Inside the machine behind India’s fastest-growing shopping habit
As India’s retail landscape continues its remarkable journey from offline aisles to online ecosystems, a new question is taking center stage. How will artificial intelligence redefine the way a billion consumers shop, discover, and experience products?The digitisation of infrastructure, the modernisation of telecommunications, and the maturing of networks have already converged to make this transformation possible, and the next wave is already here.In a new episode of TOI AIQ Talks, host Sonia Singh sits down with Balaji Thiagarajan, Chief Product and Technology Officer at Flipkart, and Mayank, Founder and CEO of Adrosonic, to unpack how retail became one of the most visible faces of India’s technology story and where AI is set to take it next.The conversation traces a decade of dramatic change, from the leapfrog to 5G and the shift from landlines to mobiles, to the widespread adoption of cloud infrastructure. Together, these shifts laid the groundwork for retail to lead rather than follow in India’s digital economy.The discussion goes further, exploring what it really takes for a business to succeed with AI. Not just the allure of a “cool technology,” but a sharp focus on the actual problem it needs to solve.At the heart of the dialogue is a bigger idea, that AI’s real power in retail lies in its ability to make the shopping experience deeply personal, letting every consumer engage with products in the way that suits them best. It’s a vision of technology that doesn’t just digitise commerce, but humanises it at scale.What does it take for a nation of a billion consumers to get AI right, not just as a tool, but as a transformation of how business itself is done?
