5M Users on WhatsApp: India's Largest Consumer AI App | Anuruddh Mishra, August AI

What if an AI could handle your health anxiety better than scrolling WebMD at 2 AM? Anuruddh built August AI; a health companion that's has 5 million users, runs on WhatsApp and scores 100% on medical licensing exams.

August processes handwritten prescriptions with state-of-the-art accuracy, maintains memory across multiple family members in one chat, and knows when to say "I can't help with this, see a doctor."

KEY INSIGHTS FROM THIS CONVERSATION:

Why Anuruddh hired 1 engineer after 400 interviews (alignment vs coding)
How they got first 10,000 users
Research shows AI alone outperforms doctor + AI
Why engagement can never be the North Star for health AI
Memory architecture for multi-profile families (absurdly hard problem)
Why WhatsApp first: humans already talk to humans there
How to engineer empathy?
How they built custom benchmarks when existing ones weren't enough
Why they let only 30 people/day in for 6 months (safety vs growth)
The nutrition feature that emerged because users sent food photos

ABOUT AUGUST AI:
August AI is a health companion with 5M users, built on WhatsApp with state-of-the-art accuracy in symptom checking, prescription reading, and medical knowledge. Since July 2023, August has been the strongest health AI engine built out of India. Founded by Anuruddh Mishra after a personal misdiagnosis, August focuses on creating healthcare abundance through AI that's accurate, safe, and genuinely empathetic.

More Info https://www.meetaugust.ai/

Connect and Explore:

• Web: https://kalyanikhona.com/
• X: https://x.com/thisismekalyani
• Linkedin:   / kalyanikhona  
• The Third Frontier: https://thirdfrontier.substack.com/
• AI Lab Notes:   / 7364150572851060738  
• Behind India's ChatGPT conversations: https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.13337