38:21

Brooke Hopkins is the CEO of Coval, a company making voice agents more reliable.


Reliable Voice Agents // MLOps Podcast #347 with Brooke Hopkins, Founder of Coval.


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// Abstract

Voice AI is finally growing up—but not without drama. Brooke Hopkins joins Demetrios Brinkmann to unpack why most “smart” voice systems still feel dumb, what it actually takes to make them reliable, and how startups are quietly outpacing big tech in building the next generation of voice agents.


// Bio

Brooke Hopkins is the founder of Coval, a simulation and evaluation platform for AI agents. She previously led the evaluation job infrastructure at Waymo. There, her team was responsible for the developer tools for launching and running simulations, and she engineered many of the core simulation systems from the ground up.


// Related Links

Website: https://www.coval.dev/


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Connect with Demetrios on LinkedIn: /dpbrinkm

Connect with Brooke on LinkedIn: /bnhop/


Timestamps:

[00:00] Workshop feedback

[02:21] IVR frustration and transition

[05:06] Voice use cases in business

[11:00] Voice AI reliability challenge

[18:46] Voice AI reliability issues

[24:35] Injecting context

[27:16] Conversation flow analysis

[34:52] AI overgeneralization and confidence

[37:41] Wrap up


Hosted by Demetrios, MLOps.community is a space for honest, meandering talks about the real work of making artificial intelligence systems actually work. This isn't about hype or theoretical papers; it's about the messy, practical, and often surprising journey of taking models from a notebook into a live environment. You'll hear from engineers and practitioners who are in the trenches, discussing the tools, the frustrations, and the occasional breakthroughs that define the day-to-day. The conversations are deliberately relaxed, covering everything from traditional machine learning pipelines to the new world of large language models and even the intangible "vibes" of team culture and process. Each episode peels back a layer on what "production" really means, whether that involves deploying a predictive service, managing an agentic system, or maintaining reliability as everything scales. Tuning into this podcast feels like grabbing a coffee with colleagues who aren't afraid to dig into the technical nitty-gritty while keeping the tone conversational and accessible. It's for anyone who builds, manages, or is just curious about the operational backbone that allows AI to deliver value, offering a grounded perspective often missing from the broader conversation.
Author: Language: en-us Episodes: 100

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