India is home to more than a billion people who speak hundreds of different languages and dialects. Almost 75% of the population can read, write, and speak in their native language, and a significant percentage prefer voice-based interactions. These communication barriers present challenges for many in accessing online services, including those services and schemes offered by the Indian government for the masses. Cognizant of this, the Indian government announced the National Language Translation Mission was announced, in the Union Budget 2021-22 and aims to develop next-generation, voice-based government apps, and websites that will be operable in all Indian languages. This move has strongly underlined the potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to solve many challenging problems and creates great scope for cognitive AI, speech recognition, and language translation services in a multilingual market like India.
Demand for language services in India
Language services have been around for a while, and we experience some of them in everyday life. Translator apps use end-to-end Deep Neural Network (DNN) models to provide a translation in over 90 languages and dialects. Then there’s Cortana, Alexa, and Siri – all of which are based on speech recognition technology enabling speech-based services deployment across many industries.
Yellow Messenger recently transformed its voice automation solution using AI Speech Services and Natural Language Processing tools, to help enterprises across various sectors enhance the consumer experience. In India, some of the leading telecom operators and e-commerce players have introduced the “voice search” option on their apps, which users can avail in English or Hindi. Meanwhile, some banks have deployed AI-powered multilingual voice bots, which can support Indian language dialects. India’s local language needs are fueling the demand for, and innovation in, language services and enabling them to play a big role in unlocking India’s future growth.
Growth drivers and impact of AI-based voice and translation services
Millions of internet subscribers in India access the internet through their mobile phones. The easy availability and growing affordability of smartphones, especially in the entry-to-medium price range, along with attractive data plans offered by telecom operators, such as Reliance Jio, are helping drive the adoption of mobile internet further across the length and the breadth of the country. The country is rapidly getting digitalized and the adoption of smart devices like set-top boxes, media streamers, smart speakers by consumers has been rising steadily in recent years. On the business front, an increasing number of organizations are turning to Cloud-based solutions to improve productivity, efficiency, security, and ultimately, business outcome.
India continues to build its capabilities and enhance its reputation as a global hub for IT services and R&D efforts. Buoyed by strong government support, technology innovation, and digital adoption, India is advancing at a rapid pace. National missions like Digital India and Make in India have sharpened the focus of businesses on developing technologies that address not only India’s challenges but serve the global market as well. Voice and translation services will be an important feature for most of these technologies.
AI-based voice recognition and language translation solutions can have a far-reaching positive impact in areas such as governance, healthcare, education, agriculture, retail, e-commerce, and financial services. Text-to-speech services enable one to convert text into human-like synthesized speech that can be customized to suit the service or a brand. Today, there are tools available that enable users to input text in Indian languages for internet searches or translations, and even have email addresses in multiple languages. DNNs are being used to develop language models for translating complex Indian languages and addressing language nuances such as gender, politeness, and word type.
Organizations are increasingly leveraging AI speech and translation models to automate their contact center queries, build intelligent voice assistants, and enable voice interfaces for smart devices and apps. Others are employing neural text-to-speech services for natural-sounding speech to enable users to interact with voice assistants. Language services can help businesses understand what their customers think about their products and services and yield insights that can guide them in taking steps to enhance trust and engagement. Such services could include elements such as sentiment analysis, opinion mining, and key phrase extraction. AI solutions are thus shaping the customer experience and engagement with companies and brands.
Today, there are apps, websites, and portals that leverage translation, transcription, and transliteration services in some of India’s widely spoken languages including Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Nepali, Odia, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu. With their help, users can interpret real-time conversations, menus, street signs, websites, and documents. What we need is to make such translation, transcription and, transliteration features available on all important apps, websites, and, portals – especially those that are meant for the masses.
Humans derive a sense of comfort and trust from the familiarity of their native language. And in a multilingual, developing country like ours, there are many for whom their spoken language is the only medium of expression and interaction with the world. It is thus clear that AI-based voice recognition and language translation technologies will empower digital inclusion in India as more and more people get online. Overcoming language barriers will bring people and organizations into the technology fold and help them achieve more – realizing the vision of a truly digital India.
Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com
