Tobias Martens \u00b7 AI Innovators \u00b7 AI Dev Lab<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The fragmentation problem in voice AI and why interoperability matters more than any individual feature. Tobias came from standards bodies and European policy, which gave him a different frame: when AI systems can't talk to each other, adoption stalls for everyone.\"\/>\r\n<link rel=\"preconnect\" href=\"https:\/\/fonts.googleapis.com\"\/>\r\n<link rel=\"preconnect\" href=\"https:\/\/fonts.gstatic.com\" crossorigin\/>\r\n<link href=\"https:\/\/fonts.googleapis.com\/css2?family=Syne:wght@400;600;700;800&family=DM+Sans:ital,opsz,wght@0,9..40,300;0,9..40,400;0,9..40,500;0,9..40,600;1,9..40,400&display=swap\" rel=\"stylesheet\"\/>\r\n<style>\r\n:root{\r\n --c:#0D9488;\r\n --cl:#ECFAF8;\r\n --blob1:radial-gradient(circle,rgba(13,148,136,.11),transparent 70%);\r\n --blob2:radial-gradient(circle,rgba(13,148,136,.07),transparent 70%);\r\n --photo-wash:#0F766E;\r\n}\r\n\r\n:root{\r\n --bg:#F6F5F1;--bg-w:#FFFFFF;--bg-cr:#EFECE5;--bg-dk:#0F1117;\r\n --ink:#0F1117;--ink2:#2B3045;--ink3:#575E78;--ink4:#9099B2;\r\n --green:#2DB87A;--green-m:#1ea066;--green-lt:#E6F7EF;\r\n 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rgba(0,0,0,.08);border-radius:4px;padding:.1rem .42rem;font-size:.7rem;color:var(--ink3);font-weight:500}\r\n\r\n<\/style>\r\n<\/head>\r\n<body>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div class=\"back\">\r\n <div class=\"back__in\">\r\n <a class=\"back-link\" href=\"https:\/\/aidevlab.com\/innovators\/\">\r\n <svg viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\"><line x1=\"19\" y1=\"12\" x2=\"5\" y2=\"12\"\/><polyline points=\"12 19 5 12 12 5\"\/><\/svg>\r\n AI Innovators\r\n <\/a>\r\n <span class=\"back-sep\">\/<\/span>\r\n <span class=\"back-cur\">Tobias Martens<\/span>\r\n <\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<header class=\"hero\">\r\n <div class=\"hero-blob1\"><\/div>\r\n <div class=\"hero-blob2\"><\/div>\r\n <div class=\"hgrid\"><\/div>\r\n <div class=\"hero__in\">\r\n <div>\r\n <div class=\"hero__kicker\">\r\n <span class=\"hero__kicker-bar\"><\/span>\r\n <span>AI Dev Lab \u00b7 Impact Series \u00b7 Profile 4<\/span>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <div class=\"hero__badge\">Voice AI<\/div>\r\n <h1 class=\"hero__name\">\r\n <span class=\"fn\">Tobias <\/span><span class=\"ln\">Martens<\/span>\r\n <\/h1>\r\n <div class=\"hero__byline\">\r\n <div class=\"hero__avatar\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/aidevlab.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/tobias-martens-CEO-Whoelse-AI-voice-company.webp\" alt=\"Tobias Martens, Founder of Whoelse AI\"\/><\/div>\r\n <div class=\"hero__role\">Founder, Whoelse AI<\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <p class=\"hero__deck\"><strong>The fragmentation problem in voice AI and why interoperability matters more than any individual feature.<\/strong> Tobias came from standards bodies and European policy, which gave him a different frame: when AI systems can't talk to each other, adoption stalls for everyone.<\/p>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n<\/header>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div class=\"insight\">\r\n <div class=\"insight__in\">\r\n <span class=\"insight__label\">The Core Insight<\/span>\r\n <p class=\"insight__text\">Fragmentation is a tax on every organization trying to adopt AI. The people working on interoperability aren't building products. They're building the conditions under which products can actually work together at scale.<\/p>\r\n <\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<section class=\"story\">\r\n <div class=\"story__in\">\r\n <div class=\"story__body revL\">\r\n <h3>The moment that started everything<\/h3><p>Tobias Martens spent a decade working at the intersection of technology and public institutions: the European Commission, the German Institute for Standardization (DIN), and corporate consulting. That background gave him a frame most AI founders don't have: he'd watched how standards get made, how they get adopted, and how their absence creates invisible friction across entire industries.<\/p><p>The founding insight of Whoelse AI came from a personal moment: trying to explain how different internet services worked to his nephew and grandmother at the same time. AirBnB for apartments. Tinder for dating. Ticketmaster for events. Each required a different mental model, a different vocabulary, a different way of navigating.<\/p><p>It occurred to him that the problem wasn't the services themselves. It was that every service required its own conceptual framework before you could use it. And that the same fragmentation that made internet services hard to explain was showing up in voice AI, in a more consequential way. When there are over a thousand voice AI technologies on the market and each one uses a different wake word, a different intent format, and a different API. Nobody can build on top of any of them with confidence.<\/p><h3>Why 1,000 voice AI platforms is a problem, not a success<\/h3><p>When Tobias and I spoke, there were over a thousand voice AI technologies on the market. Most people were aware of two or three. That gap isn't a marketing problem: it's a structural problem. Organizations trying to build voice-first experiences face a fragmented ecosystem where every vendor speaks a different language, maintains different standards, and can be deprecated or acquired without warning.<\/p><p>The consequence: organizations either standardize on one platform and accept the dependency risk, or they maintain multiple integrations and absorb the ongoing complexity cost. Neither option is good. And neither solves the underlying problem, which is that there's no shared protocol for what voice AI systems are supposed to do or how they're supposed to talk to each other.<\/p><p>Martens' framing is that this is the same problem the internet solved with TCP\/IP, that email solved with SMTP, that telephony solved with signaling protocols. Every time a communication technology matures, it goes through a period of fragmentation, followed by convergence around a shared standard. Voice AI is in the fragmentation phase. The work Whoelse AI is doing is about accelerating the convergence.<\/p><h3>Standards as competitive strategy, not just compliance<\/h3><p>One of the more unusual aspects of Martens' approach is treating standards contribution as a business strategy rather than a technical obligation. Whoelse AI has contributed to DIN Standards (the German representation of ISO), the World Wide Web Consortium, and the Voice Network initiative, working groups that are writing the technical specifications for how voice AI systems should communicate.<\/p><p>The strategic logic is elegant: in European government procurement, ISO compliance is frequently a contractual requirement. By contributing to the development of the relevant standards rather than waiting to comply with them, Whoelse AI shaped the environment in which it would compete. When the standard is adopted, they're already aligned, and they have the expertise and documentation to help others achieve compliance.<\/p><p><strong>This is a longer game than most AI startups play.<\/strong> But for organizations building for regulated or government-adjacent markets, it's a model worth understanding. The standards governing how AI is deployed in public contexts are being written now. The organizations that participate have influence over what those standards require.<\/p><h3>The architecture of interoperability<\/h3><p>Whoelse AI's technical approach to the fragmentation problem focuses on the linguistic structure layer rather than the full technology stack. Rather than trying to get different platforms to adopt a common API, the team focused on encoding language intent in a standardized way that could be interpreted by multiple underlying systems.<\/p><p>The practical result is a bridge layer, built on DIN Standard protocols and connecting platforms like ARM and IBM Watson, that can accept a user request, parse its intent in a standardized format, and route that intent to whichever underlying AI system is best suited to handle it. The user doesn't know which system responded. They just get an answer.<\/p><p>Martens describes the long-term vision as a network of specialized AI assistants, each expert in a different domain, connected by a shared protocol for passing requests and returning results. Not one AI that knows everything, but many AIs that each know their domain deeply, able to communicate with each other through a shared language. <strong>That's the infrastructure model for AI at scale.<\/strong><\/p>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <div class=\"story__aside revR\">\r\n <div class=\"aside-card\">\r\n <div class=\"aside-card__head\"><div class=\"aside-card__head-label\">Key Facts<\/div><\/div>\r\n <div class=\"aside-card__body\">\r\n <div class=\"aside-fact\"><span class=\"aside-fact__num\">01<\/span><p class=\"aside-fact__text\">Background spans 10 years across European Commission, DIN (German ISO representation), and corporate technology consulting before founding Whoelse AI.<\/p><\/div><div class=\"aside-fact\"><span class=\"aside-fact__num\">02<\/span><p class=\"aside-fact__text\">Contributing author to DIN Standards, ISO protocols, and the W3C Voice Network initiative, working groups writing the technical specs for voice AI interoperability.<\/p><\/div><div class=\"aside-fact\"><span class=\"aside-fact__num\">03<\/span><p class=\"aside-fact__text\">ISO compliance is a contractual requirement in many European government procurement processes, making standards contribution a direct business development strategy.<\/p><\/div><div class=\"aside-fact\"><span class=\"aside-fact__num\">04<\/span><p class=\"aside-fact__text\">Technical architecture: a bridge layer between ARM and IBM Watson, using DIN Standard protocols to route user intent across different AI platforms.<\/p><\/div><div class=\"aside-fact\"><span class=\"aside-fact__num\">05<\/span><p class=\"aside-fact__text\">Chose to work on the \"most basic standard feasible\": linguistic structure encoding, rather than competing on features or attempting a comprehensive platform standard.<\/p><\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n<\/section>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div class=\"pq\">\r\n <div class=\"pq-deco\">“<\/div>\r\n <div class=\"pq__in\">\r\n <blockquote class=\"rev\">\"We're not seeking the greatest standard currently available. We want the <em>most basic standard feasible<\/em>, built for linguistic structure, nothing more.\"<\/blockquote>\r\n <p class=\"pq-attr rev d2\">Tobias Martens \u00b7 Founder, Whoelse AI<\/p>\r\n <div class=\"pq-line rev d3\"><\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<section class=\"takes\">\r\n <div class=\"takes__in\">\r\n <div class=\"takes__head rev\">\r\n <div class=\"lbl-green lbl\">What This Means For Your Organization<\/div>\r\n <h2 class=\"disp\" style=\"margin-top:.4rem;\">Lessons that <em>travel beyond the story.<\/em><\/h2>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <div class=\"takes-grid\">\r\n \r\n <div class=\"take-card rev d1\">\r\n <div class=\"take-num\">01<\/div>\r\n <div class=\"take-title\">Fragmentation is a real cost. Design around it from the beginning.<\/div>\r\n <p class=\"take-body\">Before committing to AI infrastructure, understand how tightly your implementation will couple to a single vendor's format and API. Systems that can route between AI providers or use standardized intent formats give you flexibility that proprietary implementations don't. Switching costs compound.<\/p>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <div class=\"take-card rev d2\">\r\n <div class=\"take-num\">02<\/div>\r\n <div class=\"take-title\">The cognitive load of fragmentation kills adoption.<\/div>\r\n <p class=\"take-body\">When every AI tool requires a different workflow, different prompting approach, and different mental model, the cumulative friction is what stalls organizational AI adoption, not the quality of any individual tool. Reducing cognitive load across a tool ecosystem is a change management problem as much as a technology one.<\/p>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <div class=\"take-card rev d3\">\r\n <div class=\"take-num\">03<\/div>\r\n <div class=\"take-title\">Standards participation is undervalued as a market strategy.<\/div>\r\n <p class=\"take-body\">In regulated industries and government-adjacent markets, the organizations that helped write the standards have a structural advantage when those standards become procurement requirements. If you're building AI products for these markets, contributing to relevant standards bodies is not a compliance exercise: it's a competitive one.<\/p>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n<\/section>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div class=\"series-nav\">\r\n <div class=\"series-nav__in rev\">\r\n <h3>More in the series<\/h3>\r\n <div class=\"nav-chips\"><a class=\"nav-chip\" href=\"https:\/\/aidevlab.com\/innovators\/dylan-fox-assemblyai\/\" style=\";\">\r\n <span class=\"nav-chip__dot\" style=\"background:#2563EB\"><\/span>\r\n <div class=\"nav-chip__info\">\r\n <div class=\"nav-chip__name\">Dylan Fox<\/div>\r\n <div class=\"nav-chip__co\">AssemblyAI<\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/a>\r\n<a class=\"nav-chip\" href=\"https:\/\/aidevlab.com\/innovators\/david-collen-sapientx\/\" style=\";\">\r\n <span class=\"nav-chip__dot\" style=\"background:#7C3AED\"><\/span>\r\n <div class=\"nav-chip__info\">\r\n <div class=\"nav-chip__name\">David Collen<\/div>\r\n <div class=\"nav-chip__co\">SapientX<\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/a>\r\n<a class=\"nav-chip\" href=\"https:\/\/aidevlab.com\/innovators\/arjun-rai-hellowoofy\/\" style=\";\">\r\n <span class=\"nav-chip__dot\" style=\"background:#EA580C\"><\/span>\r\n <div class=\"nav-chip__info\">\r\n <div class=\"nav-chip__name\">Arjun Rai<\/div>\r\n <div class=\"nav-chip__co\">helloWoofy<\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/a>\r\n<a class=\"nav-chip active\" href=\"https:\/\/aidevlab.com\/innovators\/tobias-martens-whoelse-ai\/\" style=\"border-color:#0D9488;background:#ECFAF8;\">\r\n <span class=\"nav-chip__dot\" style=\"background:#0D9488\"><\/span>\r\n <div class=\"nav-chip__info\">\r\n <div class=\"nav-chip__name\">Tobias Martens<\/div>\r\n <div class=\"nav-chip__co\">Whoelse AI<\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/a><\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<section class=\"cta-band\">\r\n <div class=\"cta-band__in\">\r\n <div class=\"revL\">\r\n <h2>Work with a team that<br \/><em>knows the landscape.<\/em><\/h2>\r\n <p>The principles Tobias followed are the same ones we bring to every AI engagement at AI Dev Lab. If you're building AI products or figuring out where AI fits, we should talk.<\/p>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <div class=\"cta-acts rev\">\r\n <a class=\"btn-g\" href=\"https:\/\/calendly.com\/aidevlab-info\/aidevlab-lets-talk-ai\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\r\n Let's Talk\r\n <svg viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\"><line x1=\"5\" y1=\"12\" x2=\"19\" y2=\"12\"\/><polyline points=\"12 5 19 12 12 19\"\/><\/svg>\r\n <\/a>\r\n <a class=\"btn-outline\" href=\"https:\/\/aidevlab.com\/blog\/voice-ai-tobias-martens-whoelse-ai\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\r\n Read Original Interview\r\n <svg viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\"><line x1=\"5\" y1=\"12\" x2=\"19\" y2=\"12\"\/><polyline points=\"12 5 19 12 12 19\"\/><\/svg>\r\n <\/a>\r\n <span class=\"cta-fine\">No commitment \u00b7 30 minutes \u00b7 Senior leadership<\/span>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n<\/section>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div class=\"bio\">\r\n <div class=\"bio__in rev\">\r\n <div class=\"bio-photo\">\r\n <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/aidevlab.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Jason-headshot-photo-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Jason Wells\"\/>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <div>\r\n <div class=\"bio-name\">Jason Wells<\/div>\r\n <div class=\"bio-role\">Co-Founder & Chief Strategy Officer, AI Dev Lab<\/div>\r\n <div class=\"bio-tags\">\r\n <span class=\"bio-tag\">MBA, Wharton<\/span>\r\n <span class=\"bio-tag\">MS Applied Mathematics<\/span>\r\n <span class=\"bio-tag\">Former SVP, Sony Pictures<\/span>\r\n <span class=\"bio-tag\">Kearney Alum<\/span>\r\n <span class=\"bio-tag\">4× Ironman<\/span>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <div class=\"bio-role\" style=\"margin-top:.5rem;font-style:italic;\">Building AI products in transit and enterprise since before it was a pitch deck category.<\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n<script>\r\nconst io = new IntersectionObserver(e => {\r\n e.forEach(x => { if(x.isIntersecting){ x.target.classList.add('v'); } });\r\n},{ threshold:0.1, rootMargin:'0px 0px -40px 0px' });\r\ndocument.querySelectorAll('.rev,.revL,.revR,.take-card,.pq-line').forEach(el=>io.observe(el));\r\n<\/script>\r\n<\/body>\r\n<\/html>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tobias Martens \u00b7 AI Innovators \u00b7 AI Dev Lab AI Innovators \/ Tobias Martens AI Dev Lab \u00b7 Impact Series \u00b7 Profile 4 Voice AI Tobias Martens Founder, Whoelse AI The fragmentation problem in voice AI and why interoperability matters more than any individual feature. Tobias came from standards bodies and European policy, which gave […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"parent":4090,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"elementor_header_footer","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-4111","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"blocksy_meta":{"has_hero_section":"disabled","styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":6}},"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aidevlab.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aidevlab.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aidevlab.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aidevlab.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aidevlab.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4111"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/aidevlab.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4111\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4146,"href":"https:\/\/aidevlab.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4111\/revisions\/4146"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aidevlab.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aidevlab.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

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Tobias came from standards bodies and European policy, which gave him a different frame: when AI systems can't talk to each other, adoption stalls for everyone.\"\/>\r\n<link rel=\"preconnect\" href=\"https:\/\/fonts.googleapis.com\"\/>\r\n<link rel=\"preconnect\" href=\"https:\/\/fonts.gstatic.com\" crossorigin\/>\r\n<link href=\"https:\/\/fonts.googleapis.com\/css2?family=Syne:wght@400;600;700;800&family=DM+Sans:ital,opsz,wght@0,9..40,300;0,9..40,400;0,9..40,500;0,9..40,600;1,9..40,400&display=swap\" rel=\"stylesheet\"\/>\r\n<style>\r\n:root{\r\n --c:#0D9488;\r\n --cl:#ECFAF8;\r\n --blob1:radial-gradient(circle,rgba(13,148,136,.11),transparent 70%);\r\n --blob2:radial-gradient(circle,rgba(13,148,136,.07),transparent 70%);\r\n --photo-wash:#0F766E;\r\n}\r\n\r\n:root{\r\n --bg:#F6F5F1;--bg-w:#FFFFFF;--bg-cr:#EFECE5;--bg-dk:#0F1117;\r\n --ink:#0F1117;--ink2:#2B3045;--ink3:#575E78;--ink4:#9099B2;\r\n --green:#2DB87A;--green-m:#1ea066;--green-lt:#E6F7EF;\r\n 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rgba(45,184,122,.44)}}\r\n.cta-fine{font-size:.7rem;color:var(--ink4);letter-spacing:.05em;text-align:right}\r\n@media(max-width:680px){.cta-fine{text-align:left}}\r\n\r\n\/* BIO *\/\r\n.bio{padding:2.5rem var(--pad);background:var(--bg-w);border-top:1px solid rgba(0,0,0,.07)}\r\n.bio__in{max-width:var(--mw);margin:0 auto;display:flex;gap:1.75rem;align-items:center;flex-wrap:wrap}\r\n.bio-photo{width:64px;height:64px;border-radius:50%;overflow:hidden;flex-shrink:0;border:3px solid var(--green-lt);outline:1px solid rgba(45,184,122,.2);transition:transform .3s}\r\n.bio-photo:hover{transform:scale(1.06)}\r\n.bio-photo img{width:100%;height:100%;object-fit:cover;object-position:center 15%}\r\n.bio-name{font-family:var(--fd);font-size:.95rem;font-weight:700;color:var(--ink)}\r\n.bio-role{font-size:.73rem;color:var(--ink4);margin-top:.15rem}\r\n.bio-tags{margin-top:.45rem;display:flex;flex-wrap:wrap;gap:.28rem}\r\n.bio-tag{display:inline-block;background:var(--bg);border:1px solid rgba(0,0,0,.08);border-radius:4px;padding:.1rem .42rem;font-size:.7rem;color:var(--ink3);font-weight:500}\r\n\r\n<\/style>\r\n<\/head>\r\n<body>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div class=\"back\">\r\n <div class=\"back__in\">\r\n <a class=\"back-link\" href=\"https:\/\/aidevlab.com\/innovators\/\">\r\n <svg viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\"><line x1=\"19\" y1=\"12\" x2=\"5\" y2=\"12\"\/><polyline points=\"12 19 5 12 12 5\"\/><\/svg>\r\n AI Innovators\r\n <\/a>\r\n <span class=\"back-sep\">\/<\/span>\r\n <span class=\"back-cur\">Tobias Martens<\/span>\r\n <\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<header class=\"hero\">\r\n <div class=\"hero-blob1\"><\/div>\r\n <div class=\"hero-blob2\"><\/div>\r\n <div class=\"hgrid\"><\/div>\r\n <div class=\"hero__in\">\r\n <div>\r\n <div class=\"hero__kicker\">\r\n <span class=\"hero__kicker-bar\"><\/span>\r\n <span>AI Dev Lab \u00b7 Impact Series \u00b7 Profile 4<\/span>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <div class=\"hero__badge\">Voice AI<\/div>\r\n <h1 class=\"hero__name\">\r\n <span class=\"fn\">Tobias <\/span><span class=\"ln\">Martens<\/span>\r\n <\/h1>\r\n <div class=\"hero__byline\">\r\n <div class=\"hero__avatar\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/aidevlab.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/tobias-martens-CEO-Whoelse-AI-voice-company.webp\" alt=\"Tobias Martens, Founder of Whoelse AI\"\/><\/div>\r\n <div class=\"hero__role\">Founder, Whoelse AI<\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <p class=\"hero__deck\"><strong>The fragmentation problem in voice AI and why interoperability matters more than any individual feature.<\/strong> Tobias came from standards bodies and European policy, which gave him a different frame: when AI systems can't talk to each other, adoption stalls for everyone.<\/p>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n<\/header>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div class=\"insight\">\r\n <div class=\"insight__in\">\r\n <span class=\"insight__label\">The Core Insight<\/span>\r\n <p class=\"insight__text\">Fragmentation is a tax on every organization trying to adopt AI. The people working on interoperability aren't building products. They're building the conditions under which products can actually work together at scale.<\/p>\r\n <\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<section class=\"story\">\r\n <div class=\"story__in\">\r\n <div class=\"story__body revL\">\r\n <h3>The moment that started everything<\/h3><p>Tobias Martens spent a decade working at the intersection of technology and public institutions: the European Commission, the German Institute for Standardization (DIN), and corporate consulting. That background gave him a frame most AI founders don't have: he'd watched how standards get made, how they get adopted, and how their absence creates invisible friction across entire industries.<\/p><p>The founding insight of Whoelse AI came from a personal moment: trying to explain how different internet services worked to his nephew and grandmother at the same time. AirBnB for apartments. Tinder for dating. Ticketmaster for events. Each required a different mental model, a different vocabulary, a different way of navigating.<\/p><p>It occurred to him that the problem wasn't the services themselves. It was that every service required its own conceptual framework before you could use it. And that the same fragmentation that made internet services hard to explain was showing up in voice AI, in a more consequential way. When there are over a thousand voice AI technologies on the market and each one uses a different wake word, a different intent format, and a different API. Nobody can build on top of any of them with confidence.<\/p><h3>Why 1,000 voice AI platforms is a problem, not a success<\/h3><p>When Tobias and I spoke, there were over a thousand voice AI technologies on the market. Most people were aware of two or three. That gap isn't a marketing problem: it's a structural problem. Organizations trying to build voice-first experiences face a fragmented ecosystem where every vendor speaks a different language, maintains different standards, and can be deprecated or acquired without warning.<\/p><p>The consequence: organizations either standardize on one platform and accept the dependency risk, or they maintain multiple integrations and absorb the ongoing complexity cost. Neither option is good. And neither solves the underlying problem, which is that there's no shared protocol for what voice AI systems are supposed to do or how they're supposed to talk to each other.<\/p><p>Martens' framing is that this is the same problem the internet solved with TCP\/IP, that email solved with SMTP, that telephony solved with signaling protocols. Every time a communication technology matures, it goes through a period of fragmentation, followed by convergence around a shared standard. Voice AI is in the fragmentation phase. The work Whoelse AI is doing is about accelerating the convergence.<\/p><h3>Standards as competitive strategy, not just compliance<\/h3><p>One of the more unusual aspects of Martens' approach is treating standards contribution as a business strategy rather than a technical obligation. Whoelse AI has contributed to DIN Standards (the German representation of ISO), the World Wide Web Consortium, and the Voice Network initiative, working groups that are writing the technical specifications for how voice AI systems should communicate.<\/p><p>The strategic logic is elegant: in European government procurement, ISO compliance is frequently a contractual requirement. By contributing to the development of the relevant standards rather than waiting to comply with them, Whoelse AI shaped the environment in which it would compete. When the standard is adopted, they're already aligned, and they have the expertise and documentation to help others achieve compliance.<\/p><p><strong>This is a longer game than most AI startups play.<\/strong> But for organizations building for regulated or government-adjacent markets, it's a model worth understanding. The standards governing how AI is deployed in public contexts are being written now. The organizations that participate have influence over what those standards require.<\/p><h3>The architecture of interoperability<\/h3><p>Whoelse AI's technical approach to the fragmentation problem focuses on the linguistic structure layer rather than the full technology stack. Rather than trying to get different platforms to adopt a common API, the team focused on encoding language intent in a standardized way that could be interpreted by multiple underlying systems.<\/p><p>The practical result is a bridge layer, built on DIN Standard protocols and connecting platforms like ARM and IBM Watson, that can accept a user request, parse its intent in a standardized format, and route that intent to whichever underlying AI system is best suited to handle it. The user doesn't know which system responded. They just get an answer.<\/p><p>Martens describes the long-term vision as a network of specialized AI assistants, each expert in a different domain, connected by a shared protocol for passing requests and returning results. Not one AI that knows everything, but many AIs that each know their domain deeply, able to communicate with each other through a shared language. <strong>That's the infrastructure model for AI at scale.<\/strong><\/p>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <div class=\"story__aside revR\">\r\n <div class=\"aside-card\">\r\n <div class=\"aside-card__head\"><div class=\"aside-card__head-label\">Key Facts<\/div><\/div>\r\n <div class=\"aside-card__body\">\r\n <div class=\"aside-fact\"><span class=\"aside-fact__num\">01<\/span><p class=\"aside-fact__text\">Background spans 10 years across European Commission, DIN (German ISO representation), and corporate technology consulting before founding Whoelse AI.<\/p><\/div><div class=\"aside-fact\"><span class=\"aside-fact__num\">02<\/span><p class=\"aside-fact__text\">Contributing author to DIN Standards, ISO protocols, and the W3C Voice Network initiative, working groups writing the technical specs for voice AI interoperability.<\/p><\/div><div class=\"aside-fact\"><span class=\"aside-fact__num\">03<\/span><p class=\"aside-fact__text\">ISO compliance is a contractual requirement in many European government procurement processes, making standards contribution a direct business development strategy.<\/p><\/div><div class=\"aside-fact\"><span class=\"aside-fact__num\">04<\/span><p class=\"aside-fact__text\">Technical architecture: a bridge layer between ARM and IBM Watson, using DIN Standard protocols to route user intent across different AI platforms.<\/p><\/div><div class=\"aside-fact\"><span class=\"aside-fact__num\">05<\/span><p class=\"aside-fact__text\">Chose to work on the \"most basic standard feasible\": linguistic structure encoding, rather than competing on features or attempting a comprehensive platform standard.<\/p><\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n<\/section>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div class=\"pq\">\r\n <div class=\"pq-deco\">“<\/div>\r\n <div class=\"pq__in\">\r\n <blockquote class=\"rev\">\"We're not seeking the greatest standard currently available. We want the <em>most basic standard feasible<\/em>, built for linguistic structure, nothing more.\"<\/blockquote>\r\n <p class=\"pq-attr rev d2\">Tobias Martens \u00b7 Founder, Whoelse AI<\/p>\r\n <div class=\"pq-line rev d3\"><\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<section class=\"takes\">\r\n <div class=\"takes__in\">\r\n <div class=\"takes__head rev\">\r\n <div class=\"lbl-green lbl\">What This Means For Your Organization<\/div>\r\n <h2 class=\"disp\" style=\"margin-top:.4rem;\">Lessons that <em>travel beyond the story.<\/em><\/h2>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <div class=\"takes-grid\">\r\n \r\n <div class=\"take-card rev d1\">\r\n <div class=\"take-num\">01<\/div>\r\n <div class=\"take-title\">Fragmentation is a real cost. Design around it from the beginning.<\/div>\r\n <p class=\"take-body\">Before committing to AI infrastructure, understand how tightly your implementation will couple to a single vendor's format and API. Systems that can route between AI providers or use standardized intent formats give you flexibility that proprietary implementations don't. Switching costs compound.<\/p>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <div class=\"take-card rev d2\">\r\n <div class=\"take-num\">02<\/div>\r\n <div class=\"take-title\">The cognitive load of fragmentation kills adoption.<\/div>\r\n <p class=\"take-body\">When every AI tool requires a different workflow, different prompting approach, and different mental model, the cumulative friction is what stalls organizational AI adoption, not the quality of any individual tool. Reducing cognitive load across a tool ecosystem is a change management problem as much as a technology one.<\/p>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <div class=\"take-card rev d3\">\r\n <div class=\"take-num\">03<\/div>\r\n <div class=\"take-title\">Standards participation is undervalued as a market strategy.<\/div>\r\n <p class=\"take-body\">In regulated industries and government-adjacent markets, the organizations that helped write the standards have a structural advantage when those standards become procurement requirements. If you're building AI products for these markets, contributing to relevant standards bodies is not a compliance exercise: it's a competitive one.<\/p>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n<\/section>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div class=\"series-nav\">\r\n <div class=\"series-nav__in rev\">\r\n <h3>More in the series<\/h3>\r\n <div class=\"nav-chips\"><a class=\"nav-chip\" href=\"https:\/\/aidevlab.com\/innovators\/dylan-fox-assemblyai\/\" style=\";\">\r\n <span class=\"nav-chip__dot\" style=\"background:#2563EB\"><\/span>\r\n <div class=\"nav-chip__info\">\r\n <div class=\"nav-chip__name\">Dylan Fox<\/div>\r\n <div class=\"nav-chip__co\">AssemblyAI<\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/a>\r\n<a class=\"nav-chip\" href=\"https:\/\/aidevlab.com\/innovators\/david-collen-sapientx\/\" style=\";\">\r\n <span class=\"nav-chip__dot\" style=\"background:#7C3AED\"><\/span>\r\n <div class=\"nav-chip__info\">\r\n <div class=\"nav-chip__name\">David Collen<\/div>\r\n <div class=\"nav-chip__co\">SapientX<\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/a>\r\n<a class=\"nav-chip\" href=\"https:\/\/aidevlab.com\/innovators\/arjun-rai-hellowoofy\/\" style=\";\">\r\n <span class=\"nav-chip__dot\" style=\"background:#EA580C\"><\/span>\r\n <div class=\"nav-chip__info\">\r\n <div class=\"nav-chip__name\">Arjun Rai<\/div>\r\n <div class=\"nav-chip__co\">helloWoofy<\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/a>\r\n<a class=\"nav-chip active\" href=\"https:\/\/aidevlab.com\/innovators\/tobias-martens-whoelse-ai\/\" style=\"border-color:#0D9488;background:#ECFAF8;\">\r\n <span class=\"nav-chip__dot\" style=\"background:#0D9488\"><\/span>\r\n <div class=\"nav-chip__info\">\r\n <div class=\"nav-chip__name\">Tobias Martens<\/div>\r\n <div class=\"nav-chip__co\">Whoelse AI<\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/a><\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<section class=\"cta-band\">\r\n <div class=\"cta-band__in\">\r\n <div class=\"revL\">\r\n <h2>Work with a team that<br \/><em>knows the landscape.<\/em><\/h2>\r\n <p>The principles Tobias followed are the same ones we bring to every AI engagement at AI Dev Lab. If you're building AI products or figuring out where AI fits, we should talk.<\/p>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <div class=\"cta-acts rev\">\r\n <a class=\"btn-g\" href=\"https:\/\/calendly.com\/aidevlab-info\/aidevlab-lets-talk-ai\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\r\n Let's Talk\r\n <svg viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\"><line x1=\"5\" y1=\"12\" x2=\"19\" y2=\"12\"\/><polyline points=\"12 5 19 12 12 19\"\/><\/svg>\r\n <\/a>\r\n <a class=\"btn-outline\" href=\"https:\/\/aidevlab.com\/blog\/voice-ai-tobias-martens-whoelse-ai\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\r\n Read Original Interview\r\n <svg viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\"><line x1=\"5\" y1=\"12\" x2=\"19\" y2=\"12\"\/><polyline points=\"12 5 19 12 12 19\"\/><\/svg>\r\n <\/a>\r\n <span class=\"cta-fine\">No commitment \u00b7 30 minutes \u00b7 Senior leadership<\/span>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n<\/section>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div class=\"bio\">\r\n <div class=\"bio__in rev\">\r\n <div class=\"bio-photo\">\r\n <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/aidevlab.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Jason-headshot-photo-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Jason Wells\"\/>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <div>\r\n <div class=\"bio-name\">Jason Wells<\/div>\r\n <div class=\"bio-role\">Co-Founder & Chief Strategy Officer, AI Dev Lab<\/div>\r\n <div class=\"bio-tags\">\r\n <span class=\"bio-tag\">MBA, Wharton<\/span>\r\n <span class=\"bio-tag\">MS Applied Mathematics<\/span>\r\n <span class=\"bio-tag\">Former SVP, Sony Pictures<\/span>\r\n <span class=\"bio-tag\">Kearney Alum<\/span>\r\n <span class=\"bio-tag\">4× Ironman<\/span>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <div class=\"bio-role\" style=\"margin-top:.5rem;font-style:italic;\">Building AI products in transit and enterprise since before it was a pitch deck category.<\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n<script>\r\nconst io = new IntersectionObserver(e => {\r\n e.forEach(x => { if(x.isIntersecting){ x.target.classList.add('v'); } });\r\n},{ threshold:0.1, rootMargin:'0px 0px -40px 0px' });\r\ndocument.querySelectorAll('.rev,.revL,.revR,.take-card,.pq-line').forEach(el=>io.observe(el));\r\n<\/script>\r\n<\/body>\r\n<\/html>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tobias Martens \u00b7 AI Innovators \u00b7 AI Dev Lab AI Innovators \/ Tobias Martens AI Dev Lab \u00b7 Impact Series \u00b7 Profile 4 Voice AI Tobias Martens Founder, Whoelse AI The fragmentation problem in voice AI and why interoperability matters more than any individual feature. Tobias came from standards bodies and European policy, which gave […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"parent":4090,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"elementor_header_footer","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-4111","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"blocksy_meta":{"has_hero_section":"disabled","styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":6}},"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aidevlab.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aidevlab.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aidevlab.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aidevlab.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aidevlab.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4111"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/aidevlab.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4111\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4146,"href":"https:\/\/aidevlab.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4111\/revisions\/4146"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aidevlab.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aidevlab.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}