MeitY to Deploy AI-Powered Multilingual Chatbots and Voice Bots to Support Indian Startups:

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) hopes to build a chatbot and voicebot solution to aid startups in India.

AI driven assistance is Meitiy’s new initiative under the MSH (Meitiy Start Hub) which aims to provide and automate multilingual, as well as goveememnt schemes, funding, and incubation automation assistance services for the startups at any time of the day.

In a call for application (CFA) floated by the ministry on March 20, the government said, “The accessibility of information, ease of operations, and real-time support to the startup community within MSH is expected to improve with the integration of a progressive service (AI Service) with the MSH Portal through enhanced communications and responses that are prompt and human-like.”

As per the details of the request for proposal, the solutions will be deployed to assist in real-time query resolution and provision of AI-driven recommendations based on the firm's and business look and feel.

MeitY hopes the solution would be able to respond to a large volume of queries simultaneously using Natural Language Processing (NLP) for contextual responses.

The CFA stated that it should also be capable of lead generation and CRM (customer relationship manager) integration while providing analytics on user engagement and conversation trends.

According to CFA, the system should also adhere to data protection standards like ISO 27001 and GDPR. Besides, the voice bot must effectively manage up to 50 simultaneous calls, provide intelligent call routing, and sentiment analysis to modify responses based on user attitude.

As stated, the chatbot and voice bot should provide comprehensive support for Hindi, English, Marathi, Bengali, Tamil, Kannada, Spanish, Arabic, and German, as well as basic support for Odia, Malayalam, Telugu, Punjabi, Gujarati, and Assamese.

"It is meant to foster integrated multilingual engagement, helping MSH to interact with startups across different regions and tackle communication barriers that exist across Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3 cities where there is a shortage of multilingual assistance," it read.

This will be used by selected startup within one week of the work order being issued. The time for initial deployment is 12 months and may be extended depending on how well objectives are met.

The timeline includes an initial phase for crafting and confirming the requirements with MSH stakeholders, followed by a pilot deployment to tweak AI functionality, and finally a training and documentation phase where MSH staff are taught to operate the chatbot and voice bot.

March 26th is the final date to submit the applications, while the submission of technical applications will commence on March 27th. All applicants who are shortlisted will be called to defend their proposals as well as have their financial quotes opened at a later stage.