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Audio startup Krisp announced the launch of a new feature leveraging AI technology to modify a user’s accent while on calls. Initially focusing on the transition from Indian English accents to U.S. English, the company assures that the accent transformation process maintains the speaker’s voice, only altering phonemes to align with American accents. This feature, previously tested in corporate settings, is now being introduced in beta form within the Krisp desktop app, allowing users to activate it before or during calls.
Origin and Development
Arto Minasyan, co-founder of Krisp, revealed that the idea for this feature emerged from personal communication challenges. Minasyan shared, “Many people struggle to comprehend my accent despite my command of the English language. We speculated that accent alteration could enhance mutual understanding between individuals. We embarked on addressing this issue two years ago, and now we are rolling out the beta version.” However, initial tests revealed that the altered voice sounded somewhat unnatural and occasionally missed words. The company attributed these issues to the beta phase, assuring improvements with time.
Impact and Future Expansion
According to Krisp, trials of the feature in enterprise settings resulted in a 26.1% increase in sales conversion rates and a 14.8% rise in revenue per booking. The company’s decision to prioritize Indian accents stemmed from the substantial Indian presence in global STEM workforces. Future plans include incorporating support for additional accents, including Filipino. Similar technologies have been adopted by other startups such as GV-backed Sanas, particularly in call center operations at scale.
Krisp disclosed that the model was trained on a multitude of speech samples encompassing various accents and dialects, utilizing data from its meeting assistant post user consent. Minasyan highlighted another benefit of the feature, emphasizing its real-time speaker profile creation eliminating the need for pre-training on the user’s voice. With the last capital raise dating back to 2021, Krisp intends to unveil iOS and Android applications this year catering to in-person meetings. Furthermore, a Chrome extension is in development to enhance integration with Google Meet.
