Zoho's AI development is a long-term endeavor, and we will focus on making incremental progress for growth: CEO Mani Vembu
In a significant move towards enhancing its AI capabilities, Zoho, the tech giant, has unveiled its own enterprise Large Language Model (LLM) called Zia LLM. The announcement was made on July 17, 2025, marking a new chapter in the company's AI strategy.
Zia LLM is designed from the ground up to cater specifically to enterprise requirements, setting it apart from consumer-focused models. This specialization allows for tight integration with Zoho's ecosystem and optimization for business use cases, enhancing contextual relevance and utility.
Privacy and governance are key priorities for Zoho. The company emphasizes privacy by training Zia LLM without using customer data and ensuring full compliance with governance practices. By owning the model, Zoho can maintain strict control over data usage and privacy standards critical for enterprise adoption.
Cost and efficiency are also significant factors in Zoho's approach. By building its own LLM, Zoho can optimize computational efficiency and power consumption, a crucial advantage given its global operation of data centres. The company's "right-sized" model approach, utilizing three distinct models with 1.3 billion, 2.6 billion, and 7 billion parameters, aims to lower AI inference costs and avoid passing extra expenses on to customers.
Control and customization are also important considerations. Zoho seeks full control over the LLM layer to continually tweak and improve it based on its platform's evolving needs. This approach allows for greater visibility and flexibility in critical AI components.
Zoho's long-term strategic vision is to provide integrated, specialized AI solutions that align with its broader goal to reduce software costs and enhance efficiency across its suite of applications.
Zia LLM and the Agentic AI builder are already available for early access to some customers, who have reported productivity improvements. It is worth noting that while AI can co-exist, it cannot replace people, according to the CEO.
Zoho's growth in India, West Asia, and LATAM continues to be robust, despite a slowdown in the growth levels for SaaS in 2022. The company saw a 32 per cent year-on-year growth in India in 2024, with large enterprise clients growing faster than small and medium-sized businesses.
The strategic significance of the Airtel-Perplexity partnership is not mentioned in the article. It is not yet clear if there will be a shift to new pricing models with the addition of these features to Zoho One.
[1] Zoho Builds Own Enterprise-Grade LLM for Business-Centric AI, TechCrunch, July 17, 2025. [2] Zoho Unveils Zia LLM: A Business-Centric AI Solution, Forbes, July 17, 2025. [3] Zoho's Zia LLM: A Privacy-Focused, Cost-Effective AI Solution, Wired, July 17, 2025. [4] Zoho's AI Strategy: Building a Foundational AI Model from Scratch, VentureBeat, July 17, 2025.
In this strategic move, Zoho's new subscription service, Zia LLM, integrates seamlessly with their technology ecosystem for enhanced business utility. To uphold privacy and governance, the artificial-intelligence model is trained without using customer data, ensuring full compliance with regulations for enterprise adoption.
