Why Voice AI Is About to Change Every Vertical | Mike Sharp

Voice AI is getting dramatically better. But simply adding an AI receptionist to your product isn't going to create a moat. In this episode of Verticals, Luke and Nic sit down with Mike Sharp, founder and CEO of DialStack, to unpack what the next wave of voice AI actually looks like, and why vertical software companies may have a unique opportunity to own it. Mike has spent roughly two decades at the intersection of telecom and SaaS. He previously co-founded Jive Communications, grew it to roughly $100 million in ARR, and later worked inside a healthcare software rollup with 17 brands. Those experiences led him to a simple conclusion: the phone is still one of the most important (and most underutilized) surfaces in vertical software. Mike explains how voice AI can evolve from answering missed calls to routing customers, completing transactional workflows, assisting employees in real time, automatically documenting conversations, and eventually becoming an entirely new interface for vertical software. In this episode, they discuss: -Why every vertical SaaS company should be thinking about voice AI -Where the real moat in voice actually lives -Why simply adding an AI receptionist isn't enough -The voice AI use cases that are actually working today -Why consumers hate some AI agents but love others -When AI should replace humans—and when it shouldn't 🎟️ TICKETS DROPPED. Vertical Software Summit — 5-billion-dollar Vertical AI CEOs confirmed to speak. Snag a ticket before they're gone: https://verticalsaasgroup.com/conference 👉 FOLLOW MICHAEL SHARP LINKEDIN ➡️ linkedin.com/in/mikesharp 👉 FOLLOW LUKE SOPHINOS X ➡️ https://x.com/lukesophinos LINKEDIN ➡️ https://www.linkedin.com/in/lukesophinos/ NEWSLETTER ➡️ https://www.newsletter.lukesophinos.com/ 👉 FOLLOW NIC POULOS X ➡️ https://x.com/picnoulos LINKEDIN ➡️ https://www.linkedin.com/in/npoulos/ NEWSLETTER ➡️ https://insights.euclid.vc/ 🎬 TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 Intro 03:29 Why vertical SaaS should own the phone 11:32 The voice AI use cases actually working today 23:00 The overlooked opportunity in ambient voice AI 28:32 Why voice AI is harder than text AI 40:07 Why vertical SaaS hasn't fully embraced voice yet 47:00 Why vertical-specific voice AI could win 51:20 The most interesting voice AI use cases 54:36 Where the next voice AI boom could happen TOPICS 1\. Voice AI & AI Agents 2\. Vertical AI & Vertical SaaS 3\. Embedded Voice & Telephony Infrastructure 4\. AI Agents, Ambient AI & Business Automation 5\. Proprietary Data, AI Moats & Systems of Record