Synopsis
Flipkart is appointing Hemant Badri to lead its AI initiatives, focusing on identifying and operationalising AI uses across the company. This strategic move, in partnership with CPTO Balaji Thiagarajan, aims to integrate AI into customer experience, seller tools, and internal productivity as the e-commerce landscape rapidly evolves.Badri will be working in partnership with Balaji Thiagarajan, chief product and technology officer (CPTO) at Flipkart.
Flipkart did not respond to the email query from ET till the time of publishing.
The internal email from Kalyan Krishnamurthy, group CEO, Flipkart, which ET has reviewed, said, “The landscape for our industry is evolving rapidly. To lead in the next decade, we need to build on AI.” This translates to AI systems at the core including intuitive customer experience, seller tools that drive growth more efficiently, and internal productivity where Al handles routine tasks so teams can focus on innovation, with “human-in-the-loop”.
“This is a broader organisational shift. It will require ownership across functions and teams,” he said in the email. Terming this AI transformational Charter, Badri will identify and operationalise business use cases where AI can drive the most impact in partnership with Thiagarajan who is leading engineering efforts in OneTech.
Flipkart's GenAI push
The Walmart-owned company has been upping its AI efforts under OneTech, as it gears toward an IPO. In January, the company launched SLAP, its AI conversational shopping assistant.
Flipkart has adopted AI across segments like marketing, customer service, and operations, according to people familiar with the developments.
The platform has been discussing generative AI optimisation for its product listins across categories like fashion, home appliances and health, one of the person said. This comes at a time when others like Amazon, Meesho, Swiggy and Zepto are increasing their agentic commerce efforts.
In November 2025 ET reported that Flipkart is optimising its product listings for some categories to ensure better visibility on large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT and Google Gemini. Later in December, Flipkart acquired a majority stake in AI and machine learning solutions startup Minivet AI to enhance its core generative AI capabilities.
IPO and revenue
ET reported on March 9 that the ecommerce major has completed its reverse flip ahead of the IPO and shifted its domicile back to India from Singapore.
For the 2025 financial year, most of the company's group entities narrowed their losses by cutting expenses, although revenue growth was muted amid a slowdown in overall online retail.
Flipkart Internet, which runs the core marketplace, posted a 14% year-on-year (YoY) increase in revenue for FY25 to Rs 20,493 crore. More significantly, net losses fell 37% (YoY) to Rs 1,494 crore.
