Ola Krutrim’s AI Chatbot Kruti Disappears: What Happened?

Kruti, the AI assistant developed by Ola Krutrim, is currently unavailable on app stores and the web. The app has been removed from both the Apple App Store and Google Play, and it is no longer accessible on the Ola platform where it was previously integrated.

The Kruti website (kruti.ai) now displays a “site not found” error. Users attempting to access the service through Ola’s website are met with a message stating that the service is under maintenance and will be restored soon. The Economic Times initially reported the disruption.

Launched in June of last year, Kruti was designed as a consumer AI assistant capable of processing text, voice, and image inputs. Built on Krutrim’s V2 model with 12 Bn parameters, it was integrated into Ola’s services for cab booking, food ordering, and bill payments. Ola founder Bhavish Aggarwal had positioned Kruti as a local alternative to global AI tools such as ChatGPT.

This disruption occurs amid broader challenges at Krutrim. The company has conducted multiple rounds of layoffs in 2025, primarily affecting its linguistics team. In a recent round, approximately 50 employees, including team leads and regional language transcribers across Bengali, Malayalam, and Punjabi, were let go as part of a restructuring effort. This followed earlier cuts of around 100 employees, bringing the total layoffs this year to roughly 200, according to reports.

The linguistics team was central to training Krutrim’s AI models, making these layoffs significant. Additionally, the company has experienced several senior-level departures in recent months.

According to the ET report, work on Krutrim’s next model, Krutrim 3, has been stalled. This model was expected to be more advanced and trained using a combination of in-house infrastructure and IndiaAI compute capacity.

Founded in 2023, Krutrim achieved unicorn status in January 2024 after raising $50 million. The startup offers GPU-as-a-service, model-as-a-service, and other AI tools, positioning itself as a full-stack AI player with ambitions spanning cloud, foundational models, and indigenous AI chips.

However, its products, including its large language model and cloud offerings, have seen limited adoption. Developers and founders have previously noted issues such as inadequate documentation and a lack of technical maturity.

The outage of Krutrim’s flagship consumer-facing product raises further questions about the company’s execution and product direction.