Indian e-commerce company Meesho has launched a Gen-AI-powered voice bot designed to help resolve customer queries on the platform. With 80 percent of Meesho's users hailing from tier 2 cities and beyond, the voice bot is built for adaptability, performing efficiently on basic smartphones and even in noisy environments. "Leading the AI revolution in e-commerce, Meesho launches India's first Gen AI-powered voice bot at scale, offering personalised, human-like multilingual support to enhance customer experience," the company said in a statement on Tuesday (November 26).
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AI Usage in E-Commerce Customer Support
The launch comes amid a growing trend where e-commerce companies are using artificial intelligence (AI) and generative AI to reduce costs and streamline operations. Earlier this year, Amazon introduced Rufus, an AI-powered shopping assistant in India, to enhance customer experience, which has already yielded promising results.
The voice bot boasts an interruption-handling feature that differentiates between casual affirmations (like "yes," "ji," or "okay") and meaningful interruptions, ensuring smooth and uninterrupted interactions. As a result, the bot offers seamless support, achieving 10 percent higher Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) scores, the company said in an official statement.
Cost Reduction and Faster Response Times
According to Meesho, the bot handles around 60,000 calls daily and has achieved a 95 percent resolution rate, significantly reducing human intervention and boosting efficiency. This has led to a 50 percent improvement in Average Handle Time (AHT), providing faster and more effective customer support.
"The voice bot ensures consistent and accurate service with strong adherence to Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), boosting reliability and user satisfaction. This positions it as a best-in-class solution for seamless, 24/7 customer support," the company said.
"Spearheading the AI revolution in e-commerce, Meesho's Gen AI-powered voice bot showcases our dedication to groundbreaking, industry-first innovations," said Sanjeev Barnwal, Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer. "Engineered with India's rich multilingual landscape in mind, the voice bot leverages advanced Gen-AI, Large Language Models (LLM), and cutting-edge natural language processing to empower users to communicate seamlessly in their preferred language, fostering unparalleled accessibility and inclusivity. Its human-like interaction is a standout feature, enhancing communication ease, building trust, and delivering support that feels natural and relatable."
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Multilingual Support and Emotion Recognition
Meesho's voice bot leverages technologies such as natural language processing (NLP), automatic speech recognition (ASR), text-to-speech (TTS), and Large Language Models (LLM) to provide fast, accurate, and culturally relevant responses.
The bot currently supports Hindi and English with plans to expand to six additional regional languages, including Gujarati, Bangla, Marathi, and other vernacular languages to service all of Meesho's regional customers. Future updates will introduce emotion recognition capabilities, enabling the voice bot to detect user emotions for more empathetic and responsive interactions, the company said.
According to multiple media reports, Sanjeev Barnwal said the cost per call will be reduced by 75 percent with the help of the latest voice bot when compared with a human's cost per call earlier. The turnaround time for each query will also halve from around 3-4 minutes to about 1.5-2 minutes, Barnwal added.
