Inko: Voice-First Research Companion

Research should be a process of discovery, not a constant struggle between tabs, sources, notes, and disconnected tools. INKO is a voice-first academic research companion designed to let students investigate topics through natural conversation. Instead of manually navigating through different research tools, students can simply tell INKO what they want to investigate and let the agent guide the workflow. A student can ask INKO to research a topic, find relevant sources, compare evidence, identify contradictory findings, organize important information, and explain what the evidence means. INKO can also visualize findings on a research canvas and challenge the student's conclusions through a voice-based debate or Socratic discussion. The core experience is: Talk → Research → Compare → Find Contradictions → Organize → Explain → Challenge. Voice is not just an input method. It is the primary interface for interacting with the application. INKO can use voice commands to trigger application actions, allowing the interface to respond automatically as the research progresses. INKO is powered by AssemblyAI's Voice Agent API for its real-time conversational voice experience, including speech recognition, turn detection, text-to-speech, interruption handling, and tool calling. These capabilities allow INKO to move beyond a voice chatbot and act as an agent that can interact with the research workspace. The goal is simple: make academic research feel more like having an intelligent research partner beside you—one you can talk to, question, challenge, and ask to investigate with you.