When offshore support agents handle calls with U.S. customers, they are often fluent, professional, and empathetic. However, they still face a common challenge: accent bias. Customers may have difficulty understanding certain regional accents, particularly in fast-paced or emotionally charged conversations. This can create friction in the customer experience (CX).
Tomato.ai addresses this with accent softening, a real-time AI solution that reduces the perceived strength of a speaker’s accent while preserving their voice and identity. The result is clearer conversations, improved intelligibility, and better outcomes for both agents and customers.
But what does accent softening actually sound like?
Here are five audio samples demonstrating how Tomato.ai performs across different accents.
What Is Accent Softening?
Accent softening is a process that enhances the clarity of spoken language without removing or replacing the speaker’s accent. Tomato.ai uses advanced voice AI to make subtle adjustments in real time, improving how speech is perceived by listeners.
Unlike synthetic voice tools, this technology retains the speaker’s natural tone while enhancing speech clarity. It is designed specifically for live customer conversations.
Benefits include:
- Fewer repetitions and misunderstandings
- Reduced agent fatigue
- Shorter call durations
- Improved call center metrics such as Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) and first-call resolution (FCR)
Why Accent Clarity Matters in Offshore Customer Support
Accent bias can negatively influence how customers perceive agent professionalism, helpfulness, and even trustworthiness. Even when agents provide accurate, helpful responses, their accent alone may impact the perceived quality of the interaction.
For global contact centers, this creates operational challenges:
- Increased average handle time (AHT)
- More escalations and repeat calls
- Lower customer satisfaction scores
- Higher turnover among agents
Accent softening provides a scalable, respectful way to reduce these communication barriers, without requiring agents to undergo extensive training or coaching.
Accent Softening Demo Videos
Tomato.ai works across a variety of English-speaking accents. Below are four real-time demo videos showing how the technology improves clarity for each speaker.
Indian Accent
Watch the Demo
Enhances speech clarity while maintaining the speaker’s natural tone.
Filipino Accent
Watch the Demo
Softens difficult consonants and improves vowel transitions.
Latin American Accent
Watch the Demo
Clarifies regional intonation patterns while preserving rhythm.
Pakistani Accent
Watch the Demo
Increases intelligibility by adjusting mid-vowel stress and timing.
What Sets Tomato.ai Apart
Tomato.ai’s accent softening solution is built for real-time use in customer-facing environments. It is designed to integrate easily with your contact center systems and requires no additional training per agent.
Key features include:
- Live processing with minimal latency
- No training data required for individual voices
- Works with most call center platforms and agent assist tools
- Scalable for enterprise or BPO teams across regions
The result is faster onboarding, smoother calls, and higher overall support quality.
Bring Accent Softening to Your Support Team
Accent softening is not about removing identity; it’s about removing communication barriers. By making speech more accessible across accents, Tomato.ai supports both customers and agents in having better conversations.
This technology reflects a more human-centered approach to customer experience, where the focus is on understanding and being understood.
Discover how Tomato.ai can improve call clarity, reduce handle time, and boost CSAT.
Try it yourself.
FAQ
What is accent softening?
Accent softening reduces the perceived strength of a speaker’s accent to make speech easier to understand. Tomato.ai applies this in real time using AI, while preserving the speaker’s natural voice.
Does accent softening eliminate accents completely?
No. The purpose is to improve intelligibility, not to remove the accent entirely. The speaker’s personality and tone remain intact.
Is Tomato.ai’s accent softening applied in real time?
Yes. The technology is designed for live use with minimal latency, making it ideal for phone support, live chat, or real-time transcription.
Can individual agents test the tool before full adoption?
Yes. Anyone can test how their voice sounds with accent softening using the Tomato.ai demo tool.
Who benefits from accent softening—agents or customers?
Both. Customers experience clearer, smoother conversations. Agents deal with less repetition and fewer misunderstandings, improving confidence and performance.