Program capable of interacting with humans in local languages

UMESH SACHDEV

Sachdev always wanted to be an entrepreneur. Not just any entrepreneur, but the type who can solve societal problems and create a positive impact.

“We found that though there was no infrastructure, every household had a mobile phone then. However, because of the lack of English literacy and other digital skills, the people in rural areas were (not) using mobiles to access public services (or) to access Internet. The biggest problem was the unavailability of these services in local languages," said Sachdev.

“It was then that we realized that vernacular speech is the lowest common denominator in human-machine interaction, which can be used to bridge the digital divide."

Over the next 15-16 months, Sachdev and Saraogi tapped academic research available in this area and worked with companies that were already conducting research in the field, and created a speech authentication and speech recognition program capable of interacting with humans in local languages.

In 2008, Sachdev co-founded Uniphore, which primarily offers three products: Akeira, a virtual assistant, amVoice, for voice biometrics, and auMina, for speech analytics.

“Our virtual assistant product Akeira, like Siri, can talk on phone, IVR (interactive voice response) and computer. But unlike Siri, it can speak in 14 Indian languages and 30 global languages," he says.

The company has been working with microfinance institutions, banks and primary healthcare centres, among others.

A part of Akeira deals with recognizing and authenticating speech in different languages as well as interacting with humans, while another part communicates with the systems at the back-end like banks’ core software solutions and enterprise resource solutions for healthcare institutions.

The company has been working with five banks, including three public sector banks, to roll out Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s flagship Jan-Dhan Yojana. Akeira talks to rural customers in local languages on behalf of these banks, understands, recognizes and authenticates what they want to do, converts it into instructions and communicates with banks’ software to get the job done.