Sarvam AI for business: does India's own AI recommend you?
Sarvam AI is an Indian AI model that answers in Indian languages, and it is behind the Indus app. If your customers ask it for recommendations, you want to know whether it names your business. This guide explains what Sarvam is, why it matters, and what we found when we tested it.
What Sarvam AI is
Sarvam is an Indian AI company. Its model powers the Indus app, which is designed for Indian users.
It is built to answer in Indian languages, so customers can ask in Hindi, Tamil, Bengali, Marathi and others, in the mixed style people actually type. This means a customer might ask in Hindi or a mix of Hindi and English, and Sarvam will understand and reply in the same style.
Sarvam answers from what its model knows, without a live web search. That one design choice shapes which businesses it can name. It cannot read your latest website or reviews before answering, so its answers depend on what it learned during training.
Why it matters for a business in India
Customers have started asking AI assistants which business to choose, and many ask in their own language, not English. If a customer asks in Hindi for a dentist in Delhi, they expect an answer in Hindi.
If an assistant names three clinics or three coaching institutes, being one of them matters more than ranking tenth on a page of links. The customer is likely to contact one of the named businesses directly.
A business can be named in English and missing in Hindi, or the other way round. This means you need to check how you appear in each language your customers use.
What we found when we tested it
On 10 October 2026 Vasukai asked 12 everyday Indian questions (restaurants, coaching, home loans, hospitals, pharmacies, jewellers, phones, car insurance, photographers, sweet shops and schools) from India, in English, Hindi, Tamil, Bengali and Marathi, to 5 assistants: ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity and Sarvam.
For the same question, the businesses named in an Indian language matched the English answer only 24 to 53 percent of the time. For Sarvam the overlap was 24 to 33 percent, the most change of any assistant.
41 percent of the businesses Sarvam named were not named by any of the assistants that search the web. Some will be small local businesses the others miss; some may not exist, because nothing was checked against a live source.
Share of businesses named by only one assistant: Sarvam 62 percent, Perplexity 47 percent, Gemini 42 percent, ChatGPT 38 percent, Google AI Overviews 35 percent.
12 questions is a small sample. Treat this as a first look, not a ranking; answers also change week to week. Full tables: vasukai.com/india.
Sarvam AI vs ChatGPT for local recommendations
ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews search the web for many questions, so what is written about you online can reach their answers quickly. If you update your website or get new reviews, these assistants can pick that up.
Sarvam relies on what its model already knows, so it cannot read your latest website or reviews before answering. Its knowledge is fixed at the time it was trained.
In one free check for a Delhi dental clinic, Sarvam replied that it had no reviews or data on the clinic and told the user to check Google, Practo or Lybrate. Honest, but the customer went elsewhere.
Neither is better for every question. Each assistant keeps its own list, which is why it is worth checking each one. For example, a customer might ask Sarvam in Hindi for a sweet shop in Pune, and ask ChatGPT in English for the same thing, and get different answers.
How to give Sarvam and other assistants the right picture
State plainly on your website what you do, where, and for whom, including prices where they help. This makes it easy for any assistant to understand and describe your business.
Keep your Google Business Profile complete and your listings consistent on the directories people in India use. This includes your address, phone number, hours, and services.
Collect reviews on Google and on the platforms your customers already use. Reviews help assistants that search the web, and they also signal that your business is active.
Publish pages or listings in the languages your customers ask in, not only English. If your customers ask in Hindi, have key information in Hindi.
None of this guarantees being named; it makes you easier to find and to describe correctly. See how to rank in ChatGPT.
How to check what Sarvam says about you
Ask the questions your customers ask, in their language, and note who is named.
Ask the same question in English and in your customers' main language, and compare. This shows you where you appear and where you are missing.
Vasukai checks Sarvam alongside ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AI Mode, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, Claude and DeepSeek, in your main language plus up to two more Indian languages. The free check needs no card; plans in India start at 899 rupees a month, paid by UPI or card.
Questions
What is Sarvam AI?
An Indian AI model built to answer in Indian languages. It is the model behind the Indus app.
Does Sarvam AI search the web?
No. It answers from what its model knows, without a live web search, which is why its list of businesses can differ from ChatGPT's.
Can I pay Sarvam to recommend my business?
There is no paid placement in its answers that we know of. What helps is being clearly described online and in your customers' languages.
Which AI visibility tools track Sarvam?
Of 11 AI visibility tools we reviewed in October 2026, none listed Sarvam among the assistants it tracks. Vasukai does.
