Google Launches Gemini Models to Upgrade Voice Agents
Google has begun rolling out two new artificial intelligence models designed to power voice agents, the company said in a Tuesday (Sept. 15) blog post.
Gemini 3.8 Live is built for scale and cost efficiency, while Gemini 3.8 Live Extended Thinking is built for high-complexity tasks and has a price point competitive with other frontier models, according to the post.
Both feature “advancements in near real-time reasoning to more effectively enable voice agents and make conversing with AI feel more intuitive and intelligent,” Google said in the post.
Gemini 3.8 Live and Gemini 3.8 Live Extended Thinking provide developers and enterprises with building blocks for production-ready voice agents, according to the post.
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The new models also enhance the experience of speaking with Gemini across the Gemini app, Google Workspace and Search, per the post.
PYMNTS reported in February that voice technology is becoming the foundational infrastructure for agentic commerce. The past year has seen an acceleration of investment in voice-native AI infrastructure, showing investor confidence that high-fidelity conversational AI is becoming foundational rather than ornamental.
Voice is viewed as middleware between large language models and end-user transactions because speech reduces friction at the moment consumers are ready to buy, the report said.
PYMNTS reported in July that voice AI is shifting from answering questions to taking action. For example, Anthropic’s voice mode lets Claude users complete tasks in connected apps by talking instead of typing, while OpenAI’s Presence is used by enterprises to deploy voice and chat agents for customer support and sales.
Google announced Sept. 3 that it launched a series of new voice AI offerings for Gmail, Google Docs and the note-taking tool Google Keep.
These offerings let Gmail users employ conversational search to find information contained in emails, Docs Live users engage in real-time conversation with the app to build documents, and Keep users structure and refine ideas through conversation with the app, turning thoughts into structured lists and notes, the company said at the time.
“As technology evolves, so does the way we get things done,” Google said in the announcement. “That’s why we’re bringing Gemini Audio models to your favorite Workspace products to help you tackle daily tasks using just your voice.”
