It has been a Technologists Dream since the dawn of the silicon era: Humans interacting with talking, almost-sentient machines. Today it is almost possible, thanks to companies like Intervoice, a leader in the Interactive Voice Response, or IVR, industry. Intervoice products can be found across the spectrum of the telecommunications industry, from messaging systems to mobile communications to automated bank and airline systems. In each of these cases, the company's technology lies at the intersection of man and machine. Intervoice, now celebrating its twentieth birthday, was founded by two entrepreneurs, Dan Hammond and Mike Tessarowicz, in 1983. The pair had developed an early voice system based on the just-released IBM PC. At the time, the PC's future was anything but guaranteed, and the young men took a giant risk to create such a complicated business-oriented system for it. Their vision was soon vindicated, however, and the company was off and running. Over the next two decades, Intervoice rode the waves of the telecommunications industry, one of the most volatile and competitive in modern times. Yet, while others folded or were acquired, Intervoice has prospered by offering advanced technology and staying true to its belief that voice applications will be essential in the future.