Latest news with #BhavishAggarwal
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Business Standard
17 hours ago
- Business
- Business Standard
Krutrim acquires BharatSah'AI'yak to expand AI footprint in public sector
Krutrim, the artificial intelligence start-up founded by Ola's Bhavish Aggarwal, has acquired BharatSah'AI'yak, an AI-powered platform developed by Samagra, in a move aimed at deepening its footprint in India's public sector technology landscape. The acquisition brings under Krutrim's umbrella a platform that has played a central role in accelerating the deployment of AI solutions across a range of government initiatives, spanning education, agriculture and governance. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. With the acquisition, Krutrim plans to integrate its proprietary large language models, cloud infrastructure and agentic AI capabilities—including those behind its recently launched assistant app, Kruti—to expand BharatSah'AI'yak's reach nationwide. 'At Krutrim, we have boarded the country's brightest minds to develop a platform that reflects the diversity, depth and richness of Indian languages and culture,' said a Krutrim spokesperson. 'This integration enhances our ability to build AI that is inclusive, intuitive and deeply rooted in the lived realities of India.' Experts said the move highlights Krutrim's broader ambition to democratise artificial intelligence across India, targeting both public services and citizen-facing platforms. The deal also highlights the increasing role of home-grown AI firms in shaping India's digital governance strategy, as the government looks to harness emerging technologies to improve service delivery and administrative efficiency. BharatSah'AI'yak specialises in creating Bharat-focused, vernacular Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG)-based AI bots that deliver both text and voice-led experiences. The platform's impact is evident through a series of high-profile deployments. Among them is KumbhSah'AI'yak, billed as India's first AI-powered chatbot for Maha Kumbh 2025. Designed to serve millions of pilgrims, the chatbot offers round-the-clock assistance on religious rituals, site navigation, accommodation options and local attractions. Krutrim provided the hosted open-source large language model services that power the chatbot's functionality. Another notable implementation is the AMA Krushi AI chatbot, launched in Odisha. This voice-enabled assistant delivers agriculture-related guidance and information on government schemes to farmers in local languages, using authenticated data from official sources. The initiative aims to improve accessibility and decision-making for farmers across the region. With Krutrim's advanced AI models, cloud infrastructure and the agentic platform underlying Kruti, these specialised assistants can now scale to serve more users across diverse domains with intuitive, efficient and language-inclusive interactions. Krutrim recently announced the launch of Kruti, the country's first agentic AI assistant designed to go far beyond conventional chatbots. Kruti is poised to lead a paradigm shift in AI, moving from passive responses to proactive, agentic task execution. Kruti can execute tasks like cab booking, food ordering, bill payments, image creation and in-depth research, while also supporting read-aloud responses. Additionally, it offers advanced AI features like in-depth research and image creation free of cost for users. Krutrim reached unicorn status last year after raising $50 million in equity during its inaugural funding round. The round, which valued the company at $1 billion, included participation from investors such as Matrix Partners India. Earlier this year, company founder Bhavish Aggarwal announced an investment of Rs 2,000 crore in Krutrim, with a commitment to invest an additional Rs 10,000 crore by next year. The company also launched the Krutrim AI Lab and released some of its work to the open-source community.
Time of India
3 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
No commissions! Ola launches new zero percent model in India; entire fare earnings to go to drivers
Ola claims that it is now India's first ride-hailing service to completely remove commission charges. The fare for your next trip on an Ola will go entirely to the driver. Ola has announced nationwide implementation of a zero percent commission structure, enabling drivers across its auto, bike, and cab services to keep their entire fare earnings. The implementation was conducted systematically, beginning with auto services, then bike services, and finally extending to cab services. Ola claims that it is now India's first ride-hailing service to completely remove commission charges. Drivers now have the flexibility to select their preferred plans whilst retaining their complete earnings, without any reductions or earning limitations. An Ola Consumer spokesperson told ET, "The launch of the zero percent commission model pan-India marks a fundamental shift in the ride-hailing business. Removing commissions empowers driver partners with much more ownership and opportunity." According to a previous report in the financial daily, Ola and Uber have adopted a subscription-based fee structure, previously introduced by Namma Yatri and Swiggy-backed Rapido, for auto rickshaw drivers. This system replaces traditional per-trip commission or booking fees with fixed daily or weekly charges, providing drivers unlimited ride access. A Telangana-based organisation representing gig workers expressed scepticism about the overall effectiveness of the latest initiative. "All aggregator companies charge subscription fees—before the ride, you must recharge. They may be removing commissions, but they already charged subscription fees from the riders," said Shaik Salauddin, founder president of the Telangana Gig and Platform Workers Union. As part of its expansion beyond transport services into automated warehousing, Ola Credit, and Ola Pay, Ola rebranded its ride-hailing division as Ola Consumer in the previous year. The company, under Bhavish Aggarwal's leadership, has seen declining revenues and multiple high-level departures during the past year. Its revenue from operations and other income across ride-hailing, financial services, and logistics decreased to Rs 2,368 crore in FY24 from Rs 3,000 crore in FY23. In December 2024, two veteran executives, Suvonil Chatterjee, chief technology and product officer, and Anshul Khandelwal, chief marketing officer, departed Ola Electric. Both executives had previously worked at Ola Cabs before joining the EV division. The company has also attracted regulatory attention. In January 2025, the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) sent notices to Ola and other ride-hailing companies regarding price differences between Android and iPhone users. In May, Union consumer affairs minister Pralhad Joshi announced that the CCPA had broadened its investigation of the advance tipping feature to include Ola Cabs and Rapido, following an earlier notice to Uber. Stay informed with the latest business news, updates on bank holidays and public holidays . AI Masterclass for Students. Upskill Young Ones Today!– Join Now
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Business Standard
5 days ago
- Business
- Business Standard
Bhavish Aggarwal's Krutrim bets on India-first AI to rival global peers
Krutrim, the artificial intelligence startup founded by Ola's Bhavish Aggarwal, is positioning its recently launched flagship assistant, Kruti, to stand apart from global peers like OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's Gemini by leveraging deep local integration, multilingual capabilities, and agentic intelligence tailored to India's unique digital ecosystem. The company calls Kruti India's first agentic AI, capable of booking cabs, paying bills, and generating images while supporting 13 Indian languages using a localised large language model. In the Indian context, the firm competes with global AI giants such as OpenAI, Anthropic and Google, as well as local players such as Sarvam AI and 'Our key differentiator will come with integrating local services,' said Sunit Singh, Senior Vice-President for Product at Krutrim. 'That's not something that will be very easy for global players to do.' Krutrim has already integrated India-specific services, with plans to scale this integration further. The strategy aims to embed Kruti deeply into Indian digital life, allowing it to perform functional tasks through local service connections. This is an area where international competitors may struggle due to regulatory and infrastructural complexities in the Indian market. Voice-first As Krutrim positions Kruti to serve India's linguistically diverse population, the company is doubling down on voice-first, multilingual AI as a core enabler of scale and accessibility. Navendu Agarwal, Group CIO of Ola, emphasised that India's unique language landscape demands a fundamentally different approach from Western AI products. 'India is a voice-first world. So we are building voice-first models,' Agarwal said, outlining Krutrim's strategy to prioritise natural, speech-driven interactions. Currently, Kruti supports voice commands in multiple Indian languages, with plans underway to expand that footprint. Agarwal said the long-term vision is to enable seamless, speech-based interactions that go deeper into local dialects. The company's multilingual, voice-first design is central to its go-to-market strategy, especially in reaching non-English speakers in semi-urban and rural India. The plan also includes integrating with widely used Indian services and government platforms. Krutrim's long-term vision for Kruti centres on true agentic intelligence, where the assistant can act autonomously on behalf of users. Whether it's 'book me a cab to the airport' or 'order my usual lunch', Kruti understands intent and executes tasks without micromanagement. 'Think about it—a super agent which can do food, do apps, provide you help and education information and which can also manage your budget and finance,' said Agarwal. 'So that's what is a mega-agent, or the assistant which is communicating with all of them seamlessly wherever it is needed.' Hybrid technology Rather than relying solely on a single in-house model, Krutrim has opted for a composite approach aimed at optimising accuracy, scalability and user experience, according to Chandra Khatri, the company's Vice-President and Head of AI. 'The goal is to build the best and most accurate experience,' Khatri said. 'If that means we need to leverage, say Claude for coding, which is the best coding model in the world, we'll do that.' Kruti is powered by Krutrim's latest large language model, Krutrim V2, alongside open-source systems. The AI agents evaluate context-specific needs and choose from this suite of models to deliver tailored responses. Investments Krutrim reached unicorn status last year after raising $50 million in equity during its inaugural funding round. The round, which valued the company at $1 billion, included participation from investors such as Matrix Partners India. Earlier this year, company founder Bhavish Aggarwal announced an investment of ₹2,000 crore in Krutrim, with a commitment to invest an additional ₹10,000 crore by next year. The company also launched the Krutrim AI Lab and released some of its work to the open-source community. As Krutrim's AI assistant begins to interface with highly contextual and personal user data, the company emphasises a stringent, India-first approach to data privacy and regulatory compliance. The company employs internal algorithms to manage and isolate user data, ensuring it remains secure and compartmentalised. While Krutrim is open to competing globally, it remains committed to addressing India's market complexities first. 'We don't shy away from going global. But our primary focus is India first,' Agarwal said. Krutrim's emphasis on embedded, action-oriented intelligence—capable of not just understanding queries but also fulfilling them through integrations—could define its edge in the increasingly competitive AI landscape. Here, localisation and service depth may become as critical as raw model power.
Entrepreneur
13-06-2025
- Business
- Entrepreneur
Ola's Krutrim Unveils AI Assistant 'Kruti' with Agentic Capabilities for Everyday Tasks
The assistant is available in 13 Indian languages and can respond in various tones and formats ranging from concise summaries to detailed narratives depending on the user's needs and the conversation's context You're reading Entrepreneur India, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media. Krutrim, India's first AI unicorn founded by Ola's Bhavish Aggarwal, has launched a new AI assistant named Kruti, aimed at redefining how Indians interact with digital assistants. Unlike conventional chatbots, Kruti is built with what the company calls "agentic" capabilities, meaning it can perform actions on behalf of users, not just respond to queries. The assistant supports both voice and text interactions and is designed to understand user intent, adapt to preferences, and execute tasks such as booking cabs, paying bills, ordering food, generating images, and assisting with research. Kruti marks a significant step forward for Krutrim, especially as it attempts to strengthen its position in India's fast-evolving AI ecosystem. The assistant is available in 13 Indian languages and can respond in various tones and formats ranging from concise summaries to detailed narratives depending on the user's needs and the conversation's context. The platform is also equipped with memory and contextual awareness, enabling it to personalise responses based on prior interactions. "Kruti is the first real step towards the future of AI where technology doesn't just talk back, but actually helps you get things done," said Bhavish Aggarwal, founder of Krutrim. "We've built Kruti to work the way Indians live multilingual, mobile-first and intuitive." The launch of Kruti comes after some scepticism from developers and industry observers, who had earlier raised concerns about the performance and reliability of Krutrim's language models and infrastructure. The new assistant is powered by Krutrim V2, the company's upgraded large language model, built using a combination of proprietary architecture and open-source technologies. To promote wider adoption, Krutrim is offering Kruti's advanced features including image generation, research assistance, and read-aloud capabilities free of charge. It also comes with a developer-friendly software development kit (SDK), enabling third-party platforms to embed Kruti's services, including its memory management and tool orchestration, with minimal coding effort. Beyond its individual capabilities, Kruti seeks to reduce the friction typically associated with switching between multiple apps. It delivers output in streamlined formats like tables, summaries, or story-style content that suit the user's device and situation. The assistant replaces Krutrim's earlier chatbot beta, reflecting the company's broader shift toward building AI that is more practical, accessible, and locally attuned.
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Business Standard
12-06-2025
- Business
- Business Standard
Bhavish Aggarwal's Krutrim launches AI assistant Kruti for daily tasks
Krutrim, the artificial intelligence startup co-founded by Ola founder Bhavish Aggarwal, on Thursday launched Kruti, an AI assistant it says represents a leap beyond conventional chatbots. Unlike earlier tools focused on passive text replies, Kruti is positioned as an 'agentic AI'—designed to proactively carry out tasks such as cab booking, food ordering, bill payments, image generation and research. The launch builds on Krutrim's earlier public beta and introduces a redesigned interface with a focus on advanced reasoning and personalisation. 'Kruti is the first real step towards the future of AI where technology doesn't just talk back, but actually helps you get things done,' said Bhavish Aggarwal, founder of Krutrim. 'We have built Kruti to work the way Indians live: multilingual, mobile-first and intuitive.' The platform also includes features such as read-aloud responses and free access to premium AI capabilities like research and image creation. The company said Kruti aims to make advanced AI more accessible to Indian users by combining broad functionality with local context. Kruti understands both voice and text input, remembers past interactions and tailors responses in tone, length and language, including 13 Indian languages. Whether it's 'book me a cab to the airport' or 'order my usual lunch', Kruti understands intent and executes the task without micromanagement. Krutrim said Kruti is powered by its latest large language model, Krutrim V2, alongside cutting-edge open-source systems, enabling scalable and cost-efficient performance tailored for Indian users. Personalisation is at the heart of Kruti's design. It learns user preferences, adapts to usage over time and integrates with various apps and services to deliver context-aware assistance with minimal effort. Kruti also includes a fully embeddable software development kit (SDK), allowing developers to integrate large language model orchestration, memory handling and tool execution with minimal code. By offering features such as research tools, image generation and task-based agents at no cost, the company is positioning Kruti as a more accessible and affordable alternative in the AI space. Built with human-centred design, Kruti aims to eliminate app-switch fatigue and formats responses for clarity using summaries, tables and stories. It reflects how Indians use and relate to technology in everyday life. Krutrim is part of a growing ecosystem of Indian companies building AI solutions, often with a focus on local languages and data. In the Indian context, it competes with global AI giants such as OpenAI, Anthropic and Google, as well as local players such as Sarvam AI and Earlier this year, Bhavish Aggarwal announced an investment of ₹2,000 crore in Krutrim, with a commitment to invest an additional ₹10,000 crore by next year. The company also launched the Krutrim AI Lab, published several technical reports and released some of its work to the open-source community. The move followed DeepSeek's decision to open-source its own generative AI (GenAI) model. BharatGPT Mini enters the fray On Thursday, CoRover, a conversational AI firm, also launched BharatGPT Mini, a compact small language model (SLM) designed for use in low-compute and infrastructure-constrained settings. Trained on the company's proprietary conversational dataset, the 534-million parameter model supports text-based tasks in 14 Indian languages, aiming to expand AI access across underserved regions. The model is optimised for edge and server implementations, enabling seamless AI performance on low-end devices. This strategic development addresses the growing demand in India for cost-effective, fast and privacy-centric AI solutions that operate without reliance on high-end cloud infrastructure. CoRover said India's need for SLMs is accelerating, driven by demand for faster, localised and cost-efficient AI tools that maintain data privacy. While large language models (LLMs) remain essential for complex, multi-domain tasks, SLMs are increasingly preferred for their domain specificity, speed, offline functionality and ease of integration on constrained devices.
