Zoho unveils Zia LLM, its new enterprise-level AI language model

Global SaaS leader Zoho has rolled out its own proprietary large language model (LLM) — Zia LLM — along with a suite of AI-driven enhancements across its business software suite. The announcement was made at the company’s flagship event, Zoholics 2025, as Zoho reinforced its vision of building scalable, privacy-centric AI tools optimized for real-world enterprise use cases.

Introducing Zia LLM: A Tailored AI for Businesses

Zia LLM comprises three dedicated models with parameter sizes of 1.3 billion, 2.6 billion, and 7 billion, each fine-tuned for contextual relevance. Unlike many generic models, Zoho is betting on a "right-sizing" approach, believing that not all enterprise scenarios require massive LLMs.

According to company executives, these models are built to strike a balance between computational efficiency and performance, enabling businesses to harness AI while managing resource consumption effectively. The company plans to scale these models further by the end of 2025.

Zia LLM Prioritizes Privacy and Governance

One of the biggest differentiators for Zia LLM is its data privacy-first approach. Unlike traditional third-party LLMs, Zia LLM was trained without using any customer data. Instead, Zoho relied solely on public data and proprietary annotated datasets, ensuring that sensitive customer information remains secure.

The AI model has been deployed across Zoho’s data centers in the U.S., India, and Europe, giving customers more control over their data locality and governance. Zoho is also testing the model internally across its application suite and plans to roll it out to users in the coming months.

Strategic AI Rollout for Enterprise Use

Zoho’s AI strategy is grounded in practical business utility. As per CEO Mani Vembu, Zia LLM is designed to lower AI inference costs, thus making the technology more accessible to customers while maintaining accuracy and productivity.

“We call this co-creation with AI,” said Vembu. “With human-in-the-loop verification over our low-code platform, businesses can maintain oversight while leveraging AI-powered insights.”

Indic Language Support and Speech Recognition Breakthroughs

Zia LLM’s support for Indic languages positions it as a unique offering in the Indian enterprise AI space. The contextual understanding of Indian business needs, languages, and formats gives the model a distinct advantage over global counterparts.

Alongside the LLM, Zoho also launched two Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) models for converting English and Hindi speech to text. According to the company, these ASR models perform up to 75% better than rival systems in standard benchmarking tests. Zoho plans to expand ASR language support to include regional Indian and European languages in the near future.

Zia Agents: AI for Real-World Business Tasks

Further enhancing its AI offerings, Zoho introduced over 25 pre-built Zia Agents designed for rapid deployment. These agents simplify tasks like sales analysis, business insights, and customer service.

Notable agents include:

• Deal Analyzer – provides insights on potential business deals

• Revenue Growth Specialist – identifies upsell and cross-sell opportunities

For the Indian market, Zoho also unveiled specialized agents to verify key government IDs such as:

• PAN Card

• Voter ID

• GSTIN

• Driving License

• Udyog Aadhaar

• Electricity and LPG bills

These tools help automate KYC (Know Your Customer) processes for Indian enterprises.

Strong Growth in India and Future AI Roadmap

India continues to be Zoho’s fastest-growing market, with 32% YoY growth in 2024, making it the company’s second-largest market globally. Though slightly slower than 2022’s growth rate, the Chennai-based company has recorded a 10-year CAGR of 51% in India.

Top-performing products in the region include:

• Zoho One

• Workplace (email & collaboration)

• CRM Plus

• Books (accounting)

• Zoho People (HR software)

Going forward, Zoho plans to roll out a Reasoning Language Model (RLM) and continue expanding its AI capabilities across applications and markets.