Latest news with #Strategic
Time of India
12 hours ago
- Business
- Time of India
The future of Indian retail is AI and omnichannel: A preview from ET Soonicorns Summit 2025
Venu Nair, Chief of Strategic Planning and Omnichannel, Myntra Chief of Strategic Planning and Omnichannel, Myntra Ankit Gupta, VP, Head of Product & Tech, Reliance Retail VP, Head of Product & Tech, Reliance Retail Rahul Kothari, COO, Razorpay You're browsing for a new pair of spectacles. The website instantly filters styles based on your face shape, recent screen time habits, and even suggests blue-light blocking lenses for your late-night scrolling. Before you click 'add to cart,' it shows you how each frame would look on your face, using your past selfies and purchase a working day. A nudge on your phone offers a personalised bundle—your favourite brand of sneakers, now paired with curated accessories based on your last purchase. At checkout, there's no queue. You're recognised, and your payment goes through above scenarios are not pages from sci-fi. They are glimpses of predictive and precision retail. All thanks to artificial intelligence or to the good, the bad, and the ugly of the Indian retail landscape, caught in the throes of a seismic shift. The era of one-size-fits-all storefronts and generic marketing is rapidly fading, replaced by a new paradigm where the customer experience is not just king, but the entire kingdom. Traditional storefronts and generic campaigns are giving way to hyper-personalised, data-driven experiences powered by AI in retail. Today, building a loyal customer base means delivering not just transactions but tailored, predictive, and omnichannel shopping experiences that resonate deeply across digital and physical touchpoints. This is the new retail battleground, and AI is the weapon of critical transformation will be the focal point at the ET Soonicorns Summit 2025, scheduled for August 22 in Bengaluru. A pivotal session, 'AI-Driven Personalisation and Omnichannel Commerce: The Next Retail Battleground,' featured under the track 'From Pilot to Product-Market Fit', will convene some of the most influential minds from India's retail and technology sectors to dissect this revolution. The conversation will explore how startups and incumbents alike are leveraging AI to craft bespoke customer journeys, implement dynamic pricing, and orchestrate seamless omnichannel strategies to elevate the retail panel features a powerhouse trio, each at the helm of this change within their respective domains:The modern consumer is inundated with choices, and their attention is the new currency. To capture it, retailers must do more than just sell a product; they must sell an experience. This is where hyper-personalisation—the use of real-time data and AI to deliver highly tailored interactions—becomes essential. Deloitte's June 2024 report, titled Personalising Growth: It's a Value Exchange Between Brands and Customers, reveals that brands excelling at personalisation are 48% more likely to exceed revenue goals and 71% more likely to improve customer loyalty. However, the research also finds a significant gap between brand intent and customer perception: while brands believe 61% of touchpoints are personalised, only 43% are recognised as such by consumers, which makes the ET Soonicorn Summit panel on AI and personalisation all the more fact, the Indian market reflects this global trend with a unique intensity. The AI in the Indian retail market is projected to skyrocket from USD 216.26 million in 2023 to nearly USD 2.97 billion by 2032 , per data released by Credence Research. This is propelled by the insatiable demand for personalised shopping. A recent study from Zebra Technologies' 17th Annual Global Shopper Study found that 77% of Indian shoppers now prefer retailers that provide tailored recommendations powered by AI. This is not a future-state desire; it is a present-day personalisation is only one half of the equation. The other is creating a cohesive experience across every touchpoint, a strategy known as omnichannel commerce. As the lines between online and offline blur, customers expect to transition seamlessly between a brand's app, website, and physical store. Recent data indicates that omnichannel retail in India has been growing approximately 50% faster than single-channel retail formats, while 73% of customers use multiple channels—such as online, in‑store, and mobile—before making a purchase decision. These findings reflect evolving consumer behaviour, highlighting the importance of integrated retail strategies in India's this fusion of AI-driven personalisation and omnichannel execution is the definitive challenge for Indian retail. The stakes are monumental. The Indian retail market is expected to reach US$1.4 trillion by 2024 , according to a report by NASSCOM. Brands that successfully harness AI to deliver a unified, intelligent, and personal customer journey will capture a disproportionate share of this growth. Those who fail will be left speakers for this session bring a wealth of in-the-trenches experience, representing the convergence of fashion e-commerce, large-scale physical and digital retail, and the financial technology that underpins it Nair helms strategic planning and omnichannel initiatives at Myntra, a company synonymous with fashion e-commerce in India. With a vast catalogue of over 2.3 million styles, Myntra has made AI a core part of its strategy to solve the challenge of product discovery. The company employs sophisticated AI tools such as MyFashionGPT and My Stylist to offer personalised style recommendations, allowing users to have a more meaningful, discovery-led shopping experience. Myntra's generative AI assistant, built on Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service, helps users shop with open-ended natural language queries, such as 'what to wear for a festival,' leading to a threefold increase in the likelihood of purchase for those who use it. Nair, a retail veteran with over three decades of experience at giants such as Shoppers Stop, Westside, and Marks & Spencer, is tasked with managing and expanding this omnichannel strategy, making his insights into blending digital innovation with physical retail Gupta, as the VP and Head of Product & Tech at Reliance Retail, operates at an unparalleled scale. Reliance Retail operates over 18,650 stores and a vast digital ecosystem. The company's strategy is deeply rooted in creating a seamless omnichannel model with a common inventory that enables hyper-local delivery. Gupta's teams utilise AI and ML across the entire value chain—from product recommendations, demand forecasting, and supply chain optimisation to automated replenishment and customer support chatbots. The goal is a 'zero-touch' self-optimising network that enhances customer experience through deep technology Kothari, the Chief Operating Officer of Razorpay, provides a critical and often overlooked perspective: the payment layer that enables commerce. A seamless checkout is the final, crucial step in the customer journey. Razorpay has aggressively pursued an omnichannel strategy, acquiring point-of-sale (POS) firm Ezetap to merge online and offline payment experiences. The company is focused on building a system where a customer's identity is unified across channels, allowing for personalised payment experiences. As COO for India and Malaysia, Kothari's role involves enhancing this seamless customer experience across all of Razorpay's business lines. His focus on reducing friction in transactions and leveraging data to improve conversion rates is essential for any retailer looking to optimise their omnichannel Economic Times Soonicorns Summit 2025, India's largest congregation of soon-to-be unicorns, returns to Bengaluru on August 22 for its fourth edition. This premier event brings together founders, VCs, CTOs, and policymakers under the theme 'From Research Labs to Revenue Models: The Billion-Dollar Blueprint for Scaling Indian AI Startups.'As India's startup ecosystem matures, with AI as its definitive growth engine, the ET Soonicorns Summit 2025 serves as a strategic launchpad. The Summit promises not just to highlight trends but to deliver actionable insights for anyone building the next AI-powered unicorn or investing in India's deep-tech discussion on AI-driven retail is more than just an academic debate; it's a playbook for survival and growth in one of India's most dynamic sectors. For founders, product leaders, and investors, this session represents a unique opportunity to learn from the leaders who are defining the future of commerce. It's where the blueprint for India's next generation of retail champions will be for the ET Soonicorns Summit 2025 is now open. Register Here. 360 One is the presenting partner of the ET Soonicorns Summit 2025.(This article is generated and published by the ET Spotlight team. You can get in touch with them at etspotlight@ .)
Business Insider
3 days ago
- Business
- Business Insider
Cintara and Secret AI Partner to Bring Privacy-Preserving AI to Blockchain
Ashburn, United States, July 28th, 2025, Chainwire Strategic Collaboration for Confidential Agentic AI Cintara, the first blockchain operating system purpose-built for autonomous AI agents, today announced a strategic partnership with Secret AI, a leader in privacy-preserving computation. This collaboration integrates Secret AI's encrypted AI processing framework into Cintara's innovative agentic blockchain infrastructure, enabling sensitive agent-to-agent interactions securely and privately on-chain. Expanding Opportunities for Developers and Enterprises With this integration, developers and enterprises can now deploy autonomous agents that securely process private data, making Cintara viable for highly regulated use cases in finance, healthcare, and compliance-focused industries. Secret AI's encrypted computation ensures that sensitive data remains fully protected during inference and execution, meeting strict global privacy regulations. Executive Perspectives 'This partnership helps us bring privacy-preserving AI agents to life,' said Subodh Shetty, CTO of Cintara. 'Secret AI adds a critical layer of confidentiality to how Cintara agents operate and share data on-chain, essential as we move towards real-world, regulated use cases.' 'We're excited to collaborate with Cintara and bring our privacy-preserving AI technology to a revolutionary blockchain environment,' said Alex Zaidelson, CEO of SCRT Labs. 'Their vision of AI-native infrastructure aligns closely with our approach to trust, safety, and confidential computing. Together, we're pushing the boundaries of what's possible with on-chain AI.' Technical Details of the Integration Secret AI enables confidential AI computation using trusted execution environments (TEE) and Trusted Domain Extensions (TDX). For developers building agentic systems on blockchain, this opens a new category of possibilities, such as secure health diagnostics, private financial automation, and AI assistants that handle personal data with guaranteed integrity through verifiable confidential computing. Further Technical Collaboration with Secret Network: In addition, Cintara is partnering with Secret Network to enhance enterprise-grade capabilities: Confidential AI by Default: Cintara's smart-contract-based large language model (LLM) computations will run inside Secret Network's Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) Secret VMs, keeping user prompts and on-chain data fully private and verifiably sealed, eliminating exposure to third-party AI providers. Verifiable Compute Marketplace: In Cintara's upcoming decentralized compute market, developers can select standard nodes or Secret-powered TEE nodes. Each computational job executed in a Secret VM provides a cryptographic attestation, confirming the exact code and model executed, ideal for trustless AI agents and sensitive enterprise workloads. Privacy and Security at Scale Cintara has integrated with Secret AI to provide enhanced privacy and verifiable computation for its transactions. The collaboration enables Cintara's large language model (LLM) analytics to operate on GPU workers within hardware-isolated enclaves, ensuring that user data and on-chain inputs remain encrypted throughout processing. These secure environments generate signed, tamper-evident outputs. Additionally, the Secret Virtual Machine (VM) extends trusted execution environment (TEE) protections to Cintara's smart contract logic, allowing developers to deploy confidential agents and privacy-focused applications in the compute marketplace. Strategic Benefits and Real-world Adoption This collaboration delivers premium security, compliance, and developer confidence, creating new revenue streams and driving real-world adoption for both Cintara and Secret Network. Cintara is the operating system for on-chain agentic AI, enabling fully autonomous, decentralized agents to collaborate, transact, and scale securely at machine speed. Users can learn more at Contact
News18
3 days ago
- Business
- News18
India, Japan review ties
Agency: PTI Last Updated: New Delhi, Jul 28 (PTI) India and Japan on Monday reviewed the entire spectrum of their bilateral ties, especially in the areas of defence, economic security, trade and investment and infrastructure. The issues were discussed by Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri and Japan's Vice Foreign Minister Takehiro Funakoshi. 'During the dialogue, the foreign secretary and his counterpart reaffirmed the growing importance of the India-Japan Special Strategic and Global Partnership for peace, prosperity and stability in the Indo-Pacific region and beyond," the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said. It said both sides exchanged views on the entire spectrum of the multi-faceted India-Japan bilateral relationship, including political ties, defence and security, economic security, trade and investment, infrastructure cooperation, technology and people-to-people exchanges. They also exchanged views on global and regional issues of importance, the MEA said in a statement. 'The dialogue was instrumental in reviewing progress in various dimensions of our ties, exploring new areas of collaboration and contributing to further deepening the bonds of friendship and cooperation between India and Japan," it added. PTI MPB RC Disclaimer: Comments reflect users' views, not News18's. Please keep discussions respectful and constructive. Abusive, defamatory, or illegal comments will be removed. News18 may disable any comment at its discretion. By posting, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
New Indian Express
19-07-2025
- Science
- New Indian Express
MoS Defence lauds DRDL scientists for advanced missile system
HYDERABAD: MoS Defence Sanjay Seth visited the Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Missile Complex in Hyderabad on Wednesday and Thursday, to review ongoing missile and weapon systems programmes developed by DRDO's premier Missile Cluster Labs - Defence Research and Development Laboratory (DRDL), Research Centre Imarat (RCI), and Advanced Systems Laboratory (ASL). During his visit to DRDL, Seth inspected key facilities involved in the development of Astra Mk I and II air-to-air missiles, the Vertically-Launched Short-Range Surface-to-Air Missile (VL-SRSAM), and scramjet engine technologies. He was briefed on the progress and strategic relevance of these systems by U Raja Babu, Distinguished Scientist and Director General (Missiles and Strategic Systems), and G A Srinivasa Murthy, Director, DRDL. At RCI, the minister reviewed advanced Indigenous Navigation and Aviation Systems, the Onboard Computer Division, and Imaging Infrared Seeker technologies. Director RCI, Anindya Biswas, provided updates on these high-tech defence capabilities. He praised the scientists and engineers for their contributions towards achieving self-reliance in defence under the vision of Aatmanirbhar Bharat. He encouraged DRDO to continue advancing technologies that enhance national security and empower the Armed Forces.
Yahoo
11-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Why Bitcoin Soared to New All-Time Highs Today
Bitcoin set a new all-time high on Friday, topping $118,000 per coin for the first time. Political pressure on the Federal Reserve to lower rates has boosted crypto prices. Leading Bitcoin mining companies are finding ways to stay profitable after last year's halving. 10 stocks we like better than Bitcoin › Leading cryptocurrency Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) soared to brand new all-time highs on Friday, reaching new heights for the first time since May 21. The price peaked at $118,856 per coin just before 6 a.m. ET, representing a 4.7% increase from the end of Thursday's stock market hours. Bitcoin prices have been rising consistently over the last week. The local low point was Monday, July 7, when Bitcoin ended the day at $108,300 per coin. Friday morning's jump works out to a 9.7% increase from that lull. The price increase looks even stronger over longer time periods. Bitcoin has now gained 42% in three months and 102% over the last year. It's a complicated situation with many moving parts. The latest halving of Bitcoin's mining rewards took place 15 months ago, giving miners and investors plenty of time to adapt to the changing economic setup. With stable costs on the production side of Bitcoin mining, lower rewards should push the coin price higher in order to keep the transaction validations coming. At the same time, a lot is happening in the political arena. The Trump administration offered support for the crypto industry, setting up a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and reviewing regulatory policies in this space. And this week, the White House pressured the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates again -- a move that often lifts Bitcoin prices higher. That effect provided most of this week's Bitcoin fuel, including the strong Friday showing. It remains to be seen whether the Fed will follow through on Trump's rate-cutting demands, but the mere rumor of political pressure can have market-moving effects. As for the financial effects of last year's halving event, Bitcoin's current prices appear to keep the mining machines in good health. The leading mining companies are boosting their bottom-line results by finding cheaper energy sources. The Bitcoin mining industry has been consolidating into a smaller number of top performers over the years, as expected, given the financial pressure Bitcoin's halving schedule imposes. Before you buy stock in Bitcoin, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Bitcoin wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $674,432!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $1,005,854!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 1,049% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 180% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join . See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of July 7, 2025 Anders Bylund has positions in Bitcoin. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Bitcoin. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Why Bitcoin Soared to New All-Time Highs Today was originally published by The Motley Fool Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
