Systems and methods are disclosed for providing non-lexical cues in synthesized speech. Original text is analyzed to determine characteristics of the text and/or to derive or augment an intent (e.g., an intent code). Non-lexical cue insertion points are determined based on the characteristics of the text and/or the intent. One or more non-lexical cues are inserted at insertion points to generate augmented text. The augmented text is synthesized into speech, including converting the non-lexical cues to speech output.