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What is Response Eagerness?

When a user finishes speaking, the agent needs to decide when to respond. This requires determining whether the user has actually finished their turn or is simply pausing mid-thought. Getting this timing wrong has consequences:
  • Too early — The agent interrupts the user, cutting off their thought and creating a frustrating experience
  • Too late — The conversation feels sluggish and unnatural, with awkward silences after the user finishes speaking
Response Eagerness adjusts this timing to match the conversational context, helping the agent respond at the right moment. Note that response timing also interacts with Thinking Effort. If thinking effort is set to deep, the additional reasoning time may extend the overall response time regardless of eagerness setting.

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Eagerness Levels

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How It Works

The system also analyzes whether the user’s thought is complete. Even with “keen” eagerness, if the AI detects an incomplete sentence, it waits longer. Once the user’s turn is confirmed complete, the assistant moves on it straight away — there is no extra fixed pause on top of the eagerness setting, so the timing you configure is the timing you get. If the user starts speaking again before the assistant has begun its reply, those extra words are treated as part of the same turn: the assistant reworks its answer to cover everything they said, rather than answering the first half and leaving the rest.

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When to Use Each Level

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Keen

Use for:
  • Yes/no questions
  • Simple confirmations
  • Quick acknowledgments
  • Follow-up questions in rapid exchanges

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Normal (Default)

Use for:
  • Most conversational turns
  • Standard questions
  • General discussion

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Patient

Use for:
  • Open-ended questions
  • Complex topics
  • When users need to think
  • Important decisions

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Turn Completion Detection

Voxworks doesn’t just use timers. It also analyzes whether the user has completed their thought: This prevents interrupting users mid-thought, even with faster eagerness settings.

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First Turns Special Handling

The first two conversational turns use shorter delays:
  • Users expect quick acknowledgment at call start
  • Builds confidence that the system is responsive
  • Prevents awkward silence after greetings
After the initial turns, standard eagerness settings apply.

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Per-Step Configuration

Eagerness is applied step by step. Every time the assistant speaks, the listening for that step starts fresh with that step’s own eagerness setting — so a keen step really is keen, even if the step before it was patient. Set eagerness per step to match the expected interaction:

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Balancing Speed and Accuracy

Start with normal and adjust based on testing.

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Interaction with Other Settings

Eagerness works alongside other dynamics:

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Best Practices

  1. Start with normal — Begin with normal eagerness as your default. Use keen for steps where you want faster responses, or patient for steps where the assistant is jumping in too early or where users might hesitate while thinking
  2. Configure per step — Set eagerness on each step based on expected response complexity
  3. Match eagerness to question complexity — Complex questions need patient eagerness
  4. Test with real conversations — Timing feels different in practice
  5. Consider your users — Some audiences prefer more deliberate pacing

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Next Steps