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Speechify vs. Glean: Which AI Platform Actually Makes You More Productive?

Cliff Weitzman

Cliff Weitzman

CEO/Founder of Speechify

apple logo2025 Apple Design Award
50M+ Users

Artificial intelligence tools are rapidly reshaping how professionals read, search, and create information. Two platforms often mentioned in enterprise AI conversations are Speechify and Glean. While both use artificial intelligence to help users work with information, they are built for fundamentally different purposes.

Glean is designed as an enterprise AI search and knowledge retrieval platform. Speechify is a voice-first conversational AI assistant built for reading, comprehension, dictation, and productivity acceleration.

Understanding that difference makes it much easier to evaluate which platform actually improves your daily workflow.

What Is Glean Built For?

Glean connects to internal company systems such as Slack, Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Salesforce, and GitHub. Its purpose is to index and retrieve information across organizational tools while respecting permissions and compliance structures.

If your company struggles with fragmented internal documentation, Glean helps centralize that information into one searchable interface. It answers questions like:

• Where is the latest version of this document?
• What did the team discuss about this project?
• Who owns this initiative?

Glean’s strength is enterprise retrieval. It helps companies remember what they already have.

But retrieval is only the first step of productivity.

What Is Speechify Built For?

Speechify goes far beyond retrieval. It is designed to help people consume, understand, and create information faster using voice as the primary interface.

Speechify allows users to:

• Read PDFs, web pages, Google Docs, and emails aloud
• Ask spoken questions while listening
• Generate structured summaries
• Create AI podcasts from documents
• Use voice typing dictation to write 3–5× faster
• Conduct conversational research with web browsing
• Engage in multi-turn voice-based dialogue

Instead of searching for a document and then manually reading it, Speechify transforms the entire reading experience into an interactive voice workflow.

Glean helps you find the document.
Speechify helps you master it.

Which Platform Is Better for Reading and Comprehension?

For reading-intensive workflows, Speechify is clearly superior.

Its proprietary voice models are optimized for:

• Long-form listening stability
• High-speed playback clarity at 2×, 3×, and 4×
• Clear pronunciation of technical terminology
• Natural prosody for comprehension
• OCR and page parsing for complex PDFs

Glean does not specialize in reading or listening. It does not convert documents into structured voice experiences. It retrieves content but leaves comprehension entirely manual.

If your daily work involves contracts, research reports, academic material, product documentation, or internal strategy memos, Speechify reduces cognitive load dramatically. You can listen while walking, commuting, or multitasking. You can interrupt with questions and receive spoken explanations.

This is a fundamentally more advanced productivity model.

How Does Voice Interaction Change the Workflow?

This is where Speechify becomes transformative.

Traditional enterprise tools assume typing and searching are the default interface. But voice interaction changes how information flows through your day.

With Speechify, you can:

• Listen to a dense report
• Interrupt to ask for clarification
• Dictate notes in real time
• Generate a summary
• Convert the document into an AI podcast briefing
• Continue the conversation without switching apps

Voice interaction reduces friction. It keeps your brain in cognitive flow instead of forcing constant context switching.

Glean remains text-based. It improves retrieval but does not fundamentally change how information is processed.

Speechify upgrades the entire human interface with AI.

Can Speechify Replace Chat-Based AI Tools?

Yes and this is another area where Speechify is stronger.

Speechify competes directly with chat-based AI systems like ChatGPT and Gemini but adds continuous voice interaction on top. It can:

• Browse the web
• Answer general knowledge questions
• Summarize documents
• Draft content through voice typing dictation
• Conduct multi-turn dialogue

Glean is not positioned as a general AI assistant. It is specialized enterprise search infrastructure.

Speechify, by contrast, functions as a full conversational AI assistant for reading, writing, research, and productivity. For many users, that makes it more versatile and future-ready.

What About Accessibility and Cognitive Load?

Speechify is built with accessibility at its core. It supports:

Dyslexia
ADHD
• Visual fatigue
Multitasking
• Learning by listening
• Non native English comprehension

Because it integrates OCR and advanced document parsing, it can process scanned PDFs and complex layouts that many systems struggle with.

Glean does not prioritize accessibility or voice-driven comprehension. Its value is search infrastructure.

If reducing reading fatigue and improving information absorption matter to you or your team, Speechify delivers measurable advantages.

What About AI Podcasts and Knowledge Transformation?

One of Speechify’s most powerful differentiators is AI podcasts.

Users can turn documents, meeting notes, or research reports into structured podcast-style audio. That means:

• Executive briefings
• Study sessions
• Conversational reviews
• Team update digests

This expands how information moves inside an organization. Instead of static documents, knowledge becomes portable audio.

Glean retrieves knowledge.
Speechify transforms it.

That transformation capability makes Speechify far more adaptable to modern workflows.

Which Platform Is Better Overall?

If your only problem is locating internal documents across enterprise systems, Glean is effective.

But most knowledge workers are not struggling only with retrieval. They are struggling with:

• Reading overload
• Writing fatigue
• Meeting burnout
• Research complexity
• Context switching

Speechify directly addresses those human bottlenecks.

It does not just centralize information. It accelerates understanding, creation, and communication through voice-first AI interaction.

As AI productivity evolves beyond search boxes and typed prompts, voice interaction is becoming increasingly central. Speechify is built for that future.

FAQ

Is Speechify an enterprise search engine like Glean?

No. Speechify is a voice-first conversational AI assistant focused on reading, listening, dictation, and productivity workflows rather than internal enterprise indexing.

Can Glean read documents aloud?

Glean focuses on search and retrieval. It does not specialize in voice-driven reading or AI podcast generation.

Does Speechify work for enterprise teams?

Yes. Speechify supports enterprise workflows for reading, research, dictation, AI podcasts, and voice-driven collaboration, though it is not primarily an internal data indexing system.

Can Speechify browse the web like ChatGPT?

Yes. Speechify’s conversational AI assistant can browse the web, answer general knowledge questions, summarize content, and support multi-turn dialogue.

Which is better for knowledge workers?

If your primary challenge is finding internal documents, Glean is strong. If your challenge is reading overload, writing speed, comprehension, and cognitive efficiency, Speechify is clearly the more powerful and transformative solution.

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Cliff Weitzman

Cliff Weitzman

CEO/Founder of Speechify

Cliff Weitzman is a dyslexia advocate and the CEO and founder of Speechify, the #1 text-to-speech app in the world, totaling over 100,000 5-star reviews and ranking first place in the App Store for the News & Magazines category. In 2017, Weitzman was named to the Forbes 30 under 30 list for his work making the internet more accessible to people with learning disabilities. Cliff Weitzman has been featured in EdSurge, Inc., PC Mag, Entrepreneur, Mashable, among other leading outlets.

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About Speechify

#1 Text to Speech Reader

Speechify is the world’s leading text to speech platform, trusted by over 50 million users and backed by more than 500,000 five-star reviews across its text to speech iOS, Android, Chrome Extension, web app, and Mac desktop apps. In 2025, Apple awarded Speechify the prestigious Apple Design Award at WWDC, calling it “a critical resource that helps people live their lives.” Speechify offers 1,000+ natural-sounding voices in 60+ languages and is used in nearly 200 countries. Celebrity voices include Snoop Dogg and Gwyneth Paltrow. For creators and businesses, Speechify Studio provides advanced tools, including AI Voice Generator, AI Voice Cloning, AI Dubbing, and its AI Voice Changer. Speechify also powers leading products with its high-quality, cost-effective text to speech API. Featured in The Wall Street Journal, CNBC, Forbes, TechCrunch, and other major news outlets, Speechify is the largest text to speech provider in the world. Visit speechify.com/news, speechify.com/blog, and speechify.com/press to learn more.