Havells launches multilingual AI voice feature for connected home devices
Havells has launched an Agentic AI Voice feature on its Havells One mobile app, allowing users to control connected appliances through natural-language voice commands in English and seven Indian languages.
The feature, developed by Havells Center for Research & Innovation (CRI), uses ElevenLabs’ streaming speech-to-text and text-to-speech models as its voice interface layer, integrated with Havells’ conversational intelligence and device-control agents. Havells said the feature is currently available to all 2.67 million users of the Havells One app.
The supported Indian languages are Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Kannada, Gujarati and Malayalam, in addition to English. The company said it plans to add more Indian languages.
The voice interface can be used to control appliances, rooms, scenes and coordinated actions across connected devices. The supported product categories include fans, air purifiers, water purifiers and water heaters, along with Lloyd air conditioners and washing machines, Crabtree smart switches and upcoming smart home products.
Havells said its earlier voice-control system was command-based, supported English and Hindi on selected appliances and required users to use specific phrases. The new system is designed to interpret user intent rather than fixed commands and can handle code-mixed speech.
According to the company, a request such as “make the room comfortable” can trigger actions across multiple devices, including an air conditioner, air purifier, fan and lights. The system can also execute requests involving devices using different connectivity protocols.
The agent retains context across conversations and can ask users for clarification when a command is ambiguous. It can also provide spoken explanations of device error codes.
Havells said it evaluated voice AI models based on recognition accuracy, multilingual support, latency and voice synthesis. Its CRI team moved the system into production in about six weeks, with ElevenLabs’ Forward Deployed Engineering team assisting with voice quality and pronunciation tuning for regional languages.
“This Agentic AI Voice capability is a breakthrough for our customers, allowing them to control and interact with their devices naturally, without having to remember commands or learn rules,” said Dipesh Shah, Executive President and CTO, Havells.
“Its potential is limitless and will continue to expand as new capabilities are added across our devices and services. As a daily-use AI experience, it showcases the transformative potential of AI agents, far beyond the traditional voice interfaces of the past,” he added.
Karthik Rajaram, General Manager and Country Head, India, ElevenLabs, said the multilingual capability was intended to address the use of multiple languages within Indian households.
“People have always had to learn the interface of communicating: the commands, the syntax, the order they come in. That is hardest in India, where a household does not speak one language and often moves between three in a single sentence,” Rajaram said.
The companies said Havells plans to expand language support, add more appliances to the voice platform and introduce greater personalisation for household members. Future applications could also include product FAQs, troubleshooting and scheduling.