Zerodha's Kamath: 'We Use AI' Is Now the Fastest Way to Get Ignored
For anyone tracking the pulse of India's startup ecosystem, a warning shot has just been fired from an unexpected corner. Nithin Kamath, the co-founder of Zerodha, India's largest retail brokerage, has declared that the AI buzzword has jumped the shark. In a LinkedIn post that has set the founder community buzzing, Kamath confessed that pitch decks opening with 'we use AI' now make him roll his eyes so hard he almost stops reading. His blunt verdict: boasting about AI is like bragging that you take a shower every day—a surefire way to get ignored by serious investors.
Kamath's frustration is not a one-off rant. He says the sheer volume of generic, 'nice-looking' decks crossing his desk is exhausting. With AI tools now democratizing the ability to produce slick presentations, every founder is saying the same thing with the same tools. The result? A sea of sameness that signals nothing about a startup's actual potential. 'AI is just table stakes now,' he argues. In a follow-up, he challenged founders to answer tougher questions: Why AI? How do you manage security risk? Do you know your workflow, exceptions, and RACI? These are the questions that separate signal from noise.
To understand why this matters, you need to know Zerodha's place in the Indian wealth story. Kamath and his brother built a discount broking giant that disrupted a cozy, high-fee industry, without a single dollar of external funding. They are the anti-VC poster children—profitable, bootstrapped, and obsessively focused on user experience. When Kamath speaks, founders listen, not because he's a typical venture capitalist, but because he represents the kind of sustainable, no-nonsense success that many aspire to. His critique lands with extra weight because it comes from a builder, not a money-bag.
This is more than a pet peeve; it's a barometer for where the money is heading in Asia's tech scene. The continent has seen a flood of AI startups, from Bengaluru to Singapore, all chasing the same narrative. Kamath's warning signals that the era of 'AI-washing' is over. Investors, especially the serious ones, are now looking for proprietary data, unique workflows, and distribution moats—things that survive a model upgrade. As one founder in the comments put it, if your competitor can swap in the same model tomorrow and nothing changes, then AI was never your pitch.
The reaction from the startup community has been overwhelmingly supportive, with founders sharing their own takes on what differentiates a pitch. Some suggest leading with the problem you solve, not the technology. Others emphasize the importance of user outcomes over AI features. The consensus is clear: AI is now infrastructure, not a differentiator. The real edge lies in execution, proprietary assets, and a deep understanding of the customer's pain points.
Looking ahead, Kamath's bluntness may be a gift to the ecosystem. It forces founders to dig deeper and articulate why their business deserves attention in a world where everyone has access to the same tools. The next wave of successful Asian startups won't be the ones shouting 'AI' the loudest; they'll be the ones quietly using AI to build something defensible and valuable. In the race for capital and attention, the winners will be those who remember that investors pay for outcomes, not algorithms.
