Spoken Tamil, not written Tamil
Tamil has a wide gap between the formal written form and everyday speech. Write the agent's prompt and greeting in spoken Tamil and the voice will say 'பாக்கணும்', not 'பார்க்க வேண்டும்'.
Languages · Tamil · தமிழ்
Tamil voice AI that sounds like Chennai, not a news bulletin.
Written Tamil and spoken Tamil are far apart, and an agent that reads formal Tamil sounds like a newsreader. Vocily agents are prompted in spoken Tamil, speak with native Tamil voices and follow callers into Tanglish.
On the phone in Tamil
6.9 crore people speak Tamil as their first language.
Mainly in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry (Census of India, 2011). Here is what it takes for an agent to sound right to them.
Tanglish is understood
Callers say 'slot', 'booking' and 'doctor' in English inside Tamil sentences. Sarvam Saaras v4 and Soniox both transcribe the mix as spoken.
Names and places, boosted
Add patient names, doctor names and locality names to keyword boosting so the agent hears 'Velachery' and 'Dr. Subramanian' correctly the first time.
Sample call
A Tamil clinic booking call
An inbound call to a clinic's receptionist agent, in spoken Tamil with English words mixed in.
வணக்கம், ஸ்ரீ கிளினிக். நான் உங்களுக்கு எப்படி உதவலாம்?
Hello, Sri Clinic. How can I help you?
Doctor-அ நாளைக்கு பாக்கணும், morning slot இருக்கா?
I need to see the doctor tomorrow. Is there a morning slot?
நாளைக்கு காலை 10 மணிக்கும் 11:30-க்கும் slot இருக்கு. எது உங்களுக்கு வசதி?
Tomorrow there are slots at 10 and 11:30 in the morning. Which suits you?
10 மணி ok.
10 o'clock is fine.
சரி, நாளைக்கு காலை 10 மணிக்கு book பண்ணிட்டேன். உங்க பேர் சொல்லுங்க?
Done, I've booked tomorrow at 10 am. May I have your name?
The slot is booked in the clinic's calendar during the call.
Illustrative — real call flows run end-to-end inside Vocily AI
What runs a Tamil agent
Models that support Tamil.
Only providers that actually support Tamil (ta-IN) are offered for a Tamil agent. Pick one of each, per agent.
01
Speech-to-text
- Providers
- Sarvam Saaras v4 · Soniox
02
Voices
- Providers
- Vocily AI · Sarvam Bulbul v3 · Smallest · Cartesia · ElevenLabs
03
Language model
- Models
- OpenAI GPT, Google Gemini or Sarvam-105B, chosen per agent
04
Price
- Voice
- From ₹3.10/min, the same as every other language.
- Telephony
- Free on your own Plivo or VoBiz account, or ₹0.40/min on an Indian number from Vocily (₹499/month).
Common questions
What teams ask before they switch.
Whichever you write. The voice reads the agent's replies as written, so a prompt and greeting in spoken Tamil give you a conversational agent, and formal Tamil gives you a formal one.
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