Generative AI-powered voice technology in agricultural advisory services: Lessons from India
Generative AI can close agricultural information gaps. A new AI voice agent offers tailored, real‑time advice to smallholder farmers, even in remote areas.
- Artificial Intelligence
- advisory services
- India
By Suresh Babu and Praveen RamadugoApril 3, 2026
Key takeaways
•Generative AI can close agricultural information gaps. A new AI voice agent offers tailored, real‑time advice to smallholder farmers, even in remote areas.
•Local language and context matter. Accurate speech recognition, vernacular terms, and natural conversation were key to the development process.
•Human-centered design is critical. Building trust, ensuring data governance, and integrating local experts and farmer feedback determine long‑term success.
Will the ongoing expansion of artificial intelligence technologies leaves certain segments of society behind as earlier digital transformations did? Generative AI (gen AI) applications that can automate a wide range of verbal and analytical tasks may be different. These show enormous promise to address gaps in productivity, market access, and income growth.
They can also benefit marginalized farming communities previously left behind by advances in other digital technologies. The lack of computers and computing power in rural areas, and later the patchy or nonexistent internet access, have long slowed efforts to support farmers with digital innovations. Currently, smartphone apps for farming are often expensive, and call centers may be unreachable or not helpful for smallholders.
Today, gen AI systems accessible by mobile phone can deliver advice to smallholders on farming techniques, use of inputs, pest control, weather and climate impacts, and other topics, providing consistent and reliable information. But to be effective, such systems require careful development, including tailoring to local languages and practices.
In this post, we document various issues and challenges encountered in the process of developing a gen AI voice agent in India by the AI startup Farm Vaidya (FV). IFPRI served as a technical advisor to the project. The company’s voice AI agents communicate with Telugu-speaking farmers in southeast India through their mobile phones and provide immediate, context-specific advice on a wide range of issues. FV’s experiences offer specific lessons for designing and deploying gen AI-based agricultural advisory services.