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Questions around marriage, jobs and children are pass. Users are now increasingly turning to AI astrologers for day-to-day queries. These range from what colour clothes to wear for a job interview, when to invest in the stock market, the best time to study for better exam results, which day to buy a car or jewellery or even—what are the chances of an ex returning to one’s life?
This shift has surprised Punit Pandey, founder of AstroSage AI, an astrology platform he first started in 2003 as a kundli and horoscope-matching software. It was last September that they pivoted to an AI astrology platform and introduced AI Astrologer Avatars—essentially AI astrologers.
“The responses from AI astrologers are not only prompt but accurate as they can do complex astrological calculations in seconds. Users also feel more comfortable because there’s privacy and no fear of judgement. So, they ask AI astrologers any kind of question,” says Pandey.
“Also, AI astrologers are available 24×7, which makes them especially popular with the younger generation,” he adds. With human astrologers, however, conversations are still mostly about the bigger issues—job, marriage, children, he says.
Since launch, traction has been phenomenal, much to Pandey’s surprise: “We started it as an experiment, thinking, who would trust a bot?”
In the past 10 months, the 20-plus AI astrologers on the platform have answered over 10 million queries—far more than the queries handled by 30,000 human astrologers on the platform. Usage is growing at 20 per cent month on month, with over 150,000 free chats daily.
Now, the first two minutes of every astrology conversation are handled by AI astrologers. “AI astrologers have better ratings, and queries for them are increasing 25 per cent month on month,” says Pandey.
Interestingly, the price for consulting an AI astrologer is the same as a human astrologer—between Rs 15-40 per minute. Yet, conversion from free to paid conversations is 60 per cent higher for AI astrologers—9.6 per cent conversion for AI astrologers compared to 6 per cent for humans.
One reason, Pandey explains, is that while human astrologers may excel at predictions, they often lack context around contemporary themes like sports or career aspirations or evolving personal relationships. AI, powered by large language models, is able to offer more personalised and relevant advice.
This has also boosted profitability by 41 per cent, as there is no revenue share with AI astrologers—unlike human astrologers, with whom the platform shares 50 per cent of the revenue. “Initially, no one in the company believed in AI astrologers. But now, we expect revenue from them to double in the next few months,” says Pandey.
AstroSage AI has 1.2 million daily active users and 11 million monthly active users, with over 67.5 million downloads for the Android app alone. The primary user base is millennials and tech-savvy people aged 20-45, who prefer more personalised services directly on their mobile devices.
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