This week, Tom Shapland shares his journey from agriculture tech to founding Canonical, a tool that helps voice AI developers understand and improve conversations by mapping call stages.Tom has deep experience in the voice world—we loved this conversation and we’re sure you will too!Linkshttps://canonical.chathttps://x.com/Tom_Shaplandhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-shapland-b4494212/Chapters0:00 - Intro1:05 - Welcome and first AI moment3:03 - Computer vision for thirsty plants5:50 - Explaining AI to farmers7:52 - Hardware is hard8:31 - Non-VC shaped business struggles16:51 - Starting a new company19:41 - From metrics to conversation stages22:42 - Voice AI evolution26:40 - Balancing determinism and freedom29:53 - Who uses Canonical and when32:39 - Don't make your agent spell anything35:52 - Zero to 80% is easy, production is hard39:28 - Future of voice AI adoption42:21 - Book recommendations and closing This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit <a href="https://www.smartspeakers.fm?utm_medium=podcast&amp;utm_campaign=CTA_1">www.smartspeakers.fm</a>

The craft behind voice AI magic with Tom Shapland