“We have trained the models to make sure it keeps context. Emotional intelligence and memory continuity is built into it,” said Midhula Devabhaktuni, co-founder of Mivi, an Indian electronics brand. Mivi recently introduced Mivi AI, its human-like AI with a goal of redefining the way humans and AI interact. The company’s latest AI-powered earbuds, capable of having personalised conversations with the user, is the first step in this direction.
The brand has used custom-built models that have been finetuned from open-source frontier models. The new AI Buds from Mivi are AI-backed devices that offer human-like, seamless conversations that are contextual and nuanced. Mivi AI is coming to consumers through the company’s unique AI Buds, which allow on-the-go interactions. One simply needs to say, “Hi Mivi” to wake the AI and begin conversing.
On the sidelines of the launch, Devabhaktuni, along with Viswanadh Kandula, CEO and co-founder of Mivi, sat down with indianexpress.com to discuss their vision for AI.
The co-founders said that the new technology from Mivi is beyond traditional chatbots or virtual assistants, as it aims to create deep and meaningful connections with the user. And it does this by understanding context, emotions, and nuances. Mivi’s ambitious move is aimed at redefining how consumers interact with AI. Devabhaktuni said that the new AI Buds promise a more natural and conversational AI experience that feels like just “another human being in your ear.”
Founded nine years ago by Viswanadh Kandula and Midhula Devabhaktuni, Mivi started off with a vision to create high-quality electronics at affordable prices. After returning to India from the US in 2015, they saw a manufacturing segment dominated by Chinese imports. “We were very naive 20-year-olds. We thought, let’s go back to India, start manufacturing, start building, and make everything in India,” said Midhula. “We went around the country and realised there’s not a single electronic device being manufactured in India.”
Starting with design while manufacturing in China, Mivi gradually built expertise and capabilities. Today, their Hyderabad facility employs over 1,500 people—80 per cent of them women—and handles end-to-end production. “Every single product since 2020 launched by Mivi was designed in India, developed in India, and manufactured in India,” Midhula said.
Reimagining with AI
Years after establishing themselves in the consumer electronics segment, Mivi co-founders moved on to artificial intelligence, building on limitations in current AI interfaces. “The way AI is able to convey knowledge to a human is through text form,” said Viswanadh. “But humans evolved by learning new things either by listening or by seeing. We thought, Okay, how do we make it easy for humans to use that knowledge? It has to be through audio.”
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Their solution – Mivi AI – is accessible through specially designed earbuds that offer a hands-free conversational AI experience. “Current AI just gives you a 100-word or 200-word response. We thought, How do we make it different where AI is not just a machine anymore that knows but something you’re able to talk to?” Midhula said.
Mivi’s AI Buds.
Mivi’s approach to AI is radically different, as the focus is on natural conversations rather than the usual command-response format of interactions. The duo said that Mivi AI has been designed with three foundational principles, such as context awareness, emotional intelligence, and memory continuity. “When both of us ask the same question, for me it would never suggest something cold because it knows I freeze to death,” Midhula explained. “It knows that about me, so it will suggest something like a beach place. Every response is curated to be personalised to the user.”
The system can even detect mood shifts. “If you’re irritated today, it will understand and start giving you relevant tips or just a pat on the back,” said Midhula. “It’s like your friend who knows you.”
Challenges and solutions
When asked what were the challenges the team faced while developing Mivi AI, the co-founders said that the team had to build multiple technical layers, including a custom neural network trained on thousands of Indian voices to detect the wake phrase “Hi Mivi” across numerous accents. “India has a lot of diversity and difference in dialects. When the sentence framing has to be recognised, we had a lot of beta testing to improve the algorithms and make sure it works on the street,” Vishwanadh said.
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Moreover, to balance processing power with battery life, the team custom-built processors for the earbuds. They said that along with a mobile application interface, the team also created an AI infrastructure with content filtering and ethical guardrails.
As AI progresses rapidly, a persistent concern has been privacy. When asked about their views on AI and privacy, Midhula said that Mivi gives its users control over their data. “The choice is with the user. We give an opportunity for the user to delete the profile whenever he decides he does not want the AI to know about him,” explained Viswanadh.
Besides, users can also manage what information the AI retains. “You can choose to say, ‘I want you to know what kind of food I like, but I don’t want you to keep information about my family,’” said Midhula.
Vision for the future
The new earbuds are a beginning for Mivi, which envisions its AI platform extending to various consumer electronics. “We are building wearables, speakers, and cameras to use this platform and make it part of the consumer’s life in every way,” Midhula revealed.
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The co-founders firmly believe that their approach is different from others as they focus on consumer applications rather than business uses. “AI is completely envisioned and built from a B2B standpoint. How do we bring it to the consumer? We can only bring it via a human-like AI,” said Midhula.
