What happens if a caller speaks a language the AI does not support?
The agent cannot hold a proper conversation in a language it does not speak. Outpero supports Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Marathi, Kannada, Malayalam and Indian English. Bengali, Gujarati, Punjabi, Odia, Urdu, Assamese and Konkani are not supported. Plan for these callers by splitting lists, ending calls politely, or transferring to your team.
The honest answer
If a caller answers in Bengali, Gujarati, Punjabi, Odia, Urdu, Assamese or Konkani, Outpero's agents will not understand them reliably and will not answer in their language. Expect a short call, a transcript with misheard words and a lead that did not progress. That is why language fit should be checked before a campaign, not after.
Ways to protect those callers
- 01Screen the list. Remove contacts whose preferred language is unsupported, using a CRM field, a state column or the form language.
- 02Keep a person ready. For contacts you cannot screen, keep a human telecaller or a callback queue for the ones the agent flags.
- 03Write a polite exit line. If the caller keeps speaking in another language, the agent should thank them, say a colleague will call back, and end the call.
- 04Use transfer where configured. Outpero can hand a call to your team when a person should take it, but this should not be promised for every call.
What the agent can still do
Many callers in these language regions also speak Hindi or English. Gujarati and Punjabi speakers in business settings often take a call in Hindi, and professionals in Kolkata or Guwahati often prefer English. The agent is the right tool for them. It is not the right tool for a caller who needs the call in their own language.
| Caller language | Practical option |
|---|---|
| Bengali, Gujarati, Punjabi, Odia, Assamese, Urdu | Hindi or English if the caller is comfortable, otherwise a human caller |
| Konkani, Tulu, Bhojpuri and others | Nearest live language (Marathi, Kannada, Hindi) if the caller is comfortable; test first |
| A live Indian language other than the campaign's | Move the contact to the campaign in their language |
Review and learn
Check transcripts for calls under 20 seconds. They usually reveal a language mismatch, and the dashboard lets you export the contacts as a CSV and re-run them with a person or the right agent.
One-way voice broadcast is a separate case: an uploaded audio file can be in any language, because it is a recording, not an AI conversation.
Want to hear an AI voice agent handle this on a real call?
Follow-up questions
Can the agent tell me when a caller used a language it could not follow?
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The call log shows a recording, transcript and summary, and short calls with garbled transcripts are the usual sign of a mismatch. Add a custom field such as preferred language to the script so callers who state it are tagged, then re-route those contacts.