Zoho targets Kenya’s AI market with launch of Zia LLM
Zoho Kenya Country Head Veerakumar Natarajan. Courtesy photo
Global software firm Zoho has unveiled its Zia Large Language Model (Zia LLM) in Kenya, a move aimed at accelerating the adoption of artificial intelligence among local businesses while safeguarding customer data.
Speaking at the company’s annual user conference in Nairobi, Zoho’s Kenya Country Head Veerakumar Natarajan said the model will give customers access to advanced AI tools without relying on external providers.
“Our focus is on protecting customer data, improving productivity, and ensuring AI serves our customers efficiently,” Natarajan said.
He noted that Zoho’s rapid growth in Kenya is proof of the market’s readiness for sophisticated technology.
“Kenya remains one of our fastest-growing markets. The 39 percent growth we achieved in 2024 reflects the trust customers have in our products,” he added.
Privacy and power combined
According to Natarajan, Zia LLM keeps all customer data within Zoho’s servers, giving businesses full control of their information while offering capabilities such as summarisation, extraction, retrieval-augmented generation, and text creation.
Built on NVIDIA’s accelerated computing platform and ranging from 7 billion to 13 billion parameters, the model is optimised for contextual use while managing computing resources efficiently.
AI beyond text
Zoho also introduced proprietary speech recognition models for English and Hindi, along with AI tools such as Ask Zia, prebuilt agents, and a Candidate Screener for recruitment.
The company plans to roll out Zia LLM to customers in late 2025, with the model currently undergoing internal testing.
Zoho, which offers over 55 cloud-based business applications in areas ranging from CRM and finance to HR and IT support, operates in more than 150 countries, including Kenya.
