World's largest call center uses AI to erase Indian accents
Because English is spoken over a wide area, each region has its own unique accent. Recently, Teleperformance, the world's largest call center company, has begun using AI to 'neutralize' Indian accents.
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Call Center Giant Using AI To Remove Indian Accent For Western Customers
Call centers using AI to 'whiten' Indian accents
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/03/01/biggest-call-centre-operator-uses-ai-remove-indian-accent/
Based in France, Teleperformance operates primarily in customer care, with around 90,000 employees in India and tens of thousands in other countries, providing customer service to government agencies and telecommunications companies around the world.
Teleperformance has recently started using software from the American company Sanas in an attempt to make its Indian employees' accents more American.
Sanas' software will adapt a speaker's accent to an American one in real time, and also reduce background noises like sirens and chickens.
Sanas has come under fire in the past for its 'white-sounding accent,' but Teleperformance likes the feature and has expressed interest in introducing it in India, as well as the Philippines.
'Using Sanas' real-time voice platform, we can soften employees' accents and improve their ability to speak clear English, overcoming communication barriers and building trusted, meaningful connections between customers and employees,' Teleperformance said in a press release.
Teleperformance and Sanas have signed a $13 million contract, and calls from the call center will be used for training. 'This initiative neutralizes accents in real time without storing any data,' said Marcus Schmidt, a Teleperformance executive. 'It can be difficult for people in India to converse with people in the U.S., for example. This technology will help us build closer ties.'
Sanas' software was developed to reduce discrimination due to accents. In response to criticism that 'we should all pronounce the same,' Sanas CEO Sharat Keshav Narayan said in a past interview , 'We built this software to ensure that employees are able to speak equally, not by how they speak, but by what they say.' In the same interview, the chief customer officer revealed that '87% of Sanas employees are non-white.'
'This agreement underscores Sanas' mission to power human connections,' said Narayan. 'Combining Teleperformance's expertise with our voice AI platform will enable us to create stronger connections with customers and employees.'
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