MUMBAI: The PC is getting ready to talk the talk. HP has signed a memorandum of understanding with Indian AI company Sarvam to bring voice-based artificial intelligence capabilities to HP devices in India, with the partnership initially centred on Sarvam’s Kivi application.
Kivi is designed to let users interact with their computers through voice rather than relying only on typing and conventional controls. The application can be used to dictate text, draft and rewrite content, search for information and assist with tasks across applications.
The partnership puts a particular emphasis on making voice interaction work across India’s linguistic diversity. Kivi supports more than 22 Indian languages and allows users to code-switch, meaning they can move between languages while speaking to their computers.
HP and Sarvam said the collaboration is intended to make everyday PC use more accessible, particularly for people who may find traditional typing or computer interfaces difficult to navigate.
Ipsita Dasgupta, Senior Vice President and Managing Director, HP India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, said AI adoption would depend on how naturally the technology fits into the way people already work and learn. She added that integrating Sarvam’s capabilities with HP devices could make everyday computing experiences more accessible across languages.
For Sarvam co-founder Pratyush Kumar, voice could offer a more natural way of interacting with PCs, particularly as the computer remains a primary interface for work. The company’s technology is designed to bring that interaction across the applications users already rely on.
While voice AI is the first focus of the partnership, the MoU leaves the door open for a wider collaboration. HP and Sarvam plan to explore additional AI experiences as the technology becomes increasingly integrated into PCs and everyday workflows.
The partnership therefore goes beyond simply replacing the keyboard with a microphone. Its larger proposition is to make computers understand how India speaks — across languages, accents and the increasingly common habit of switching between them.
