Working paper / 2026
Conversational AI LLM Bench
Abstract
We define conversational AI LLMs as the language models at the center of cascaded voice pipelines, between speech recognition and speech synthesis, that return a first token within one second: a median time to first token of 1,000 ms or less. The Conversational AI LLM Bench (CALLM) benchmarks this category. Each model operates every agent of a multi-agent front desk in healthcare, legal, and customer support, with production-length prompts, executable tools, and per-call database state. A simulated caller pursues a locked task over a simulated phone line, so the model receives only what a speech recognizer would have transcribed, errors included. A deterministic verifier scores tool calls, handoffs, and final database state; pass@1 and pass5 measure single-attempt capability and five-attempt reliability.
Clone the repository, point a model at an industry pack, and reproduce the evaluation environment.
Mistral AI's open-weights 14B Ministral 3 instruct model.
| Scope | pass^5 | pass@1 | E / M / H | Tools | Handoff | Final DB | TTFT | Cost/hr |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cross-industry | 17.8% | 48.0% | 74 / 47 / 36 | 50.0% | 85.5% | 72.0% | 989ms | $0.244 |
| Healthcare | 23.3% | 50.0% | 93 / 56 / 23 | 50.7% | 87.0% | 80.3% | 997ms | $0.288 |
| Legal | 8.3% | 36.0% | 33 / 40 / 33 | 36.3% | 85.7% | 59.0% | 993ms | $0.165 |
| Customer support | 21.7% | 58.0% | 97 / 46 / 51 | 63.0% | 83.7% | 76.7% | 982ms | $0.279 |
E / M / H is pass@1 on easy, medium, and hard tasks. Gate columns are the share of conversations that cleared each check.