Bengaluru-based Sarvam AI has partnered with EkStep Foundation and AI4Bharat to deploy multilingual voice AI agents across India under an initiative called Listen at Scale, The Economic Times reported in March 2026. The project aims to shift public outreach from one-way channels such as IVR calls and SMS to structured two-way voice conversations in local languages, so that digital services reach people who are usually excluded from text-based interfaces.
The voice agents were used to automate tasks including beneficiary verification, citizen feedback and grievance redressal. EkStep Foundation provided the platform infrastructure and community outreach support, and twenty selected teams received grants worth Rs 1 crore in total, plus five lakh voice AI minutes per team, to build and deploy applications. AI4Bharat studied the programme's results. Over a 31-day period the programme engaged around 50 lakh unique users across healthcare, agriculture and governance.
Several public sector bodies have used the system. The National Health Authority reached over 14 lakh senior citizens, and daily enrolments in the Ayushman Vay Vandana Yojana rose by 42%. The initiative profiled over 4.14 lakh disabled persons for the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities, generating nearly 51,000 actionable profiles for assistive devices and financial aid. Work with the Uttar Pradesh Skill Development Mission found that 92.6% of profiled informal workers had no prior formal work records.
At state level, the system detected inefficiencies or possible middlemen interference in 2.75% of scheme delivery interactions in Maharashtra. In Odisha it confirmed a 77% seed receipt rate among farmers but found a 63% adoption gap in input procurement, giving officials information for policy correction.
Details
- City
- Bengaluru
- Organization
- Sarvam AI
- Continent
- Asia
- Country
- India