Kompact AI: Reimagining Artificial Intelligence with Inclusivity, Affordability, and Impact at its Core
In a transformative step towards inclusive technology, IIT Madras, IITM Pravartak, and Ziroh Labs have announced a strategic collaboration to establish the Centre of AI Research (CoAIR). This new initiative is focused squarely on solving accessibility challenges in AI, ensuring that intelligent systems are not just for the privileged few with deep infrastructure pockets—but for everyone, especially those with accessibility needs and resource-constrained environments.
At the heart of this initiative is Kompact AI, a new AI platform developed by Ziroh Labs in collaboration with IIT Madras and IITM Pravartak. Officially launched on April 9, 2025, at IIT Madras, Kompact AI represents a major shift in how AI can be deployed—bringing powerful AI capabilities to the edges, running efficiently on standard CPUs, and bypassing the expensive and exclusive GPU route.
The CX Imperative: Why Accessible AI Matters
For customer experience professionals, accessibility isn’t a feature—it’s a foundational expectation. In a world where digital experiences define customer loyalty, organizations must reimagine how technology—including AI—serves all users.
Current AI ecosystems are dominated by large, general-purpose models powered by GPUs and hosted on massive cloud platforms. While these “Big AI” systems deliver impressive results, they come at a steep cost—both financially and environmentally. Most importantly, they exclude millions of users in rural areas, low-infrastructure settings, and small enterprises that simply cannot afford or access such compute power.
This exclusion is not just an economic loss—it’s a CX gap that leaves behind entire customer segments. Kompact AI was designed to close that gap.
Introducing Kompact AI: AI for Everyone, Everywhere
Kompact AI is built to run foundational AI models on CPUs, making it a game-changer for enterprises and developers aiming to deliver intelligent experiences across low-power devices, offline settings, and budget-constrained systems.
From education in rural classrooms to real-time insights on agricultural fields, and from small businesses enabling chatbots to mobile apps delivering inclusive voice experiences, Kompact AI brings AI where it matters most—close to the customer.
Key customer-centric advantages include:
- Offline Operation: No constant internet required. This is critical for CX in remote or disconnected geographies.
- Cost-Effective Compute: Eliminates the need for expensive GPUs, dramatically lowering the barrier to entry.
- Speed + Accuracy: Provides high-quality inference and performance on CPUs without compromising model accuracy.
- Task-Specific Optimization: Supports smaller, purpose-built AI models aligned with real customer use cases, rather than one-size-fits-all solutions.
Built in India, for India—and the World
Kompact AI isn’t just technically innovative; it’s deeply mission-driven. Rooted in India’s national ambition of “AI for All”, this platform was developed by Indian engineers and scientists with a vision to democratize AI.
Dr. Madhusudhanan B from IITM Pravartak emphasized that their goal is to translate research into tangible CX-focused solutions. With Kompact AI, AI becomes executable in real-world scenarios—on the devices and systems that real people actually use.
Prof. V. Kamakoti, Director of IIT Madras, stressed that this nature-inspired approach to AI, which mirrors how humans learn domain-specific knowledge rather than mastering everything, is more sustainable. It allows AI to be hyper-relevant, efficient, and aligned with customer needs.
Performance Without Compromise
Unlike many existing CPU-based AI solutions that rely on quantization or distillation—often reducing model fidelity in the process—Kompact AI delivers full-scale foundational models on CPUs. In fact, it delivers up to 3x better performance than the current state-of-the-art in CPU inferencing, while maintaining model integrity.
Ziroh Labs has already optimized 17 AI models, including DeepSeek, Qwen, and LLaMA, all tested for accuracy, latency, and scalability by IIT Madras.
This is critical for CX leaders: AI-driven personalization, support automation, or content recommendation features must maintain quality regardless of the platform they run on. With Kompact AI, even a low-spec device can now power such features without degrading customer experience.
Developer-First, Customer-Forward
Kompact AI also introduces ICAN—a Common AI-Language Runtime that supports 10+ programming languages, enabling rapid implementation for developers. For customer-centric organizations, this means faster rollout of AI-powered features, smoother integrations, and broader platform coverage.
Its Model Library includes a wide range of models—text, speech, vision, and multimodal—offering out-of-the-box capabilities tailored for CPU use. Enterprises can choose or fine-tune models based on specific customer journeys, use cases, or language needs.
Making AI More Ethical and Private
In today’s privacy-aware world, CX is also about trust. Kompact AI supports data privacy and residency regulations by allowing AI processing to remain on-device or on local edge infrastructure, rather than sending sensitive customer data to external clouds. This not only helps meet compliance mandates but also builds customer trust in digital experiences.
Designed for Impact
The unveiling event featured tech luminaries including Dr. Whitfield Diffie (Turing Awardee), Mr. Scott McNealy (Founder, Sun Microsystems), Dr. William J Raduchel (former CTO, AOL Time Warner), and Prof. S. Sadagopan (Former Director, IIIT-Bangalore), underscoring the global significance of this development.
Prof. Sadagopan summed it up best—“Kompact AI shows that frugal innovation, when done well, can sit at the cutting edge of global technology.” This is CX innovation at its finest—where frugality, function, and fairness converge.
Beyond Tech: Toward Real Change
From frontline healthcare workers using voice-AI in rural clinics, to students accessing personalized learning tools without internet, Kompact AI has the potential to redefine CX across sectors. By removing the dependency on expensive infrastructure, it levels the playing field and brings intelligent experiences within reach for all.
What’s Next?
The Centre of AI Research (CoAIR) will focus on building smaller, task-specific AI models for industries like agriculture, education, public services, and more—each optimized for deployment in diverse environments using Kompact AI.
HCLTech has already expressed interest in partnering to scale these efforts. And with increasing enterprise support, this movement could become a global benchmark in responsible, inclusive AI.
In Summary:
Kompact AI is not just a technology platform—it’s a customer empowerment engine. It bridges the AI accessibility divide, drives real-world impact, and helps organizations serve their customers better, faster, and more inclusively.
For CX leaders aiming to deliver meaningful, high-quality experiences across all customer touchpoints—Kompact AI is the platform to watch.
The Untold CX Story in Kompact AI
At its core, Kompact AI is a platform that reimagines how we reach and serve customers—especially the underserved.
Most customer experience innovations today assume access to high-speed internet, expensive hardware, and cloud infrastructure. But what about:
- A farmer in a rural village who wants instant crop advisory?
- A student using a budget tablet to learn in their native language?
- A first-time smartphone user seeking customer support without needing to burn through data?
- A banking customer in a remote area using a kiosk that doesn’t rely on real-time cloud sync?
Kompact AI brings intelligence to the edge—meaning AI can run locally on devices without the need for GPUs or constant cloud access. This unlocks an entire segment of the population that is often left out of personalized, intelligent CX due to infrastructure gaps.
From a CX lens, that’s huge.
Here’s the Customer Experience Angle:
- Hyper-local personalization, at scale: AI models that run on CPUs in local languages open the door to personalized experiences in regional dialects and cultural contexts.
- Instantaneous response times without latency: No internet dependency means real-time support and interaction—a game-changer for industries like healthcare, education, BFSI, and rural e-commerce.
- Data privacy and trust: For CX leaders, trust is non-negotiable. Kompact AI’s on-device processing and local storage ensure customer data never leaves the device, building confidence and meeting compliance demands (like India’s DPDP Act or GDPR).
- Affordable deployment: Serving the “next billion” users shouldn’t require elite tech. Kompact AI’s efficiency makes AI-powered CX viable even on ₹15,000 devices—no costly GPUs, no heavy cloud bills.
- Edge-first design = business continuity: In sectors like field service, remote healthcare, and logistics, the ability to serve customers even when offline is a CX differentiator.
A Possible Use Case Story (CX Scenario)
Imagine a regional bank deploying Kompact AI across its rural ATMs and mobile apps. Now:
- Voice bots in local languages guide customers through transactions.
- AI verifies identity locally, improving KYC turnaround times.
- Even when the internet is patchy, customer queries are resolved on the spot.
Result?
Increased customer satisfaction, reduced churn, deeper market penetration, and trust earned through seamless, empathetic service.
Kompact AI is a CX story in the making—a story about making intelligent, inclusive, and ethical experiences available to every customer, not just the digitally elite.
