Top 10 Kore.ai Alternatives & Competitors in 2025

Kore.ai is a full-stack conversational AI platform that helps enterprises build AI-powered chatbots for complex communication across chat, messaging, and voice channels. Its strong omnichannel natural language processing (NLP) and flexible deployment options make it a go-to solution for automating tasks like balance checks, appointment scheduling, and order tracking or returns.

But in 2025, customers want to talk and expect immediate answers, making voice a critical touchpoint for real-time customer engagement. That’s why modern businesses are turning to agile, voice-first platforms that support low-latency automation, transparent pay-as-you-go pricing, and fast deployments that go live in weeks.

While Kore.ai offers voice AI capabilities, it often struggles with long deployment cycles, high latency, limited telephony flexibility, and a chatbot-centric design that makes it hard to deliver fast voice experiences at scale.

This guide is for CTOs, CX leaders, and operations managers evaluating faster, more cost-effective Kore.ai alternatives that are purpose-built for voice AI.

Why Look Beyond Kore.ai?

Teams often adopt Kore.ai expecting to build voice experiences as easily as an AI chatbot. But for companies in fast-moving environments, its limitations can slow progress and make it difficult to adapt quickly. Here are the key friction points that lead teams to explore Kore.ai competitors:

• Lengthy deployment cycles: Due to the platform’s complexity, setting up a voice AI assistant can take 2 to 4 months—not ideal for teams aiming to go live and see results quickly.
• High upfront costs: Enterprise contracts often start at $300K+, requiring a major investment before proving ROI. With custom, non-usage-based pricing, it’s also hard to forecast actual costs.
• Voice latency > 1 second: Kore.ai’s voice responses often exceed one second, disrupting the natural flow of conversation and leading to a poor support experience.
• Limited telephony flexibility: Kore.ai provides minimal support for bring-your-own-carrier (BYOC) setups and primarily depends on its default providers. This forces businesses to adapt their phone systems to Kore.ai.
• Steep learning curve: Despite offering no-code tools, Kore.ai can be difficult to navigate. Non-technical users often face difficulties configuring bots, managing flows, and setting up integrations without expert help. 

What to Look for in a Kore.ai Alternative? 

If Kore.ai’s voice offering feels too rigid, complex, or slow to adapt, look for platforms that are purpose-built for voice automation. But not all tools are equal. Here are the core capabilities to prioritize when considering alternatives to Kore.ai:

• Sub-500-ms voice latency: The best alternatives to Kore.ai should keep the end-to-end latency under 500 milliseconds, enabling natural, interruption-free conversations. 
• No-code / low-code design: When exploring alternatives, look for an intuitive conversation designer (drag-and-drop or prompt-based) so that CX managers and business analysts (not just developers) can create call flows. 
• Flexible telephony integration (BYOC): The right conversational AI platform should support easy integration with your existing telephony setup—whether that’s through SIP trunks (with platforms like Cisco) or cloud providers like Twilio or Genesys Cloud. 
• Transparent, usage-based pricing: The top Kore.ai platform alternatives should use pay-as-you-go pricing based on usage (per minute or call) to make ROI calculation easier. 
• Enterprise-grade compliance: Voice platforms often handle sensitive customer data, especially in industries like healthcare, finance, and telecom. So, find the best Kore.ai competitors in 2025 that meet key compliance standards such as SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA, GDPR, and ISO 27001.
• Deployment in under four weeks: The right competitors and alternatives should be deployable in a matter of weeks (or even days), not months. It should also offer pre-built templates, integrations, and workflows to help teams launch quickly and see value from day one.

Top 8 Kore.ai Alternatives for AI Voice Agents

Now, let’s explore the eight best Kore.ai alternatives for conversational AI that offer the flexibility and performance modern enterprises need in 2025.

1. Synthflow AI

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Founded in 2023, Synthflow AI is a voice-first platform that helps businesses deploy human-like AI voice agents to handle real-time phone conversations, both inbound and outbound. 

Despite being a newer entrant, it handles over 45 million voice calls per month across 30+ countries, showing it’s built for both scale and reliability. Plus, it ranks as the #4 AI agent worldwide on G2—earning badges for fastest implementation and best estimated ROI.

Synthflow recently launched Voice Engine 2.0, raising the bar for conversational AI quality. It lets you: 

• Add crystal-clear, conversational voices that make every call feel personal and engaging. 
• Tailor the voice speed to match customer preferences. 
• Choose from background sounds like an office or café to make the customer experience even more authentic.

Powered by advanced speech recognition and NLP, Synthflow agents sound natural and respond instantly. Even better, when the agent hears natural interjections like "mm-hmm," "oh," "ah," "um," or "uh," it intelligently keeps the conversation flowing, creating a more human-like and engaging dialogue.

The best part? You can fully deploy Synthflow agents in under three weeks. Plus, pre-built agent templates for use cases like receptionists, FAQs, and appointment booking help teams launch faster without starting from scratch. 

Key features:

• API-first architecture: Enables seamless integration with existing systems and offers flexibility for developers to enable real-time actions like checking order status during a call.   
• Low latency: Responds in about 500 ms, keeping conversations natural, real-time, and human-like.
• No-code Flow Designer: Provides an intuitive drag-and-drop studio where you can build multi-prompt call flows and dialogues without needing a developer. 
• Transparent pricing: Offers rates starting at $0.08 per minute and annual plans from $30K, making it easy to scale voice automation without heavy upfront costs.
• Massive concurrent call handling: Runs on scalable cloud infrastructure that supports millions of concurrent calls and auto-scales during high-traffic periods (like marketing campaigns) without slowing down performance.
• Built-in noise cancellation: Uses Krisp.ai to remove background noise before speech recognition. This ensures clear audio even in busy or loud environments.
• Voice variety & quality: Offers 300+ AI voice options so you can choose a voice that fits your brand tone. You can even clone a custom voice for a unique persona. 
• Seamless integrations: Provides native integrations with 200+ third-party tools, including CRMs, calendars, and ticketing systems. This allows it to sync contact data and call transcripts across your sales and marketing platforms to keep teams aligned.   
• LLM prompt testing sandbox: Allows users to test and optimize large language model (LLM) prompts in a controlled environment before deploying them. This ensures better results and smoother conversations.
• Telephony options: Supports SIP trunking, Twilio, webcalls, and Bring Your Own Carrier (BYOC), offering flexibility in how you set up and manage your voice infrastructure.
• Post-call analysis: Provides timestamped transcripts, a built-in analysis tool for performance insights, and call recordings for playback of interactions. These features help you review call quality, troubleshoot issues, and optimize your virtual assistant’s responses.

Pros

• Fully compliant with SOC 2, HIPAA, GDPR, and PCI DSS, with EU data hosting.
• Stays responsive under heavy load.
• Customizable conversational flows let users tailor interactions to their brand.
• 24/7 support, a dedicated Customer Success Manager, and a private Slack channel ensure fast, personalized assistance.

Cons

• Lacks niche features like built-in voice biometrics and advanced sentiment analysis.
• Pricing may increase with high call volumes, but reaching out to sales can unlock more scalable, cost-effective enterprise plans.

Ideal use cases

CX departments, innovation teams, and operations leaders in enterprises or fast-scaling B2Bs needing to quickly launch and iterate on high-impact voice automation for tasks like support, lead qualification, or appointment scheduling. Organizations prioritizing shorter development cycles, fast setup times, and predictable voice AI costs will find it a strong fit.

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Why choose Synthflow over Kore.ai?

• Faster deployment: Synthflow enables deployment in just weeks, not months, ensuring quicker realization of value. In contrast, Kore.ai can take longer to implement, delaying time to market.
• 500ms latency: Synthflow offers a truly conversational experience, addressing the latency issues that some Kore.ai users face (which can reach up to 1 second).
• Seamless telephony integration: Synthflow allows you to bring your own telephony setup and numbers with zero hassle, unlike Kore.ai, which might force you into specific telephony channels.
• Transparent, usage-based pricing: Synthflow’s transparent pricing model is based on actual calls handled, meaning you avoid the large upfront costs Kore.ai often demands, making it a more cost-effective option.

2. Bland AI

Bland AI offers a fully self-hosted voice automation platform, where voice calls, speech processing, and AI logic operate within its own infrastructure without relying on third-party platforms. This provides businesses the flexibility to create customized, secure, and reliable voice bots.

One of its core capabilities is Conversational Pathways, a programming language that lets users define exactly how the bot should respond at different points in a conversation. You can set fixed sentences or dynamic prompts, trigger webhooks mid-call, control exactly when a call ends, and connect a knowledge base to pull accurate, real-time answers. 

Key features

• Voice call API: Lets a developer send customer info from a CRM to the voice agent mid-call. And triggers actions like creating a support ticket or updating a database based on AI’s output.  
• Fine-tuning: Trains the AI assistant on specific jargon or dialogue styles—within a week, at a cost below five figures.    
• Security & compliance suite: Runs regular audits to fix issues in data access, encryption, and authentication, and stays compliant with SOC 2 Type II, GDPR, and HIPAA.
• Zapier integration: Connects AI voice calls to apps like Slack, Gmail, Trello, and Salesforce—without any coding. Users can automate tasks like scheduling events from call transcripts or build custom workflows like appointment booking. 

Pros

• Transparent per-minute pricing allows easy ROI calculations. 
• Ideal for tech-savvy enterprises looking for both convenience and control.
• Responsive support team for fast issue resolution. 

Cons

• Agents may need initial training to understand industry-specific language.
• Limited pre-built templates could slow down quick deployment. 

Ideal use cases

In real estate, voice bots can answer property inquiries 24/7 and ask pre-qualifying questions (e.g., price range, location, move-in timeline). For pharmacies, they can confirm and handle prescription refill requests or pickup reminders, provide dosage instructions from a connected database, and escalate to a live pharmacist if necessary.

Why choose Bland AI over Kore.ai?

Bland AI goes live in just 4–6 weeks compared to Kore.ai’s longer setup process. It also offers deeper customizability, allowing businesses to build fully tailored call flows and fine-tune language models. Plus, its pricing is simple and transparent at $0.09 per connected minute.

3. Vapi AI

Vapi AI is a developer-centric platform that integrates voice AI into apps, websites, and workflows via its API-first design. It supports both inbound and outbound call automation and gives developers full control over how the voice AI integrates into their systems. This allows businesses to create tailored, scalable voice bot solutions.

Not only that, Vapi’s architecture is optimized for fast deployment (often within a week) and low-latency responses—typically under 500 milliseconds—making it suitable for high-volume applications that require real-time performance.

Key features

• Developer-friendly APIs: Provides client libraries to help developers create call agents that start or receive calls and handle the dialogue. 
• High scalability & concurrency: Demonstrates 1,000,000+ concurrent call handling—ideal for automated polling calls or large call blasts.
• Competitive pricing: Vapi’s pricing starts around $0.05 per minute for the AI agent service, plus whatever telephony costs (if any) you incur.    
• Automated testing: Lets developers design test suites to simulate real-world scenarios to identify potential hallucination risks.

Pros

• The low per-minute cost is a big win for ROI. 
• Being API-driven, it allows integration with any system—database, CRM, or custom logic.
• Developer-friendly with a low learning curve and continuous updates.

Cons

• No polished interface for CX managers or contact center leads.
• Limited support outside the enterprise tier. 
• Lacks advanced features, such as complex dialog management and emotion detection.

Ideal use cases

Suitable for custom inbound call routing, where agents can handle initial customer queries, verify identities, and route calls based on backend logic. It also triggers outbound voice calls after a form fill, missed payment, or support ticket update. Each call can dynamically adapt based on the customer’s plan, usage history, or CRM status. 

Why choose Vapi AI over Kore.ai?

For projects where the cost per call needs to be minimal (like large-scale outbound calls or serving emerging markets with thin margins), Vapi’s ~$0.05/min pricing is highly attractive. Further, it offers a no-frills alternative to get the job done within a week. 

4. Retell AI 

Retell AI provides a platform for building conversational AI agents that are production-ready. It offers a low-code agent builder that supports custom large language models (LLMs), databases, and voice configurations. This gives teams control over conversations, behavior, and data integrations—without requiring full-scale coding.    

Retell integrates with existing telephony systems via SIP trunking, allowing businesses to use their current phone numbers and VOIP providers. The platform also includes features to support compliance with SOC 2, HIPAA, and GDPR standards, making it a viable option for organizations operating in regulated environments.

Key features

• Comprehensive voice agent builder: Supports branching dialogues, prompts, and integrations. It also allows direct deployment to phone numbers and web calling with a click.
• Branded call ID: Allows your outbound calls to display your business name on recipients' devices.
• Call recovery detection: Detects voicemail and either hangs up to save costs or leaves a pre-recorded or dynamic message based on your campaign goals.
• Batch calling: Lets you launch high-volume outbound campaigns with no concurrency limits and uses dynamic variables like name or appointment time to keep calls personalized.
• Advanced features: Includes knowledge base auto-sync (keeing AI updated with your latest FAQ or docs) and warm transfer with context (if the AI hands off to a human, it provides a summary).

Pros

• Integrates with top services like Eleven Labs and OpenAI to deliver human-like voice interactions.
•  No platform fees—pay only for usage, starting at $0.07 per minute. 
• Frequent feature releases (sometimes weekly).

Cons

• Designing the voice agent may require trial and error to fine-tune tone and accuracy.
• Some users report slow support responses during urgent issues.
• Lacks an intuitive dashboard and interface.

Ideal use cases

Retell AI lets insurance policyholders file claims, check claim status, and complete paperwork by guiding them step-by-step and updating claim systems during the call. Agents also work as AI receptionists to route incoming calls based on caller input or context, share basic information, and pass detailed call summaries to staff during handoffs.

Why choose Retell AI over Kore.ai?

If Kore.ai’s voice bot latency (~>1s) is a pain point, Retell is the voice platform designed to help fill that gap by offering a latency as low as 700ms. Plus, it offers greater control in creating highly personalized and dynamic voice agents without unnecessary complexity.

5. Cognigy 

Cognigy is a customer service automation platform for enterprise contact centers that need voice-driven support across multiple channels and languages. It has a low-code editor where users can design, launch, and optimize voice conversation flows—all from a single unified workspace.    

You can add basic Nodes that shape how the conversation actually plays out between the AI assistant and the user—like Say Node (to send a message or response to the user) and Question Node (to ask the user for specific information). You also add Voice Nodes so the AI assistant can process spoken input and respond naturally in real-time. 

Key features

• Built-in NLU engine: Accurately identifies user intent, even in complex or non-linear conversations, and personalizes replies based on past interactions. 
• Intelligent routing: Directs users to the right flow, department, or agent based on their intent, context, and input confidence—making it ideal for contact center automation.
• Voice Gateway: Links AI voice agents to SIP, PSTN, and WebRTC systems, enabling fully automated phone calls without extra infrastructure or third-party tools.
• Analytics: Offers a detailed dashboard with metrics like user interactions, fallback rates, and natural language understanding (NLU) accuracy. 

Pros

• No-code bot creation for non-technical users.
• Can be deployed in both the cloud or on-premises. 
• Provides 24/7 support for enterprise customers.
• Extensive academy and community for training bot developers.

Cons

• Voice latency exceeds 1 second, affecting real-time conversations.
• Long deployment time (2–4 months) can delay fast launch.
• Lack of usage-based plans means higher upfront costs (over $300K). 

Ideal use cases

In banking, voice bots can automate customer balance checks, card activations, KYC verification, and loan eligibility inquiries. Retail and ecommerce businesses can use them to manage order tracking, returns, delivery updates, and personalized product recommendations. For healthcare institutions, they can automate appointment scheduling and routing of urgent medical queries.

Why choose Cognigy over Kore.ai?

Kore.ai is cloud-only, making Cognigy a better fit for organizations with strict compliance or data residency requirements. Plus, Cognigy works with a wide range of telephony providers, such as Twilio, Voxbone. Simwood, and TelecomsXChange. Kore.ai is more limited and often centered around Twilio.

6. Sierra AI 

Sierra AI allows businesses to deploy AI agents for overall customer service and operations support. It goes beyond basic automation—agents that can reason, predict, take real action, and continuously improve.

What sets Sierra apart is its focus on brand alignment. These AI agents are trained not just on product knowledge but also on your company’s tone, values, and policies so every interaction feels personalized and on-brand. 

Key features

• Empathetic support: Detects emotions like frustration or customer satisfaction, and responds appropriately while maintaining your brand voice. 
• Agent OS: Allows you to build, deploy, and manage the AI assistant across channels (voice, chat, web).
• Monitoring performance: Lets you inspect calls, review transcripts, and track metrics like fallback rate and resolution accuracy. 
• Multilingual support: Operates across multiple languages, enabling businesses to streamline customer support at a global scale.
• Trust and safety: Built-in guardrails, supervision tools, auditing, and strict data governance keep AI agents safe, honest, and compliant.

Pros

• Support both AI automation and live agent assistance in a unified platform.
• Quick setup and easy integration with existing systems.
• Scales reliably to handle high call volumes for business needs.

Cons

• Interface may feel overwhelming for new users initially.
• Responses can lack the depth of human interactions.
• No on-premises deployment, limiting options for strict data or compliance needs.

Ideal use cases

In telecommunications, voice agents can identify customer types (e.g., prepaid, postpaid, enterprise), apply your company’s specific plan eligibility criteria, and use approved phrasing for offers, billing policies, and service terms. It can also guide users through onboarding and feature support while mirroring your product’s tone—whether technical, friendly, or minimal.

Why choose Sierra over Kore.ai?

Sierra agents typically go live in 1–2 months. Plus, its pricing starts around $150K, offering more cost-effective AI solutions compared to Kore.ai’s starting price of $300K.

7. Parloa

Parloa is built for businesses looking to deploy generative AI at scale in customer support environments. 

It includes a set of governance tools to manage AI behavior and meet compliance standards. These tools include simulation testing to preview agent behavior, content filtering to block off-brand or inappropriate responses, data isolation for sensitive information, and real-time monitoring to observe conversations and flag issues.

Plus, it’s certified for ISO 27001, ISO 17442, SOC 2, GDPR, HIPAA, and PCI DSS v4.0, making it a fit for compliance-heavy industries. 

Key features

• Low-code AI agent studio: Provides a user-friendly interface to build AI dialogs with flowcharts and natural language prompts. 
• Advanced voice features: Supports barge-in for real-time interruptions and dual-tone multi-frequency (DTMF) for inputting numeric choices via keypad.
• Azure-powered speech tech: Uses Microsoft’s speech recognition (ASR) and text-to-speech (TTS) engines for accuracy and sound.
• Scalable architecture: Ensures consistent performance and meets Service Level Agreement (SLA) commitments, so you can scale without disruption.

Pros

• Real-time translation reduces the need for multilingual staff and lowers costs.
• Safer choice for EU companies with data privacy and compliance concerns.

Cons

• Heavy reliance on Azure can affect performance and cost if Microsoft's services face outages or pricing changes.
• Achieving top voice quality may need adjusting prompts or refining grammars for ASR.

Ideal use cases

The voice agent can verify customers securely during calls, protecting sensitive data while keeping the user experience smooth. It also enables 24/7 self-service, allowing users to resolve issues without an agent. For common queries, it instantly answers FAQs with accurate, AI-driven responses. 

Why choose Parloa over Kore.ai?

Parloa’s intuitive studio allows businesses to deploy voice agents in 1 to 3 months, making it a better choice for quicker launches. It also ensures a latency as low as 700ms—ideal for real-time, high-performance interactions where response time is critical.     

8. PolyAI 

PolyAI delivers virtual assistants that actually talk to customers like a real human agent would—even when they interrupt, change topics, or make mistakes.     

These voice agents can handle multi-turn dialogues that involve complex context switches or clarifications. For example, if a customer says, “I want to book a hotel room next week,” then later says, “actually make that two weeks from now,” the AI can track and update context seamlessly. They also use advanced voice modeling to incorporate elements like tone, intonation, and subtle back-channeling (“uh-huh”, “I see”) to make the caller feel heard. 

Key features

• Agent Studio: Provides a design interface to build and test conversation flows and access pre-built intents (for scheduling and FAQs).
• Accurate speech recognition: Handles alphanumeric inputs correctly and understands people with different accents, even in noisy environments.
• Integration with contact center systems: Integrates with telephony providers (like Twilio) and can plug into contact center platforms (like Genesys or NICE) for call routing.
• Security and authentication: Securely captures a PIN or uses voice biometrics to recognize if the caller’s voice matches a known customer. 
• Expressive AI and emotions: Detects caller sentiment to some extent and adjusts responses. 

Pros

• Higher satisfaction due to ultra-realistic customer interactions.
• Can handle millions of calls while maintaining quality.
• Highly responsive, knowledgeable, and collaborative support team. 
• Automates up to 87% of non-revenue queries right from day one.

Cons

• Custom pricing may limit flexibility for smaller teams. 
• Using design tools may require training.
• Some users report occasional slow responses during certain actions.

Ideal use cases

Voice assistance can handle billing requests like “I want to pay my last two bills, but skip this month’s” or “What’s this ₹499 charge from March?.” Users can also say, “Book a hotel in Delhi from Monday to Thursday—actually, make that Friday,” and the agent will update the request without needing a full restart.

Why choose PolyAI over Kore.ai?

PolyAI specializes in voice agents that handle real, complex conversations. Kore.ai focuses mainly on AI chatbots, with voice as an add-on. Plus, it works across travel, telecom, insurance, and more, not just banking, retail, and healthcare like Kore.ai.

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Final Verdict: Choose Synthflow for Fast, Scalable Voice Automation

Kore.ai excels in omnichannel communication, especially for chat-based interactions and NLP. But for voice automation that requires speed, agility, and clarity, Synthflow stands out.

Built with voice-first agility, Synthflow deploy voice agents in weeks, not months. Additionally, its sub-500 ms latency ensures a truly conversational experience—addressing one of Kore.ai users’ biggest pain points. So, if your organization requires real-time, scalable voice automation without the complexity and overhead of large enterprise systems, Synthflow is built for you. 

Want to explore how Synthflow powers AI voice agents across telecom, finance, and healthcare? Reach out to us today. 

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