Callbi, the cloud-based speech analytics platform developed by Saigen, has been named one of South Africa’s top 10 startups by Innovation City, Cape Town . The recognition came during a national startup showcase, where each finalist had just three minutes to pitch and five minutes for questions. Saigen CEO Charl van Heerden delivered the presentation, highlighting Callbi’s transformative impact on voice data analytics in the South African call center sector.
Unlocking the Power of Voice in South African Call Centers: Introducing Callbi
Every day, South Africa’s call centers generate vast volumes of spoken content—conversations between agents and customers filled with insights that could enhance service delivery, streamline operations, and strengthen compliance. Yet most of this information remains locked in audio recordings, inaccessible and underutilised.
South Africa’s Call Center Challenge
Employing over 250,000 people, South Africa’s call center industry is one of the nation’s largest employment sectors. However, the vast majority of recorded conversations are never analysed effectively. Global speech analytics tools consistently fall short in this context—for two key reasons:
- Code-switching: South African conversations often shift fluidly between two or more of the country’s 11 official spoken languages, a phenomenon global systems are not equipped to handle.
- Accent variation: Even English-only calls feature diverse local accents that severely impact the accuracy of international speech recognition engines.
The result?
- Inaccurate transcriptions
- Unreliable insights
- Missed opportunities for compliance, coaching, and performance optimisation
Charl van Heerden, Saigen's CEO, presenting at the event.
The Solution: Callbi—Speech Analytics for South Africans, by South Africans
Callbi is the first speech analytics platform engineered specifically for the South African market. At its core is a multilingual speech recognition model capable of detecting and transcribing English, Zulu, Afrikaans, Sotho, and Setswana in a single call. By the end of the year, this coverage will expand to 9 of the 11 official languages, making Callbi the most inclusive platform of its kind. Callbi’s approach empowers businesses to extract insights from authentic South African conversations—without forcing standardised English just to satisfy foreign-built tools.
Breaking Barriers to Compliance and Inclusion
One of the biggest limitations of international solutions is their inability to evaluate multilingual calls accurately. This forces agents to deliver key compliance information in English, even when customers would better understand it in their home language.
Callbi removes that barrier. It allows teams to communicate in the language of the customer—while still enabling full analysis, scoring, and auditability.
Ease of Deployment, Ease of Use
Whereas many enterprise platforms take weeks to roll out, Callbi is designed for speed and simplicity. Most teams can be trained and operational in just four hours, with immediate access to transcription, insight generation, and quality monitoring tools.
Proof of Impact
Callbi is already trusted by more than 100 clients, including major institutions like Old Mutual (iWyze). In active deployments, Callbi has consistently delivered:
- Faster call review times
- Higher accuracy in error detection
- Stronger compliance oversight
- Insight-driven agent coaching
- Streamlined onboarding processes
Backed by Experience, Built for Scale
Callbi is a product of the Alphawave Group, developed by Saigen—one of South Africa’s leading speech technology companies. The team brings deep expertise in ASR and AI, with models tailored for the country’s linguistic diversity.
Next Steps: From Queries to Intelligence
As AI and Large Language Models (LLMs) redefine the analytics landscape, Callbi is evolving into a next-generation platform. Future capabilities on the roadmap include:
- Real-time agent assistance to reduce cognitive load
- Automated benchmarking of top vs. bottom performers
- Personalised, AI-generated training modules
- Scalable, automated batch call audits
- Industry-specific insight modules
Built for South Africa. Ready for the Future.
For any call center that serves South African customers, Callbi delivers the localised, intelligent solution needed to unlock the full value of voice data—in the languages customers understand best.
To learn more, contact Callbi at info@callbi.io. For information on Callbi AI Labs, read the full news feature here or email us at info@saigen.co.za.
