Indian AI Startups to Launch Voice Bots in Native Languages to Reach Mass Audiences

After two years since ChatGPT began, India has attempted to keep up with global artificial intelligence, but chatbots are confined due to a lack of data on numerous Indian languages.

In Bangalore, India, AI executives from Google DeepMind, Microsoft Corp., and Meta Platforms Tech have joined hands with owners of the leading AI startup in India to launch a new software technology that will change how the world uses technology.

Sarvam AI, often known as the OpenAI Indian version, introduced a new software where businesses can interact with customers through speech voice rather than text. The software was designed with data from ten native Indian languages and was priced at a rupee per minute to gain traction in the market.

After two years since ChatGPT began, India has attempted to keep up with global artificial intelligence, but chatbots are confined due to a lack of data on numerous Indian languages. While many people in large cities can type English commands to a chatbot, most Indians are not proficient. Now, the growing startups believe that voice bots built in the local Indian language will reach a broad audience in India and possibly even attract consumers from other nations.

In this process, these startups have the potential to transform India into a testing ground for the next generation of generative AI products, yet one that has sparked some safety worries in other countries. AI voice features were incorporated to build more dynamic, conversational services that can automate tasks and answer users verbally in real time.

Backed up by Samsung, Gnani AI handles millions of voice chats daily for India’s largest banks, insurance providers, and car companies. CoRover AI offers voice bots in 14 Indian languages to Indian railway corporations and regional police. The voice bot of Haloocom Technologies can speak 5 Indian languages to help with customer service and job candidate screening.

Ankush Sabharwal, the co-founder and chief executive officer of CoRover, states that the world has turned from digital to mobile and then to AI, but voice is always the most intuitive way to use technology.

This month, the Ask Disha speech bot developed by CoRover went online for IRCTC, an Indian rail booking service. The bot can purchase rail tickets and handle payments on behalf of a user based on voice commands. According to Sabharwal, the nation requires AI agents that can carry out jobs rather than deliver information.

Gnani AI offers bots to lenders to converse with potential customers to help with their financial needs and collect their data to determine their loan eligibility. It also works with India’s biggest carmaker, Tata Motors, to get feedback on their latest car model and offer extended warranties and accessories.

Sarvam voice bot can handle mixed language conversations and help take action for the customers, like making payments and setting up appointments. The company has 50 clients, and one of them is Sri Mandir, a devotional app with over 10 million downloads in the Play Store. Sarvam helps people with specific rituals in the temple and how to ask for different types of blessings.

Co-founder of Sarvam, Vivek Raghavan states that if someone tries using Claude or GPT-4 at Sri Mandir, he assures that it wouldn’t work since the US companies don’t have access to spoken Indian language data, including regionally-specific accents.

Some of the leading AI companies in the US, including OpenAI, have started developing convincing voice bots and slowly brought them into the market. However, OpenAI has warned that users might become emotionally dependent on voice bots, and they are taking serious steps to prevent copyrighted audio and impersonations.

Despite some concerns, AI startups in India are confident about their technology. Ganesh Gopalan, co-founder and CEO of Gnani, states that AI made for specific use cases, language, and the audience is more accurate and less expensive and has significantly fewer hallucinations, a word that refers to AI systems that fabricate facts.

These startups are also eyeing international markets, like Japan and the Middle East. Gnani’s voice bots have already launched in Silicon Valley, helping a California-based leasing company to reach Spanish-speaking customers.