Flipkart Invests Big In AI, Opens Internal Unit

Betting big on Artificial Intelligence (AI), homegrown unicorn Flipkart has decided to set up an internal unit called AIforIndia. In an attempt to make use of AI and machine learning for the core of its business, Flipkart will invest millions of dollars for this initiative. Flipkart co-founder and Chairman Sachin Bansal said that the firm is looking for AI-related acquisitions in India.

Sachin Bansal said “Maintaining that Flipkart will use AI for both consumer facing and supply. India’s problems are unique and we need to apply AI in the ecosystem to solve Indian problems. At Flipkart, we will solve problems differently because the underlying problems here are different. Almost everything about e-commerce was different from how consumers interact with Flipkart on the app to how deliveries happen to customers and how they get active customer support. These are huge problems at Flipkart and we believe we can apply AI and machine learning to them. We’ve been doing machine learning at Flipkart for the past two years, but it’s growing at a slow pace. We will bring a lot of focus internally where we will start applying AI much more aggressively in multiple areas within the company not just at Flipkart, but also at PhonePe and Myntra as well”.

This isn’t the first time that the e-commerce giant has tested waters. Earlier, using AI inputs, Flipkart has worked out competitive pricing strategy and has even managed its own supply chain.

In the past, Flipkart has built solutions and services around AI, Big Data and machine learning in order to gain insights into consumer shopping habits.