As the world takes a digital-first leap, India is expected to soon emerge as a hub for AI innovation. In fact, as per NASSCOM, the AI market in India is expected to reach USD 7.8 billion by 2025. Taking cognisance of this massive shift, the government of India is also recognising the prowess of artificial intelligence, introducing initiatives such as the National Strategy for Artificial Intelligence (NSAI), which is aimed at positioning India as one amongst the global leaders in AI.
However, while there is immense scope for AI in India, its adoption is still a “work in progress.” Many sectors, especially the traditional sectors, have stayed away from AI adoption for reasons far ranging from cost, complexity of adoption, to skill gap. This is where smart AI-enabled voicebots come into play. They create an easy and interactive interface between users and AI technology, making complex interactions as easy as chatting with a friend, thus making it easier for a majority of people to benefit from the growing AI adoption.
From engaging with customers round the clock to making operations more streamlined and efficient, these voice-enabled AI bots are making it possible for the masses to truly benefit from the growth of artificial intelligence. To the same end, let’s uncover the true tech powering the rise of AI voicebots and how the same is going to be a solid enabler for AI adoption across India.
The Backbone of Voice-enabled AI Bots
The majority of Indians—in fact, 90% of them—prefer consuming content in their native language, as per a study conducted by KPMG. Clearly, this is one of the key drivers of voicebots in India, as they make customer interactions with the brand more inclusive and personalised. In fact, in a linguistically diverse country like India, applications of voicebots become even more prominent. Powered by the latest advancements in technology, voicebots are able to support diverse Indian languages like Hindi, Tamil, and Bengali—going even further to discerning Hinglish, a native blend of Hindi and English.
Here’s taking a deep dive into the technologies that are powering voice-enabled AI bots:
Natural Language Processing (NLP)
With India being a land of linguistic diversity, it is the natural language processing abilities that make it possible for machines to understand the natural, conversational language. Complex NLP algorithms simplify natural language, slangs, dialects, etc. for the voicebot. NLP ensures that the voicebot completely understands the natural style of language and responds accordingly in real-time.
Natural Language Understanding (NLU)
Taking the prowess of NLP a notch higher, NLU equips the bots to discern the actual intent behind the queries and come up with contextually relevant responses. For instance, if a user asks for an update on the “recent order,” instead of checking all the past orders, the bot will directly fetch updates on the most recently placed order. Naturally, the use of NLU is widely applicable in D2C and e-commerce industries, where different users may enquire with a different turn of phrase.
- Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR)
Converting speech to text, advanced ASR models help in understanding and processing the nuances of different accents, regional dialects, and other linguistic nuances. Different players in the industry often rely on the ASR model made available by tech giants such as Google and Microsoft. However, India, being the land of linguistic diversity and richness, requires voicebots that are trained to understand and respond to the same. Interestingly, tailor-made ASR models adept at understanding “Hinglish” or other regional dialects and accents are fast emerging in India. With over 90% accuracy rates in certain instances, these models can be trusted to offer reliable and relevant information, even with diverse linguistic landscapes.
Machine learning models for dynamic learning
Intelligent AI voicebots leverage the power of machine learning; in fact, it’s integral to their existence. Advanced machine learning models go through large data sets from user interactions and integrate the learnings to enhance the predictability, learning, and adaptability of these voicebots.
Rendering voicebots with this formidable self-learning capability, machine learning ensures that voicebots don’t remain static or redundant and instead evolve with every interaction and deploy the specific learnings to handle more complex queries and improve response rates. Altogether, this gives businesses the freedom to scale their operations without any significant overheads or any compromise on the service quality.
AI Voicebots: Widespread adoption across industries
Owing to their proven expertise in automating customer engagement, improving operations, and overall efficiency, voicebots are seeing rapid adoption in multiple industries, namely healthcare, education, finance, etc.
In healthcare, for instance, voicebot technology can be trained to take care of appointment scheduling, patient follow-ups, and in certain instances, prescription refills as well. As estimated by Deloitte, administrative costs can be brought down by 25% with automation.
Similarly, in finance, voicebot technology can help in automating financial transactions and compliance with regulatory frameworks. As per Gartner, 75% of all banking transactions will be automated by 2025, and a key driver of this is going to be voicebot technology.
Education is another key driver of voicebot-enabled AI adoption. By taking care of student queries, voicebots reduce the burden on human staff and allow them to focus on more complex and creative queries. With education technology across the globe expected to grow by USD 181 billion between 2021 and 2025, AI and voicebot technology is going to play a pivotal role in the same.
Future Perspective: Growing Prominence of AI Voicebots
In its bit to stay on par with the world, India is also adopting a range of digital-first strategies and policies. This only signals growing adoption of AI technologies, with voicebots becoming more advanced and intuitive. As India continues to embrace 5G technology, voicebots will only benefit from deeper penetration and reliable connectivity. In the near future, integrating voicebots with emotional intelligence will open floodgates of opportunities for businesses, with AI voicebots being able to detect emotions in the voice and tailor their response accordingly.
In a nutshell, the writing on the wall is clear! As the world embraces digital first, the AI adoption is only set to increase in India. And at the helm of it is going to be voice-enabled AI bots, solving niche problems and bridging the gap between India’s linguistic diversity and the aspirational businesses that are looking at efficient and advanced ways to achieve scale.