Ola AI Krutrim Criticises CEO Bhavish Aggarwal's 'Dismissive' Reply to Kunal Kamra

Ola CEO Bhavish Aggarwal and comedian Kunal Kamra engaged in a war of words on social media on October 6 over the EV service backlog. The spat began when Aggarwal shared a picture of the Ola Gigafactory with a heart emoji, tagging the company’s Business Head, Vishal Chaturvedi. Kamra responded by quoting the post and sharing a picture of numerous Ola scooters gathering dust outside a service centre. He tagged Minister of Road Transport and Highways, Nitin Gadkari, and Consumer Affairs, questioning whether Indian consumers deserve such treatment. In response to Kamra’s criticism, Aggarwal sarcastically invited Kamra to “help” with the services of the EVs, offering to pay him “more than his failed comedy career”.

Read the entire heated exchange between Ola CEO Bhavish Aggarwal and comedian Kunal Kamra here.

Amid a barrage of posts from the war on X (formerly known as Twitter), journalist Meghnad S highlighted a response from Aggarwal, where he offered to pay Kamra more than his “flop comedy shows”. Meghnad then turned to the company’s own AI, Krutrim, to ask its thoughts on Aggarwal’s remark.

“I am trying to give a PR response to a comedian who is complaining that the products my company makes are bad. I have drafted one response and am sharing it with you. Can you let me know what you think about it? Here’s the response: ‘Chot lagi? Dard hua? Aaja service centre. Bahut kaam hai. I will pay better than your flop shows pay you. Show your audience how much you truly care and whether you’re only gas and BS’,” Meghnad asked India’s first AI unicorn, Krutrim, seeking its input on Bhavish Aggarwal’s snarky reply.

Krutrim, unveiled in December 2023, found the response to be “confrontational and dismissive”. The AI replied, “The given response does not appear to be professional or appropriate for addressing the complaint made by the comedian regarding your company’s products. It comes across as confrontational and dismissive of their concerns instead of attempting to resolve them constructively.”

Krutrim advised Aggarwal to “acknowledge” the comedian’s concerns and show “empathy” towards the situation. It suggested, “A more suitable approach would involve acknowledging the comedian’s comments while expressing empathy towards their situation and offering solutions that could potentially improve their experience with your products or services. This might include providing a refund or exchange, scheduling a meeting to discuss potential improvements in future offerings, or even inviting them to collaborate on product development or marketing initiatives.”

“Additionally, mentioning positive feedback from other customers or highlighting specific features that they may appreciate can help balance out the negative impression created by this comedian’s complaints. Overall, adopting a customer-centric perspective and focusing on constructive dialogue will likely yield better results in resolving conflicts and improving relationships with influencers like this comedian,” it added.

Aggarwal also revealed that the company is working to resolve the service centre “backlogs”. “We’re expanding the service network fast and backlogs will be cleared soon,” Aggarwal said. He added, “We have enough programs for our customers if they face service delays.”