The voice of possibility: How Verbex.ai is giving AI a Bangladeshi accent

When we talk about artificial intelligence, the conversation often starts in Silicon Valley and loops back around to Tokyo. But somewhere between these tech capitals, in the bustling streets of Dhaka, something new is taking place. A voice is rising, and it speaks Bangla.

This is the story of Verbex.ai—a company that didn't wait for permission to enter the global AI race. It just showed up with grit, code, and a dream—to make machines understand us not just in English or Japanese, but in the familiar, flowing cadence of Bangla.

Bangladeshi by birth, global by design

Verbex.ai, previously known as Hishab, didn't start with fanfare. It started with frustration. Bangla, the seventh most spoken language in the world, was an afterthought in the world of voice AI. There were no tools, no datasets, and no roadmap. But what they lacked in infrastructure, they made up for in ambition.

Tareq Al Muntasir, the CTO of Verbex, remembers the early days clearly. "We were staring at a blank slate. There was nothing for Bangla voice AI—no open-source libraries, no large-scale datasets, and no voice models. We had to build everything from the ground up."

Nevertheless, they built it. Today, their voice AI doesn't just speak Bangla. It speaks fluently, responsively, and empathetically. It also converses in Japanese with stunning accuracy, so much so that major Japanese healthcare and logistics companies now use Verbex agents to power their customer service.

"In Japanese, context is everything; we didn't just train a model—we taught it to respect culture," said Tareq.

Building technology that feels human

While the tech is impressive, what makes Verbex truly compelling is the emotion behind it. The people building it don't just want machines to talk. They want them to connect.

That vision is deeply rooted in Saqif Mujib's thinking, head of product at Verbex. He doesn't see himself as a tech guy building software—he sees himself building opportunities.

"Every business in Bangladesh, whether it's a small retail shop or a major healthcare provider, deserves a chance to scale without burning out their team. That's what we're doing—building tools that give time back to people while improving the customer experience," Saqif explained.

He recalls one client whose staff had been overwhelmed managing phone calls and appointment bookings manually. "When we deployed our AI voice agent, the relief was instant. The team could breathe again. They had time to focus on the human work—nurturing relationships, solving complex problems—not repeating the same phone script 300 times a day," he said.

Verbex's voice agents—powered by proprietary multilingual models—work around the clock, are never tired, are never rude, and are always ready to serve. "They're not just bots. They're digital teammates," Saqif said.

Photo: Mehedi Hasan

What their clients have to say

Nowhere is the human impact of Verbex clearer than in their work with Sajida Foundation, one of Bangladesh's most respected development organisations.

In communities where literacy is low and financial systems feel intimidating, access often comes down to one thing: understanding. And sometimes, a written interface just doesn't cut it.

Arefin Dinar, deputy head of business development at Sajida Foundation, knows this better than most. "We work with people who may not read or write fluently, but they speak beautifully. They have questions. They want to check their savings and financial balance, but they often feel left out because systems aren't designed with them in mind."

That's where Verbex came in.

Together, they launched a voice-powered interface that allows beneficiaries to access their financial information with nothing more than a phone and their voice. No apps. No typing. No English.

"Now, all they have to do is ask. And they get an answer—in Bangla, clear and respectful," Arefin said. "It's more than convenience. It's dignity. It says, Your voice matters."

For the Verbex team, this project became something deeply personal.

"I still remember the first time we got the call logs back. You could hear the hesitation in someone's voice turn into confidence. That's when we knew—we weren't just building tech. We were building trust," Saqif said.

A call to local business leaders

As Bangladesh marches toward becoming a digital-first economy, companies like Verbex are showing what's possible when local innovation gets a global stage.

Mohammad Fayadan Hossain, managing director of Verbex Bangladesh and co-founder, believes this is just the beginning. "We've secured 35 patents in 23 countries. We've got clients in Japan, but our heart is still in Bangladesh. We want local companies to know—you don't need to wait for Google or Amazon to understand your customers. You've got world-class voice AI right here."

He is urging local businesses, especially SMEs, to explore voice AI not as a luxury but as a necessity for scale.

Bangladesh is a country full of conversation. On buses, at tea stalls, and in boardrooms—we talk. Why shouldn't our technology talk with us, in our language, in our tone?

The future speaks

Verbex's story is one of audacity—of a few people refusing to accept that Bangla couldn't be part of the AI revolution. It's a story of cultural empathy, global relevance, and local pride.

They're not building the future of AI in isolation. They're doing it in collaboration with corporations, NGOs, small businesses, and people who just want to be heard.

So, the next time a voice answers your question, helps book your doctor's appointment, or gently reminds you of your microloan status, remember: it might be Verbex, and it might just be speaking your language.