ET Soonicorns Summit 2025 Spotlights the Next Retail Battleground
India’s retail sector is entering a new era defined by AI-driven personalization and omnichannel commerce, a central theme of the ET Soonicorns Summit 2025, which took place August 22 in Bengaluru.
The session, “AI-Driven Personalisation and Omnichannel Commerce: The Next Retail Battleground,” brought together top minds from the country’s retail and tech sectors to explore how startups and legacy players are transforming consumer engagement and retail operations.
This evolution signals a broader shift in India’s economic landscape, where AI is quickly becoming a core growth engine for retail innovation and investment.
From Pilot to Product-Market Fit: AI Goes Mainstream
The Summit’s emphasis on moving “From Pilot to Product-Market Fit” reflects how AI technologies – once confined to experimental use cases – are now central to full-scale business models. Retailers in India are using machine learning for hyper-personalized recommendations, real-time inventory visibility, dynamic pricing and chatbot-led customer service.
With the country’s digital infrastructure maturing, and a large mobile-first population, India is uniquely positioned to leapfrog into AI-powered omnichannel retail on a global scale.
A Convergence of Startups and Established Players
Both nimble startups and retail incumbents are contributing to this transformation. Indian unicorns are building AI-native platforms from the ground up, while traditional retailers are embedding AI into existing operations to enhance agility and reach. Whether through personalization engines, automated supply chains or AI-driven loyalty programs, the technology is bridging offline and online commerce like never before.
As investors seek the next generation of deep-tech unicorns, the Summit also serves as a barometer for India’s position in the global omnichannel retail race.
Strategic Ecosystem Support
With 360 ONE as the Presenting Partner, Raymond as the Wardrobe Partner, and Shiv Nadar University as the Ecosystem Partner, the ET Soonicorns Summit 2025 aimed to do more than highlight trends – it provided actionable insights for retailers, entrepreneurs and investors navigating the rapidly evolving AI-retail landscape.
India’s retail future is not just digital but it’s deeply intelligent, seamlessly integrated and omnichannel-first.
