HYDERABAD: A conversation with a chatbot can get really tiring at times. How many of us have given up after having an unfruitful conversation with automated, dead replies!
Changing this for brands and customers is Bhairav Shankar, founder of Avantari Technologies in Jubilee Hills. The entrepreneur, engineer and artiste speaks to CE about using deepfake technology and natural language processing to create a virtual experience.
Called Decs, the hologram-like technology makes a chatbot look and sound human. “This makes a customer feel more connected to the bot you’re having a conversation with, because it makes you believe it’s a real person you’re talking to. What this enables is a person’s ability to express better and trust the brand or product more. All we did was record and shoot a few models, and we now make it look like their lips are really moving, their eyes expressing what you need.”
You will soon see Decs being used at information counters at malls, for healthcare, finance industries and more. “Imagine a hologram answering your question at a mall about what food you should have, where to pick up the kind of clothes you’re looking for. The hologram is just the body, the software we developed is the brain behind it,” Bhairav says.
To get a better idea of how it works, picture the recent #NotACadburyAd that had their brand ambassador actor Shah Rukh Khan take the names of several small businesses to show as if he’s promoting these brands for real!
All Decs does is record a brand’s ambassador or model’s face and voice so their likeness can be used for the chat content today and long into the future. “We can do this with just three hours of audio and video recordings. This avoids large content creation costs and drives up customer engagement.”
Avantari is also known for developing a smart ring, Dhyana, which measures the quality of meditation. It was acquired by the Indian Olympic Association that had all the players using it during the Tokyo Olympics.