Voice agents vs chatbots: why the choice is an architecture decision

The article argues that choosing between a chatbot and a voice agent is primarily an infrastructure decision, since text and real-time audio move through fundamentally different systems. A chatbot is a short text loop that tolerates delay, while a voice agent chains speech-to-text, a language model, text-to-speech and telephony within a conversational pause, making latency audible. Pricing also diverges: chatbots typically run on flat subscriptions, whereas voice is metered per minute at roughly five to fifteen cents, so better performance raises costs. The author recommends routing by intent, considering self-hosting at high volume, and designing the call flow and human handoff before selecting a voice stack.