Hello AI! Please translate this for me
Not long ago, a video of a young man using a
generative AI
app to effectively communicate with a local rickshaw driver was doing the rounds of social media. Interestingly, the voice generation app was not only able to hold a conversation with the rickshaw driver but it also struck a bargain for the traveller, bringing the price down from Rs 200 to Rs 120. As generative AI evolves, it's transforming
real-world communication
too. 'The global
market for AI-driven language tools
is projected to cross $20 billion by 2030 and India will be a major catalyst in this growth,' shares Dipankar Mukherjee, a Market Analyst and Co-Founder and CEO, Studio Blo.
Where AI meets commerce and creativity
During a recent trip to south India for product research, Faisal Farooqui, CEO of Mouthshut.com, used AI-powered voice translators to understand and communicate with people in smaller towns and villages. He says, 'AI has been a boon for communication. It's helped us translate feedback more efficiently. The only hiccup? Local syntax, and sarcasm - AI still stumbles there. But what really stood out is how it empowers users who once felt held back by language barriers.' The growing use of language AI platforms is giving a big boost to
regional content creators
as well. As Rahul Regulapati, Founder & CEO, Galleri5 (Part of Collective Artists Network), explains, 'Earlier, if you weren't fluent in English or Hindi, your content rarely made it to the trending section on platforms like Instagram. But now, thanks to AI tools that can tag and categorise content in many Indian languages, more creators are getting discovered.' As a result, AI is helping bring more diverse voices into the spotlight.
A student uses Gen AI to communicate with a Bengaluru local rickshaw driver and also succesfully strikes a bargain.
Mostly helpful, but some issues persist
Yasir Wani, an Indian product manager working in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, uses gen AI apps to help him navigate life in a country where the dominant language is alien to him. 'Using AI to bridge the language gap has definitely made life easier. It's made me feel more independent and confident, especially when I need to communicate clearly in Arabic without waiting for a translator or second opinion,' he says. That said, Wani adds that he has noticed some issues. 'It sometimes struggles with nuance—especially with religious, legal, or cultural context,' he says. Dr Sunita Gandhi, a language expert and educationist, points out that at the end of the day, AI is just matching patterns and odds.
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India is a land of cultures, and home to over 22 major languages, according to Ministry of Education. At times it is a challenge one for an Indian to navigate in his own country. As Suman Gandham, Founder and CEO of Posibl AI, notes, 'The
Indian language ecosystem
is hugely underrepresented in global LLMs. But things are changing. Initiatives like Bhashini by the Indian government, or open-source projects like IndicNLP and AI4Bharat, are building solid datasets for Indic languages. We're also seeing a shift towards adapter-based models and LoRA (Low-Rank Adaptation), which let you fine-tune large models for local contexts without needing to retrain from scratch.'
AI generated image
As human beings work more with AI tools, there's a tendency to simplify sentences, use more standardised vocabulary, and avoid complex turns of phrase or local idioms. Over time, this could result in a more 'machine-friendly' style of communication
-Dr Sunita Gandhi, a language expert and educationist, founder of DEVI Sansthan
Apps like Preply, ChatGPT, Google Translate, Microsoft Translate, DeepL, and iTranslate offer features such as real-time text and speech translation, image-to-text conversion, offline functionality, and voice-based interactions—making multilingual communication faster and more convenient than ever.
UNESCO estimates that over 40% of the world's 7,000 languages are endangered, with one language disappearing every two weeks—along with the cultural and intellectual heritage it carries. While the threat remains urgent, AI presents a new opportunity for preservation. By training models on rare linguistic data and enabling real-world use in translation, voice synthesis, and content generation, AI could play a critical role in keeping endangered languages alive and relevant.
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