Cheap AI bots spread rapidly in India, changing the tech landscape

Despite concerns, Indian AI startups are optimistic about the technology. Photo: Shutterstock

4 minutes of reading Last update: August 26, 2024 | 7:13 AM IST

By Saritha Rai

Earlier this month, executives from Google DeepMind, an Alphabet Inc. company, Microsoft Corp. and Meta Platforms Inc. joined tech founders in Bengaluru to watch one of India’s top artificial intelligence startups unveil a new product that could change the way the world’s most populous country uses technology.

Sarvam AI, often referred to as India’s OpenAI, has launched software for businesses that can communicate with customers using spoken voice rather than just text. The technology has been developed using data from 10 native Indian languages and priced at a rupee per minute to capture the market. In a video from the event, Vinod Khosla, billionaire investor and investor in Sarvam, said, “These voice bots have the potential to reach a billion people.”

India has been trying to keep up with the global AI craze in the nearly two years since ChatGPT launched, but chatbots have often been limited by a lack of data on the country’s many languages. While many city dwellers can type messages to a chatbot in English, most Indians lack the language skills to do so. Now, a growing number of startups are betting that voice bots built on local-language data can reach a wider swath of India, and perhaps even engage users in other countries.

In the process, these startups could turn India into a testing ground for what could be the next frontier for generative AI products, albeit one that has raised some security concerns in other markets. By incorporating AI voice capabilities, tech companies hope to create more dynamic, conversational services that can respond to users verbally in real time and automate specific tasks. This is already happening in India across a wide range of consumer and business applications.

Samsung-backed Gnani AI makes millions of voice calls a day for India’s largest banks, insurers and automakers. CoRover AI offers voice bots in 14 Indian languages to the state railway corporation and the regional police. And a voice bot from Haloocom Technologies can speak five Indian languages to handle customer service tasks and help screen job candidates.

“The world has moved from digital to mobile and then AI, but voice remains the most intuitive way to engage with technology,” said Ankush Sabharwal, Co-Founder and CEO, CoRover.

CoRover’s Ask Disha voice bot was launched this month for Indian train booking company IRCTC. The bot can book train tickets and make payments on behalf of a customer using only voice. The country needs AI agents that can perform tasks, not just deliver information, Sabharwal said.

Gnani offers a bot that helps lenders talk to potential customers to determine their financial needs, collect personal information and determine their eligibility for loans. The startup also works with one of India’s largest carmakers, Tata Motors Ltd., to get feedback on the latest car models and sell extended warranties and accessories.

Sarvam’s voice bots can handle conversations in different languages and take actions for customers, such as scheduling appointments and facilitating payments. The company has about 50 clients, including Sri Mandir, a worship app that has more than 10 million downloads on the Android Play Store. Using Sarvam’s voice software, the Sri Mandir app can direct people to specific rituals at different temples and how to seek different types of blessings.

“Try throwing GPT-4 or Claude at Sri Mandir. I can guarantee you it won’t work,” said Vivek Raghavan, co-founder of Sarvam, referring to cutting-edge AI models from OpenAI and Anthropic. American companies don’t have access to enough data on spoken Indian languages, he said, including accents, which vary by region.

Some leading AI companies in the US, including OpenAI, have developed technology that can generate convincing voices but have been slow to bring them to market. OpenAI recently warned that users could become emotionally dependent on its voice product and also said it has taken steps to prevent spoofing and the generation of copyrighted audio. The startup has begun rolling out the new voice features to a limited number of users after a delay.

Despite the concerns, Indian AI startups are bullish on the technology. “AI built for specific use cases, languages and audiences is more accurate, cheaper to use and has much less hallucination,” said Ganesh Gopalan, co-founder and CEO of Gnani, using a term that refers to AI systems that fabricate facts.

While these startups are focused on India, some of them also have their eyes on international markets, including the Middle East and Japan. In fact, Gnani’s voice bots are already deployed in Silicon Valley’s backyard, helping major Californian leasing company Harley-Davidson reach Spanish-speaking customers.

First published: August 26, 2024 | 7:13 AM IST