When a frustrated customer called Decathlon's helpline about a delayed order, the conversation flowed smoothly in Hindi after starting in English. The customer ended with a polite "Thank you, madam" - completely unaware they had been speaking with an artificial intelligence-powered voice bot, not a human agent.
This seamless interaction represents a quiet revolution sweeping across Indian customer service. Enterprises from e-commerce to banking are rushing to automate their call centers with voice AI, and homegrown cloud telephony companies are stepping into the spotlight to make this transformation possible.
The Infrastructure Behind India's Voice AI Boom
Companies like Exotel, Ozonetel, and Knowlarity - traditionally known for powering India's call-routing systems - have found a crucial role in the voice AI ecosystem. These firms bring deep integrations with telecom networks and regulatory clearances from the Department of Telecom and TRAI, combined with years of experience managing real-time voice traffic.
According to Dominic Raju, customer support project manager at Decathlon, their transition to voice AI has been transformative. "Earlier, our interactive voice response could deflect about 25% of our calls. With voice AI, that's gone up to nearly 55-60%. Customers get the right information faster and our agents can focus on real issues," he explains.
Engineering Challenges and Solutions
Scaling voice AI in India presents unique technical and economic challenges. Traditional phone calls run at 8kHz frequency - adequate for human ears but insufficient for AI speech models that require crisp 24kHz audio. Cloud telephony companies have engineered solutions to bridge this gap.
"Back in the day, our cloud voice platform was built to connect humans to humans. Now, it's about connecting humans to AI," says Shivakumar Ganesan, founder of Exotel. His company's system automatically "up-samples" sound in real time, ensuring AI receives studio-grade input even from basic mobile calls.
The cost factor is equally critical. While global voice models cost ₹7-9 per minute, Indian businesses can only afford ₹3-4 per minute. Indian cloud telephony operators are working to make human-sounding AI calls affordable at local price points.
Transforming Contact Centers into Experience Centers
The rise of voice AI is fundamentally changing the nature of customer interactions in India. Shalil Gupta, managing director of Ozonetel, notes that contact centers are evolving into "experience centers" where every customer touchpoint becomes part of an ongoing conversation.
Voice AI now serves as the first layer in this new architecture, handling routine queries while humans step in for complex or emotional conversations. The technology also enables AI copilots that assist human agents by providing real-time information during calls.
"AI is helping agents work smarter, not just cheaper," Gupta emphasizes, highlighting how quality analytics can now evaluate 100% of calls instead of the traditional 1-2% manual review sample.
Market Growth and Future Prospects
The numbers reveal staggering potential. According to Grand View Research, India's market for AI agents was valued at $0.28 billion in 2024 and is expected to balloon to $3.55 billion by 2030. Globally, the cloud telephony services market reached around $23.9 billion in 2024 and is projected to hit $47.8 billion by 2033.
Indian companies are particularly well-positioned to lead in this space due to the country's linguistic diversity. "India's diversity and call volumes create a real-world lab for voice AI," says Beerud Sheth, founder and CEO of Gupshup, which owns Knowlarity. "We're building models that can handle code-mixing, regional dialects and local nuances with high accuracy. If it works here, it can work anywhere."
As enterprises continue to embrace voice automation, India's cloud telephony firms are demonstrating that the future of customer service will be spoken in multiple Indian languages, powered by AI that sounds remarkably human, and delivered at a cost that makes business sense for the Indian market.
