Voice-AI

Voice-AI addresses the specific problem of increased illiteracy in Africa due to vocal language barriers in learning or education.

The Nigerian Government has reported that there are 76 million illiterate individuals in Nigeria. 

According to UNESCO, sub-Saharan Africa has the highest rates of education exclusion, around 182 million adults are illiterate.

UNESCO ICT in Education Programme reported that the integration of radio and printed course material can enhance the authenticity and engagement of literacy lessons. Furthermore, the combination of auditory and visual stimuli proves to be more impactful than visual stimuli alone, as it improves vocabulary and sentence construction skills, aids information processing, and enhances memory retention, https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000146426.

“UNESCO believes everyone has the right to learn in their own language and that it is an important means to improving learning, learning outcomes and socio-emotional development. However, globally 40 % of the population does not have access to an education in a language they speak or understand.” - https://www.unesco.org/en/lang...

The World Literacy Foundation (2018) reported that illiteracy and low levels of literacy have estimated to cost the global economy approximately £800 billion annually. Additionally, around 3 billion people around the world struggle with basic level of reading and writing.

Voice-AI is an online platform that instantly gives natural-sounding multilingual voice to texts or multimedia contents and allows visual and speech impaired people to learn and speak in more than 80 languages. 

Our solution bridges the gap between written text and spoken language by harnessing advanced deep learning technologies to transform texts or multimedia contents into natural-sounding local language with voice clarity for the intended audience to listen and understand in their preferred language. 

It enables educators to create audio books or tutorials contents in locally spoken languages and enhances learning accessibility for visually impaired individuals by creating engaging audio contents they can hear and understand. Consumers can customize the voice, language, and tone of the generated speech, creating a personalised listening experience.

Additionally, consumers with speech impairment can vocally respond or voice their thoughts by converting their texts or contents to natural-sounding local voices without having to speak or worry about language barriers. 

Unfortunately, 76 million Nigerians are illiterates due to lack of access to localized learning contents, books or tutorials they can read or understand in their preferred language and at their own convenience.

Voice-AI serves local educators and low-income individuals, including those with visual and speech impairments who rely on localized audio content for learning, teaching, speaking and information consumption. 

It empowers educators with a cost-effective tool to instantly create and share multilingual audio versions of textbooks or written contents, making learning more accessible for students with disability and language barriers.  

Our solution aims to create a more inclusive and interactive learning experience for all individuals, without any form of bias. This is achieved by providing downloadable localized audio learning that can be shared through radios and other devices that can play audio content, without requiring internet access, allowing individuals residing in rural areas to learn at their convenience, anytime, anywhere.

Our team stands uniquely positioned to deliver our solution to our target communities because we have past experiences of delivering cost-effective technology solutions, localised educational programs on climate change and sustainable agriculture to our communities for the past 5 years.

With a diverse team of experts ranging from educators to technologists, we bring a wealth of knowledge and experience to delivering multilingual and comprehensible educational contents that bridges learning and language barriers using low-cost accessible technology for our beneficiaries including those living with visual and speech disabilities. 

We have partnered with AWS and Nvidia, which provided us with free cloud resources for 2 years and extendable for up to 4 years, to develop our solution that harnesses the power of artificial intelligence and deep learning to provide seamless and natural multilingual voice-overs for widely spoken languages such as English, French, Spanish, Mandarin and more. 

With the deep learning technology resources provided from this partnership, we are developing artificial intelligence voice-overs for widely spoken African languages such as Swahili, Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo and Oromo to meet the needs of our target consumers.

The development of our web platform prototype has been accomplished with great success. This platform offers complimentary AI multilingual voiceover assistance for over 80 languages, including widely spoken languages in Africa such as English and French. Currently, we are conducting tests with a diverse group of over 50 consumers.

Our objective is to develop AI voiceover capabilities for widely spoken African languages like Swahili, Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo, and Oromo. This endeavour is aimed at catering to the requirements of our target consumers in Africa, where we encounter various obstacles. 

We anticipate that collaborating with Solve will grant us the opportunity to receive assistance that surpasses geographical limitations. This will help us to establish connections with linguists, individuals, and organizations from various parts of the world who are dedicated to advancing knowledge through voice and language sciences and technologies. 

Together, we can create exceptional AI voice-enabled educational capabilities in native African languages that are of superior quality. Our ultimate goal is to cultivate a more comprehensive and diverse learning solution for all Africans, while simultaneously addressing the prevalent issue of illiteracy on the continent.

Voice-AI offers a freemium and easy to use platform that provides a natural-sounding voice synthesis with multilingual capabilities, customizable voice styles, and a cost-effective, offline and sustainable audio learning experience for diverse audiences. 

Freemium and Easy to use

Our solution is free, easy to use and accessible to anyone online, anytime, anywhere without bias. Our platform provides a zero-login and non-technical platform for learners to instantly create multilingual voiceovers for their texts, tutorials, textbooks and learning contents without hassles or having any technical experience.

Natural-sounding Voice Synthesis

By leveraging advanced deep learning technologies, Voice-AI can mimic human speech patterns with incredible realism, making the listening experience more engaging and immersive.

Multilingual Capabilities

Voice-AI provides an extensive range of languages and dialects, catering to a global audience. This multilingual capability enables users to create audio contents in multiple languages, breaking down language barriers and reaching diverse audiences worldwide.

Customizable Voice Styles

Users have the flexibility to choose from a variety of voices, accents, and speech styles to suit their specific needs and preferences. This customization adds a personal touch to the audio content, making it more relatable to the target audience.

Cost-effective, Offline and Sustainable

Voice-AI does not need any specialized or costly equipment for utilization. It offers downloadable audio materials for various multilingual texts, textbooks, and tutorials that can be accessed offline with radios or any audio device, as well as shared and repurposed for diverse groups. 

These provides an innovative platform for all consumers, including the visually impaired, in rural areas or communities without internet access or computers or smartphones to continuously enjoy a multilingual audio rich learning experience that improves their literacy. 

Voice-AI is anticipated to have a significant impact in eliminating illiteracy among our target consumers by providing them with complimentary access to instantly generate audio learning resources in a language that they can comprehend and listen to continuously using radio or any audio device without the internet. 

The surveys we carried out with our users indicated a preference for listening to audio versions of their textbooks rather than reading them. Listening to audio books while on the go or engaging in other tasks was found to be more convenient, aiding in faster learning without disrupting their daily routines. This method allowed them to learn at their own pace, anytime and anywhere, without affecting their economic commitments.

According to the UNESCO ICT in Education Programme, the integration of radio and printed course material can enhance the authenticity and engagement of literacy lessons. Furthermore, the combination of auditory and visual stimuli proves to be more impactful than visual stimuli alone, as it improves vocabulary and sentence construction skills, aids information processing, and enhances memory retention. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark...

UNESCO believes everyone has the right to learn in their own language and that it is an important means to improving learning, learning outcomes and socio-emotional development. However, globally 40 % of the population does not have access to an education in a language they speak or understand.

https://www.unesco.org/en/lang...

Over the next 5 years, our primary objective is to assist 100,000 educators in delivering high-quality multilingual audio learning materials to cater to the literacy needs of 1,000,000 learners. This inclusive approach encompasses individuals with disabilities, aiming to combat the prevalent issue of illiteracy in Nigeria and the entirety of Africa.

Voice-AI employs a comprehensive tracking system that monitors key performance indicators such as number of users (learners, educators and enterprises), user engagement, number of audio files created and downloaded, accessibility metrics and customer feedback. 

By analysing data insights and user usage patterns from our backend, we gain valuable insights into the real-world impact of Voice-AI and identify areas for improvement and continuous innovation.

We employ artificial intelligence and machine learning technology in our online software solution.

We have 5 full time staff. 

1 year.

We are a multicultural and multi-gender talented team of human beings in Africa. We have two women and one man in our leadership team.

In our organisation’s policy, we ensure diversity by actively seeking out individuals from a variety of backgrounds, including different races, genders, ages, religions and cultures. We actively recruit a diverse group of individuals who bring wide range of perspectives and experiences to the team, leading to more innovative ideas and creative solutions

We provide equal access to resources, support, and professional development opportunities to everyone. 

We offer training programs, mentorship initiatives, and career advancement pathways that help all employees overcome obstacles and reach their full potential within the organization.

We prioritise open communication, mutual respect, and empathy. It is our fundamental policy and beliefs to promote active listening, embrace diversity, and combat bias, misogyny, bigotry, tribalism, racism and discrimination in all forms. An internal employee support and feedback platform is provided to address team member needs, complaints, discomforts and other challenges anyone experiences in the organisation.

We employ a freemium subscription-based revenue model that provides free access to the fundamental features of our services to students or low-income learners, while offering additional premium features for a recurring fee to educators and enterprises.

We aim to generate income by implementing a freemium subscription-based revenue model, which provides educators and enterprises with extra premium features for a recurring fee. We also plan to seek free technological partnerships, grants, and investment capital. Our collaboration with AWS and Nvidia has enabled us to access free AI technology and cloud resources for a duration of 2 years. As we are currently in the prototype phase, we have yet to gather sufficient evidence to confirm the success of this plan.