Meesho Launches 'Vaani', India's First Gen-AI Voice Shopping Assistant

Meesho Limited has announced the launch of "Vaani - Your Meesho Dost," India's first Generative AI-powered conversational voice shopping assistant. This initiative is designed to cater to the next 500 million users who are more accustomed to offline shopping behaviors. The assistant aims to bridge the gap between traditional conversational shopping and digital commerce, making app navigation more intuitive for users, especially in tier 2+ markets.

"Vaani" is built to support users throughout their entire shopping journey, from product discovery to purchase. It understands user intent, asks clarifying questions, surfaces relevant products, and provides contextual information like reviews and product details to aid decision-making. The system is engineered for scalability, utilizing on-device processing for speed and cost efficiency, and incorporates edge computing for low-latency speech understanding and synthesis. Its multi-agent framework and fine-tuned models, which account for regional language nuances, enhance its ability to handle complex interactions and provide accurate, context-aware responses.

Sanjeev Kumar, Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer at Meesho, highlighted that AI has always been central to Meesho's strategy for scaling. He stated that "Vaani" is a natural progression, combining conversational AI with Meesho's commerce intelligence. Early user adoption indicates strong confidence, with 79% finding voice shopping simpler, 94% deeming it intuitive, and 62% trusting it for transactions. Within its first month, over 1.5 million users have interacted with "Vaani." Users engaging with the assistant have shown a 22% higher conversion rate, faster movement from discovery to purchase, and reduced returns and cancellations.