Zoho Corporation is betting that the next era of business software will be defined less by screens, menus and dashboards than by conversation. Speaking at the company’s Zoholics event in Chennai this week, co-founder and chief scientist Sridhar Vembu argued that artificial intelligence is becoming the primary way people will interact with software.
“AI is the new UI. Not user interface but ubiquitous intelligence,” Vembu said, according to The Economic Times, in remarks reported on Wednesday, September 23.
The comments accompanied the launch of Zia Chat, an AI interface designed to let users interact with multiple Zoho business applications through a single conversational layer. Zoho also announced industry-specific offerings for seven sectors: retail, automotive, financial services, healthcare, education, real estate and restaurants.
Solving an ‘interface crisis’
Vembu framed the launch as a response to what he described as an “interface crisis” in workplace software. Employees, he argued, spend too much time switching between applications and searching for information across disconnected systems.
“Every day, employees waste their time navigating menus, hunting for dropdowns and fighting with fragmented software interfaces,” he said, according to The Economic Times.
Zia Chat is designed to address that problem by bringing together information held in Zoho’s business applications with the capabilities of AI models. Users can ask questions, prepare documents and initiate tasks through a conversation rather than navigating individual applications.
Vembu offered a personal example. He said he had used the interface to locate an email from someone in the US who was seeking a job at Zoho, despite having forgotten who sent it. The system suggested three or four possible matches, he said. He also described using it to correlate information from Zoho’s products when researching presentations.
‘Friction-free work’
The broader vision, Vembu told The Economic Times, is for AI to become an invisible part of the everyday software experience rather than a separate tool that users must consciously open.
“We want to make this completely ubiquitous, seamless and bundled into your experience… We call it friction-free work. That is the key,” he said.
That emphasis on bundling reflects Zoho’s long-standing strategy. The company offers more than 50 business applications — spanning customer relationship management, finance, human resources, collaboration and productivity — and has increasingly sold them as integrated suites. An AI layer that works across those applications could strengthen the value of the suite and make it harder for customers to switch to individual point solutions.
Vertical ambitions
The launch of industry offerings for seven sectors marks another strategic step. Horizontal software — tools that any business can use — has historically been Zoho’s core strength. Industry-specific offerings allow the company to address workflows, regulations and data models unique to sectors such as healthcare, financial services and education.
Vertical software has become one of the most competitive areas of the global SaaS market, with specialist providers often able to command higher prices and stronger customer loyalty. By packaging its applications for specific industries, Zoho is seeking to compete more directly for larger, more complex customers while retaining its reputation for affordability.
A distinctive company
Zoho occupies an unusual place in the global technology industry. Headquartered in Chennai, it has grown without external investment and remains privately held. By February 2026, it had more than one million paying organisations and 150 million users worldwide, according to publicly available company information.
In January 2025, co-founder Shailesh Kumar Davey succeeded Vembu as chief executive, while Vembu became chief scientist — a role that allows him to focus on technology and research. Vembu has long championed building technology in India, including from smaller towns and rural areas, and has made self-reliance in software a recurring theme.
That philosophy extends to AI. Zoho has emphasised building its own AI capabilities and infrastructure while integrating external models where appropriate, arguing that control over the technology stack is important for privacy, cost and long-term independence.
The company’s scale and self-funded model give it unusual freedom. Without outside shareholders demanding short-term returns, Zoho can invest in long-horizon projects — including its own AI infrastructure — at its own pace, a point Vembu and other executives have frequently emphasised when explaining the company’s strategy.
That independence also shapes how Zoho approaches AI pricing. Rather than selling AI as a costly add-on, the company has tended to bundle new capabilities into existing plans, consistent with Vembu’s view that AI should be part of the everyday experience rather than a premium feature.
Competing with the giants
Zoho’s AI push puts it in direct competition with some of the world’s largest software companies. Microsoft, Google, Salesforce and others are embedding AI assistants and agents across their productivity and business applications, and many are pursuing a similar vision of conversational, cross-application AI.
Zoho’s advantage lies in the breadth and integration of its own suite, its pricing and its relationships with small and mid-sized businesses. Its challenge will be to match the pace of innovation and the scale of AI investment of much larger competitors.
Beyond the enterprise
The Zoholics announcements also included a push in education. Zoho launched an AI-powered version of its Classes platform and said it would offer it free to government schools, colleges and universities in India, according to The Economic Times — a move that aligns with Vembu’s broader focus on education and rural development.
Why it matters
Vembu’s argument that AI is the new UI captures a debate playing out across the software industry. If users increasingly interact with software through natural language, the traditional interface — and much of the design, training and support built around it — may matter less. Value would shift towards the data, integrations and intelligence that sit behind the conversation.
For Zoho, which has spent nearly three decades building a broad, integrated portfolio of applications, that shift could be an opportunity. A single conversational layer across dozens of connected applications is a compelling proposition — provided it works reliably and delivers the “friction-free work” that Vembu promises.
For India’s technology ecosystem, Zoho’s moves are also significant as a signal that homegrown software companies intend to compete at the frontier of AI-driven enterprise software, not just adopt tools built elsewhere.
