Disney agrees to hire most Character.AI employees following its bankruptcy filing, with annual compensation estimated at $60 million and a proposed $20 million asset deal.
OpenAI is adapting its AI product priorities to India's voice-first users, focusing on multilingual conversations, Hindi-English switching, Android compatibility and connectivity.
Sarvam AI introduces Bulbul V4 Flash, offering text-to-speech generation in 11 languages, over 200 voice options and pricing of ₹20 per 10,000 characters.
TikTok has launched an AI shopping assistant and one-click checkout, allowing users to discover products, ask questions and buy directly within the app.
Credgenics has launched Prix AI, a voice AI platform trained on insights from over one billion collections conversations and supporting 12 Indian languages.
Gnani AI has expanded its Ascent partner programme to the Middle East, bringing Voice AI, Agent Assist and speech analytics to GCC enterprises.
ElevenLabs has doubled its valuation to $22 billion as enterprise demand for voice AI agents grows and its annual recurring revenue crosses $500 million.
Girikon.AI says GirikVoice now handles over 100,000 calls daily and can analyse up to one million minutes of enterprise voice conversations each day.
The AI voice generator market is projected to reach $38.49 billion by 2033 as synthetic speech expands across media, marketing and enterprise applications.
DialNexa analysed over one million AI-assisted calls in India, finding that latency, retries, Hinglish support and conversation design can influence voice AI performance.
Mamaearth has entered ChatGPT advertising through a Criteo partnership as Honasa Consumer experiments with conversational AI as a new channel for brand discovery.
Gupshup has launched a self-serve Voice AI platform that lets enterprises build multilingual AI agents for support, sales, payments and operational calls.
Karnataka is exploring ElevenLabs voice AI pilots across skilling, healthcare, investor assistance and citizen services, with a focus on responsible AI deployment.
Flipkart Ads launches Saarthi, combining AI-powered campaign intelligence with zero-cost agency support to help sellers manage and optimise advertising.
Google Cloud and boAt are bringing Gemini Live to upcoming Crest AI audio devices, enabling conversational AI, regional language support and hands-free productivity.
Cashfree launches Relay, an AI agent platform that automates cart recovery, failed payments, COD confirmation, subscription dunning and disputes for SMBs.
OpenAI is launching ChatGPT Ads in India for Free and Go users, starting with 50 brands and introducing an Ads Manager for marketers in September.
Ringg AI raises $10 million led by Peak XV Partners to expand its voice, WhatsApp and browser AI agents and strengthen its enterprise AI platform.
Bengaluru-based Murf AI has launched Falcon 2, a text-to-speech model built for real-time AI agents with under-100ms voice generation and support for 35+ languages.
Blue Machines AI launches FLOE, an evaluation framework designed to assess how voice AI systems detect and handle language switching in multilingual conversations.
India is building multilingual, voice-first AI through platforms such as BHASHINI, BharatGen and Bharat-VISTAAR to broaden access beyond English-first users.
Firstsource has partnered with Cresta to combine AI agents, human-agent assistance and conversation intelligence with enterprise CX integration and operations.
Otter.ai has appointed Alex Gay as CMO to lead global marketing as the company expands beyond AI notetaking into enterprise conversational knowledge and agentic workflows.
SwitchBot has launched KATA AI Assistant, an LLM-powered tool that lets users control devices, build automations and troubleshoot smart home products conversationally.
Maharashtra FDA’s AI-powered portal lets citizens report food and drug safety violations using voice in Marathi, Hindi and English, with automated routing and tracking.
OpenAI’s first AI smart speaker could cost between $300 and $400, with the screen-free, Jony Ive-designed device reportedly targeting a 2027 launch.
Adobe has launched a unified ChatGPT plugin bringing over 70 tools from Photoshop, Acrobat, Premiere, Firefly and other apps into conversational workflows.
Smallest.ai raises $13 million in a Series A led by Seligman Ventures to scale its low-latency speech-to-speech AI platform for enterprise voice interactions.
Google Maps has introduced agentic AI features that let users order food, discover hotels and personalise travel planning through conversational AI.
Apple is revamping Siri into a conversational AI chatbot, expanding Apple Intelligence to compete with ChatGPT, Gemini and other leading AI assistants.
IKEA has redeployed 8,500 call centre employees into new roles after AI automated routine customer service tasks, focusing on reskilling rather than job cuts.
Yellow.ai will go public through a $550 million merger with BlueRock Acquisition Corp, strengthening its enterprise agentic AI platform and global expansion plans.
StackAdapt has launched Ivy Studio, an AI-powered marketing hub that helps advertisers plan, execute and optimise campaigns through a conversational interface.
PropellerAds has upgraded its NIKO AI assistant into a full campaign co-pilot, enabling advertisers to create, manage and optimise ad campaigns through conversational AI.
OpenAI has launched ChatGPT Voice for its desktop app, enabling hands-free AI interactions, voice-controlled workflows and GPT-Live capabilities on macOS and Windows.
OpenAI has launched ChatGPT Voice on its desktop app, enabling users to control AI agents, manage tasks and interact naturally using GPT-Live voice technology.
iCubesWire has launched iQ, a conversational AI platform that helps brands discover creators, analyse campaign performance and simplify creator marketing intelligence.
KPN has partnered with McKinsey and QuantumBlack to deploy agentic AI for customer service, aiming to automate up to 20% of customer interactions by 2027.
Mobavenue has launched the Neural Engine, an AI layer that unifies campaign planning, execution, creative intelligence and reporting into a single advertising platform.
Spotify has launched its AI assistant, allowing Premium users to discover music, podcasts and audiobooks through natural language conversations.
Nurix AI has acquired Verloop to expand its enterprise AI platform, combining voice and chat capabilities to strengthen customer engagement solutions.
JioStar is expanding AI on JioHotstar with conversational search, personalised content discovery and in app shopping to enhance viewer engagement.
Bihar has partnered with Google, Microsoft, CoRover and Sarvam AI to accelerate AI driven governance and improve citizen services through digital innovation.
Exotel has launched India's first fully agentic AI voice calling capability, enabling AI agents to independently manage customer calls and automate follow-up actions.
Kapture CX has raised $10 million to expand globally and strengthen its AI-powered CRM platform for enterprise customer experience.
Tech Mahindra has partnered with Perplexity to help enterprises improve sales productivity through AI-powered search and conversational intelligence.
Gnani.ai has launched Prisma v2.5, a speech-to-text model trained on Indic speech data to improve voice AI accuracy for Indian enterprises.
Respond.io has raised $62.5 million to expand its AI-powered customer messaging platform and pursue acquisitions in North America and Europe.
Meta has launched AI Mode on Facebook, using public posts and platform data to deliver conversational answers and AI-powered content discovery.
Shunya Labs has launched a multilingual Voice AI platform supporting 216 languages, aiming to improve digital access and inclusion across India.
