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KRUTI: Leading AI Adoption Through Strategic Design
Leading AI Adoption Through Strategic Design
Building India's First Culturally-Oriented AI Assistant from 0 to 1
Service
Designing for User Engagement
Deliverables
Web, MWeb, Android, iOS
Role
Design and UX Director
01
Introduction
The Challenge: Breaking India's AI Adoption Barrier
In early 2024, we identified a critical gap: AI adoption in India was stagnating despite global ChatGPT hype. Indian users remained hesitant and intimidated by English first interfaces, unclear value propositions, and lack of practical integration into daily lives.
Existing tools weren't designed for Indian contexts (language, cultural patterns) and mainstream users didn't understand what AI could do for them. Leadership wanted to launch Kruti to drive awareness, increase app engagement, and create a defensible moat through ecosystem integration.
12%
AI Adoption in India
Compared to 40% in Western markets
250M+
Ola User Base
Massive untapped demographic
8
Weeks to Launch
Aggressive timeline from kickoff
02
My Role
As AD - Product Designer for Kruti, I own the end-to-end design strategy and execution of Kruti. My mandate went beyon pixel-pushing towards the responsibilities of defining the product positioning, establishing the UX principles and leading a small team to delivery accross 4 platforms simultaneously.
Strategic Level
How do we position Kruti to differentiate from ChatGPT and drive mass adoption?
Execution Level
How do we design for 11 languages we don't speak and make complex bookings feel magical?
Team Leadership
How do I enable to ship a 0-to-1 product in 8 weeks?
What are success metric?
User activation rate (Target: 45%), feature adoption, retention impact, intuitive first-use experience, multilingual accessibility, and design system velocity.
Strategic Decisions That Shaped the Product
01
Lean Research Strategy
We implemented a 2 weeks lean research framework to counter the 8 weeks timeline. This framweork focused on validation rather than exploration. Key Insight: 14 out of 15 users mentioned specific tasks rather than conversation. users didn't want to "chat" with AI, they wanted to get things done.
02
Task Completion Over Conversation
We positioned Kruti not as a general purpose AI, but as a utility tool. We replaced the standard open text box with Quick Action Tiles ("Book Cab", "Order Food") to lower the barrier to entry and demonstrate immediate ROI.
03
Chat-First MVP
While research showed preference for voice, Indian acoustic environments posed high risk for voice recognition accuracy. We launched chat-first to ensure accuracy but architected the UI for voice-first V2.
04
Multilingual as Core
We aimed to launch with 11 languages on Day 1, arguing that in India, language is an access requirement, not a feature. We prioritized UI translation and rolling conversation training to capture regional markets competitors ignored.
Visual Identity: "Your Everyday Companion"
We moved away from the "sci-fi robot" aesthetic to create a warm, approachable experience that felt distinctly Indian.
Utilized vibrant colors (Kruti Pink, Orange, Yellow) and rounded, friendly UI elements to counter the "cold" perception of AI
Implemented a "breathing" logo animation to give the assistant a sense of life
Created a visual language that balanced modern technology with cultural warmth
Key User Flows: Making AI Magical
Video-Led Onboarding
A 30-second video showing real scenarios (booking a ride, ordering food) that plays on first launch. This "show, don't tell" approach reduced time-to-first-interaction.
Image creator
Instant conversations
In Depth Research
AI Agent
Instant Conversations
With Kruti, you can share your thoughts, questions or ideas in 11+ indegenous languages. Kruti responds with thoughtful, contextual answers, making communication accessible and natural in your preferred language.
Illustrations style
The vibrant illustrations are a call back to India's rich, colourful and culturally rooted heritage. Each design is crafted through extensive research that captures the essence of India's diverse traditions and beliefs; ensuring taht every visual elements resonates with the audieance, making the artwork not only beautiful, but also meaningful
Deep Research & Reports
Kruti conducts in-depth research on any topic and provides comprehensive, structured reports. This feature enables that the users receive detailed information and insights, making it invaluable for students, teachers, researchers, and professionals.
Voice mode
The unique Kruti Voice mode ensures that every interaction feels authentic and engaging, thus transforming the user experience into something that is not only visually appealing but also deeply significant.
Agentic Cab Booking
This feature allows the users to complete bookings without leaving a chat trace behind.
Food Ordering
Horizontal carousels for restaurant cards and rich menu components allow users to build a cart entirely within chat.
Kruti Performance
Within 8 weeks, we launched India's first culturally oriented AI assistant, which did not exceed adoption targets and validating our strategic bets.
Current active users who have installed Apps
Users
2,839
Prompts
32,332
Users
11,721
Prompts
32,332
Users who created an image
Unique users who created at least one image
16,592
Total image creation prompts
1,02,460
How we grew since Launch
Engagement remained consistently high through the end of June and into August, averaging at ~30,000–32,000 daily users.
Kruti saw a strong growth trajectory starting mid-June 2025
22,70,000
Total prompts submitted
14,00,000
Total unique users since launch
~1.62
Average prompts per user
58%
D7 Retention (vs 51% Ola average)
Key Learnings:
Speed Meets Quality
Reliability builds trust faster than novelty
Choosing a chat-first interface despite the market hype for voice ensured 95% accuracy. In emerging tech, it is better to be reliable than "cool" but buggy, as broken trust is hard to repair
Research Under Constraints is vital
Our 2-week lean research sprint gave us the critical "Task-First" insight that defined the product's success. Focused validation beats lengthy exploration when time is limited.
Leadership is Enablement
Highest leverage work wasn't designing screens, but creating the structures (language grids, visual communication design) that allowed us to execute.
"Kruti was featured in major media as 'India's Answer to ChatGPT,' positioning Ola as an innovation leader and proving that culturally-oriented design can drive mass AI adoption."
akshay borhade
product designer
India
Download my resume
Back to home
Kruti
Leading AI Adoption Through Strategic Design
Building India's First Culturally-Oriented AI Assistant from 0 to 1
Service
Designing for User Engagement
Deliverables
Web, MWeb, Android, iOS
Role
Design and UX Director
01
Introduction
The Challenge: Breaking India's AI Adoption Barrier
In early 2024, we identified a critical gap: AI adoption in India was stagnating despite global ChatGPT hype. Indian users remained hesitant and intimidated by English first interfaces, unclear value propositions, and lack of practical integration into daily lives.
Existing tools weren't designed for Indian contexts (language, cultural patterns) and mainstream users didn't understand what AI could do for them. Leadership wanted to launch Kruti to drive awareness, increase app engagement, and create a defensible moat through ecosystem integration.
12%
AI Adoption in India
Compared to 40% in Western markets
250M+
Ola User Base
Massive untapped demographic
8
Weeks to Launch
Aggressive timeline from kickoff
02
My Role
As AD - Product Designer for Kruti, I own the end-to-end design strategy and execution of Kruti. My mandate went beyon pixel-pushing towards the responsibilities of defining the product positioning, establishing the UX principles and leading a small team to delivery accross 4 platforms simultaneously.
Strategic Level
How do we position Kruti to differentiate from ChatGPT and drive mass adoption?
Execution Level
How do we design for 11 languages we don't speak and make complex bookings feel magical?
Team Leadership
How do I enable to ship a 0-to-1 product in 8 weeks?
What are success metric?
User activation rate (Target: 45%), feature adoption, retention impact, intuitive first-use experience, multilingual accessibility, and design system velocity.
Strategic Decisions That Shaped the Product
01
Lean Research Strategy
We implemented a 2 weeks lean research framework to counter the 8 weeks timeline. This framweork focused on validation rather than exploration. Key Insight: 14 out of 15 users mentioned specific tasks rather than conversation. users didn't want to "chat" with AI, they wanted to get things done.
02
Task Completion Over Conversation
We positioned Kruti not as a general purpose AI, but as a utility tool. We replaced the standard open text box with Quick Action Tiles ("Book Cab", "Order Food") to lower the barrier to entry and demonstrate immediate ROI.
03
Chat-First MVP
While research showed preference for voice, Indian acoustic environments posed high risk for voice recognition accuracy. We launched chat-first to ensure accuracy but architected the UI for voice-first V2.
04
Multilingual as Core
We aimed to launch with 11 languages on Day 1, arguing that in India, language is an access requirement, not a feature. We prioritized UI translation and rolling conversation training to capture regional markets competitors ignored.
Visual Identity: "Your Everyday Companion"
We moved away from the "sci-fi robot" aesthetic to create a warm, approachable experience that felt distinctly Indian.
Utilization of vibrant colors (Kruti Pink, Orange, Yellow) and rounded, friendly UI elements to counter the "cold" perception of AI
Implemented a "breathing" logo animation to give the assistant a sense of life
Creation of a visual language that balanced modern technology with cultural warmth
Key User Flows: Making AI Magical
Video-Led Onboarding
A 30-second video showing real scenarios (booking a ride, ordering food) that plays on first launch. This "show, don't tell" approach reduced time-to-first-interaction.
AI Agent
Image creator
Instant conversations
In Depth Research
Instant Conversations
With Kruti, you can share your thoughts, questions or ideas in 11+ indegenous languages. Kruti responds with thoughtful, contextual answers, making communication accessible and natural in your preferred language.
Illustrations style
The vibrant illustrations are a call back to India's rich, colourful and culturally rooted heritage. Each design is crafted through extensive research that captures the essence of India's diverse traditions and beliefs; ensuring taht every visual elements resonates with the audieance, making the artwork not only beautiful, but also meaningful
Deep Research & Reports
Kruti conducts in-depth research on any topic and provides comprehensive, structured reports. This feature enables that the users receive detailed information and insights, making it invaluable for students, teachers, researchers, and professionals.
Voice mode
The unique Kruti Voice mode ensures that every interaction feels authentic and engaging, thus transforming the user experience into something that is not only visually appealing but also deeply significant.
Agentic Cab Booking
This feature allows the users to complete bookings without leaving a chat trace behind.
Food Ordering
Horizontal carousels for restaurant cards and rich menu components allow users to build a cart entirely within chat.
Kruti Performance
Within 8 weeks, we launched India's first culturally oriented AI assistant, which did not exceed adoption targets and validating our strategic bets.
Current active users who have installed Apps
Users
2,839
Prompts
32,332
Users
11,721
Prompts
32,332
Users who created an image
Unique users who created at least one image
16,592
Total image creation prompts:
1,02,460
How we grew since Launch
Kruti saw a strong growth trajectory starting mid-June 2025
Engagement remained consistently high through the end of June and into August, averaging at ~30,000–32,000 daily users.
22,70,000
Total prompts submitted
14,00,000
Total unique users since launch
~1.62
Average prompts per user
58%
D7 Retention (vs 51% Ola average)
Key Learnings:
Speed Meets Quality
Reliability builds trust faster than novelty
Choosing a chat-first interface despite the market hype for voice ensured 95% accuracy. In emerging tech, it is better to be reliable than "cool" but buggy, as broken trust is hard to repair
Research Under Constraints is vital
Our 2-week lean research sprint gave us the critical "Task-First" insight that defined the product's success. Focused validation beats lengthy exploration when time is limited.
Leadership is Enablement
Highest leverage work wasn't designing screens, but creating the structures (language grids, visual communication design) that allowed us to execute.
Kruti was featured in major media as 'India's Answer to ChatGPT,' positioning Ola as an innovation leader and proving that culturally-oriented design can drive mass AI adoption.
akshay borhade
product designer
India
Download my resume
Back to home
Kruti
Leading AI Adoption Through Strategic Design
Building India's First Culturally-Oriented AI Assistant from 0 to 1
Service
Designing for User Engagement
Deliverables
Web, MWeb, Android, iOS
Role
Design and UX Director
01
Introduction
The Challenge: Breaking India's AI Adoption Barrier
Despite the growing presence of AI, a critical gap was identified in early 2024 in India's AI adoption and why there is a stagnation to it, in spite of the global ChatGPT hype: hesitance of Indian users towards English first interfaces. They were intimidated by teh unclear value propositions, the lack of practical integration into their daily lives.A lack of existing tools designed for Indian contexts, such as the language and Indian cultural patterns became an irresistible opportunity for leadership to launch Kruti. The goal with Kruti was to drive awareness, increase app engagement and to create a defensible moat through ecosystem integration
12%
AI Adoption in India
Compared to 40% in Western markets
250M+
Ola User Base
Massive untapped demographic
8
Weeks to Launch
Aggressive timeline from kickoff
02
My Role
As AD - Product Designer for Kruti, I own the end-to-end design strategy and execution of Kruti. My mandate went beyon pixel-pushing towards the responsibilities of defining the product positioning, establishing the UX principles and leading a small team to delivery accross 4 platforms simultaneously.
Strategic Level
How do we position Kruti to differentiate from ChatGPT and drive mass adoption?
Execution Level
How do we design for 11 languages we don't speak and make complex bookings feel magical?
Team Leadership
How do I enable to ship a 0-to-1 product in 8 weeks?
What are success metric?
User activation rate, feature adoption, retention impact, intuitive first-use experience, multilingual accessibility, and design system velocity.
Strategic Decisions That Shaped the Product
01
Lean Research Strategy
We implemented a 2 weeks lean research framework to counter the 8 weeks timeline. This framework focused on validation rather than exploration. Key Insight: 14 out of 15 users mentioned specific tasks rather than conversation. users didn't want to "chat" with AI, they wanted to get things done.
02
Task Completion Over Conversation
We positioned Kruti not as a general purpose AI, but as a utility tool. We replaced the standard open text box with Quick Action Tiles ("Book Cab", "Order Food") to lower the barrier to entry and demonstrate immediate ROI.
03
Chat-First MVP
While research showed preference for voice, Indian acoustic environments posed high risk for voice recognition accuracy. We launched chat-first to ensure accuracy but architected the UI for voice-first V2.
04
Multilingual as Core
We aimed to launch with 11 languages on Day 1, arguing that in India, language is an access requirement, not a feature. We prioritized UI translation and rolling conversation training to capture regional markets competitors ignored.
Visual Identity: "Your Everyday Companion"
We moved away from the "sci-fi robot" aesthetic to create a warm, approachable experience that felt distinctly Indian.
Utilization of vibrant colors (Kruti Pink, Orange, Yellow) and rounded, friendly UI elements to counter the "cold" perception of AI
Implemented a "breathing" logo animation to give the assistant a sense of life
Creation of a visual language that balanced modern technology with cultural warmth
Key User Flows: Making AI Magical
Video-Led Onboarding
A 30-second video showing real scenarios (booking a ride, ordering food) that plays on first launch. This "show, don't tell" approach reduced time-to-first-interaction.
AI Agent
Image creator
Instant conversations
In Depth Research
Instant Conversations
With Kruti, you can share your thoughts, questions or ideas in 11+ indegenous languages. Kruti responds with thoughtful, contextual answers, making communication accessible and natural in your preferred language.
Illustrations style
The vibrant illustrations are a call back to India's rich, colorful and culturally rooted heritage. Each design is crafted through extensive research that captures the essence of India's diverse traditions and beliefs; ensuring that every visual elements resonates with the audience, making the artwork not only beautiful, but also meaningful
Deep Research & Reports
Kruti conducts in-depth research on any topic and provides comprehensive, structured reports. This feature enables that the users receive detailed information and insights, making it invaluable for students, teachers, researchers, and professionals.
Voice mode
The unique Kruti Voice mode ensures that every interaction feels authentic and engaging, thus transforming the user experience into something that is not only visually appealing but also deeply significant.
Agentic Cab Booking
This feature allows the users to complete bookings without leaving a chat trace behind.
Food Ordering
Horizontal carousels for restaurant cards and rich menu components allow users to build a cart entirely within chat.
Kruti Performance
Within 8 weeks, we launched India's first culturally oriented AI assistant, which did not exceed adoption targets and validating our strategic bets.
Current active users who have installed Apps
Users
2,839
Prompts
32,332
Users
11,721
Prompts
1,75,341
Users who created an image
Unique users who created at least one image
16,592
Total image creation prompts
1,02,460
How we grew since Launch
Kruti saw a strong growth trajectory starting mid-June 2025
Engagement remained consistently high through the end of June and into August, averaging at ~30,000–32,000 daily users.
22,70,000
Total prompts submitted
14,00,000
Total unique users since launch
~1.62
Average prompts per user
58%
D7 Retention (vs 51% Ola average)
Key Learnings:
Speed Meets Quality
Reliability builds trust faster than novelty
Choosing a chat-first interface despite the market hype for voice ensured 95% accuracy. In emerging tech, it is better to be reliable than "cool" but buggy, as broken trust is hard to repair
Research under constraints is vital
Our 2-week lean research sprint gave us the critical "Task-First" insight that defined the product's success. Focused validation beats lengthy exploration when time is limited.
Leadership is Enablement
Highest leverage work wasn't designing screens, but creating the structures (language grids, visual communication design) that allowed us to execute.
Kruti was featured in major media as 'India's Answer to ChatGPT,' positioning Ola as an innovation leader and proving that culturally-oriented design can drive mass AI adoption.
akshay borhade
product designer
India
Download my resume