Transcriber
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Smallest AI Pulse speech-to-text for Bolna AI voice agents

Smallest AI's Pulse model transcribes callers for your Bolna voice agent with sub-100ms first-token latency, keyword weights and speaker labels.

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At a glance

How Smallest AI (Pulse) fits in the stack

Best for

Turning noisy phone audio into text the agent can reason over.

Use this layer when

Recognition accuracy, language coverage, and latency matter most.

Connects to

Telephony audio upstream and your LLM downstream.

Voice Stack

Speech-to-text is the listening layer

Speech-to-text is the listening layer

This provider converts raw audio into text in real time. It shapes how accurately the agent hears the caller and how natural the back-and-forth feels.

TelephonyPhone Network
→
STTListener
→
LLMReasoning
→
TTSVoice
→
ToolsActions

Last updated

What is Smallest AI Pulse used for in a Bolna voice agent?

Pulse is Smallest AI's speech-to-text model, and in a Bolna voice agent it streams the caller's speech to text with sub-100ms first-token latency so the agent can reply quickly. Pick it when latency is your main concern, or when you want a single Smallest stack for both listening and speaking.

How do I set up Smallest AI Pulse with Bolna?

  1. Open your agent at platform.bolna.ai and go to the Languages tab.
  2. Under Transcription, set Provider to smallest and Model to pulse. Set the model explicitly, or it defaults to nova-2.
  3. Add terms in Keywords, with an optional weight per term such as Bolna:5. Up to 100 terms.
  4. To use your own Smallest account, connect it at platform.bolna.ai/auth/smallest.

For the full configuration, see the Smallest AI setup guide in the Bolna docs.

Which Smallest AI models and languages does Bolna support?

ModelLanguagesFeatures
pulse21 individual languages plus regional auto-detect in streaming mode, including English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, major European languages and East Asian languagesStreaming transcription, code-switching, speaker labels, word and sentence timestamps, automatic punctuation, built-in noise handling, keyword weights

The Bolna docs don't list every Pulse language by name. For the full list, see Smallest AI's Pulse documentation.

What can you build with Smallest AI and Bolna?

Low-latency call centres. Large outbound or inbound operations where transcription delay directly affects how natural the conversation feels. Pulse stays around 300ms even at 100 concurrent requests.

An all-Smallest voice stack. Pair Pulse with Smallest AI Lightning text-to-speech under one Smallest account.

Calls in English and South Indian languages. Transcribe conversations that move between English and Tamil, Telugu, Kannada or Malayalam within the same call.

Clean, speaker-aware transcripts. Pulse separates agent and caller speech and adds punctuation and timestamps, which makes post-call review and data extraction easier.

FAQ

Smallest AI (Pulse) on Bolna: frequently asked questions

Pulse is designed for sub-100ms first-token latency at single concurrency, and stays around 300ms at 100 concurrent requests.

Yes. Pulse covers English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam, along with major European and East Asian languages, plus regional auto-detect in streaming mode.

Yes. Connect it at platform.bolna.ai/auth/smallest or under Settings → Integrations. Bolna does not charge for usage on providers you connect yourself.

Set the model explicitly to pulse. If no model is specified, Bolna defaults the transcriber model field to nova-2.

Related

Other providers in this layer

Transcriber

AssemblyAI

AssemblyAI Universal-3.6 Pro transcribes callers for your Bolna voice agent in 32 languages, with code-switching and keyword plus context biasing.

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Azure Speech-to-Text

Azure Speech-to-Text transcribes callers in real time for a Bolna voice agent, with speaker diarization, language identification and phrase lists of up to 2,000 terms.

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Deepgram

Deepgram is Bolna's default English transcriber, turning caller speech into text with Nova-3, Nova-2 or Flux streaming models on live phone calls.

Browse this layer

Keep exploring the voice stack

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Speech-to-Text

Speech-to-text converts what callers say into text that your LLM can process. Transcription accuracy and latency directly affect how natural a conversation feels. Bolna supports streaming STT providers optimized for telephony audio, including specialized models for Indian languages.

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Telephony

Telephony providers connect your voice agents to the phone network so they can make and receive real calls. Bolna supports managed integrations with major carriers as well as bring-your-own-carrier via SIP trunking, giving you full control over call routing, number provisioning, and cost.

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Large Language Models

The LLM is the brain of your voice agent. It understands what callers say and decides how to respond. Bolna lets you switch between models like GPT-5.4 mini, Claude and DeepSeek by changing the provider and model in your agent LLM settings, so you can tune for speed, cost or reasoning depth.

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Text-to-Speech

Text-to-speech turns your agent responses into spoken audio. Voice quality shapes how callers perceive your brand. Flat, robotic speech kills trust while natural, expressive voices build it. Bolna integrates with the fastest TTS providers so responses sound human and arrive without awkward pauses.

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Tools & Workflows

Tools let your voice agents take action during a call, not just talk. Book a calendar slot, look up an order through your own API, push a lead into your CRM, or trigger a multi-step automation in Zapier. These integrations turn voice agents from answering machines into workflow engines.

See where Smallest AI (Pulse) fits in your production workflow

Use the demo to walk through provider selection, stack tradeoffs, and the exact workflow you want Bolna to automate.

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