Meta hires US contractors to build Hindi AI chatbots for Indian market

Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, is ramping up efforts to make its artificial intelligence services more culturally relevant for India. The company is recruiting contractors in the United States to design AI-powered chatbots that can converse fluently in Hindi and reflect local sensibilities, according to a report in the Financial Express.

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The roles, which are being managed by staffing agencies including Crystal Equation and Aquent Talent, are offering pay of up to $55 (£44) an hour. Applicants are expected to be fluent in Hindi as well as at least one other language, such as Indonesian, Spanish or Portuguese. Experience in character development and storytelling is also required — a signal that Meta intends its chatbots to function as engaging personalities rather than purely transactional tools.

The focus on Hindi chatbots marks a shift from Meta’s earlier experiment with celebrity-inspired AI personas, which failed to resonate with users. This time, the company is taking a more hands-on approach, creating characters tailored to specific markets to strengthen user engagement on Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp.

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India, with its massive and rapidly expanding digital user base, is a prime target. By building Hindi-specific AI assistants, Meta hopes to boost interaction and retention across its platforms, where its Meta AI bot already assists with tasks such as captions, images and prompts.

However, the move also highlights ongoing challenges in the AI industry. Firms across the sector, including Meta, have faced criticism over inappropriate or harmful outputs from generative AI systems, raising questions about safety and ethical standards.

Despite the risks, Meta’s strategy underscores the growing importance of localised AI development in capturing high-growth markets such as India.

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