Contacting a government agency often rhymes with robotic voices, confusing phone menus, and successive transfers from one department to another. Faced with these delays, citizens are increasingly turning to AI agents, programs capable of interacting with public services on their behalf. To help administrations cope with this influx, the company ElevenLabs has launched a synthetic voice detection feature on its ElevenAgents platform.
A phenomenon already visible
According to the company, public services are already recording significant increases in requests. Researchers have identified 84 cases in 11 countries where public services have faced a surge in cases, appeals, and complaints, with officials increasingly citing AI as the source of this increase. The researchers speak of ‘agentic flooding, ‘ meaning an AI-driven increase in the volume or complexity of requests that saturates an organization’s capacity.
The problem lies partly in budgets. Many public services are already operating near their limit, so even a modest increase in demand can be enough to overwhelm them.
Adding capacity rather than barriers
Administrations facing this wave have, according to the source, two options. The first is to add barriers, such as fees, IP address blocks, or stricter forms. These measures can work, but they also reduce the accessibility of services for those who need them most. The second is to add capacity by pitting agents against agents.
ElevenLabs considers this second path more sustainable, as it could significantly reduce the administrative burden and increase processing throughput. The company also states that organizations implementing it will have richer signals about the real needs of their citizens.
The detection feature, according to ElevenLabs, identifies traces in a live audio stream and indicates whether the caller is human or AI. Rules can then be defined: placing human callers at the front of the queue, directing AI callers to a dedicated agent equipped with specific instructions and limits, or blocking sensitive operations, such as a password reset or account access.
Examples cited by the company
The source cites the case of Midland, Texas, which has 138,000 residents and receives 3,000 calls a day, some of which went unanswered. The city built Jacky, an AI ‘civic concierge, ‘ with ElevenAgents, available around the clock to answer the most frequent questions and assist a multilingual population. A chat, also provided by ElevenLabs, was added to the website to reduce the number of calls. Steven Sierra Alcabes, the city’s ‘process engineer officer, ‘ believes that ‘any city wanting to push the boundaries of what it can do for its citizens by integrating AI into its services can benefit from what ElevenLabs offers.’
In the Czech Republic, ElevenLabs indicates it supports national helplines dedicated to social benefits and employment, where AI agents handle about 5,000 calls per day. These agents reportedly resolve about 85% of calls on their own, while the response rate would increase from about 60% to near-total coverage.
