Microsoft released three new models for building voice agents: a streaming transcription model that produces text in 100ms, and two text-to-speech models optimized for speed and cost. Together they're designed to handle the full loop of hearing, understanding, deciding, and speaking in real-time conversations.

• MAI-Transcribe-2-Streaming ranks #1 for accuracy on Artificial Analysis and delivers partial transcripts in just over 100ms, letting voice agents start acting mid-sentence rather than waiting for speakers to finish.
• MAI-Voice-2.1-Flash generates 45 seconds of audio with 150ms end-to-end latency and costs 60% less than comparable models at $15 per 1M characters, making it practical for high-volume applications.
• Both voice models support 23 languages with a single voice maintaining native accents across all of them, plus voice cloning from a few seconds of audio with built-in consent guardrails against misuse.