Teleperformance SE, the world’s largest name heart operator, is implementing a synthetic intelligence system designed to melt the accents of English-speaking Indian staff in real-time. The corporate claims this expertise will improve buyer understanding and satisfaction.
“When you’ve gotten an Indian agent on the road, typically it is arduous to listen to, to know,” Deputy Chief Govt Officer Thomas Mackenbrock informed Bloomberg. “[This technology can] neutralize the accent of the Indian speaker with zero latency, [creates] extra intimacy, will increase the client satisfaction, and reduces the common dealing with time.”
The expertise analyzes speech enter and modifies it to match a specified accent whereas preserving the speaker’s unique voice and emotion. The system makes use of speech recognition to seize the speaker’s voice in real-time. Superior algorithms then transcribe the spoken phrases into textual content, accounting for varied accents and speech patterns. As soon as the system transcribes the speech, the core accent translation course of analyzes the speaker’s accent and pronunciation patterns. Then, it applies AI fashions educated on datasets of varied accents to change the voice.
In the course of the conversion, the software program modifies intonation, stress patterns, and phoneme pronunciation to align with the goal accent. The system employs text-to-speech (TTS) expertise to synthesize the phonetic sample and convert the textual content right into a synthesized voice that maintains the speaker’s unique tone, emotion, and identification.
Teleperformance is deploying expertise with background noise cancellation in Indian name facilities, offering buyer help for worldwide purchasers. Its prospects embrace main tech corporations like Apple, TikTok, and Samsung Electronics.
The expertise is an element of a bigger Teleperformance AI funding technique. The corporate plans to take a position as much as €100 million ($104 million) in AI partnerships in 2025. Palo Alto-based startup Sanas developed the accent expertise after a $13 million Teleperformance funding earlier this yr.
The software program comes as the decision heart business faces challenges from the rise of AI chatbots. Final yr, Teleperformance skilled a big drop in share costs after Swedish fintech agency Klarna Financial institution introduced that its AI assistant was doing the work equal to 700 full-time brokers. In response, Teleperformance has targeted on utilizing AI to reinforce fairly than substitute its workforce of 490,000 staff.
Sanas states that its objective is to scale back “accent-based discrimination.” Nonetheless, whereas the software program might not substitute staff immediately, there are issues concerning the potential influence on name facilities in locations just like the Philippines, which have constructed their market place on high-quality English audio system.
At present, the software program helps Indian and Filipino inflections. Sanas is creating variations for different areas, together with Latin America. Mackenbrock emphasised that whereas AI might be ubiquitous, “the human aspect might be extremely vital” in constructing connections and enhancing buyer experiences.
