UIDAI–Sarvam AI Voice Services for Aadhaar: AI-Enabled Multilingual Voice Interactions and Real-Time Fraud Detection

Overview

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has partnered with Bengaluru-based Sarvam AI, an indigenous full-stack Generative AI company, to deploy AI-enabled voice-based interaction and real-time fraud detection services for Aadhaar, India's national biometric identity programme covering over 1.3 billion enrolled residents. The partnership agreement came into effect on 18 March 2025 and is initially valid for one year, with the option to extend by an additional year (PIB, 2025a).

Sarvam AI has delivered a custom Generative AI stack that performs three core functions within the Aadhaar ecosystem. First, the system conducts AI-driven voice-based interactions for resident-centric use cases, enabling near real-time feedback collection from Aadhaar number holders regarding their enrolment and update processes. This feedback mechanism captures information on the quality of service provided at Aadhaar enrolment and update centres, including the detection and reporting of overcharging of residents by service providers. Second, the system provides real-time fraud alerts to Aadhaar number holders when the AI identifies suspicious activity during authentication requests. The AI continuously monitors authentication transactions and flags irregularities, reducing the risk of identity fraud and unauthorised access to Aadhaar-linked services. Third, the system delivers these capabilities across ten Indian languages — Hindi, English, Telugu, Tamil, Marathi, Gujarati, Kannada, Odia, Punjabi, and Malayalam — with plans to expand language coverage in subsequent months (PIB, 2025a; Elets eGov, 2025).

The technical architecture of the deployment is notable for its emphasis on data sovereignty and security. Sarvam AI's custom GenAI stack is hosted entirely on-premise within UIDAI's air-gapped infrastructure. No data leaves UIDAI's secure environment at any stage of operation, ensuring full compliance with India's data sovereignty and security protocols. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology confirmed that the deployment architecture guarantees that all data processing occurs within UIDAI's controlled perimeter. UIDAI retains full ownership of the deployed solution, with the technology having been developed through collaboration between Sarvam AI experts and UIDAI's Technology Centre in Bengaluru under UIDAI's volunteer policy (PIB, 2025a; Inc42, 2025; Elets eGov, 2025).

Sarvam AI, founded in 2023 by Pratyush Kumar and Vivek Raghavan, is an Indian AI startup that has developed indigenous foundation models optimised for Indic languages. The company raised USD 41 million in Series A funding in December 2023, led by Lightspeed Venture Partners with participation from Peak XV Partners and Khosla Ventures. Sarvam AI's technology stack includes Sarvam-1 (also known as Sarvam 2B), a 2-billion parameter open-source language model pre-trained on 4 trillion tokens with approximately 50 per cent dedicated to Indic language data, achieving 2-4x greater token efficiency compared to existing multilingual models. The company has also developed Bulbul, a text-to-speech model available in 11 Indian languages with 39 distinct speaker voices; Saaras, a speech-to-text model supporting all 22 scheduled languages of India including telephony audio and code-mixed speech; and Shuka 1.0, India's first open-source audio language model. Sarvam AI's Conversations platform handles over 100 million interactions with sub-500-millisecond latency across 11 Indian languages. The company was selected as one of 12 organisations under the IndiaAI Mission's Innovation Centre pillar, receiving financial and compute support amounting to Rs 246.72 crore from the Government of India (Inc42, 2025; PIB, 2025b).

The UIDAI partnership represents a significant deployment of indigenous Indian AI technology within critical national digital infrastructure. UIDAI CEO Bhuvnesh Kumar stated that 'UIDAI is a people centric organization. GenAI is the next technology evolution in UIDAI's journey as a technology pioneer, building on our long-standing commitment to innovation.' Vivek Raghavan, Co-Founder of Sarvam AI, stated that 'This engagement exemplifies the immense potential of AI to drive public good.' The Aadhaar system processes hundreds of crores of authentication transactions annually — over 284 crore authentication transactions were recorded in January 2025 alone, with cumulative authentication transactions exceeding 150 billion (15,011.82 crore) by April 2025 — making the fraud detection and voice interaction capabilities operationally significant at national scale (PIB, 2025a; PIB, 2025c).

Classification

Programme Details

Aadhaar is India's national biometric identity programme administered by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. The programme issues a 12-digit unique identity number to residents based on biometric and demographic data, serving as foundational digital infrastructure for identity verification, authentication, and e-KYC across government welfare delivery, financial inclusion, and public services. Over 1.3 billion residents are enrolled.

Implementation Details

Risk & Oversight

Deployment & Outcomes

Sources

1. SRC-003-IND-008 Elets News Network (2025) 'UIDAI Introduces AI-Powered Voice Interactions and Fraud Detection for Aadhaar Services', Elets eGov, 24 March. Available at: https://egov.eletsonline.com/2025/03/uidai-introduces-ai-powered-voice-interactions-and-fraud-detection-for-aadhaar-services/ (Accessed: 25 March 2026).
   https://egov.eletsonline.com/2025/03/uidai-introduces-ai-powered-voice-interactions-and-fraud-detection-for-aadhaar-services/
2. SRC-002-IND-008 Choudhary, L. (2025) 'UIDAI Partners Sarvam AI To Offer AI Voice, Fraud Detection To Aadhaar', Inc42, 18 March. Available at: https://inc42.com/buzz/uidai-partners-sarvam-ai-to-offer-ai-voice-fraud-detection-to-aadhaar/ (Accessed: 25 March 2026).
   https://inc42.com/buzz/uidai-partners-sarvam-ai-to-offer-ai-voice-fraud-detection-to-aadhaar/
3. SRC-001-IND-008 Press Information Bureau (2025a) 'UIDAI partners with indigenous GenAI Company Sarvam AI to enhance user experience of Aadhaar services', Press Release PRID 2112485, 18 March. New Delhi: Government of India.
   https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2112485
4. SRC-004-IND-008 Press Information Bureau (2025b) 'Sarvam AI Powering a Made-in-India AI Revolution', Press Release PRID 2231169. New Delhi: Government of India.
   https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2231169&reg=3&lang=1