Meesho, a Bengaluru-based e-commerce startup backed by Softbank, Prosus, and Elevation, has rolled out India's first generative AI-powered voice bot for customer support. This innovative solution has already started handling 60,000 customer calls daily in English and Hindi, with plans to add support for six more Indian languages in the future.

The voice bot, which leverages existing AI large language models combined with custom-built components, has been designed to understand local context and language nuances. This approach has allowed Meesho to overcome several technical hurdles, including improving latency and filtering out street noise while maintaining natural-sounding conversations.

According to Sanjeev Barnwal, co-founder and chief technology officer of Meesho, the decision to use off-the-shelf large language models was driven by their effectiveness in Hindi and English. "We haven't built our own LLM because we believe the off-the-shelf ones available out there were doing well in Hindi and English," Barnwal explained in an interview with TechCrunch.

The implementation of the voice bot has resulted in significant cost savings for Meesho, with a 75% reduction in per-call costs. Additionally, the startup has reported a 95% query resolution rate through the bot, with only 5% of calls requiring human intervention. Customer satisfaction has also improved by 10%, demonstrating the effectiveness of this AI-powered solution.

Notably, the voice bot has reduced Meesho's average customer call handling time by half, but the company emphasizes that the technology is not intended to replace human agents. Instead, human agents have been redirected to handle more complex queries and seller support, highlighting the potential for AI to augment human capabilities in customer service.

Another key challenge Meesho faced was preventing the AI from straying beyond strict guidelines about policies like returns and refunds. This underscores the importance of careful design and implementation when deploying AI solutions in customer-facing roles.

The rollout of Meesho's voice bot reflects the growing trend among Indian tech companies to leverage AI for increased efficiency. This approach raises important questions about whether to build proprietary models or rely on existing ones, as highlighted by Hemant Mohapatra, a partner at Lightspeed, at a recent conference. "I don't think we have the enough talent today to build the foundational models. Play the war that you are capable of winning," Mohapatra noted.

As the e-commerce landscape continues to evolve, Meesho's innovative use of AI-powered voice bots is likely to have significant implications for the industry. With its ability to reduce costs, improve query resolution rates, and enhance customer satisfaction, this technology has the potential to become a key differentiator for companies seeking to stay ahead in the competitive Indian e-commerce market.

Looking ahead, it will be interesting to see how Meesho's voice bot continues to evolve and improve, as well as how other companies in the industry respond to this innovative use of AI. As the technology continues to advance, it is likely that we will see even more creative applications of AI-powered voice bots in customer service and beyond.