Amazon’s Alexa, an intelligent personal assistant, “discriminates”. It struggles with my nice Nigerian accent. It gets so bad that most times I just give up. Sure, it is not Alexa’s problem. It is also not my problem. But someone has to make it easy for me to participate in the voice-activated ecosystem.
My accent is truly Nigerian. I keep working to make sure I do not lose it. In Ovim, I asked “redy made” cloth instead of “already made” cloth. I knew I ate many “biscuit bones” when I had in mind “brisket bones”. Coming with that background, I am making life harder for Alexa!
If you are dreaming, there is a business opportunity here. After all, the BBC has gone pidgin. Alexa needs to interpret that also. This is huge because in the next ten years, translators will be gone like typists, and our phones will do translations synchronously. The question is this: Will Nigerians be part of that? Only Nigerian entrepreneurs can help, because that is not a Silicon Valley problem! I want to be understood, digitally!
Tekedia Mini-MBA edition 16 (Feb 10 – May 3, 2025) opens registrations; register today for early bird discounts.
Tekedia AI in Business Masterclass opens registrations here.
Join Tekedia Capital Syndicate and invest in Africa’s finest startups here.
---
Register for Tekedia Mini-MBA (Feb 10 - May 3, 2025), and join Prof Ndubuisi Ekekwe and our global faculty; click here.