D2C Insider summit spotlights AI's role in consumer brands

D2C Insider held its Frontier AI Summit in Gurugram, bringing together more than 150 founders and senior executives from over 100 consumer brands.

Positioned as India's first summit focused on artificial intelligence in direct-to-consumer businesses, the event examined how the technology is changing consumer discovery, sales conversion, operations and profitability.

More than 40 speakers took part in panels, workshops and fireside discussions during the 12-hour programme. Participants came from organisations including Meta, WhatsApp, fastrr by Shiprocket, PayU, Honasa Consumer, ZOFF, FableStreet, Culture Circle, GetVantage and IDFC FIRST Bank.

The summit was built around a single question: what is artificial intelligence actually changing inside a consumer business? The agenda reflected that focus, alternating between practical sessions and operator-led discussions rather than broader debates about the technology.

Agenda focus

The morning began with a workshop led by Pradeep Sekhar, India CEO of Base.com, on using AI agents to monitor real-time omnichannel profitability. It was followed by a panel on how AI is reshaping discovery, conversation and conversion for consumer brands.

Moderated by Snehil Khanor, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of TrulyMadly, the panel included Ojasvi Bhatia, Lead AI Partnerships, India at Meta; Apurva Mudgal from Product at WhatsApp; Ayushi Gudwani, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of FableStreet; Vaibhav Makhija, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of What's Up Wellness; Aditya Singh, Co-Founder of All In Capital; and Sahil Jindal, Managing Director of the Jindal Group.

Another workshop, led by Anindita Saha, Media Director at Hustle AI, examined how direct-to-consumer brands can use AI to take greater control of outcomes. Before lunch, a second panel turned to infrastructure, agents and the wider AI stack used by businesses.

That session was moderated by Sachin Uppal, Co-Founder of Vriksha.ai, and featured Ayush Agrawal, Solutions Architect at AWS; Monalisa Sahu, Vice President of Online and Digital Natives at Gnani.ai; Akash Agrawalla, Founder of ZOFF; Payal Punjabi, Head of Partnerships at GoKwik; Aankith Aroraa, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of 3TENX; and Sekhar.

Structural shift

The afternoon programme opened with a fireside conversation hosted by Abhishek Shah, Chief Evangelist at D2C Insider, featuring Gaurav Mangla, Chief Executive Officer of fastrr by Shiprocket, and Nitin Agarwal, former Chief Executive Officer of GlobalBees.

Later sessions focused on where AI is affecting performance and operating leverage. Kunal Kumar, Director of Revenue at Fynd, led a workshop on autonomous AI, followed by a panel moderated by Ajay Rao, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Emiza.

Speakers in that discussion included Satyajeet Singh, Vice President of Product at PayU; Saahil Nayar, Business Head and Senior Vice President at Honasa Consumer; Niranjan Nakhate, Founder of Futwork; Rahul Vishwakarma, Co-Founder of Crest; Nitin Yadav, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of GemPundit; and Rajat Khullar, Founder of Bla Bli Blu.

The final part of the day paired a workshop on growth loops, led by Manuj Mundra, Vice President of Product at fastrr by Shiprocket, with a panel on what it takes to build, fund and scale an AI-native business. Rohit Anand, Chief Revenue Officer at GetVantage, moderated the session.

Panellists included Abhishek Srivastava, Managing Partner for Startup Banking at IDFC FIRST Bank; Anshul Gupta, Co-Founder of TrueAlpha VC; Urmit Shah, Growth and Investments at DSG Consumer Partners; and Alok Paul, Chief Operating Officer of Littlebox India.

D2C Insider also ran an AI Experience Zone, speed networking sessions and founder introductions matched by business stage, category and growth plans. Attendees were drawn from a wider community of more than 30,000 direct-to-consumer founders and operators.

During the event, Shah outlined the rationale behind the summit.

"Most founders we speak to have already tried AI somewhere in the business. A chatbot here, a creative tool there. Only a few have made it structural," said Abhishek Shah, Chief Evangelist at D2C Insider.

"Frontier existed to close that gap in one day, because the brands that make AI structural over the next twelve months are the ones that will set the pricing, the margins and the pace for everyone else," Shah said.

The event was co-presented by fastrr by Shiprocket and IDFC FIRST Bank, with GetVantage, Emiza, Fynd, Base.com, Blink and Hustle as supporting partners.