Finnish phone maker HMD today launched its first smartphone, called the Vibe 2 5G, which comes pre-loaded with Indian AI company Sarvam’s chatbot Indus. The two companies first announced the partnership during the India AI Summit held in New Delhi in February.

The Indus app is powered by Cerum’s locally trained 105-billion-parameter model – a measure of the scale and sophistication of AI – and Launched at the AI ​​Summit. The app supports 22 Hindi languages ​​and mid-sentence code-switching (the ability to easily mix languages ​​mid-conversation, such as switching between Hindi and English), which helps the assistant better understand the context of a question. Currently, the application does not support offline usage, and has no device-integrated feature to invoke the AI ​​assistant via a shortcut.

The partnership is a potential testing ground for both companies to gauge India-centric chatbot appetite.

“With this partnership, the first thing we want to do is get the Indus app to consumers,” Ravi Kanwar, HMD’s CEO and vice president for India and APAC, said in an interview with TechCrunch. “Once they start using it, we will move into the second phase to focus on more traction and grippy driving. Right now, by pre-loading the app, we want to be more accessible to users,” he said.

The Vibe 2 5G is a mid-range Android phone with a 6,000mAh battery and is priced at ₹10,999 ($114). Devices in the Vibe series of smartphones will also get a chatbot, Kanwar added, adding that the company is also expected to launch a feature phone with Sarvam AI integration in the coming months.

That feature phone integration could ultimately prove more important for both companies. HMD had a 4 percent share of India’s feature phone market in 2025, but its smartphone share was negligible — the company isn’t even in the top 15, according to analyst firm IDC.

Although these are early days for Sindh, the download numbers reflect that. According to Appfigures, nearly three months after launch, the app has been downloaded only 293,000 times across platforms in India. In comparison, ChatGPT was downloaded 43.9 million times in the country.

It’s a big gap, but the strategy behind the HMD deal matters more than the initial numbers. Bundling a regional AI assistant with affordable hardware — especially feature phones — is one of the more direct distribution plays available in a market as large and linguistically diverse as India, where access to English-language AI tools is limited. For investors and operators looking to see how AI adoption plays out in emerging markets, this partnership is worth considering.

Sarvam has been one of the popular AI startups in India. Beyond the launch of IndusApp, the company has focused on enterprise partnerships, particularly for voice-based solutions. It is on track to become one of the most funded AI startups in the country. Reports to suggest A $300 million funding round is in the works at a $1.5 billion valuation.