{"id":15357,"date":"2025-07-22T12:04:07","date_gmt":"2025-07-22T12:04:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/15357\/"},"modified":"2025-07-22T12:04:07","modified_gmt":"2025-07-22T12:04:07","slug":"what-sanas-ai-is-solving-at-scale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/15357\/","title":{"rendered":"What Sanas.ai is Solving at Scale"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a world where digital communication is more prevalent than ever, accents can still pose a barrier to clear understanding. Shawn Zhang<\/a>, Chief Technology Officer and co-founder of Sanas, is working to overcome this challenge. In this conversation, he discusses the origin of Sanas, the challenges the team has faced, and what lies ahead for the future of Speech AI.<\/p>\n

From Stanford Class to Product Development<\/p>\n

Sanas was founded in April 2020, during the peak of the global lockdown. At the time, Shawn was a sophomore at Stanford University. He recalled a sense of restlessness that helped set the stage for what would become Sanas.<\/p>\n

\u201cClasses were virtual and disengaging,\u201d he said. \u201cA friend of ours had gone back to Nicaragua to support his family and picked up a job as a customer service representative. He began telling us how people kept saying they couldn\u2019t understand him because of his accent.\u201d<\/p>\n

That experience led Shawn and his co-founder to a realisation: accent can be a significant barrier in customer service interactions. This is when they began exploring the idea of a real-time algorithm that could translate accents, allowing speakers to be better understood without losing their identity.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What started as a college project in a Stanford entrepreneurship class turned into a startup when a guest lecturer and angel investor wrote their first $50,000 cheque.<\/p>\n

Today, most of Sanas\u2019 revenue comes from the contact centre industry, where the company first recognised the need.<\/p>\n

\u201cCustomers were saying, \u2018I just can\u2019t understand you\u2019, and that was affecting the quality of service. Our product immediately found a natural fit here,\u201d Shawn said. \u201cNow, we\u2019re expanding into enterprise communications, and eventually into B2C applications.\u201d<\/p>\n

The largest market for Sanas is the contact centre industry, where the company first identified the issue of communication barriers caused by accents and found a strong product-market fit. Their technology improves communication between agents and customers by reducing misunderstandings and friction during calls. Sanas is also expanding into enterprise communications, aiming to support global businesses with diverse teams that face similar challenges.<\/p>\n

Inside the Technology<\/p>\n

The accent translation technology for a real-world production environment was developed after the founders saw a friend face discrimination in a contact centre due to his accent. This led to the idea of real-time accent translation, which creates a bridge to better understandability and intelligibility while keeping the speaker\u2019s voice, tone, and rhythm.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Customers have reported better communication, leading to higher customer satisfaction scores (CSAT). Interestingly, there has also been a rise in a second, often overlooked metric \u2014 employee satisfaction scores (ESAT).<\/p>\n

Many agents reported that the tool not only managed to reduce customer complaints but also made their jobs less stressful. Zhang revealed that an agent commented, \u201cI no longer hear customers saying they can\u2019t understand me\u2014it\u2019s a game changer.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The noise cancellation feature works alongside accent translation to improve clarity during calls, especially in loud or busy environments, bridging the gap between understandability and intelligibility.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Together, the two features are designed to reduce friction in communication and support better outcomes for both parties involved in the call.<\/p>\n

Currently, the company operates on a B2B model, working with organisations rather than individual users. However, it plans to transition to B2C in the future, with potential use cases involving personal communication across borders, such as between friends and family.<\/p>\n

Is Speech Going to Lead Us to AGI?\u00a0<\/p>\n

AGI, or Artificial General Intelligence, is typically defined as an AI system with the ability to understand, learn, and apply knowledge across a wide range of tasks at a human-like level.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019re still just getting started because we\u2019ll see this explosion of speech interfaces,\u201d Zhang said while discussing the growing dominance of the area, which he believes is more than just a trend.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSpeech is the most human form of communication. It\u2019s emotional and productive. If you ask me, voice is essential for AGI. It\u2019s how we collaborate and relate to each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

He believes Sanas\u2019 strength lies in augmenting human-to-human interaction, rather than replacing it.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven when my accent is translated, I still want to sound like me. I want to keep my rhythm, emotion, and identity. That\u2019s what makes our approach different.\u201d<\/p>\n

Optimism for a Speech-First Future<\/p>\n

According to Zhang, India is especially ripe for a Speech AI boom.<\/p>\n

\u201cIndia\u2019s mobile-first, highly multilingual society makes speech not just important, but essential.\u201d<\/p>\n

With over 28 official languages and a mobile-heavy user base, Zhang sees India as a proving ground for technologies like Sanas. \u201cPeople are more comfortable speaking than typing. Speech unlocks access to services and communication in a way text doesn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the global level, Zhang explained that the future of Speech AI is shaped by long-term, unchanging global trends. \u201cI still think we\u2019re just at the dawn of the Speech AI revolution.\u201d<\/p>\n

He pointed out that the world\u2019s population is growing, which means more communication and interaction will continue to take place. At the same time, globalisation is increasing, leading to a rise in international business and electronic communication, such as video conferencing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

These developments create more opportunities for AI to support and enhance voice interactions across regions and languages. He believes that labour markets will be transformed as a result, with sectors like customer service and healthcare relying more on global collaboration. As user interfaces evolve, speech is likely to become the primary mode of interaction.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, companies operating in this space also face certain challenges.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cData sensitivity is a major concern. Enterprises want assurance that their speech data is secure. This pushes us towards on-device, edge computing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another issue is hallucinations, which occur when AI systems confidently deliver incorrect outputs.<\/p>\n

\u201cYour AI might work 95% of the time, but that 5% failure can cause serious damage. We tell clients, \u2018Don\u2019t evaluate us on our wins, evaluate us on our losses. That\u2019s where the risks lie.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zhang is confident that Speech AI will play a transformative role in how we interact with technology. As innovation gains momentum and trust continues to build, speech is set to become the most natural interface between humans and machines. In countries like India, this opens up exciting new possibilities for how people work, learn, and connect.<\/p>\n

Despite the challenges, Zhang remains confident that the benefits of Speech AI far outweigh the hurdles. As innovation accelerates and trust in the technology grows, speech is poised to become the most natural interface between humans and machines. <\/p>\n

For countries like India, this shift could unlock entirely new ways of working, learning, and connecting. \u201cThe goal isn\u2019t just clearer communication, it\u2019s a future where every voice can participate fully, no matter the accent, language, or location.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a world where digital communication is more prevalent than ever, accents can still pose a barrier to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15358,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[62,276,277,49,48,61,13668],"class_list":{"0":"post-15357","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-artificialintelligence","11":"tag-ca","12":"tag-canada","13":"tag-technology","14":"tag-voice-ai"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15357"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15357\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}