In Conversation with Sreeraman Thiagarajan

The voice-based virtual assistants have become ubiquitous and it is interesting to know how they have actually familiarized consumers with a seamless way of interacting with tech. The Mumbai-based company, Agrahyah Technologies – founded in the year 2016 by Sreeraman Thiagarajan, Uppal Shah, and Rushabh Vasa, is facilitating the stay of voice search technology in India by building its own solutions. The company also works with leading brands to help them create their presence on ‘voice environments’. In a recent conversation with Co-founder Sreeraman Thiagarajan, he vehemently explained the modus operandi of Agrahyah and how it is making and creating a trend out of tech. Excerpts:

Q. Brief our readers with what Agrahyah is building. Also, explain to us the kind of content and voice search solutions you are providing.

A. Agrahyah Technologies was founded to make technology useful for people. We are a product company building content ground up and using technology to distribute it. This is where ‘Voice’ comes in. Voice has the power to transcend boundaries and limitation set by the web in general, where one needs English literacy to browse/read/comprehend. 

Something as simple as ‘pav bhaji recipe batao’ is so many words of English to type, but just a colloquial line to speak to a Voice bot. 

Q. How are you improvising the traditional searching options? Does voice search, according to you, has already begun to make its presence felt in the Indian search industry?

A. Back in the month of December, Google India stated that 28% of all searches are voice-based. Every android phone comes with a built-in Google Assistant. Even a Rs. 1500 Jio phone comes with Google Assistant; so, class or mass, voice is the new way of how human’s interaction with machines. 

We are building upon the existing infrastructure created by Amazon’s Alexa and Google Assistant. They have invested billions to make ML and AI understand user’s intent and respond smartly. Agrahyah is building its own solutions and work with leading brands to help them create their presence on voice environments. 

Q. With virtual assistants like Amazon’s Alexa, Google Home, and Siri, asking a question is becoming easier than typing it out in a search engine. How does semantic search change the way marketers should do SEO? Does it make SEO harder or easier?

A. SEO changes every day. The idea is to make search results easier for users. First, we saw the priority given to mobiles followed by the knowledge graph where Google search provided answers instead of blue links. Now with voice, they are trying to help us get things done in the real and virtual world through a conversation. Websites have to now change their on-page schema to be voice search ready. It is not difficult but does involve a lot of hard work. 

Also, we should not confuse voice search results to that of bulling an app for voice bot. For a brand, both are imperative. 

Q. Tell us about the vernacular mobile apps, voice products and digital content you are developing. Besides, you are listed as a preferred partner by Amazon India for Alexa Skills development. Are there any updates or new skills that you have developed for Amazon India or other tech businesses

A. We are working with leading brands across categories viz. BFSI, FMCG, and entertainment industries to help them foray into a new segment on the internet, who is popularly called as the next billion users, distinctly different from people reading this.  

People investing to buy a smart speaker are early adopters and tech-savvy consumers. Thus, a brand building for voice can engage customers across all strata of society. Both Amazon and Google are making tremendous progress in terms of making their bots work in Indian languages. We are seeing interest from brands and clients to be there first to welcome their audience.

Agrahyah also works on system integration projects. What we do is to help integrate a voice assistant like Alexa into a regular device to make it smart. We are helping regular Bluetooth speaker devices to be voice controlled smart speaker; the same goes for TV; we are replacing entire button on traditional remote with a single voice button. Want to watch the World Cup? Just press the voice button and say so. 

Further, with niche enterprises, we are working to make c-suite and knowledge workers perform better. Why should you dig through a 22-page excel sheet for finding one cell of data when you can tap a mic button and ask, ‘what was sales growth last week?’

Q. Does the next generation want content, communication, and commerce in non-English languages and without typing? What are your analyses? What are the search patterns (in terms of languages) in Tier-1, Tier-2, Tier-3, and rural India and how exactly are you dealing with it?

A. We have studied users of voice across tier 1 and 2 cities. A cab driver in NCR used the mic button on Google Maps to search for directions, a bus commuter in Fatehpur Sikri stunned us when he opened YouTube, pressed the mic icon and searched for ‘rhymes’ to play content for his children. Every industry data points towards astronomical growth in voice usage. Globally, almost one-third of the 3.5 billion searches performed on Google every day are voice searches. 

Voice is the input, and audio (content) is the output. Entertainment and devotional based content continues to rule the top charts on smart speakers. Hindi Jokes, an Alexa Skill created by us in the voice of comedian Sunil Pal is among the top ten used Alexa Skill in India. 

Q. You have developed your own voice-based platform – Aawaz.com which is in Hindi. What is the amount of fan interaction you are currently seeing? Tell us about how podcasts are doing in India especially in the vernacular language. What do you think about advertiser’s inclination towards this format?

A. Aawaz.com has the distinction of being India’s first audio on demand destination with 100% original content that’s professionally created. We have launched the platform in January, and it is now available at multiple endpoints – Android app, Website, IndusOS, Ola Play, and so on. We have over 100,000 listeners and counting. Our audio library is over 150 hours and growing.

PwC report released earlier this month counts aawaz.com along with Google Podcast as two brands working to grow Indian language podcasts. We have a handful of brands who are co-creating content with us through AFP (advertiser funded program). This is a great way for us to stay ad-free yet monetize our content and help brands reach their audience in a non-intrusive way. 

Q. Lastly, what are the challenges that you currently face? Also, how do you overcome that? Besides, tell us what do you think about the future of voice-based technologies in India?

A. Currently, there is no comScore of voice. The industry has fragmented data on voice adoption and usage, so that leaves only believers to work with us, and most businesses are sitting on the fence. This was how digital, social, and mobile in India was during 2010-14. Then every marketer jumped on to ‘mobile first’ and started presenting in industry events about how many ‘Likes’ they have. 

We organize workshops for CXO and brand managers frequently to help them understand the possibilities of the voice.   

Voice, unlike VR/AR, is not a fancy nice to have mix in marketing. It is the new way in which people are talking their phones, speakers, cars and more. Having started in 2017, we have come a long way, and can hear a bright future!