Finnish phone maker HMD is integrating an Indian AI chatbot into a new smartphone to tap into the local market

Finnish phone maker HMD today launched its first smartphone, called the Vibe 2 5G, which comes pre-loaded with Indian AI company Sarvam’s chatbot Indus. Both the companies had first announced the partnership during the India AI conference in New Delhi in February.

The Indus app is powered by Sarvam’s 105 billion space-trained parametric model — a measure of AI scale and complexity — and presented at the AI ​​conference. The app supports 22 Indic languages ​​and mid-sentence code switching (the ability to mix languages ​​during a conversation, such as switching between Hindi and English), which helps the assistant better understand the context of the question. Currently, the application does not support offline use, and does not have a feature integrated with the device to request an AI assistant through a shortcut.

The partnership is a potential testing ground for both companies to gauge demand for an India-focused chatbot.

“With this partnership, the first thing we want to do is get the Indus app to consumers,” said Ravi Kunwar, HMD’s CEO and Vice President for India and APAC, in an interview with TechCrunch. “Once they start using it, we will move to the second phase to focus on driving more traction and adherence. Right now, by preloading the app, we want to be more accessible to users,” he said.

The Vibe 2 5G is a mid-range Android phone with a 6,000mAh battery and a price tag of ₹10,999($114). Kunwar added that devices in the Vibe series of smartphones will also get a chatbot, and the company is expected to launch a feature phone with Sarvam AI integration in the coming months.

That feature of phone integration would ultimately prove to be very important for both companies. HMD held a 4% share of the Indian phone market by 2025, but its share of smartphones was insignificant – the company does not even appear in the top 15, according to analyst firm IDC.

Although it is early days for Indus, the download numbers reflect that. About three months after its launch, the app has been downloaded more than 293,000 times in India across all platforms, according to Appfigures. In comparison, ChatGPT has been downloaded 43.9 million times in the country.

It’s a big gap, but the strategy behind the HMD deal may be more important than the early numbers. Integrating a regional AI assistant with affordable hardware – especially feature phones – is one of the most direct distribution plays available in a large and linguistically diverse market like India, where English-language AI tools have limited access. For investors and practitioners watching how AI adoption is growing in emerging markets, this partnership is worth tracking.

Sarvam has been one of the marquee AI startups in India. Beyond the launch of the Indus app, the company is focused on business partnerships, especially voice-based solutions. It is on track to become one of the most funded AI startups in the country, with reports suggesting $300 million in funding with $1.5 billion in the works.