Sanas' Accent Mitigating Tech Gets a US Patent

Sanas, a real-time speech understanding artificial intelligence technology provider, has received a U.S. patent for its Real-Time Accent Conversion AI Technology.

With Sanas' patented real-time accent conversion and background noise elimination technology, agents speak naturally while the technology adapts their accents to one the customer understands. Today more than 10,000 agents in India and the Philippines use Sanas, and more than 100,000 agents are expected to use Sanas daily by the end of the year.

"Being granted this patent is very exciting news for our company as we work to pioneer a movement toward a more inclusive and understanding global community. We are on a mission to cut down on communication barriers around the world, making accent-related bias a thing of the past. Sanas empowers agents to be more confident and be better understood, resulting in happier agents," said Maxim Serebryakov, co-founder and CEO of Sanas, in a statement

By equipping call center agents with Sanas' technology, businesses can ultimately improve employment opportunities and agent well-being. Agents can be understood, fostering authentic interactions (proven by an average 22 percent customer satisfaction score boost). Agents can also increase their earnings thanks to improvements in key performance indicators, such as increased customer satisfaction and reduced average handle time (reduced by an average of 18 percent with Sanas). And by removing accents from the hiring criteria, Sanas opens opportunities for individuals located in more rural areas, allowing them to secure jobs without altering their natural speech through accent training.

Sanas also increases hiring pools and reduces recruitment costs, onboarding costs, and agent churn for companies as a direct result of this technology. Previously, agents were hired, fired, or promoted due to their accents. Once hired, they would be made to go into accent training to be better understood by customers. This has now been eliminated at every customer call center running the platform.

"Agents were frequently victims of discrimination and verbal abuse by angry callers just because of their accents," said Sharath Keshava, co-founder and chief operating officer of Sanas, in a statement. "Our speech understanding technology is helping remove bias so agents can feel confident while doing their job and continue to grow in their careers."

"In my roles as a digital innovator, author, speaker, and blogger, I've always advocated for leveraging technology to foster inclusivity. Sanas's platform...allows us to better serve a diverse global clientele, enhancing our customer interactions by focusing on what truly matters: the message, not the medium," said Ashish Bisaria, president and chief operating officer of customer experience at Trajector, in a statement.

Joe DeLuca, director of voice and contact center systems at Wyndham Worldwide, said, "At Wyndham Hotels & Resorts... Sanas' pioneering technology aligns perfectly with our mission to be genuinely customer-centric, breaking down communication barriers and ensuring that every interaction feels personal, effortless, and engaging."