Expanding Access to Reproductive Health Advice via Voice-Enabled AI on AWS

Business Context

Millions across Africa lack internet access or smartphones, making it difficult to receive sexual and reproductive health information. Zoie Health partnered with Melio AI to build Oobat AI — a voice-enabled chatbot powered by GenAI and delivered via USSD and phone. This MVP aimed to validate engagement and reach within underserved communities.

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Challenge

Zoie needed a safe, accessible, and scalable solution to:

• Deliver trustworthy medical guidance to users with no smartphone or internet access
• Provide voice-based interaction through USSD and call-back flows
• Ensure accurate responses based on regional health regulations
• Manage edge cases with human fallback and ongoing evaluation

Solution

Voice-enabled GenAI agent accessible via USSD

The MVP platform integrated with Africa’s Talking USSD service to queue user queries. Human operators could then trigger a call-back via Amazon Connect and transfer to the Oobat AI agent. Key features included:

• Conversational AI via Amazon Lex and Bedrock
• Voice processing with Amazon Connect
• Backend orchestration using Lambda and API Gateway
• User/session data tracked securely in DynamoDB

A custom dashboard allowed testers to mark responses and gather user feedback. Two datasets (knowledge base and evaluation set) ensured safe, relevant medical responses.