'a' App: Your Gateway to Government Benefits and More

Pradeep Gupta, the visionary behind Axis My India, is on a mission to bridge the digital divide and empower millions of Indians. With a deep-rooted understanding of India's diverse landscape and a passion for leveraging technology for social impact, Gupta has created a platform that is transforming the lives of millions. In this exclusive interview, we delve into the intricacies of the "a" app, a cornerstone of Axis My India's People Empowerment Platform. Excerpts": 

What specific problem does "a" App solve that existing solutions lack? How will "a" App empower X number of people in Y demographics?  and How does "a" App's phygital model make it inclusive for a wider user base? 

The Axis My India ‘a’ app is a part of its People Empowerment Platform. The goal of the overall platform is to connect underserved Indian citizens to the right government welfare schemes and sources of income.

"The 'a' app will bridge information gaps by providing clear and accessible information on government schemes."

Given India’s scale and disparities in levels of literacy, income and tech access, it is designed to reach citizens through a phygital model with 3 touch points: 

1. App touchpoint for smartphones - the ‘a’ app offers a self-serve smartphone experience in 13 Indian languages

2. Toll-free number touch points, especially for feature phone users. Again in 13 Indian languages.

3. Offline centers where citizens can walk in to seek help.  

Axis My India's uniqueness lies in its deep-rooted understanding of India’s challenges at a district level and a large field force that can provide on-ground support to those that need it the most.  

Can you give an example of how "a" App will directly improve someone's life? What specific information gaps will "a" App bridge, and how will data accuracy be ensured? 

Let’s take a couple of examples: 

Example 1: A user in a tier 3 town is looking for guidance on a scheme that he/she has heard about. Due to language and literacy barriers, this user is unable to understand scheme benefits, eligibility criteria and application processes. Despite being an intended beneficiary, they might end up missing the benefit due to this knowledge gap.

But now this person can now dial in Axis My India’s IVR number and ask questions in their language. From thereon, the query is labeled and routed to AMI’s subject matter experts that have prepared a knowledge base in 13 Indian languages. These experts then answer the query. Later, offline centers will enable this too.  

AI (Artificial Intelligence) is used here for issue labeling, ticket routing, translations and for assisting the domain expert in building a customer support knowledge bank across text, audio and video formats. These use cases are spread across generative AI, machine learning and NLP (Natural Language Processing).  

To maintain accuracy, subject matter experts vet all responses before going to users. 

Example 2: Users can list their small businesses (blue/gray collar) through the app or IVR and be discovered.

Example 3: From time to time, users can take part in market research surveys run by Axis My India to earn rewards.  

Example 4: There are some other utilities built in - For example users can easily find the nearest hospital that supports cashless treatment under the Ayushman Bharat scheme. Axis my India has painstakingly verified thousands of hospitals across India to build this knowledge base.

Example 5: Users can also browse through listings of skill development courses and job exchange from the Skill India Digital Hub  

What functionalities or resources will Google's partnership provide to "a" App? 

This platform is backed by state-of-the-art Gen AI Cloud technologies from Google Cloud. The platform was launched at Google for India, October 2023.

The role of technology and AI’s role here in the platform is to act as a force multiplier to enable the Axis my India team by connecting data across these 3 touch points and to be able to communicate with users in their preferred language.  

Specifically, Google’s universal speech model, Google translation API and Vertex AI have been used outside of core Google Cloud infrastructure services. Apart from that the platform is data-driven and uses multimodal AI/ML models for scheme recommendations, chatbot, text summarizations, support across multiple languages and so on.

How does "a" App contribute to the ongoing tech app revolution in India? 

India has more rural internet users than urban and is also growing at 2x the rate of urban. Almost 60% access is in Indian languages. In this scenario, building an English or smartphone only app makes little sense. We hope that this will create new models of how technology and AI can be used to serve Indian citizens across digital and physical touchpoints in a holistic manner. AI is deeply meshed into this app in a way that enables the Axis My India team to do a lot more with less and at the same time it is heavily supervised to ensure fidelity

What are some potential challenges in implementing "a" App, and how will you overcome them? 

At an overall level, one of the biggest challenges comes from working across 13 Indian languages and with users who are often not tech savvy, e.g., feature phone users or those that walk into Axis My India centers. AI translations can be technically correct but hard to understand especially when translating complex information on schemes. Today, we vet them manually to maintain fidelity, but it is not a resource intensive task.

Secondly, while we intuitively understand that voice-based interactions are going to be the center of this platform, it is a huge technological challenge. Chatbots and IVR systems work well only when the exchange between the user and platform is completely structured. Any deviation causes challenges.

Fortunately, both areas of NLP and multimodal Generative AI are rapidly progressing so one is hopeful that this will get easier as time passes. This of course will also require Axis My India to be equipped with the right talent and technology to execute.

How will "a" App be monetized while maintaining its vision of empowerment? 

The focus right now is on delivering value to users and to validate initial hypotheses. There is much left to learn, and every new user inquiry teaches us something new. Monetization will be integrated with existing Axis My India offerings related to consumer data intelligence consulting.  

What is your vision for "a" App's future development and long-term impact? 

This platform was built in line with Axis My India’s vision: “To Connect and Resolve Problems of All 25 Crore (250 Mn) Indian Households”. Over time, one hopes to see this platform become an integral part of the lives of underserved citizens and help them benefit from citizens services and programs run by the government, corporate and social sectors.

Much in line with this op-ed by Google CEO Sundar Pichai . Axis My India’s massive scale and expertise affords us an unprecedented opportunity to bring information equity between rural and urban India through our platform.

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