Claude's Voice Mode Now Supports Higher-Tier Models

Anthropic's AI assistant "Claude" now supports voice conversation on its higher-tier models "Opus" and "Sonnet." Additionally, it now integrates with Gmail, Google Calendar, and Slack, expanding the range of external services that can be controlled through voice.

Previous AI voice assistants have primarily focused on conversation itself, and it has been difficult to accomplish practical tasks such as composing and sending emails using voice alone. This update to Claude represents a shift toward breaking down the barrier of "speaking alone accomplishes nothing."

Specifically, when a user gives voice instructions, Claude can compose and send emails through Gmail. According to Anthropic, Claude is currently the only AI assistant with this capability. While voice features from OpenAI and Google are widely used, neither company's service supports sending emails directly via voice.

On the other hand, the voice output from OpenAI and Google has been noted as superior to Claude in terms of naturalness and fluency. Voice AI operates along two axes: "what it can do (functionality)" and "how it sounds (audio quality and naturalness)," and companies currently possess different strengths in each dimension.

The experience of controlling AI through voice has become increasingly familiar to many people through the proliferation of smartphones and smart speakers. However, conventional voice assistants have tended to be limited to information retrieval and simple tasks, with constraints on their practical utility for business purposes. Claude's ability to now interact via voice with business tools like Slack and Gmail is noteworthy from the perspective of "how work is conducted using AI."

The competition in AI voice assistants is shifting from simply enabling natural conversation to replacing actual business tasks. Going forward, how companies balance feature richness with voice naturalness will be a critical challenge for each competitor.