We're a small team building speech data for Africa
We design, collect, and deliver multilingual speech datasets so AI can serve African languages well—with integrity and scale.
Our story
Founded in 2002, Way With Words is a globally recognised audio-to-text services and solutions provider, specialising in transcription and captioning. Over the years, we've built a reputation for quality and reliability, working with clients across media, academia, and industry. Our experience in handling complex audio data and our commitment to 99%+ accurate data led us to the world of AI training data.
We started creating our own off-the-shelf datasets because we saw a gap: high-quality African speech data was hard to find, and what existed often didn't reflect the diversity and nuance of how people actually speak. We wanted to change that.
We believe inclusive AI starts with inclusive data. That means working with communities, respecting consent and privacy, and delivering datasets that are ready for real products, not just research.
We're a small team: linguists, engineers, and operations people who care about getting this right. When you work with us, you work with humans who'll answer your questions and tailor the pipeline to your needs.
What we stand for
Three principles that guide how we work.
Ethical by design
Consent, transparency, and governance are built into every step—not bolted on.
Community-first
We work with first-language speakers and local partners so data reflects real voices.
Production-ready
Structured metadata, QA, and packaging so you can ship, not clean.
How we work
We run a structured pipeline from planning and collection through QA, validation, and packaging. Every step is designed for compliance and scale. You can see the full workflow on our homepage, and explore our datasets and frameworks for the detail on what we deliver.
Meet the team
A small group of people who care about language, data, and getting it right.
Graham Morrissey
Operations
Dale Dunbar
Linguistics
Francois Smit
Technology
Want to work with us?
Get in touch