Zoho, a leading global technology firm, has introduced Zia LLM, its proprietary large language model, alongside Zip Agents Studio-a no-code platform featuring over 25 ready-to-deploy Zip agents-and a Model Context Protocol (MCP) designed to extend Zoho’s extensive action library to third-party agents.
This launch underscores Zoho’s enduring commitment to developing foundational technologies that prioritize customer data security, comprehensive functionality tailored to business needs, and delivering tangible value.
Kehinde Ogundare, Zoho Nigeria’s country head, highlighted, “Our LLM is purpose-built for enterprise applications, embedding privacy and governance at its core. This approach has significantly reduced inference costs, enabling us to pass savings to customers while empowering them to harness AI effectively and productively.”
Built entirely in-house using NVIDIA’s AI-accelerated computing infrastructure, Zia LLM is crafted with Zoho’s product-specific scenarios in mind. It supports a variety of tasks such as structured data extraction, summarization, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), and code synthesis. The model family includes three variants with 1.3 billion, 2.6 billion, and 7 billion parameters, each fine-tuned for contextual relevance and competitive performance against leading open-source alternatives.
To facilitate swift integration of intelligent agent technology, Zoho has embedded a suite of AI agents directly within its product ecosystem. These agents are designed to assist users across diverse business functions by executing role-specific tasks efficiently.
For example, the Customer Service Agent integrated with Zoho Desk can interpret incoming customer inquiries, grasp the context, and either provide immediate responses or escalate complex issues to human representatives, streamlining frontline support operations.
Initially unveiled in early 2025, Zip Agent Studio has been enhanced to offer a fully prompt-driven experience, with optional low-code capabilities. It grants access to more than 700 predefined actions spanning Zoho’s product suite. Users can deploy agents autonomously, activate them via button clicks, automate workflows through rule-based triggers, or invoke them during customer interactions.
Upon deployment, agents function as digital employees, adhering to the organization’s existing user permission frameworks. Administrators can conduct behavioral audits and evaluate agent performance and impact, ensuring compliance with operational standards and maximizing effectiveness.
Several pre-configured agents are now accessible, including the Candidate Screener, which evaluates and ranks job applicants based on criteria such as skills, experience, and role fit; the Deal Analyzer, which assesses sales opportunities and offers insights like win likelihood, recommended next steps, and follow-up actions; and the Revenue Growth Specialist, which identifies upselling and cross-selling prospects within the current customer base.
These agents are available through the Agent Marketplace, enabling customers to deploy them effortlessly. In the near future, Zoho’s ecosystem partners, independent software vendors (ISVs), and developers will be empowered to create and publish their own agents on the Zia Agents Marketplace.
Looking ahead, Zoho intends to expand Ask Zia’s capabilities, initially targeting support for Finance and Customer Service teams. Additionally, the company will introduce support for the Agent2Agent (A2A) protocol, facilitating seamless collaboration between Zia Agents and agents operating on other platforms.
