This launch represents the company’s latest effort to establish itself as a significant player in India’s expanding AI market, following critiques that its past products lacked the sophistication and depth of global competitors. Developers ET consulted earlier this month expressed concerns over the effectiveness of Krutrim’s language models and cloud platform, deeming them inferior to more established hyperscalers.
Kruti is developed with what the company describes as “agentic” capabilities, enabling it to act on users’ behalf rather than just answering queries. It accommodates both voice and text inputs, capable of understanding intent, performing tasks, and adjusting to user preferences over time. The assistant operates in 13 Indian languages and can respond in various tones and lengths based on the conversation’s context.
Krutrim asserts that Kruti can manage a diverse array of tasks, including cab bookings, bill payments, food orders, and image generation. It also features read-aloud responses and research assistance, positioning itself as a proactive digital assistant rather than merely a conversational agent. The assistant retains past interactions and integrates with various applications and services to personalize its replies.
This new offering supersedes the company’s earlier chatbot beta and runs on Krutrim V2, a proprietary large language model enhanced with open-source components to facilitate multimodal capabilities. The company claims this combination allows Kruti to function effectively even given India’s bandwidth limitations and usage patterns.
“Kruti is the first genuine stride toward an AI future where technology does not only converse but actively helps you accomplish tasks,” stated Krutrim founder Bhavish Aggarwal. “We’ve designed Kruti to align with how Indians live—multilingual, mobile-first, and intuitive.”
One of the more developer-centric features is an embeddable software development kit (SDK), enabling third-party platforms to incorporate Kruti’s features—including memory management and tool orchestration—with minimal coding efforts. Krutrim states that these functionalities, including research tools and image generation, will be available free of charge for users, as part of its larger initiative to make AI both accessible and affordable in India.
The assistant is also designed to reduce the friction users commonly encounter when navigating between different applications. It presents responses in straightforward formats such as summaries, tables, or narrative structures, tailored to the user’s context.
The launch comes after a turbulent period for the company. Despite a $1 billion valuation and $50 million in funding at the beginning of 2024, Krutrim reported no operational revenue in its first financial year. It incurred a net loss of ₹2.84 crore, although this was partially mitigated by interest income from bank deposits. The majority of its expenditures—₹134.86 crore—was allocated to research and development across silicon, cloud infrastructure, and AI services.
Additionally, Krutrim has faced scrutiny following the reported suicide of one of its engineers, allegedly tied to work-related stress. A police investigation is currently underway, with the manager of the AI division summoned for questioning, as reported by CNBC-TV18.
Through Kruti, Krutrim hopes that a highly localized, action-oriented assistant can carve out its niche in a fiercely competitive AI market dominated by global giants. The success of the product in achieving mass adoption will hinge on its ability to fulfill its promise of being more than just another chatbot—and prove itself genuinely beneficial in the daily lives of Indian users.
