AI Shifts to Trust-Based, Continuous, and Connected Interactions
TL;DR
- Voice agents are becoming practical, deployable systems in regulated industries like healthcare and finance, outperforming humans in compliance and tracking, and are being adopted for patient follow-ups and candidate recruiting.
- The "healthy mouse" segment emerges in healthcare, shifting focus from reactive sick care to proactive, continuous monitoring and wellness, creating new business models and consumer engagement opportunities.
- Continuous health monitoring, exemplified by CGMs and wearables, generates longitudinal data that can be more actionable than static vitals, but requires building evidence bases for accurate interpretation to avoid false alarms.
- Consumer AI is transitioning from productivity tools to "connectivity" products that help users feel understood and deepen relationships, with startups potentially winning by offering novel interaction models beyond incumbent platforms.
- As AI enters higher-stakes interactions, trust and reliability become the key differentiators, enabling systems to improve real outcomes in areas ranging from regulated workflows to personal connection.
Deep Dive
AI's evolution is shifting from productivity to higher-stakes, trust-based applications, with voice agents leading the charge in regulated industries, healthcare moving towards continuous monitoring, and consumer AI focusing on connection and feeling "seen." These advancements signal a move toward AI systems that are not just functional but are demonstrably reliable and capable of fostering deeper human engagement.
Voice agents are transitioning from novelties to practical tools, particularly within regulated sectors like healthcare and financial services, where their reliability and compliance capabilities surpass human error. The high turnover in fields like healthcare makes voice AI a compelling solution for tasks ranging from patient scheduling and reminders to more sensitive post-surgery follow-ups and psychiatric intake calls. Similarly, banking and financial services leverage voice AI to ensure strict adherence to compliance and regulations, a task humans often struggle with. Recruiting also benefits, with voice agents enabling instant candidate interviews at any time, streamlining the hiring process. Improvements in accuracy and latency, coupled with AI's proficiency in handling multilingual conversations and accents, are making these agents increasingly indistinguishable from human interaction, though some companies are even slowing down agents to appear more human. While some business process outsourcing (BPO) call centers may face a gradual transition, others could experience a significant disruption as AI-powered voice agents offer cheaper and more voluminous service. The potential for AI to handle government-related calls, such as DMV inquiries, presents another significant opportunity to alleviate consumer frustration and improve worker efficiency.
In healthcare, the paradigm is shifting from infrequent, reactive check-ups to proactive, continuous monitoring, creating a new "healthy mouse" customer segment. This move towards constant engagement, supported by emerging payment models and AI-native capabilities, necessitates new standards for generating evidence and interpreting data. The limitations of static, point-in-time vital measurements, like blood pressure, are being addressed by continuous, longitudinal signals, exemplified by continuous glucose monitors (CGMs). Wearables also play a crucial role, with mainstream adoption of devices measuring steps, cardiovascular signals, and sleep patterns providing valuable health data. However, the challenge lies in managing the risk of false positives and incidental findings, which can cause undue distress and increase healthcare costs without actionable insights. This highlights a critical gap: evidence generation often lags behind technological capabilities. The opportunity lies in building infrastructure to generate this evidence base, using real-world data from mass adoption of these technologies to create more accurate interpretations and actionable insights.
Consumer AI is evolving beyond productivity to focus on connectivity, aiming to help individuals feel understood and deepen relationships. This shift is driven by the core human emotion of wanting to be seen and connected. Startups can compete with incumbents by offering novel interaction models and creative outlets that leverage AI's ability to understand users deeply, potentially through digital footprints or analysis of personal data. The excitement lies in the prospect of AI mediating interactions, facilitating conversations between individuals' AI agents to foster new connections and relationships. The ultimate goal is for AI to help people truly be seen by others, moving from a "help me do more" to a "help me connect" mentality. The success of these AI systems hinges on their ability to build trust and demonstrate reliability in high-stakes interactions and by genuinely improving real-world outcomes.
Action Items
- Audit voice agent deployments: Identify 3-5 regulated workflows (e.g., healthcare, finance) where voice AI is being used and assess compliance tracking mechanisms.
- Design continuous monitoring framework: For 2-3 health metrics (e.g., blood pressure, glucose), define data collection, evidence generation, and false alarm mitigation strategies.
- Create AI-mediated communication prototype: Develop a system for 1-2 user pairs to test AI facilitating digital communication, focusing on understanding user identity and deepening connection.
- Measure AI voice agent reliability: For 3-5 voice agent platforms, track accuracy and latency metrics against human performance in sensitive interactions.
- Evaluate consumer AI connection models: Analyze 2-3 emerging consumer AI products for their ability to help users feel "seen" and facilitate relationships.
Key Quotes
"my big idea for 2026 is that ai voice agents will start to take up space in 2025 we saw voice agents break out from something that seemed more like science fiction into something that real enterprises are buying and deploying at scale i'm excited to see voice agent platforms expand working across platforms and modalities to handle full tasks and bring us closer to the true ai employee vision"
Olivia Moore argues that AI voice agents are transitioning from a conceptual idea to practical, deployable enterprise solutions. This shift signifies a move towards AI employees capable of handling complex tasks across various platforms and modalities. Moore is enthusiastic about the expansion of these platforms.
"healthcare is probably the biggest one here we're seeing voice agents in nearly every part of the healthcare stack calls to insurers pharmacies suppliers but also in perhaps more surprisingly patient facing calls it could be things like scheduling and reminders that are kind of table stakes but also even more sensitive calls like post surgery follow up calls or even intake calls for psychiatry are being handled by voice ai"
Olivia Moore highlights healthcare as a primary sector adopting voice AI, extending beyond administrative tasks to patient-facing interactions. Moore notes that voice AI is being used for sensitive communications, such as post-surgery follow-ups and psychiatric intake calls, indicating a growing trust in AI for critical healthcare functions.
"my big idea for 2026 is healthy mouse i believe that an entirely new customer and user segment is emerging that we'll call healthy mouse this is in contradiction to the status quo which is that those who interact with the healthcare system frequently are generally sick and we'll call those sick mouse or sick dows and those individuals who are healthy are really only interacting with the healthcare system on a very infrequent basis maybe annually"
Julie Yu introduces the concept of the "healthy mouse" as a new customer segment in healthcare, distinct from the traditional "sick mouse" or "healthy yow" categories. Yu explains that this segment represents individuals who are proactive about their wellness and engage with the healthcare system more frequently, even when not acutely ill.
"what that points to is that we just have at this point a you know relative lack of evidence in our healthcare system about all the possible interpretations of signals that could be detected by the technologies that we have in some ways the evidence lags the technological capabilities that exist in our market and i think that's actually one of the huge opportunities associated with this healthy male concept is how can we create infrastructure to effectively generate that evidence base as individuals start to adopt these types of technologies on a more sort of mass market basis"
Julie Yu identifies a significant gap between technological capabilities and the evidence base for interpreting health signals in the healthcare system. Yu suggests that the "healthy mouse" concept presents an opportunity to build infrastructure that generates this crucial evidence as more individuals adopt health monitoring technologies.
"2026 marks the year where major consumer ai application products shift from productivity helping you work to connectivity helping you stay connected instead of helping you just do work ai allows you to see yourself clearly and help build relationship with people you love ai has been incredibly useful for productivity and i think we'll we'll start seeing ai actually take more mind share and time from traditional products versus ai productivity tools"
Brian Kim predicts a significant shift in consumer AI applications, moving from productivity tools to connectivity-focused products. Kim argues that AI will increasingly be used to foster deeper relationships and help individuals feel more connected to others, taking mind share from traditional productivity applications.
"increasingly we're sharing so much more of our inner life with ai what i get really excited about is people's willingness to share is deepening with ai what happens when i'm okay with my ai coming to your ai my guy talking to your guy and say look have you checked that on him do you want to talk about abc i think those would be an opener for net new relationship net new conversations that we wouldn't have otherwise and i'm very excited for ai to actually finally help people be seen by others"
Brian Kim expresses excitement about the deepening willingness of people to share their inner lives with AI, envisioning a future where AI agents can interact on behalf of their users. Kim believes this inter-AI communication will open up new avenues for relationships and conversations, ultimately helping individuals feel more seen.
Resources
External Resources
Books
- "The Healthy Mouse" by Julie Yu - Mentioned as a new customer segment emerging in healthcare, focused on proactive care and continuous monitoring.
Research & Studies
- CGMs (Continuous Glucose Monitors) - Referenced as an example of a technology that shifted a measurement from sporadic and static to continuous and longitudinal, providing more actionable data.
- Incidentaloma - Discussed as a concept related to the risk of false positives or negatives from over-measuring health signals, particularly in imaging for healthy populations.
Tools & Software
- 11 Labs - Recommended as a platform for testing voice creation and voice agents to understand the possibilities in voice AI.
- Aura Rings - Mentioned as a mainstream consumer wearable that provides health monitoring signals.
- Whoop - Mentioned as a mainstream consumer wearable that provides health monitoring signals.
- Apple Watch - Mentioned as a mainstream consumer wearable that started with step counting and now measures cardiovascular signals.
Articles & Papers
- "Big Ideas 2026: Voice Agents and High-Stakes Trust" (The a16z Show) - The episode title, framing the discussion around the evolution of AI in regulated workflows, continuous healthcare monitoring, and consumer AI focused on connection.
People
- Olivia Moore - Partner on the AI applications investing team, discussing the rise of voice AI agents in enterprise and regulated workflows.
- Julie Yu - General Partner on the a16z healthcare team, introducing the "healthy mouse" concept and the shift towards continuous health monitoring.
- Brian Kim - Partner at a16z's AI applications investing team, discussing the shift of consumer AI from productivity to connectivity and helping people feel seen.
Organizations & Institutions
- a16z - The firm hosting the podcast and discussing its investment focus areas.
- Prepared 911 - Mentioned as an example of a company that could run 911 and non-emergency calls with voice AI, suggesting potential for government-related applications.
Websites & Online Resources
- a16z.com/disclosures - Provided for more details on a16z's investments.
- a16z.substack.com - The Substack for a16z.
Other Resources
- Voice Agents - Discussed as becoming practical, deployable systems moving from novelty to enterprise adoption, particularly in regulated workflows.
- AI Employee Category - A vision for voice agent platforms that handle full tasks and bring us closer to this concept.
- Healthy Mouse - A new customer segment in healthcare characterized by proactive care, continuous monitoring, and longitudinal signals, contrasting with traditional "sick mouse" or infrequent "healthy yow" interactions.
- Continuous Monitoring - A shift in healthcare from occasional checkups to ongoing measurement, requiring new standards of evidence and interpretation.
- Consumer AI - Shifting from productivity tools to applications focused on connection, identity, and helping people feel seen.
- Trust - Identified as a key differentiator for AI systems in higher-stakes moments and sensitive interactions.
- Reliability - A critical factor for AI systems, especially in regulated environments and sensitive healthcare applications.