Azure Realtime vs Cascade

Azure Realtime is more reliable, by 11.4 points. Azure Realtime handled 26 of 70 real callers well on all three runs, and Cascade 18. A caller only counts when every run of the call scored 80 or more.

On reliability, yes: Azure Realtime handles more callers well on every run than the cascade. Azure Realtime is ahead on ELO rating, hearing score, speaking score, task handling score, reliability, calls handled well, calls fully resolved, calls where the agent went quiet and median latency, and Cascade on turn taking score. Both ran as the same agent, with the same prompt and tools.

Azure Realtime, by 13.3 points higher. Azure Realtime fully resolved 25.7% of calls and Cascade 12.4%. A call counts only when every step the caller needed was done.

Yes. Azure Realtime starts replying 0.20s sooner at the median. Azure Realtime takes 1.86s at the median and 2.10s at p90; Cascade takes 2.06s and 2.49s. Both are measured on the call audio, from the caller finishing to the agent starting to reply.

Azure Realtime, by 1.0 points. The agent went quiet for 10 seconds or more on 6.2% of Azure Realtime calls and 7.1% of Cascade calls.

There is no verified per-minute rate for Cascade, so cost cannot be compared yet.

Cekura ran both as the whole agent with the same prompt, tools and phone connection. Both took the same 70 recorded real human callers on live calls, three times each. Each call is graded on 25 skills across Hearing, Turn Taking, Task Handling and Speaking, and passes at a score of 80 out of 100. Cascades run the same agent for reference and are never ranked.