ElevenLabs addresses that inconsistency problem with a cloud voice platform built around a single research foundation: ultra-realistic speech synthesis across 70+ languages, voice cloning, dubbing, and a conversational agent layer that enterprises deploy for customer-facing interactions. The speech quality clears the bar for production audiobooks, ad voiceovers, and IVR systems — the vendor's client list includes The Walt Disney Studios, Salesforce, and Epic Games, which signals enterprise readiness. The ceiling appears when you need on-premise deployment or volume that makes per-character pricing hurt. Teams running high-throughput pipelines — millions of characters per month — hit cost walls and start modeling whether a self-hosted open-source alternative pencils out.