When your callers could speak any of eight Indian languages, the cleanest design is a short "greeter" agent that detects the language and hands the call to a specialist agent for that language. Each specialist has a native-sounding voice, a script written in that language, and its own pronunciation rules. The caller hears one continuous call. We built this as an eight-language demo for a nationwide business audience: Hindi, English, Marathi, Gujarati, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam. Edesy supports this through multi-agent handoff.
Build a multilingual agent: Start free on Edesy — Rs 50 free credit, no demo needed.
Why not one agent for all languages?
A single agent can switch languages, and for two or three languages that works well. At seven or eight, it usually sounds generic everywhere: one voice that isn't native to most languages, a script translated rather than written, and names and numbers pronounced inconsistently. Specialist agents fix that.
The design
- Greeter agent answers or places the call and greets in two languages:
Namaste, hello! Aap Hindi ya English, jis bhasha mein chahein baat kar sakte hain.
- The caller replies. The greeter listens to the first full sentence.
- Language decision. If the reply is clearly Tamil, Telugu, Bengali or another supported language, the greeter says a short line and hands off.
- Specialist agent continues the call in that language, with its own voice, script and fields.
- Same outcome fields across all specialists, so reporting stays in one table.
Rules that make detection reliable
- Don't switch on one word. "Haan", "ok" and "yes" are used in every language. Wait for a full sentence, or two.
- Don't announce the switch. Just continue in the caller's language; "switching to Tamil now" sounds robotic.
- Offer a way back. If the caller switches again, the specialist can continue in a bilingual mode or hand back.
- Speak before handing off so there is never silence. See how to fix dead air on AI calls.
Bilingual modes for the common cases
Many Indian callers mix languages naturally. For two-language audiences, a bilingual mode such as Hindi-English, Telugu-English or Tamil-English often works better than a handoff. Use handoffs when the list genuinely spans many languages. More on mixing: code-switching in voice AI.
Writing the specialist scripts
- Write each script in its language, don't translate word by word. Local phrasing matters.
- Respectful forms per language: "ji" in Hindi, "garu" in Telugu, "avargale" and polite forms in Tamil.
- Pronunciation rules for your brand, product names and numbers in each language. See pronunciation of numbers and acronyms.
- Same questions, same fields. The outcome table should look identical regardless of language.
Testing
Call the greeter yourself in each language, speaking naturally and mixing in English words. Check:
- It picks the right language after one or two sentences.
- It does not switch on "haan" or "ok".
- The handoff has no silence.
- The specialist uses the right register and pronunciation.
Our 30-minute AI voice agent test checklist has the rest.
Cost
On Edesy, calls are billed per started minute at Rs 4-6 per minute depending on your prepaid top-up, regardless of language or handoff, with unanswered calls free.
Try it
Create a free account, start with a bilingual agent, and add specialists for your top languages. Planning a large multilingual rollout? Talk to us.