Platform targets high-volume AI workloads across healthcare, education, retail, fintech, cybersecurity and enterprise automation
Bengaluru, September 7, 2026: AI and deep-tech startup Ziroh Labs has launched Kompact AI, a CPU-first AI platform aimed at making artificial intelligence more accessible, efficient and practical for enterprises by enabling AI workloads to run on widely available CPU infrastructure.
The platform is designed for high-volume enterprise applications where smaller AI models, large data flows, input-output requirements and latency often matter as much as computing power. It seeks to provide organisations with an alternative for workloads that do not necessarily require specialised GPU infrastructure.
Enterprise AI adoption is expanding beyond large, compute-intensive models. Organisations are increasingly using AI for software testing, document processing, customer engagement, cybersecurity, enterprise automation and industry-specific applications. Many of these applications involve thousands of transactions and workflows, making infrastructure efficiency, deployment costs and data handling critical considerations.
Kompact AI is designed specifically for this segment, enabling AI inference on CPU infrastructure and allowing organisations to deploy AI closer to their existing applications and data.
“The next phase of AI adoption will require infrastructure that is accessible, efficient, and closer to the people and businesses using it. Our focus is to make AI more accessible by enabling organisations to run AI where it is needed, with greater control over cost, performance and data,” said Hrishikesh Dewan, Co-founder and CEO, Ziroh Labs.
Backing a decentralised approach to AI
The launch also featured renowned cryptographer Dr. Whitfield Diffie, recipient of the 2015 ACM A.M. Turing Award, who has expressed strong support for Kompact AI’s approach to AI infrastructure.
Dr. Diffie’s perspective on the platform is rooted not only in computing efficiency but also in the broader idea of decentralising access to technology. He believes the impact of AI will depend partly on how widely its capabilities can be made available.
Describing the ability to run AI on ubiquitous CPUs as “one of the most exciting things I have seen in quite a number of years,” Dr. Diffie highlighted the potential of bringing AI capabilities to the computing infrastructure already available across organisations.
Expanding across industry segments
Ziroh Labs is positioning Kompact AI as more than an AI runtime, with an ecosystem aimed at developing and deploying practical applications.
The company is introducing Kompact AI Box solutions, packaged AI infrastructure tailored to specific industry requirements. These solutions combine AI models and inference capabilities for applications across sectors such as healthcare, education, retail, fintech and sovereign deployments.
Several partners are already evaluating or implementing solutions on Kompact AI. The applications range from AI-powered software testing and quality engineering to intelligent enterprise platforms and sector-specific workflows.
Rather than requiring every organisation to build an AI infrastructure stack from scratch, Ziroh Labs is developing ready-to-deploy solutions around defined business and industry requirements.
Bringing AI infrastructure to educational institutions
Ziroh Labs is also extending Kompact AI into the education sector through partnerships with academic institutions to establish Centres of Excellence (CoEs) focused on artificial intelligence.
The initiative aims to provide students with access to practical AI infrastructure, enabling them to experiment with, develop and deploy AI applications. Ziroh Labs said Kompact AI will be available to educational institutions through a free academic licence, covering institutions and their students.
The CoEs are expected to help create a talent pipeline of developers, researchers and entrepreneurs equipped to work with real-world AI infrastructure and contribute to India’s expanding AI ecosystem.
Focus on accessible and energy-efficient AI
At the heart of Kompact AI is the objective of making better use of the extensive CPU infrastructure already deployed across data centres, enterprises, educational institutions and edge environments.
By enabling AI inference on existing compute infrastructure, the platform could help organisations address requirements around data locality, privacy, latency, infrastructure availability and predictable deployment costs.
Ziroh Labs has also partnered with academicians from institutions including IIT Guwahati on its Math Lab initiative. The programme seeks to examine the mathematical structures used in large language models and state-space models and explore whether they provide a foundation capable of progressing towards general intelligence.
In collaboration with IIT Guwahati, the company has also developed a 40-plus-hour course on advanced AI and large language models. The course is available free of charge to students, developers, researchers and professionals worldwide, while certification is offered separately through IIT Guwahati.
The launch event brought together academic and technology leaders, including Prof. S. Sadagopan, Founder Director, IIIT-Bangalore, along with Sanjay Tyagi, Mahadesh and other members of the technology and innovation ecosystem.
Congratulating Ziroh Labs, Prof. S. Sadagopan said, the company’s work represents an important development for India’s deep-tech ecosystem. He highlighted its growing network of partners, technical research and model development, while particularly noting its focus on frugal innovation and energy-efficient AI.
“Kompact AI is creating a huge ecosystem for deep tech. Frugal innovation and building energy-efficient AI for everyone is what excites me about the platform, which is a timely development for India,” he said.
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