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Sunday, April 14, 2024

Siri can speak Urdu now, thanks to Karachi Tech Company

News Desk |

For Apple users, Siri is a familiar voice on the phone. For Android users, there’s Ok Google. Both of these AI-themed voice assistance services exist in English and for most Pakistani users, that’s a tertiary language. Even if it isn’t, having Siri in Urdu would be an outstanding innovation and a Karachi tech company has beaten everyone to it!

The underlying theme of this year’s Smart CX conference, held in Karachi, was the use of innovative technology to enhance customer experience and satisfaction. The conference was organized by C-Square, a local Customer Experience (CX) company, in collaboration with Genesys, a global CX powerhouse.

One of the star attractions of the conference was Urdu voice-recognition bot. The bot, named RUBA — Real Urdu Bot Automation, has been designed by C-Square in collaboration with Genesys.

What we need to factor in is the next generation, which is called Generation Alpha. That’s the first generation that will be born into Artificial Intelligence (AI).

RUBA is a Siri-styled virtual voice-enabled personal assistant. The bot is able to interact with the user in Urdu and respond in Urdu while carrying simple tasks from checking your bank account balance to sending a text message on your behalf.

“RUBA was made in Urdu because of the local population in Pakistan, and for the large labour force working in the Middle-East,” said C-Square CEO Ahsan Mashkoor, before demonstrating the bot’s capabilities in front of the audience. Ahsan Mashkoor, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of C-Square, started off the conference with a welcome address and reminisced the company’s early days.

Javaid Iqbal, CEO of Transform-X, talked about “Customer in the Age of Intelligence” and focused his session on how companies aren’t ready for the upcoming generation of customers. “And as I look at customer journeys, the way they’re built right now for organizations, I think we have no idea how to innovate for the next generation that’s about to hit us.”

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Iqbal said the popular fad is that millennials are going to run everything. “What we need to factor in is the next generation, which is called Generation Alpha. That’s the first generation that will be born into Artificial Intelligence (AI).”