Most people do not conduct business in one language
They open in English because it is the phone, drift into the language they think in when the detail gets difficult, and switch back for the numbers. Almost every automated system on the market breaks at exactly that moment.
The standard approach is a language menu: press one for English. It fails for the ordinary reason that people do not divide neatly, and for a sharper one — the caller who most needs to be served in their own language is usually the least confident navigating a menu in yours.
The assistant does not ask. It hears what it is being spoken to in and answers in kind, including when that changes halfway through a sentence. English is the language it runs in today. For West African callers, Nigerian Pidgin, Yoruba, Igbo and Hausa are in testing now — ask us to try them on a real call with you.
What working in someone’s own language means here
No menu, no press one
The caller speaks and is answered in the same language. Nobody is asked to identify themselves as a minority before they can ask a question.
It follows a sentence that changes language halfway
The way people actually talk on the phone — English frame, home-language detail, English numbers. The assistant tracks it instead of resetting.
Pidgin, Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo — in testing
Selectable per assistant, not a translation layer bolted onto an English one. In testing today: we will run one with you on a real call before you rely on it.
Languages are not a tier
A second language is not sold as an add-on. You are not paying extra for the second market.
A different language mix per number
The domestic line and the diaspora line do not have to behave the same way, because they are different assistants with different instructions.
Names and terms it will not mangle
Product names, place names, personal names. The knowledge you load teaches it the words that matter to your business, which is most of what "sounding local" actually is.
The same in chat and on WhatsApp
Language handling is not a voice feature. A customer who types in Pidgin gets an answer in Pidgin.
The summary comes back in yours
Your team reads the call report in the language they work in, whatever the call was conducted in. Nobody needs a translator to run the business.
The languages today: English. In testing: Nigerian Pidgin, Yoruba, Igbo and Hausa. If you are betting a market on one of the languages in testing — or on any other — ask us to prove it on a real call before you buy.
Where the language is the whole problem
An older customer who will not use English on the phone
Inbound · language detectionThey will speak to a person in the branch and to nobody otherwise. This is the segment that a phone menu loses entirely and that nobody counts as churn.
“No wahala — I fit take am for Pidgin. Wetin you wan make I check for you?”
A market trader ordering stock
Product links · WhatsAppThe order is placed in one language, the quantities in another and the price in a third. The assistant takes all of it and writes one clean order.
Two languages on the same line
One assistant · no menuLagos and London ring the same link. There is no branch to build and no menu to maintain, because there is no menu.
A complaint that needs to be understood exactly
Escalation · with the transcript summaryHanded to a person with what was said rendered in the language your team works in, so nothing is lost between the caller and whoever fixes it.
Is this translation, or does it actually think in the language?
It answers directly rather than translating an English answer, which is why it copes with mixed sentences. Where it draws on your documents, it reads them in whatever language they were written in and answers in the caller’s.
Can I force one language on a particular line?
Yes. Detection is the default because it serves callers better, but a line can be pinned to a single language where that is what you want.
Do I have to load my knowledge base in every language?
No. Load it once in whichever language it exists in. The answers come back in the language of the call.
One platform fee. Seats only when you want people. No minimum, no term.