BOLO – Banking for the Illiterate by Google | The voice of the banked unbanked

A vast majority of Indians living in rural areas don’t possess the literacy levels required to perform day-to-day banking operations. As a result, the 287 million illiterate Indians resort to illegal ways of money-keeping facilitated by opportunist dealers. The several security protocols implemented on banking transactions overwhelm the poor instead of empowering them. However, a solution to this unique problem has come to the surface. A voice-enabled payments solution called BOLO provides a way to use smartphones for easy access to banking operations.

Philip Tabah is the art director of the app’s advertisement campaign. The promotional video puts forward some key details about BOLO. It emphasizes that the voice-enabled payments solution can handle banking operations using nothing but pictures and voice commands. Being powered by Google’s AI makes the app capable of identifying 23 different languages and their accompanied dialects. Setting up an account on BOLO is no rocket science either. Users merely need to update the photograph of their Identification proof for their bank details to be updated automatically.

We feel that BOLO can revolutionize the way illiterate bankers manage their money. It is yet another blessing bestowed upon us by technological advancements made in the artificial intelligence sector.

Credits
Concept: Deepika Desai and Philip Tabah
Art Direction/Branding: Philip Tabah
Art Direction/Video: Donghoon Lee
Website: https://www.philiptabah.com/bolo/

Tags:
D&AD Pencil Awards, BOLO, Banking, Illiterate, Digital Villages, Rural, Voice command, India, Philip Tabah, Government, Voice powered apps, D&AD New Blood, Summit International Awards, Creative Conscience, Technology, Innovation, Google, Google API, Google Voice Search, Google Campaign