Among the various audio solutions in the market, voice generators stand out as they convert written text into speech, in the process helping users achieve various security and non-security objectives.
In security, we tend to focus on video surveillance and visible light technologies. Yet beyond the visible light spectrum, audio is also an important part of security, as it can offer critical information and insights as well. Among the various audio solutions in the market, voice generators stand out as they convert written text into speech, in the process helping users achieve various security and non-security objectives. This article takes a closer look at voice generators and their use cases in different verticals, including smart city.
Voice generators are also known as text-to-speech (TTS) systems. They produce artificial, human-like speech from text or other input. With use cases in a variety of industries, TTS is seeing increased demand and growth. According to Mordor Intelligence, the global TTS market was valued at US$3.87 billion in 2025 and is forecast to reach $7.28 billion by 2030, advancing at a 12.89 percent compound annual growth rate.
AI increasingly used
Increasingly, AI is used in voice generators to enable realistic, flexible, and intelligent speech synthesis. “AI is foundational to modern voice generators. Traditional rule-based systems sounded robotic. Today, neural TTS creates voices that are nearly indistinguishable from real people, allowing for dynamic tone, emphasis, and even multi-language fluency,” said Rohan Pavuluri, Chief Business Officer at Speechify.
“Speech synthesized by novel AI technology can mimic human voices and expressions quite well. At times – it’s very difficult to tell between AI synthesized speech to natural human speech. AI-based generators produce highly expressive, natural-sounding voices, but require more computing power and are more expensive to run. Non-AI-based synthesis is lighter, faster, and works reliably even in resource-constrained environments," said Ronen Rabinovici, Founder of TTSReader and Speechnotes, which offers their solution
TTSReader – Online Text To Speech.
Live vs. offline
Voice generators can be used either live or offline, depending on the use case. “Many applications need real-time live speech synthesis for reading out loud dynamic content, or for communications. On the other hand, many other applications can use (and should use) pre-recorded speech. The latter is when the text is known in advance – such as info kiosks or automated announcements. The audio is generated ahead of time and then reused whenever and wherever needed, making it cost-effective and highly efficient,” Rabinovici said.
Verticals that can benefit
Voice generator use cases abound. These range from helping visitors tour a city to enhancing the learning experience for students with certain disabilities. According to Pavuluri, the following are some of the verticals that can particularly benefit from voice generators:
Transportation and public infrastructure: Delivers multilingual, real-time updates across cities – for example transit alerts and emergency announcements;
Education: Improves accessibility for students with dyslexia, ADHD, or language processing issues by turning any text into audio;
Healthcare: Assists with patient communication, medication instructions, and multilingual support in hospitals.
Other use cases exist as well. “TTSReader is commonly used by authors, bloggers, academicians, teachers, lawyers, and copywriters who listen to their texts to proofread and edit; users reading web articles aloud to increase focus and comprehension; people listening while jogging, driving, walking, or doing chores; producing audiobooks; reading webpages by page creators and by visitors; generating sound tracks for YouTubes and other videos; and generating pre-recorded speech for machines and call center bots,” Rabinovici said.
Smart cities
Voice generators can provide significant benefits to smart cities. They can provide instant public announcements and alerts, improve transportation systems, and enhance citizen services by enhancing communication, accessibility, efficiency and citizen engagement.
“Smart cities thrive on efficient, real-time communication. Speechify helps by delivering real-time, multilingual audio updates via PA systems, kiosks, or transit signage; supporting non-literate or visually impaired residents with spoken alerts instead of written notices; enabling rapid deployment of messages during emergencies without needing live personnel in nearly every language spoken by residents,” Pavuluri said. “They address challenges like inclusivity, real-time responsiveness, and the need for consistent, scalable communication across a city’s diverse population.”
We’ll look at voice generators and their use cases in smart cities more closely in an upcoming article.