Truecaller launches AI-powered Assistant to combat spams

Swedish company Truecaller has introduced its 'Assistant' service in India, utilising artificial intelligence and machine learning. The service aims to assist users in effectively preventing spam calls.

According to the company, the Truecaller Assistant acts as a customisable digital receptionist, answering calls and assisting users in avoiding unwanted callers. Currently, this service is exclusively available to Android users. Its purpose is to improve user experiences by allowing them to selectively answer important calls, thanks to the integration of AI and Natural language processing (NLP) technology. 

“Assistant responds quickly and understands your caller with high accuracy. You can see a live transcription of what the caller is saying, so you know who they are and why they’re calling. Then you can decide if you want to take over the call, ask the caller for more information with just a tap or mark it as spam,” the company said. 

Truecaller Assistant offers a free 14-day trial, and after that, you can include it in the Truecaller Premium Assistant plan, starting at ₹149 per month (₹99 during the limited promotional deal). 

Initially launched in the US and Australia, Assistant will soon expand to other markets and languages. In India, it will initially support English, Hindi, and ‘Hinglish’. Users can choose from various personalised assistants with different accents and intonations, available in styles like professional, friendly, or courteous. 

Truecaller gained AI capabilities through its acquisition of Israel-based CallHero for $4.5 million in January 2022. 

“Until now, Truecaller would show you who’s calling but now you can let Truecaller Assistant have a conversation with the caller on your behalf,” said Rishit Jhunjhunwala, MD India at Truecaller. “This is a very exciting next step for us in helping people avoid spam and fraud callers completely. We’ve rolled this out to a few markets earlier, and we are really happy to offer this to Truecaller fans in India.” 

According to a survey by McAfee, 47% of Indian adults have either experienced or know someone who fell victim to an AI voice scam. This rate is nearly double the global average of 25%. The survey also revealed that 83% of Indian victims reported financial losses, with 48% losing more than ₹50,000. The survey was conducted from April 13 to April 19.