AI app helps call center agents speak English more clearly

PTVPhilippines

Transcript

00:00 The call center sector of the business process outsourcing industry has hugely contributed

00:06 to an estimated $32 billion in industry revenues to the country.

00:10 And yet the sector grapples with a huge employee turnover due to discrimination and abuse from

00:16 internationally based customers who see them as people they cannot relate to due to speech

00:22 accents.

00:23 An AI program being developed by a California tech startup in the Bay Area will help call

00:28 center agents sound more convincing to English-speaking customers as VOA's Matt Dibble reports.

00:36 In the global economy, a call to a customer service center will likely be answered by

00:40 someone in a faraway part of the world.

00:44 Call center workers can train for months to effectively communicate with customers whose

00:49 native language and culture differ from theirs.

00:52 I can't try that.

00:54 Photographer.

00:55 Photographer.

00:56 Good.

00:57 And while the call center workers are training, accents often get in the way, says developer

01:01 Sharath Narayana.

01:02 There are at least a few instances every single day of his life or her life that they go through

01:07 some level of discrimination and sometimes straight up abuse.

01:11 Narayana is a co-founder of California-based Sanus AI, whose technology can adjust the

01:17 way a speaker sounds with the goal of making an accent more relatable.

01:22 A call center worker from the Philippines demonstrated.

01:25 Hi, my name is Iki.

01:27 I'm from Paranaque.

01:28 Hi, my name is Iggy.

01:29 I'm from Paranaque.

01:30 The difference can be subtle, but Narayana says it is helping call center workers avoid

01:38 abuse.

01:39 We're not trying to hide the fact that this person is from India or this person is from

01:43 the Philippines, but this person would sound so clear, so confident, and so crisp that

01:49 the other person would like to have a conversation.

01:52 Discrimination and abuse by callers are among the factors leading to high turnover among

01:57 call center workers.

01:59 Narayana himself once worked in such a center, and although he doesn't excuse the behavior

02:03 of callers, he says he understands what's going on.

02:07 When they hear that accent, the first thing that I see is that lack of trust with this

02:12 person.

02:13 I've waited so long for my problem to solve.

02:15 Now I'm connected to somebody that I can't relate to or his voice that I cannot relate

02:19 to.

02:20 Can this person actually solve my problem?

02:23 Sociologist Anish Anish says tools like Sanus can help reduce the burden on call center

02:28 agents.

02:29 Anish, however, worries that it also points to what he says are dehumanizing trends in

02:34 technology, namely erasing diversity.

02:37 Most of our communication is mediated through some technology, but when technology starts

02:42 changing your accent itself, that is transforming you into your own avatar.

02:49 Now the driving force is not developing an understanding between human beings, but the

02:56 driving force is transactional in the sense that things have to get functionally done.

03:03 Narayana says that of the workers with the optional Sanus system installed, 97 percent

03:08 of them are choosing to use it every day.

03:11 Because I was able to listen to one of my calls using Sanus and wow.

03:15 It looks like English is my first language, where in fact it's not.

03:20 If there is a technology solution to it, where I don't have to change the way I sound, but

03:25 the other person can understand me very, very clearly, why isn't it a beautiful thing?

03:32 For now, the AI seems to be helping people connect.

03:36 Matt Dibble, VOA News, Palo Alto, California.

03:39 [MUSIC PLAYING]

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