Comparison
Voice AI vs chatbot — which should your website use?
They look similar on paper. They feel very different to your visitors. Here is what actually changes when you replace a text chatbot with a voice AI — from conversion rates to accessibility to the monthly bill.
| Feature | Text chatbot | Voice AI (Spelo) |
|---|---|---|
| Response modality | Text in, text out | Voice in, voice out (full-duplex) |
| Time to answer | 2–5 sec (typing) | <1 sec (streaming) |
| Interrupt-safe | N/A | Yes — user can cut in any time |
| Mobile UX | Tiny keyboard typing | Talk, hands-free |
| Accessibility | Requires reading + typing | Works for low-vision + motor impaired |
| Emotional tone | Flat text | Natural speech inflection |
| Page-aware | Usually no | Yes — can scroll, filter, click |
| Setup | Embed script + config | Embed script + config |
| Typical cost | $20–$100/mo | Free to $499/mo, monthly plans |
| Conversion lift | ~10–15% | ~30–50% (reported by voice-first brands) |
Why chat feels slow in 2026
Text chatbots won the 2018–2023 era because typing was the norm. But visitors now talk to Siri, Alexa, and ChatGPT Voice every day — and the moment they land on your site and see a chat bubble, the friction is obvious. Typing into a website feels like filling out a form.
Voice is back to being the fastest input humans have. Spelo closes the gap by making that voice conversation happen right on your page — no phone call, no new app, no waiting for a human agent.
When a chatbot is still the right pick
Some sites are genuinely better off with text:
- B2B with long decision cycles where prospects send the chat to colleagues.
- Heavily regulated workflows (banking, health) where audio logs add compliance burden.
- Quiet environments — libraries, open offices — where users will not speak.
For everything else — e-commerce, real estate, restaurants, hospitality, local services — voice converts more.
You can have both
Spelo ships voice first, text fallback second. If a visitor mutes the orb or arrives on a device without a microphone, they get a text chat with the same underlying AI. One subscription, two interfaces — you do not have to pick.
Are voice AI and chatbot the same thing?
No. A chatbot waits for typing and replies with text. A voice AI listens to speech, responds in natural voice, and — if it is well-built — can interrupt and be interrupted. They share infrastructure (an LLM under the hood) but the user experience is fundamentally different.
Is conversational AI the same as voice AI?
Overlapping but not identical. "Conversational AI" is a broad term covering any back-and-forth AI dialog — chat or voice. Voice AI is specifically the spoken-conversation subset.
Which one converts more visitors?
Voice wins in most verticals — customers report 2–3x higher engagement with voice vs chat. The reasons are speed and effort: speaking is faster than typing, especially on mobile, and visitors ask more follow-up questions when the friction is low.
Can I offer both?
Yes. Spelo falls back to text chat when the visitor turns voice off or when the browser blocks microphone access. Same conversation, same underlying AI, different interface.
Which costs more to run?
Voice costs slightly more per conversation because audio tokens are more expensive than text tokens. But conversations are shorter (visitors get to the point faster), and conversion is typically higher, so the per-conversion cost usually favors voice.
Is voice harder to install?
No. For both a chatbot and Spelo, install is a single script tag. Voice requires the visitor to grant microphone permission the first time — same UX as any video call site.
Try voice on your own site.
Free tier, one script tag, no credit card. See the difference in the first conversation.