Swiggy bets on voice to crack India’s language divide in digital commerce
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Swiggy is moving beyond screens and apps as it looks to widen its user base, partnering with AI firm Sarvam to roll out multilingual, voice-led commerce across food delivery, Instamart, and Dineout.
The company said the integration will allow users to discover, order, and pay for food or groceries simply by speaking in their preferred language, with the entire transaction handled within a conversational interface. The rollout covers 11 Indian languages, including Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Bengali, and Marathi.
At the India AI Impact Summit in New Delhi on February 20, 2026, Razorpay and the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) had officially announced a partnership to bring Agentic Payments to Claude. At that point, it was in a pilot phase with a select group of users - Zomato , Swiggy, and Zepto - allowing people to order food, groceries, and everyday essentials.
And now, “Swiggy is taking the next step, making conversational commerce truly accessible to every Indian in their preferred language,” according to the company.
The move is aimed at solving a persistent gap in India’s digital economy, where most platforms still cater primarily to English-speaking or text-first users.
While India’s Internet base consists of 950 million users and UPI has over 450 million users, only about 200 million transact on e-commerce platforms.
“At Swiggy, our mission is to deliver unparalleled convenience to our consumers,” said Madhusudhan Rao, chief technology officer at Swiggy. “True accessibility means meeting users where they are, in the languages they speak.”
Removing the app barrier
One of the key use cases demonstrated by the companies is phone call–based ordering on Instamart, where users can place orders without downloading an app or even using the internet. This could significantly expand access among users less comfortable with app-based interfaces.
Swiggy has also launched on Sarvam’s AI chat platform, Indus, marking its entry into AI-native environments where transactions happen through conversation rather than navigation.
Payments for these voice-led transactions are being enabled by Razorpay using UPI Reserve PAy, allowing AI agents to complete transactions seamlessly within the interaction. The company said the experience is designed to be end-to-end, from the point of discovery to the last step: checkout, and that too within a single voice interaction.
“Soon, users will be able to simply ask their AI assistant in their preferred language to order food or groceries, and reserve tables,” Rao added.
A play for scale
The partnership signals a broader push to build AI-led infrastructure tailored to India’s linguistic diversity. Sarvam’s voice models are trained on extensive Indian language datasets to deliver more natural and context-aware interactions.
“India is a voice-first nation, and the next billion users of AI will experience it in the language they choose,” said Pratyush Kumar, co-founder of Sarvam. “We are taking AI from a novelty for the few to a utility for the many.”
For Swiggy, the bet is as much about future growth as it is about convenience. The company currently works with over 2.5 lakh restaurants across around 718 cities and operates Instamart in 124 cities, delivering across 20-plus categories.
By reducing dependence on apps and English interfaces, voice-led commerce could open up a much larger user base, especially in smaller towns and among first-time digital consumers.
Razorpay’s chief product officer Khilan Haria said the shift could redefine how everyday transactions happen. “By bringing together conversational AI and seamless payments, we’re moving closer to a future where commerce is built around how people actually interact,” he said.
However, the real test will be execution and more importantly adoption at scale. But if it works, Swiggy’s latest move could reshape how millions of Indians order their next meal.