A speech-to-speech model processes spoken input and produces spoken output without requiring every reasoning step to pass through a text-only interface.

Why Speech-to-speech model matters

Working more directly with audio can preserve signals such as timing, emphasis, tone, and emotion that a transcript may omit.

How it works in practice

Speech-to-speech systems may still use text internally, but they are designed to reason over audio and respond with lower latency and greater conversational awareness than a strictly cascaded pipeline.