Turn-taking is the coordination of when each party speaks during a conversation. Natural turn-taking involves detecting when one party finishes, appropriate pause lengths, and smooth transitions without interruption or awkward silence.
How does turn-taking work in voice AI?
The system monitors multiple signals: silence duration, prosodic cues like falling intonation, syntactic completion, and semantic context. When signals indicate the caller has finished, the AI begins its response. Barge-in detection allows handling interruptions gracefully.
Why does turn-taking matter?
Poor turn-taking is immediately noticeable and frustrating. Interrupting callers or responding before they finish is rude. Waiting too long creates awkward silence. Natural turn-taking requires sub-second decisions that match human conversational expectations.
Turn-taking in practice
A caller pauses mid-sentence to gather their thoughts. Simple silence detection might cut them off. Intelligent turn-taking recognizes the incomplete syntax and rising intonation, waiting for the natural end of the thought. When the caller finishes with falling intonation and complete grammar, the AI responds immediately.