Audio startup Krisp has announced the launch of a groundbreaking feature that utilizes artificial intelligence to change a user's accent during calls, aiming to improve communication and understanding between individuals with different accents. The company is initially rolling out support for converting Indian English accents to U.S. English accents.

The innovative feature, which has been in development for two years, uses AI to preserve the speaker's voice while switching phonemes to match American accents. According to Krisp, the accent conversion process is designed to facilitate better understanding between individuals with different accents. The feature is currently available in beta on the Krisp desktop app, allowing users to turn it on at any time during or before calls.

Krisp's co-founder, Arto Minasyan, shared that the idea for the feature stemmed from his personal experience of struggling to be understood due to his accent, despite speaking English fluently. Minasyan believes that changing accents can significantly improve communication and understanding between individuals. The company claims that its testing of the feature in enterprise environments has resulted in a 26.1% increase in sales conversion rates and a 14.8% jump in revenue per book.

However, during testing, this reporter found that the processed voice didn't sound entirely natural and occasionally missed some words. Krisp attributes these faults to the beta release, assuring that the model will improve over time.

The company's decision to focus on Indian accents first is attributed to the large proportion of the global STEM workforce hailing from India. Krisp plans to expand its accent conversion feature to support more accents, including Filipino, in the future.

Krisp is not the only startup exploring this technology, as GV-backed Sanas has already deployed similar technology in call centers at scale. Krisp's approach, however, is distinct in its ability to create a profile for the speaker in real-time, eliminating the need for pre-training on a user's voice.

The company trained its model on thousands of speech samples covering various accents and dialects, utilizing data from its meeting assistant with user consent. As Krisp continues to refine its feature, the startup is also working on releasing iOS and Android apps this year to support in-person meetings, as well as a new Chrome extension for better integration with Google Meet.

With its innovative accent conversion feature, Krisp is poised to make a significant impact on the way people communicate across different regions and cultures. As the company continues to expand its capabilities and refine its technology, it will be interesting to see how this feature shapes the future of communication in the digital age.