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Good practice Imported

Ask Viamo Anything — Voice-First Generative AI for Feature-Phone Users in Zambia

Zambia · Lusaka · See the Zambia profile · See the Lusaka profile

Evidence: Observational / pre–post Top 1% 100/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

Viamo's Ask Viamo Anything lets anyone with a basic phone call a free line and ask a question in a local language, using generative AI and speech-to-text for an instant answer. Zambia's pilot reached ~10,000 callers and 90,000 questions by March 2024, 54% women.

10,000 users
Callers reached (Zambia, by March 2024) (May 2023-Mar 2024)
90,000 questions
Questions asked (Zambia, by March 2024) (May 2023-Mar 2024)
54 %
Share of Zambian callers who were women/girls (2023-2024)
5,000 users
Early pilot users (first weeks) (2023)
46,000 questions
Early pilot questions asked (first weeks) (2023)

Details

Maturity
Scaling
Promoter
Viamo
Period
2023–ongoing
Keywords
digital literacy, voice technology, generative AI, health information, rural connectivity

Context

Zambia has over 80% mobile phone ownership but only about 33% internet access, leaving feature-phone users without access to smartphone-based generative AI tools or web information. Viamo's existing Interactive Voice Response (IVR) platform already reached 24 million people worldwide, logging 2.1 billion minutes of engagement in 2023.

Objectives

Ask Viamo Anything (AVA), piloted in Zambia from May 2023, extends Viamo's IVR platform with a voice-first generative AI feature so that anyone with a basic phone can call a free number, ask a question aloud, and receive a spoken answer -- with no app, internet connection, smartphone, or literacy required.

Activities

Callers dial a free number and ask a question; the system converts speech to text in real time using OpenAI's Whisper model, generates an answer, and converts it back into spoken audio.

Results

In the early pilot weeks, more than 5,000 users asked 46,000 questions; by March 2024 usage had grown to roughly 10,000 users and nearly 90,000 questions. Women and girls made up 54% of Zambian callers (about a third of all callers were under 18) and asked most often about health, followed by education and religion, while men asked more about education, health and technology.

Conclusions

Building on the Zambia results, Viamo rolled AVA out in local languages in Pakistan (Urdu), India (Hindi), Nigeria (English) and Tanzania (Swahili) in the first half of 2024, backed by the Global Innovation Fund, VestedWorld and SaskWorks Venture Fund alongside government development-agency and UNICEF/Unilever partnerships, with Viamo targeting roughly $30 million in further capital to scale the service in 2024.

Implementation
Indicative cost
High (€500k–€5M) — Viamo cited a target of roughly $30 million in further capital to scale the service in 2024, following a pilot backed by the Global Innovation Fund, VestedWorld and SaskWorks Venture Fund.
Time to results
Medium (1–3 years) — Piloted in Zambia from May 2023; rolled out to four more countries in local languages within the first half of 2024, roughly a year after the pilot began.
Staffing & skills
Existing Viamo IVR platform/engineering team (no specific staffing figures published in sources)

Conditions for success

  • Free access via an existing free-to-call number -- no smartphone, data plan, or literacy required
  • Local-language voice interface removing literacy and connectivity barriers
  • Built on an existing IVR platform already reaching 24 million people (leverages established infrastructure)
  • Multi-funder backing (Global Innovation Fund, VestedWorld, SaskWorks Venture Fund) plus government development-agency and UNICEF/Unilever partnerships for rollout

Where it fits

Governance type
NGO/private-sector telecom platform with development-funder and UN-agency partnerships
Scale
national pilot (Zambia) scaling to a further four countries
Income level
low-connectivity settings (about 33% internet access in Zambia)

Commonly funded by

Philanthropic / foundation funding

Indicative funding routes for practices of this type — always check each programme's current calls and eligibility rules.

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Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

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