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Azure AI Speech

Azure AI Speech
Formerly Azure Cognitive Speech Services

Overview

What is Azure AI Speech?

The Azure AI Speech service provides a range of speech recognition and generation capabilities including speech transcription, text-to-speech and speech translation. It provides a range of speech recognition and generation capabilities including speech transcription, text-to-speech, speech translation, and speaker recognition.

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Recent Reviews
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Awards

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Pricing

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Entry-level set up fee?

  • No setup fee
For the latest information on pricing, visithttps://azure.microsoft.com/en…

Offerings

  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services

Starting price (does not include set up fee)

  • $1 per month
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Product Details

What is Azure AI Speech?

The Speech service is the unification of speech-to-text, text-to-speech, and speech-translation into a single Azure subscription. It's speech capabilities enable applications, tools, and devices with the Speech CLI, Speech SDK, Speech Devices SDK, Speech Studio, or REST APIs.

Services include:

Speech to Text - Transcribe audio in more than 92 languages and variants. Gain customer insights with call center transcription, improve experiences with voice-enabled assistants, and capture key discussions in meetings.

Text to Speech - Create apps and services that speak conversationally, choosing from more than 215 voices, and 60 languages and variants. Create natural-sounding audio content, improve accessibility with read-aloud functionality, and create custom voice assistants.

Speech Translation - Translate audio from more than 30 languages and customize translations for organization's specific terms in a preferred programming language.

Speaker Recognition - Confirm a person's identity or recognize who's speaking in a meeting by adding speaker verification and identification to an app.

Custom Commands - Users can build a touchless, voice-first experience to improve safety and support back-to-work scenarios.

Custom Keywords - Custom keyword for IoT devices and voice-enabled assistants to set your brand apart—making it more personal, personable, and secure.

Azure AI Speech Technical Details

Deployment TypesSoftware as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based
Operating SystemsUnspecified
Mobile ApplicationNo

Frequently Asked Questions

The Azure AI Speech service provides a range of speech recognition and generation capabilities including speech transcription, text-to-speech and speech translation. It provides a range of speech recognition and generation capabilities including speech transcription, text-to-speech, speech translation, and speaker recognition.

Azure AI Speech starts at $1.

The most common users of Azure AI Speech are from Enterprises (1,001+ employees).
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Comparisons

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Reviews and Ratings

(16)

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(1-2 of 2)
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March 29, 2022

A solid service provided by Microsoft which has some room for minor improvements. Definitely one of the top service in this market and well worth considering

Verified User
Employee in Information Technology
Education Management Company, 1001-5000 employees
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Use Cases and Deployment Scope
There are two main uses for this product within our organisation as of yet, firstly: we use the accurate voice analysis with custom speech models in lectures to ensure our lectures are accessible to students with hearing-related accessibility issues, mostly through live text translation. Secondly, students are able to use this service and integrate its functionality into their application development during projects within their computing degrees.
Pros and Cons
  • It implements accurate voice analysis which can be improved with customised speech models
  • Affordable
  • Doesn't have to be run online/ can be run and stored locally
  • It can be quite difficult to set up
  • Speech recognition is occasionally inaccurate
  • It sometimes struggles with non-native English speakers' accents
Likelihood to Recommend
This service is well suited for scenarios where you need to integrate text-to-speech and/or speech-to-text into applications. Within our organisation, it is primarily used by students for development purposes to enable said functionality but is also used to provide accessibility to students who have hearing-related issues. Its multi-language support is also beneficial for our international students who have English as a second language and are therefore able to rapidly translate any text or speech that they do not understand.
Most Important Features
  • Accurate speech detection and transcription
  • Live speech detection functionality
  • Easy deployment
Return on Investment
  • Increased accessibility of our lectures for students
  • Reduced the time required by lectures to introduce CC captions to remote lectures during the COVID-19 pandemic
Alternatives Considered
Having used both this service and IBM Watson's Text to Speech, I can safely say that IBM's product comes out on top but this is a close call as both products are very good in their own right. That being said, this Azure service lacks some of the extra functionality that can be found in other products such as broader multi-language support. This product is also more costly than some other alternatives which is a con in my opinion. Azure does, however, come out on top in regards to customer support and general support of the product as it is supported by Microsoft which also means that it integrates well with other parts of the Microsoft suite.
Other Software Used
March 17, 2022

Pricey but effective solution for sales and targeted pitches.

Verified User
Manager in Sales
Banking Company, 10,001+ employees
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Use Cases and Deployment Scope
It is one of the most advanced software available. Through its advanced features, it recognizes even distorted noise efficiently. We can effectively convert speech-to-text and text-to-voice, which helps us communicate, make notes, and accurately discover requirements.
Pros and Cons
  • The free version provides up to five hours of audio and allows you to create one custom voice model per month.
  • Microsoft's language processing system justifies the cost of the software - it recognizes even faint and distorted sound in many cases.
  • It works with many languages and dialects which helps understand many speeches.
  • The software is not user-friendly- it has a complicated interface and requires a lot of training to set up.
  • The pricing is also costly - so for an individual user, not on a company plan, this is not affordable.
Likelihood to Recommend
Azure Cognitive Speech Services can work with many languages and dialects, making it imperative for people working with multi-lingual clients. It also helps to catch speeches while conversing in meetings. The setup is complicated, which is why for a novice user - it is not an easy endeavor to use. The pricing is also high.
Most Important Features
  • Text-to-Speech module
  • Speech-to-text module
Return on Investment
  • It helps us catch requirements and make notes so that we don't forget when drawing out proposals.
  • Also helps us with targeted pitches and helps save time.
Other Software Used
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