Zoho deepens AI push with Zia LLM, speech models, and custom agent builder

Zoho has announced a major expansion of its AI capabilities, including the launch of its own large language model under Zia LLM, speech recognition models, AI agents, a no-code agent builder, and a model context protocol (MCP) server. The announcements were made at Zoholics India, the company’s annual user conference in Bengaluru on Thursday.

Zia LLM, developed entirely in-house using NVIDIA’s AI-accelerated computing platform, is available in three variants with 1.3B, 2.6B, and 7B parameters. Each model is optimised for business use cases like summarisation, code generation, and data extraction. The models are hosted on Zoho’s own servers across India, the US, and Europe.

“Our LLM model is trained specifically for business use cases, keeping privacy and governance at its core, which has resulted in lowering the inference cost, passing on that value to the customers, while also ensuring that they are able to utilise AI productively and efficiently,” said Mani Vembu, CEO, Zoho, in a statement.

The company also launched automatic speech recognition (ASR) models for English and Hindi, marking one of the first such efforts by an Indian tech firm. These lightweight models are designed for low-compute environments without sacrificing accuracy. Additional Indian and European languages will follow, alongside a planned reasoning language model.

To accelerate adoption of AI in workflows, Zoho introduced over 25 prebuilt Zia Agents across customer service, data analytics, HR, and finance. These include a Customer Service Agent for Zoho Desk, a Deal Analyser, and a Revenue Growth Specialist. India-specific agents include document verification tools for PAN, GSTIN, and Voter ID, useful for HR and financial services. These agents are accessible through the new Agent Marketplace.

Complementing the agents, Zoho launched Zia Agent Studio, a no-code builder that allows users to create custom AI agents using prompts or low-code methods. Agents can be deployed with role-based permissions and monitored for performance and compliance.

With its new MCP server, Zoho opens up access to actions and data across its suite of apps. Over 15 tools are in early access, with third-party integration possible via Zoho Flow.

Zoho reported 32% growth in India in 2024, driven by sectors like ITeS, BFSI, manufacturing, retail, and education. India is Zoho’s second-largest market globally, with top-selling products including Zoho One, Workplace, CRM Plus, and Zoho Books.