Over the past 9 days, I took on the Voice for Bharat Challenge to build an AI Voice Agent tailored for India. The result? Dukaan Sathi, a fully functional voice assistant designed specifically for local Kirana store owners (dukaandars).
Here is the story of how Dukaan Sathi evolved from a simple starter template into a multi-agent powerhouse capable of managing inventory, handling escalations, and speaking in authentic, pure Hindi.
India runs on Kirana stores. Dukaandars are incredibly busy people, often juggling inventory, customer queries, and billing all at once. They don’t have the time to sit at a laptop and type data into complicated software.
Why voice? Voice is the most natural, frictionless interface. I wanted a Dukaandar to be able to just speak to their phone: "Mere paas kitna chawal bacha hai?" (How much rice do I have left?) and get an instant, helpful response.
Dukaan Sathi is that solution. It is a helpful, polite, and intelligent voice agent that acts as a digital assistant for the store.
