Ola’s ambitious artificial intelligence venture, Krutrim, has reportedly laid off over 100 employees, marking a significant setback in its early growth journey. The layoffs have hit various teams across the organization, with the entire linguistics division of ‘Kruti’—Krutrim’s language AI initiative—being axed.
The move reflects growing concerns over the venture’s shifting strategy, unclear product roadmap, and the challenges of scaling a homegrown AI model in India’s competitive tech landscape.
What Happened?
Sources familiar with the matter revealed that more than 100 employees were let go, including engineers, research staff, and members of Kruti’s natural language processing (NLP) and linguistics team. This division was primarily focused on building India-centric language models, especially for regional dialects.
Krutrim, launched by Ola founder Bhavish Aggarwal, aimed to build a sovereign large language model (LLM) tailored for Indian languages—positioning itself as India’s answer to global AI giants like OpenAI and Google.
However, insiders say the company is now pivoting away from its multilingual focus, citing scalability and monetization challenges.
“There’s a lot of ambition but not enough clarity. Teams were told that the product direction is changing,” said a former Krutrim employee.
Strategy Shift or Setback?
The layoffs point to a possible strategic reset. While Krutrim initially promised to democratize AI for India’s diverse population, it now appears to be streamlining its efforts—possibly focusing more on enterprise AI tools or infrastructure, rather than language models and NLP research.
The decision to dissolve the linguistics team raises eyebrows, especially since local language accessibility is a critical component of digital inclusion in India. It also signals the difficulty of building commercially viable AI tools for low-resource languages—where data, talent, and investment are often limited.
AI Ambitions, Real-World Hurdles
Krutrim was launched with fanfare and positioned as India’s first full-stack AI company. But like many AI startups globally, it now faces the harsh realities of:
- High R&D costs and talent churn
- Unclear monetization models for LLMs
- Tough competition from global players with far more resources
- Execution risks in emerging tech ecosystems
The layoffs have dented the company’s credibility in the AI community, especially among Indian researchers who had hoped Krutrim would invest in indigenous language technology.
Final Thought
Ola’s Krutrim promised to build an AI platform by India, for India. But the recent layoffs and the axing of its language team suggest a disconnect between vision and execution. As the AI race heats up, Krutrim’s next moves will determine whether it can still carve a meaningful niche—or fade into the background of India’s tech landscape.
