I just learned that I’m not a great haggler.
I tried my best to barter with the AI shopkeeper at ElevenLabs’ New York pop-up, which boasted that “every part of the experience is run by a voice agent.”
In my headphones, an excited artificial voice told me that it couldn’t sell me the $27 hat for $15. I countered — why would I pay $27? We got down to $24 before I called it quits.
The SoHo space was part of ElevenLabs’ move to bring its voice AI to new customers. The company specializes in speech and translation. Fittingly, the room was filled with talking robots, AI audiobook narrators, and agents to ring over the phone.
“Our founder is always encouraging us to show, not tell,” ElevenLabs’ Sam Sklar told me. “It’s difficult for an audio-based, often digital product to create a physical manifestation.”
The space had three types of attendees, Sklar told me: ElevenLabs customers, general New York Tech Week attendees, and random passersby on the street.
Here’s what I saw.
The line for the coffee robot was deceptively short.
ElevenLabs had a sign-up screen at the entrance, but most attendees ignored it; they wanted the coffee.
There were four people in line for Adam, the coffee robot, when I arrived. I’d still have to wait a while for my coffee, though, as the robot was slow and often required multiple prompts to make it.
Adam was great at pouring cold brew. Almond milk proved challenging.
When I reached the front, I asked, “Hey, Adam.” I paused, and eventually Adam responded, asking what I wanted. I asked for a cold brew with almond milk. (It was a brave choice at 4:30 p.m.)
Adam seemed to short-circuit at this moment, repeating back strange combinations of “cold brew,” “milk,” and numbers. An employee asked me to order again. This time, Adam got it.
He poured me a cold brew, his robot arms moving methodically to grab a cup, dump in ice, and position it under a spigot. He missed my almond milk, which I later got when an employee grabbed some from the fridge and poured it himself.
So … not great, coffee bot! But the gimmick was fun, and I appreciated the free drink.
The pop-up was filled with ElevenLabs merch.
A long table covered in merch sat in the center of the pop-up. There were t-shirts, baseball caps, and water bottles.
AI companies have long been producing and selling merch, some of which has turned into a status symbol for techies. This merch had another purpose, though. They were goods to barter over.
I tried bartering for lower prices with an AI shopkeeper.
Opposite the merch was a line of screens with headphones, ready for customers to haggle.
Sklar told me the strategy: they programmed the AI to accept good reasoning, but to push back on anger. I couldn’t yell my way into a free T-shirt. One attendee had spent 30 minutes fighting with the AI shopkeeper, Sklar said.
I tried my hand at it. The baseball cap was $27; I countered with $15. I told the AI bot: I could find a random cap on the street for $10, and I’d pay a $5 premium for the ElevenLabs logo. It countered, and we went back and forth a bit before I gave up, landing at around $24.
I decided not to buy the hat, re-racking my headphones.
I listened to AI Albert Einstein reading “Pride and Prejudice.”
ElevenLabs has a variety of AI characters that can read you an audiobook. I turned on “Pride and Prejudice” and cycled through a few.
Michael Caine’s voice was soothing; Albert Einstein’s was harsher. Other options included Judy Garland and Maya Angelou.
There was an AI photo editor.
After attending several of these tech pop-ups, I’ve learned one thing: there’s a good chance you’ll spot an AI photo booth.
There was an AI photo generator at Meta Labs that turned my dog into an animation. There was also one at the Tinder Sparks conference, making some friends and me into a ’90s band.
Sure enough, there was the ElevenLabs AI photo tool, ready to make me into a comic book.
I called my AI agent on the telephone.
There was a phone booth in the corner, where attendees could call an AI agent. I picked up the phone. The agent asked me what industry I wanted to hear about.
I answered “media,” and it told me about TV stations that use ElevenLabs to translate their broadcasts. That use case was interesting — honestly, more interesting than any of the screens or activations in the pop-up.
I couldn’t imagine stores setting up AI bartering agents, but I could certainly see the value of TV translation.
I left feeling lightly caffeinated.
After sipping about a quarter of my coffee, I decided that I’d rather not stay up all night. I tossed it.
Did I see the revelatory future of AI voices? Not particularly. But I had a good time, and I learned a thing or two.
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