01 The problem, and what we built
The problem
Digital assumes a smartphone
Banking, shopping, information, logistics and other everyday services are becoming digital by default. A person without a smartphone or reliable internet still needs them, and the alternative is a journey and a queue. Most AI is built the same way, around apps and data, so it widens the gap.
What we built
Call, ask, done
Talk turns an ordinary phone call into a way to use digital services. You call, say what you need in your own language, and Talk finds the service, gets it done and tells you the result. It works on any phone, on any network, with nothing to install. SOFA, our engine underneath, understands the request, picks the service and coordinates the tools.
How it works in detail · Everything Talk can do
02 What we found testing the models
Answers cut off
5 of 8 checks, then none
The language model was stopping mid-answer. We gave it room to finish, and no answer is cut off now.
Voice speed
2.2 times faster
Speech was made at about 35 tokens a second. A fixed-size cache doubled it, so replies reach the caller sooner.
Clear speech
31% to 96%
We tested every voice by having the speech recogniser read it back. A Nigerian voice from Spitch lifted the words understood from 31% to 96%.
Every fault we hit, what we changed and the measured effect, are in the full record. It also covers Yoruba, which Talk understands end to end.
03 Test it by phone
Call Talk from any phone
Live calls run on our own GPU, started for your session
Talk's speech recogniser and language model are N-ATLaS, and they run on a GPU server of our own. We switch it on for each test, so a live call starts with a short email. Without it, the number still answers, but there is nothing behind it to understand you.
- Email us the time you want to test: Yakubu@ciit.africa. Say how many people will call.
- We start the server and reply when it is ready. Allow about 20 minutes.
- Call +2347080629820 from any phone. Talk answers in English, and it follows you into Yoruba.
What to say
- "My name is …" when Talk asks who is calling.
- "What do you have in the store?" Talk lists the products the shop sells.
- "I want two bags of NPK." Talk adds them and gives the total.
- "What fertiliser should I use for my maize?" Talk speaks the shop owner's written advice.
- "That is all." Give a delivery address, then say "yes" to the read-back.
What happens next
- The order is placed, and the caller gets a text message with the account number to pay into.
- The call appears on the live demo page a few seconds later, with what Talk heard and what it answered.
- The shop owner sees the order in the shop portal.
For the best result
- Use a quiet place, hold the phone close, and say one short sentence at a time.
- Wait for Talk to finish. The first answer can take a few seconds while the models warm up.
The live demo page, the saved calls and the shop owner's portal are always open and need no GPU.
04 Where this goes
Your own number becomes your AI agent
Call your own number, and your agent answers
Today, calling your own number gives a busy tone. We are working with network providers so that the same call reaches your personal Talk agent: "Send 5k to my brother", "Where is my parcel?", "Help me buy light token". Your phone number becomes your way into every digital service.
05 Partner with us
Service providers
Reach customers who have no app
Connect a clinic, a courier, a shop, a farm supplier or a public office once, and callers can reach it by voice. No code changes on our side, and you get a dashboard for calls, orders and daily payouts.
Banks and payment partners
Power wallets and payments
Every Talk account comes with a banking wallet from a partner bank, or links the bank a person already uses. Customers pay for any service in the same call.
Network providers
Put Talk on every number
Help us turn each SIM into a personal AI access point, with identity confirmed by the network.
Write to Yakubu@ciit.africa.