A HIPAA-compliant AI voice agent for healthcare typically costs $40,000-$150,000 to build, depending on call complexity and EHR integration, plus $2,000-$15,000/month to operate. The build cost isn't dominated by the speech model — it's dominated by the compliance and data-retention layer wrapped around it.
Most cost estimates for "AI voice agents" quietly assume a sales or support use case, where a wrong transcription costs you an annoyed customer. In healthcare, a wrong transcription in a medication name or a dropped consent statement is a liability. That difference reshapes the budget.
Where the money actually goes
1. Speech recognition (10-20% of build cost)
This is the smallest line item, despite being the part founders worry about most. You have three options:
