The government of the state of Karnataka is considering launching pilot projects based on voice artificial intelligence technologies from the company ElevenLabs. Discussions took place in Bengaluru on August 27, 2026, covering areas such as education, investment promotion, healthcare, culture, and citizen services. No agreements have been signed yet, and the interaction is purely exploratory.
Negotiations were held between the Minister for Home Affairs, Information Technology, Biotechnology, and E-Governance, Priyank Kharge, and a delegation from the AI-specialized audio company. The state aims to determine how AI advancements can be transformed into functional models for public service delivery, rather than remaining mere demonstrations.
Karnataka has actively attracted the attention of global AI leaders over the past year. The state signed a letter of intent with the World Economic Forum to establish an AI center, approved an AI Center of Excellence with a budget of 28 crore rupees, and is developing its own AI framework. Furthermore, Kharge declared the next ten years as the state's 'Decade of Deep Technologies' and doubled startup grants to 1 crore rupees.
Earlier this month, the state also initiated a dialogue with Anthropic regarding the application of AI in governance, higher education, and scientific research. Bengaluru is a hub for over 100,000 AI specialists and possesses a technical workforce exceeding one million people.
The ElevenLabs delegation included Ben Sappla, Global Head of Partnerships and Public Sector Policy; Nihal Chauhan, APAC Head of Partnerships and Public Sector Policy; and Arielle Andrews, Chief of Staff and General Counsel. From Karnataka, Sharath Kumar Bache Gowda, Chairman of KEONICS, and Dr. Avinash Menon Rajendran, IAS, Managing Director of the Karnataka Society for Innovation and Technology, along with senior departmental officials, participated in the discussions.
Five potential areas of use were discussed. These include voice-based skill training and interviews, including support for Indian languages; investor assistance services for navigating schemes and opportunities; voice restoration for individuals who have lost the ability to speak; the application of voice technologies for cultural and social initiatives; and issues of responsible AI and voice security, including protection against deepfakes and disinformation.
The company demonstrated a tool for voice interview practice and presented its work on detecting synthetic audio, its origin, traceability, and watermarking. A significant part of the conversation focused on the risk of using AI-generated voices to spread false information about government programs and announcements.
Kharge asked the teams to develop a clear roadmap for the identified areas and work on an initial pilot project with obvious public impact. He stated: 'Our approach is to collaborate with companies that create some of the world's most capable technologies, understand where these technologies can solve real problems, and then move to pilots that can be scaled across the state.'
ElevenLabs, founded in 2022 by Mati Staniszewski and Petr Dabkowski, raised $500 million in a Series D round led by Sequoia Capital in February 2026 at a valuation of $11 billion. Bengaluru is included in the company's market list for locally based teams. In February 2026, the company expanded its India Impact Program, offering non-profit organizations free access to its tools for speech restoration, multilingual educational content, and regional language preservation, which closely aligns with the topics discussed in Bengaluru.
Voice AI systems are now capable of cloning a speaker's voice from a short sample, turning the verification of an audio clip's origin from a purely technical problem into a governance issue. The overall approach combines three methods: watermarks embed an inaudible signal into the generated audio at the time of creation; provenance records attach information on how and by whom the clip was created; and detection models are trained to recognize machine-generated speech even if the file has been overwritten or compressed. For the government, the practical value lies in the ability to quickly verify the authenticity of circulating audio clips containing official announcements.
The company invited the minister to its summit in India in Bengaluru on October 6, where the company's plans for India are expected to be presented. For Karnataka, the immediate task is narrower: whether the roadmap developed by the minister will lead to a pilot that citizens actually use.
