The 300 milliseconds that decide whether your AI sounds human

Two people having a conversation leave about 200 milliseconds between turns. That gap is remarkably consistent — across languages, across cultures, across phone lines. It is roughly a fifth of a second, and we are exquisitely sensitive to it. Push it to half a second and the other person sounds hesitant. Push it to a full second and they sound distracted, or like they did not hear you. You will start to repeat yourself. I spent last week measuring that gap on an AI voice agent. The number came…