Voice payments in local language bridge an eDivide

This technology is expected to significantly help feature phone users get the benefit of digital railroads such as Unified Payments Corporation (UPI). The NPCI, the platform for operating retail payments and settlement systems in India is working with AI4Bharat, an open-source language artificial intelligence (AI) centre based at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras, to facilitate voice-based merchant payments as well as peer-to-peer transactions in local languages.

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It is learnt that the language models will be provided by AI4Bharat. Currently, smartphone users can scan a QR code and send money. But those who use a feature phone only have the option of using the IVRS which is time taking and cumbersome. “This technology will significantly help feature phone users get the benefit of innovations such as UPI,” said an official in the know of the development.

“There’s a painful IVRS and as per a study, to transfer Rs 100 you need to press buttons 52 times on the phone to transfer money to a contact. I mean ‘press 1 for English’, ‘press 2 for account number’, then some confirmations and so on,” another official told ET.

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“Across India, people speak in different ways. AI4Bharat is working on the technical component which can recognise a voice in an Indian language and identify entities,” said the official cited above.

NPCI and AI4Bharat did not comment on the matter while the RBI did not respond to ET’s request for a comment. In 2021, ET had reported that the NPCI is testing a voice-based payments service for feature phone users in low connectivity zones, and that the service is likely to be rolled out on top of the interoperable UPI protocol.

The paper has also reported that the feature phone users won’t need a third-party app or stable internet connection to complete their transactions. The IVR payments project was in beta testing mode with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) closely monitoring the pilot as per provisions laid under the central bank’s Regulatory Sandbox, the report had said.

ET had also exclusively reported in December 2020 that RBI was testing offline payments through feature phones in a handful of villages in coastal Karnataka in partnership with some fintech and payment firms.