Custom vs White Label Voice Assistants: What You Need to Know

When most of us think of white label solutions, we envision a SaaS product that can be purchased in a variety of configurations that range from “basic” to “enterprise”. These packages are assembled to fit pre-determined needs based on the size of the organization and other parameters that are typically taken into consideration when purchasing that product.

While there is a certain attraction to purchasing a pre-packaged voice assistant that you can plug-and-play, those solutions don’t often meet the goals of brands trying to differentiate themselves in the market. In reality, those solutions don’t exist as purely as they may be advertised. 

In most cases, brands that are looking for their own voice assistant, have specific goals for that assistant that align with overall brand goals. Accepting an entirely white label solution with little opportunity to customize the experience for their unique user base is not really a viable option for these brands. The very act of purchasing and implementing a pre-packaged solution negates the goals of a custom voice assistant. As more and more voice user interfaces become available in products and services, brands that sound the same will not be easily differentiated from every other voice-enabled offering, and the opportunities for creating a unique experience and gaining competitive advantage are lost.

Brands that have committed large teams and considerable resources to building their own voice assistants in-house often find that they can build parts of the voice assistant, but need help with more complex and sophisticated components, including the ASR and NLU, a custom wake word, content domains, TTS and more. Getting truly conversational interfaces may involve more advanced technology, such as Speech-to-Meaning®. Even at the component level, these partnerships involve a level of customization not available through a plug-and-play solution.

Customization, whether built in-house or with a partner, is one reason a pre-packaged, “white label” solution isn’t the right solution for most medium and large brands.

The Herculean effort of developing a custom voice assistant

The desire to have a wholly-owned voice assistant is a worthy goal for brands looking ahead to a future where hands-free convenience and instant access will be something consumers expect. While building your own voice solution may be the best option for retaining control and developing a branded voice that reflects your corporate values, it may not be as easy as it seems.

In the last five years, companies have realized the difficulties of creating a robust, deep language model and the folly of over-investing in technology that has already solved the problems they’re tackling. Once they overcome the misconceptions of what it takes to develop a wholly-owned voice assistant, leading brands turn to partnerships with independent voice AI platform providers. These partnerships have allowed top brands to develop customized voice user interfaces that solve for a variety of challenges and goals, including:

• Scalability for expanding use cases
• Truly conversational interfaces
• Customer data ownership
• Branded voice experiences
• Deep library of content domains
• Custom wake words
• Unique sounding voices and accents
• Custom commands

An independent voice AI platform provider does not sell a white label solution that delivers a specific set of functionality. Instead, advanced voice AI platforms—like Houndify—help brands build voice assistants that are very specific to their needs and users. 

The difference between a pre-packaged white label solution and a partnership with a company that has end-to-end technology and proven expertise is that the latter provides the ability to vault your voice project forward while still retaining your branding, differentiated experience, and data ownership.

Best practices for creating a custom voice assistant

If not a white label solution or building it all in-house, what is the best practice for developing a wholly-owned, custom voice assistant? The simple answer is “through finding the right technology partner with deep expertise.” If you don’t find someone you can work with, who is willing to be your champion, and who will bring your vision to life, then the project is over before it even begins.