REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL
Development of WhatsApp based AI Chatbot – Technical Architecture & Data Systems
Issued by:
Aga Khan Rural Support Programme India (AKRSPI)
1. About AKRSPI:
Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (India) is a non-denominational, non-government development organization. AKRSP(I) works as a catalyst for the betterment of rural communities by providing direct support to local communities. AKRSP(I) is active in over 3255 villages of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Maharashtra. It has impacted lives of over 3.5 million people from marginalised sections of society. Over 80% of the households impacted by AKRSP(I)'s work belong to marginalised communities like tribals, dalits, and minorities. Over 60% of beneficiaries are women who form a core group for program interventions.
AKRSP(I) has pioneered various participatory development approaches in the country and has won various national and international accolades for this. The backbone of AKRSP(I)'s work is the empowerment of rural communities, particularly in underprivileged communities and for women - through collectivization as well as promotion of individual enterprises. Building self-reliant people's institutions for financial inclusion, livelihoods enhancement and improved rural governance is the heart of the organization's approach.
2. Background
Aga Khan Rural Support Programme India (AKRSPI) is implementing a gender-focused development programme that requires a robust digital interface to facilitate knowledge access, communication, engagement, and data capture among programme stakeholders especially tribal women farmers in Gujarat. AKRSPI seeks to develop an AI-powered chatbot that will serve as a digital engagement and information interface on agroecology.
This RFP invites qualified organisations to design, develop, deploy, and maintain an enterprise-grade AI chatbot with strong architecture design, scalable infrastructure, and secure data protocols.
3. Objective of the Assignment
The objective of this assignment is to develop a scalable, secure, and multilingual AI chatbot platform capable of:
- Handling structured and unstructured user interactions.
- Supporting natural language processing (NLP) based conversations.
- Enabling voice and text interaction capability.
- Capturing and analysing programme-related user data. (Enable memory-based user history.
- Integrating with AKRSPI digital systems and communication platforms.
- Providing real-time dashboards and analytics.
4. Scope of Work
4.1 AI Architecture Design
The selected agency shall design and implement a modular and scalable AI architecture that includes:
- Conversational AI engine using Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Natural Language Understanding (NLU).
- Large Language Model (LLM) or hybrid AI framework for conversational responses.
- Knowledge base integration layer for dynamic content updates.
- Context management and session handling system.
- Multi-channel integration capability (WhatsApp, IVR integrated).
- API-first architecture for interoperability with existing or future AKRSPI platforms.
- Scalable cloud or hybrid hosting architecture.
- The architecture must support:
- Real-time processing
- Load balancing and auto-scaling
- Failover and redundancy mechanisms
- High availability system design
4.2. Conversational Intelligence Requirements
The chatbot must include:
- Intent recognition and entity extraction framework.
- Context-aware conversation handling.
- Personalised user interaction workflows.
- Support for guided workflows and structured forms.
- Adaptive learning capabilities and feedback loops.
- Human handover escalation protocol.
5. Submission Details
Subject Line: Proposal Submission – AI Chatbot Development
6. Rights of AKRSPI
AKRSPI reserves the right to accept or reject any or all proposals, request clarifications, and modify scope based on organisational requirements.
Contact No: +91-8200129134
For detailed information, please check the complete version of the RFP attached below.