In the fast-paced world of customer service, every second counts. When your agents are juggling calls and solving problems, they need tools that work just as hard as they do. That’s where Balto’s Real-Time Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) comes in, offering unparalleled speed, accuracy, and adaptability to empower contact centers to deliver world-class customer experiences.
Let’s break down what makes Balto’s ASR a game-changer—and how it stacks up against the competition.
What is Real-Time ASR, and Why is it So Challenging?
ASR, or “speech-to-text,” turns spoken words into written text, either live or from pre-recorded audio. For contact centers, real-time ASR can power tools like live guidance, compliance checks, and automatic quality assurance (QA). But achieving accurate, fast, and reliable ASR is no small feat.
Here’s why:
- Human Speech is Complex: People talk with varying speeds, accents, and emotions. Add slang, dialects, or Spanglish, and transcription gets even tougher.
- Background Noise: Contact centers are noisy environments, which complicates how ASR picks up sound.
- Real-Time Speed: To support agents during live calls, ASR must process speech almost instantly, leaving no room for delays.
Balto has built its ASR technology to tackle these challenges head-on, helping agents get the support they need in the moments they need it most.
What Sets Balto Apart?
Balto’s approach is powered by state-of-the-art AI and machine learning (ML) to deliver unmatched accuracy and adaptability. Here’s how we do it:
- End-to-End Deep Learning: Unlike traditional hybrid systems that rely on multiple models (acoustic, language, and lexicon), Balto uses advanced end-to-end ASR. This streamlined method not only improves accuracy but also eliminates the need for complex manual alignment of audio and text.
- Conformer Architecture: Balto’s ASR incorporates the latest conformer architecture, a hybrid of transformers and convolutional neural networks. This innovation processes audio more effectively while staying lightweight enough for real-time applications.
- Proprietary Data Training: Balto fine-tunes its ASR on hundreds of hours of contact-center-specific data. By training models on industry-specific speech patterns, Balto achieves higher accuracy in real-world scenarios.
- Custom Language Models (LMs): Balto builds custom LMs tailored to specific industries, companies, and even teams. This ensures the system recognizes unique product names, industry jargon, and in-house terminology with ease.
Real Results: How Balto Stacks Up Against Competitors
When it comes to performance, Balto leads the industry. In rigorous tests using 25 hours of proprietary call center data, Balto’s real-time ASR significantly outperformed Deepgram Nova-2, a leading ASR provider:
|
Metric |
Deepgram Nova-2 |
Balto |
|---|---|---|
|
Word Error Rate (WER) |
11.2% |
7.7% (31.2% relative improvement) |
|
Latency |
0.66 seconds |
0.80 seconds |
While Deepgram offers slightly lower latency, Balto’s dramatically lower costs and better accuracy make it the ideal solution for contact centers managing high call volumes.
Why Choose Balto?
- Applications That Matter: Balto’s ASR doesn’t just transcribe calls—it powers a suite of tools for contact centers, including:
- Real-Time Guidance: Give agents live tips, compliance alerts, and objection-handling advice as they speak.
- Automatic QA: Score calls in real-time without manual review.
- Speech Analytics: Understand trends in customer conversations to refine your processes.
- Emotion Recognition: Detect tone and sentiment to tailor customer interactions.
- Scalability and Efficiency: Balto’s system can handle thousands of simultaneous calls without compromising performance. Its scalable architecture adjusts automatically to meet demand, keeping costs low and ensuring every call is captured.
- Tailored Solutions: Whether you’re in healthcare, insurance, retail, or another industry, Balto adapts its models to your specific needs. From recognizing in-house terminology to improving accuracy for multilingual conversations, Balto fits your business.
- Cost-Effective Innovation: Balto strikes the perfect balance between speed and affordability. With transcription costs 8.5x lower than leading competitors, it’s built to deliver value at scale.
Balto’s Real-Time ASR in Action
Balto’s advanced ASR doesn’t just save time—it transforms how agents work. Whether it’s onboarding new hires faster, enabling supervisors to coach in real-time, or helping teams meet compliance standards, Balto drives efficiency at every level.
And for your customers? It means better conversations, faster resolutions, and a contact center experience they’ll rave about.
Lead the Future of Customer Service with Balto
Real-time ASR is more than a technology—it’s a competitive edge. With Balto, you’re not just keeping up with the latest innovations—you’re setting the standard.
Let’s redefine what’s possible in your contact center. Start faster, work smarter, and delight your customers with Balto today.
