An AI voice agent reads text literally, so it will say "one hundred thousand" instead of "ek lakh", "tenth" instead of "dasvi", and mangle industry acronyms unless you tell it otherwise. In real deployments, these small things decide whether a call sounds natural or robotic. A publisher's agent had to learn to say class numbers the way Hindi-speaking teachers do. A manufacturer's agent needed its trade abbreviations spelled out. Almost every sales agent needed Indian number words. Here are the rules we now apply to every agent.
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1. Lakh and crore, not thousands and millions
| Write / pass | Agent should say |
|---|---|
| 1,00,000 tablets | ek lakh tablets |
| 25,00,000 | pachchees lakh |
| 2,00,00,000 | do crore |
| 4,500 rupees | chaar hazaar paanch sau rupaye |
Add to the prompt: "Say large numbers the Indian way: hazaar, lakh, crore. Never say million or hundred thousand." And format variables with Indian grouping (1,00,000), not 100,000.
2. Class and grade names
For Hindi-speaking parents and teachers:
| Written | Say |
|---|---|
| Class 10 / 10th | dasvi |
| Class 12 / 12th | barahvi |
| Class 5 | paanchvi |
In English-medium conversations, "class ten" is fine. Match the audience.
3. Acronyms: spell or say?
Decide per acronym and write it down:
- Spelled out: trade terms like P-C-D, M-O-Q, G-S-T, E-M-I, K-Y-C.
- Said as a word: acronyms people pronounce as words, if your audience does.
- Your brand: spell it the way it should sound, and add a note like "Say our brand name as [phonetic spelling]; never spell it out."
In one deployment, the agent read a trade abbreviation as a word nobody recognised. Spelling it with hyphens in the prompt (P-C-D) fixed it immediately.
4. Dates and times
- Pass dates as "5 October", not "05/10/2026" (which the voice may read as a fraction or digits).
- Times as "shaam 5 baje" or "5 PM", depending on language.
- Days: "Monday", "somvaar": match how your customers speak.
5. Amounts and account numbers
- Amounts with "rupaye" or "rupees", in words for small amounts, digits with Indian grouping for large.
- Account or order numbers: read in small groups ("INV, 22, 91") and only when needed.
- Phone numbers: read back in two groups of five.
6. Hindi register and gender
- "Aap" and "ji" with customers, always.
- Consistent verb gender: if the agent's voice is female, use "kar rahi hoon", "bol rahi hoon" throughout. Mixing forms sounds wrong to native speakers.
- Rotate acknowledgements: "achha", "theek hai", "samajh gayi", not the same word every time.
7. Remove pauses and symbols from scripts
Ellipses ("..."), brackets and special symbols can produce odd pauses or be read aloud. Write scripts the way they should sound.
A pronunciation block for your prompt
Speaking style. Say numbers the Indian way (hazaar, lakh, crore). Say class numbers in Hindi (dasvi, barahvi). Spell out these acronyms letter by letter: P-C-D, M-O-Q, E-M-I. Say dates as "5 October". Use "aap" and "ji". Use female verb forms consistently. Never read symbols, brackets or placeholders aloud.
Find problems fast
Listen to 20-30 calls in the first days. Write down every word the voice got wrong and fix it in the prompt or the contact data. Most issues appear in the first 30 calls. More production lessons: getting caller names right and Hindi AI calling scripts.
Try it
Create a free account, paste this block into your agent, and call yourself with an amount in lakhs. Need help tuning a voice for your industry? Talk to us.