Saigen and Callbi are enabling seamless language switching mid-conversation in the country’s most widely spoken languages, including isiZulu, Sesotho, Setswana, Afrikaans, and English.
According to Dr Ettienne Barnard, co-founder of Saigen, “We’re beyond automating workflows, we’re amplifying people,” says Dr Barnard. “Agent Assist is about supporting humans with AI, not replacing them. This is the future of customer service: smarter, faster, and more emotionally aware.”
South Africa’s call centres face the challenge of operating in a multilingual society. Callbi AI Labs is a collaborative initiative formed by Saigen, Callbi, and strategic investor Alphawave that combines large language models (like ChatGPT) with real call centre data. These solutions include instant post-call summaries, automated compliance verification, real-time agent guidance, and emotion detection.
With over 100 clients already using the platform, the technology enables businesses to move beyond intuition and anecdotal evidence to truly understand what drives performance. AI-powered voice analytics allow call centre managers to analyse every call, uncovering insights such as the impact of using a customer’s first language to build trust.
The new Callbi ‘Agent Assist’ feature, powered by Generative AI, further enhances agent performance by generating accurate call summaries, drafting follow-up emails, and suggesting next-best actions in real time – all while reducing the cognitive load on agents.
