HYDERABAD — As the Indian startup ecosystem grapples with recent remarks from Union Commerce and Industries Minister Piyush Goyal criticizing its innovation levels, Hyderabad-based consumer electronics company Mivi has introduced Mivi AI — a first-of-its-kind human-like artificial intelligence developed in India.
Mivi AI uses natural language processing (NLP), emotional intelligence, and context awareness to enable lifelike interactions. The AI has been initially incorporated into hearables, with expansion plans for other devices. Built on a custom processor, it has been trained extensively to understand and respond to Indian accents.
The company’s proprietary conversation engine, developed through internal R&D, allows Mivi AI to listen, comprehend, and respond in a human-like manner. The models supporting it are designed to retain context, remember previous interactions, and tailor replies based on user preferences, tone, and history.
“While existing AI models operate in a simple on-screen question-response framework, Mivi has reimagined the interaction layer from the ground up. It takes the human-AI interaction from its current form of a simple question and answer dynamic to a natural and engaging conversation format to mirror the manner in which humans interact with each other. It can interpret finer nuances in the command language and adapt to various situations, just like a human being,” said Midhula Devabhaktuni, Co-founder and CMO of Mivi.
She added, “We leveraged the full reasoning capabilities of advanced LLMs (large language models) to engineer a personalised conversation engine and trained AI models to maintain context. Mivi AI is trained on thousands of voice samples with a wide range of Indian accents.”
The AI is already embedded in Mivi’s hearable devices such as earbuds, with future plans to extend integration into home monitoring systems, smart wearables, and other IoT products.
“We custom-built a high-performance processor and optimised it for low energy consumption. The firmware and requirements were developed by Mivi, while we worked with a Taiwanese company to fabricate the chipset,” said Vishwanadh Kandula, Co-founder and CEO of Mivi.
Highlighting the development effort, Midhula said, “We had over 100 engineers working for over 18 months on building this technology that understands, adapts, and connects on a human level, making it feel less like a tool and more like an intuitive and emotionally aware companion, proving that world-class innovation can be built in India for the world.”
Founded in 2016 by the husband-and-wife duo, Mivi reported Rs 250 crore in revenue for FY24 and is projected to exceed Rs 300 crore in FY25.
