SBI Life Taps Sarvam for Multilingual Voice AI Across India

Sarvam is partnering with SBI Life Insurance to build and deploy AI-driven applications to enhance customer engagement and support sales across one of India’s largest insurance distribution networks.

The deployment is expected to serve more than 8 crore customers and assist over 3.5 lakh distributors nationwide, significantly expanding the use of generative AI in India’s insurance sector.

The system is powered by Sarvam’s conversational AI platform, Samvaad, along with its multi-agent orchestration platform Arya, which coordinates multiple AI systems to execute tasks using enterprise data. The company said the project is designed to move artificial intelligence beyond experimental pilots and into full operational deployment within large organisations.

Among the key applications is a voice-based policy servicing tool. Using the Samvaad platform, SBI Life will deploy AI agents capable of handling complex policy-related queries—including fund values, premium due dates, and surrender values—in more than 11 Indian languages. The agents are designed to function in noisy real-world environments and understand colloquial “Hinglish” speech patterns.

The partnership will also introduce a multilingual AI-driven “Claim-Bot” to guide nominees through the documentation process via voice or WhatsApp. Powered by Sarvam Vision, the system can read and verify scanned death certificates or hospital records across multiple Indian scripts in real-time.

In addition, SBI Life’s extensive network of individual agents will gain access to an AI “co-pilot” tool. The assistant is designed to help agents explain complex product features and riders to customers in their native languages, improving transparency and reducing instances of mis-selling.

Industry observers view the collaboration as a significant proof-of-concept for India’s broader push to operationalise AI at scale, demonstrating how domestic AI platforms can be embedded within large financial institutions. By integrating with a major insurer, Sarvam is seeking to transition AI from laboratory benchmarks to population-scale utility.

“Our goal is that every SBI Life policyholder, regardless of the language they speak or their level of digital literacy, should be able to have their questions answered instantly by a friendly, culturally fluent AI voice,” Vivek Raghavan, Co-founder of Sarvam AI, said in a statement.

The pilot phase is already underway in select branches in Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. A nationwide rollout is expected by August 2026, coinciding with the planned full launch of Sarvam’s 105-billion-parameter sovereign model.