Choosing the right languages for your AI voice agent
English-only phone automation fails in India. How to pick and prioritise languages based on where your customers actually are.
Fewer than 10% of Indians are comfortable holding a service conversation in English. If your automation speaks only English, you are automating frustration.
Start with your call recordings and transcripts. Skim a week of them and note the languages your callers actually use — most businesses are surprised by how much Hinglish dominates.
Prioritise the top two languages first and script them properly with native review, rather than launching six languages with machine-literal translations.
Give each agent the language its callers use, and route by phone number or IVR keypress so a Tamil-speaking caller reaches the Tamil agent from the first sentence.
Review transcripts weekly for code-switching patterns. Real callers mix languages mid-sentence, and your agent's knowledge base should include those mixed phrasings too.