India's call centres are using AI to make agents sound American

When you call an Indian call centre these days, the person answering might sound American — even if they've never left India. A new kind of AI can change an agent's accent in real time, mid-call, to sound more familiar to the customer. It's meant to build trust and cut hiring costs.

But the same software that smooths out an accent often smooths away everything else too — laughter, tone, the small things that make a voice sound human.

Some customers have started wondering if they're even talking to a real person. We dig into how this technology works, and what it costs the people whose voices are being rewritten.

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