TLDR: Mr. Zubair Ahmed, Founder & CEO of Hishab, shared insights in an interview with IDLC Finance Limited on the challenges, mission, and technology of Hishab. Key points include:
Hishab: Developed for telephony-based conversational AI to enhance accessibility and bridge digital literacy gaps in Bangladesh.
Financial Inclusion: Enables voice-activated transactions for digitally illiterate users, especially in microfinance.
Technology Applications: Focuses on support, sales, and finance, providing AI-driven customer service, automating sales tasks, and enabling voice-activated transactions.
Language Accuracy: Features globally-leading Bengali speech recognition, surpassing Google, with ongoing improvements in local accents and dialects.
Cross-Border Opportunities: Holds multiple global patents and plans to license advanced AI technology internationally, starting with partnerships in Japan.
On 25th June 2024, Mr. Zubair Ahmed, Founder & CEO of Hishab was interviewed on the IDLC Finance Limited by Akhlaqur Rahman Sachee, Team MBR.
In this interview, he shared about Hishab’s challenges, mission, technology etc. in detail.
Here are some key takeaways from the session.
Q: How did Zubair Ahmed come up with the idea to form Hishab?
Before founding Hishab, Zubair Ahmed was an investment banker investing in companies like API.AI, later acquired by Google and renamed Dialogflow, dominating the conversational AI market. However, Dialogflow only worked on web and smartphones, not telephony networks. This limitation led Zubair to develop Hishab, focusing on telephony-based conversational AI to enhance accessibility. Despite initial challenges, extensive R&D over eight years enabled the creation of Hishab, making technology accessible to everyone, particularly those with low digital literacy in Bangladesh.
Q: How is Hishab playing its role in promoting financial inclusion?
In Bangladesh, low digital and financial literacy hinder financial inclusion. Actual digital literacy is around 6%, despite official figures suggesting 23%. Many rely on assistance for digital financial services. Technology enabling voice-activated transactions has potential to bridge these gaps, benefiting even digitally illiterate users, notably in microfinance.
Q: What’s the scope of applications of telephony-based conversational AI technology other than the ones Hishab has already explored?
Our product focuses on three key areas: support, sales, and finance. In support, it offers AI-driven customer service handling FAQs, complaints, and feedback, integrating with CRMs for efficient management. In sales, it automates repetitive sales tasks, potentially increasing sales efficiency, especially in challenging scenarios. For finance, it enables voice-activated transactions like topping up MFS accounts and paying bills, and educates users about investments, aiming to increase stock market participation in Bangladesh.
Q: What safety measures Hishab employs to identify such individuals and prevent fraudulent transactions?
We ensure security in three ways for our conversational AI system. Firstly, we use biometrics where your voice acts as your unique password. Secondly, users can set longer, more complex passwords like phrases instead of simple PINs. Thirdly, we employ security questions for additional verification. This layered approach makes our voice security system more robust against fraud compared to traditional methods used in mobile apps or web pages.
Q: What’s the level of accuracy of the Bengali language of Hishab in interpreting the voice commands from clients of different accents and dialects?
Our speech recognition engine is the world's most accurate, surpassing Google's by at least 30%. It excels in Bengali across both telephony and non-telephony networks, continuously improving with local accents and dialects. While we cover most major Bengali dialects, challenges remain with accents from regions like Chittagong, Sylhet, and Noakhali. Daily use and data collection are enhancing accuracy in these areas over time.
Q: Some noteworthy cross-border business opportunities that Hishab has explored so far.
Hishab holds over 35 patents across 23 countries, covering more than 2.80 billion people. They aim to license their advanced generative AI technology to global system integrators, starting with partnerships in Japan. This initiative marks Bangladesh's entry into global markets with cutting-edge technology, positioning Hishab as a leading force in generative AI innovation worldwide.
Q: The details about the revenue drivers of Hishab.
Hishab generates revenue primarily through two models: pay as you go and success-based. The pay-as-you-go model charges users based on their usage of AI services, with no additional fees. The success-based model applies to sales and marketing solutions, where fees are based on impressions, leads generated, or successful transactions facilitated.
Q. About Hishab's business expansion efforts in the near future?
Hishab invests heavily in R&D to maintain leadership in generative AI. They plan to raise USD 30 million, with commitments nearing USD 25 million already secured. Funds will enhance their PIA Large Language Model (LLM), aiming to develop a multi-modal LLM capable of integrated speech recognition and text-to-speech functions. Their goal is to achieve human-like interaction abilities by the end of the next year, driving ongoing research initiatives.
What is the IDLC Finance Limited?
IDLC Finance is the largest multi-product Non-Banking Financial Institution in Bangladesh with 38 branches and over 1,400 employees. IDLC offers a wide range of loans, deposits and capital market products and services to the Corporate, Consumer and SME client segments. IDLC operates in the Capital Markets through its three wholly owned subsidiaries- IDLC Investments Ltd, IDLC Securities Ltd and IDLC Asset Management Ltd.
About Hishab:
Hishab is a world leader in telephony-based Conversational AI technology. Hishab holds over 20 patents in over 27 countries across the world. Hishab’s team is represented by people from 10 different countries across Europe and Asia. Bangladeshi Engineering meets with Japanese and Indian leadership to bring the world’s MOST innovative solution for digitalization of the mass across the world.
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