Table of Contents
At The Founder, we regularly sit down with the most innovative minds shaping the future of technology and business. In this exclusive interview, we speak with Alex Levin, CEO and Co-founder of Regal, a company revolutionizing voice AI with its interactive, enterprise-ready agents. From helping the largest brands improve their customer service to fun projects like turning pets into chatty AI clones or running a national search for the next AI voice, Alex and his team are putting a playful yet powerful spin on how we experience voice technology.
Alex, you’ve led innovative projects in the tech space for years. What first drew you to the world of AI and voice technology?
I have been lucky to be part of a few startups at the leading edge of new technology and I love helping bring these new technologies to life. AI Agents today remind me of websites in the 90s. Everyone is convinced they are inevitable, the technology is amazingly powerful, but few people actually have the experience necessary to guide the right use of the tech.
When you're not working on groundbreaking AI campaigns, what’s your favorite way to unwind?
My wife and I have two young kids so anytime I am not working, I am with them.
The AI Dog Hotline is one of the most creative AI campaigns we’ve seen. What inspired it, and what was the initial response like?
People are still skeptical about Voice AI so we use our marketing to show how good it’s become. In this campaign, we wanted to demonstrate how much personality we could imbue in the AI agents and their voices.
The campaign was picked up by a lot of pet podcasts, which helped us reach the community of dog lovers. I have gotten so many great notes about how much fun they had talking with “their” pet. In three months, the campaign generated over five million impressions..
It was designed to be fun, but we have big ambitions. We believe AI Agents can completely change the relationship consumers have with brands, and actually make the experience more personal and human.
With five million impressions in just three months, what do these results say about how people are engaging with voice AI today?
People are genuinely open to voice AI. Everyone is curious how good it will be and if the experience feels natural.
We’re moving beyond the era of clunky, robotic scripts. When voice AI works well, it resonates.
What stood out most was the repeat engagement. People weren’t just calling once. They were sharing it, calling back, and interacting in ways that felt personal. That level of interest signals that voice AI is no longer a novelty. It’s a channel people want to engage with.
It also confirmed what we’ve been hearing from brands. They’re looking for technology that creates emotional connection and drives better experiences. This campaign proved voice AI can do both.
How did the “Voice of AI” competition come together, and why was crowdsourcing the next AI voice important to Regal?
We use Regal’s A/B testing features to help our customers learn more about what makes AI Agents successful. One result? It’s clear that staid “professional” voice actors perform worse than voices with “glitches”. Saying “um”, repeating yourself, mispronouncing certain words, even being a bit tired are all tied to better outcomes for voice AI. Why? Perhaps we like the feeling that we are not talking to a robot.
We are always on the lookout for great voices, and our marketing team has been watching too much “The Voice” so of course they organized a contest to bring un-discovered talent.
You’ve emphasized the enterprise-readiness of your AI Agents. What makes Regal’s voice tech stand out from competitors?
My co-founder and I used to run a 3,000 person contact center at Angie’s List. So we understand what is required to operate at that scale. From the start, we have built our SLAs, professional services and product to serve that high volume use case. Most AI companies are targeting the SMB market with either underpowered or overly opinionated AI Agents, but we focus on how to help the largest enterprises build aAI Agents that are customized to their company and customers. The result is that brands can differentiate with Ai Agents instead of being like every other company that uses an SMB product.
Can you tell us more about the partnership with TaskUs and how that’s accelerating Regal’s momentum in the market?
TaskUs has an amazing business providing high quality customer support for hundreds of premier brands. We have long admired them, and when TaskUs wanted to offer their customers the highest quality voice AI Agents, it was a natural fit for us to join forces.
AI agents for CX are the inevitable answer to many of the challenges brands face in engaging consumers so the customer reception has been great. And TaskUs’ deep understanding of their customers cases, knowledge bases and needs is helping accelerate the time to value.
What kind of industries are you seeing the fastest adoption from — and why do you think they’re jumping on board so quickly?
We’re seeing great adoption across industries including healthcare, insurance, and e-commerce. We have been prioritizing customers with large repetitive call volumes, who want to be early adopters. As an example, Healthcare is especially compelling. They have historically been understaffed and skilled professionals are being asked to fill in for customer support. Our voice AI agents handle appointment scheduling, prescription refills, and basic patient questions 24/7. That improves patient experience while lowering costs.
Some worry AI might replace the “human touch” in customer service. How does Regal strike a balance between automation and empathy?
This is one of the most important questions we ask. In fact, most human contact centers operating by treating every customer at scare have lost any empathy and high tough service.
On the other hand, AI agents are able to deliver personalized high touch experiences that feel more human anytime, all at a fraction of the cost.
Am I saying that automation is not so good that it’s more human than human agents? Yes!
Finally, where do you see voice AI heading over the next five years, and what role will Regal play in that future?
We are at the start of a major shift in how businesses communicate with customers.In the next 5 years, 90% of interactions will be handled by AI Agents, and the majority of interactions will be voice.
We are lucky to have the deep experience in both contact centers and AI required to help enterprise brands build AI Agents for their business. And it’s our mission to help every business transform their customer experience with AI Agents.
At The Founder, we believe innovation thrives when bold ideas meet practical execution — and Regal.ai is a standout example. Alex Levin’s approach to humanizing voice AI through immersive, joyful experiences not only sets a new bar for the industry but also reminds us that technology can connect us in unexpected and delightful ways. We look forward to seeing how Regal continues to lead the voice AI revolution.
