What is Code-Switching?
Code-switching is when a speaker alternates between two or more languages within a conversation or even a sentence. It is the normal way many Indian callers speak, and a hard case for speech recognition.
Also known as: language mixing, mixed-language speech
Why it is hard for machines
Most speech systems are built around one language per audio stream. When a caller says 'mera EMI kab due hai, please check karo', the recognizer has to handle Hindi grammar, English nouns and an English verb phrase with a Hindi verb in one breath. Models trained on separate monolingual data often mis-transcribe the switch points, and word error rate rises exactly there.
Why it matters for India
Mixed speech is not a niche case in India's cities; Hindi with English, Tamil with English and similar blends are everyday phone speech. A voice agent that only works when the caller picks one clean language will fail the callers who talk the way they normally do, and the failure often looks like 'the bot did not understand me' rather than a technical error.
Common mistake
Testing with scripted, single-language sentences. Collect real calls from your customer segment, label the switch points, and measure accuracy on numbers, names and intents inside mixed sentences.
Where this shows up at Vaami
Vaami supports Hindi, Hinglish and eight other Indian languages among its 30+ supported languages.
See it on a real call.
Hear how a Vaami voice agent handles this on a live conversation in your language and your use case.