Marcus Diggle, has a vision. As Chief Strategy Officer for chat platform emotii, he wants to create a world where language is no longer a barrier but a bridge that connects people and businesses from diverse cultures.
By leveraging advanced Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the Chat GPT language model, emotii successfully removes language barriers whilst capturing cultural nuances, idiomatic expressions, and emotional context.
Business Matters sat down with him to discuss how the concept for the company came about and how AI powered linguistics technology will overcome the UK’s skills crisis and boosts international trade.
How did the idea for emotii come about and can you give us an overview of your typical users?
The concept for emotii was inspired by both personal and professional challenges in communication – from children not being able to engage authentically with grandparents overseas to trying to effectively communicate briefs to skilled professionals within limited English.
We know that tools like Google translate just don’t cut it, and although there is direct translation with words, the tool doesn’t account for cultural nuances, emotion or any authentic communication. As such, we decided to build a new desktop and smartphone application that enables real-time authentic communication between individuals, regardless of their location or language.
Set to rival WhatsApp and redefine how we connect across languages and cultures, emotii enables users to easily set up a profile and both send and receive messages in their own language – automatically translating words, tone of voice and emotion in real-time to ensure all communication is received in the native tongue.
The app is available to download for free from on both iOS and Android and has attracted users in both personal and professional environments – all now able to speak 126 different languages with the click of a button.
Can businesses really rely on AI to understand and translate cultural nuances, idiomatic expressions, and emotional context? How accurate is it and what can we expect in the future?
We have all seen how quickly AI has evolved through the power of Chat GPT, with the platform now utilised by over 180 million users and 92% of Fortune 500 companies worldwide.
Therefore, it’s clear that more and more businesses are integrating AI into daily operations and are becoming increasingly reliant on this advancing technology. As such platforms like emotii will not only have their place in enabling businesses to easily understand and translate cultural nuances through the power of AI but will provide so much more than that.
With emotii everyone can speak 126 different languages so when leveraged correctly, businesses can build new and authentic commercial relationships to drive growth on a global scale – meaning in time it could become a game changer for international expansion.
English is often considered to be the international language of business, but do you think that British companies are missing out on crucial opportunities by not being able to communicate effectively with their overseas audiences?
100%. While everyone believes that the majority of people speak English, this only amounts to under 20% of the globe’s population. Furthermore, in China – being one of the World’s largest economies – less than 1% of the population actually speak English.
Many British businesses who have achieved international growth often hire ‘local talent’ to support the launch and subsequent growth of the brand on the ground. And while this tried and tested strategy does still work, being able to liaise effectively and authentically is still crucial.
Therefore, for UK based businesses who are looking to drive growth on a global scale, being able to speak and liaise with potential partners, distributors or customers in their own native language is imperative to success, which is where apps – like emotii – can come into play.
Will we see the proliferation of cross-border teams in the future, as companies embrace comms tech such as emotii to circumnavigate the UK skills shortage?
Prior to BREXIT and the outbreak of COVID-19, the UK had established quite an international workforce, particularly in sectors like Healthcare and Hospitality. However, as we know, the UK has since lost hundreds of thousands vital workers, creating skills shortages in many areas.
Yet, just as the country has lost an international workforce, many industry sectors have adapted how they work and integrated more hybrid and remote working policies, opening them up to a more global talent pool. For these industry sectors, tools like emotii will become incredibly valuable – supporting businesses in fostering new relationships, sourcing new international talent and clearly explaining workload and briefs in their native tongue, all while eliminating the challenge of learning new languages and cultural nuances.
Therefore, I think it’s fair to state that comms tech tools like emotii certainly have the potential to create cross-border businesses and help circumnavigate the skills shortage on both a short and long-term basis.
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