May 22, 2025 — Day 2 of Goafest 2025 featured a panel discussion titled ‘From Code to Commerce: Growth in the AI Age’, moderated by independent journalist and producer Anuradha SenGupta. The session brought together leaders from Swiggy, MakeMyTrip, Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL), and Voltas to discuss how AI is being used across industries to drive business growth and operational efficiency.
SenGupta opened the conversation by highlighting how ChatGPT has brought generative AI into mainstream public consciousness and noted the broader organisational changes within companies like Microsoft.
Pragya Bijalwan, Chief Marketing Officer at Voltas, spoke about AI’s role in enhancing personalization and comfort in HVAC systems. She highlighted how consumer data is being leveraged for predictive maintenance and efficient service, and noted that AI is function-agnostic and should be adopted across departments rather than confined to a single function. She believes AI is not a threat to jobs but a call for reskilling and a step toward evolution.Tejas Apte, Head of Media and Digital Marketing at HUL, shared examples of AI integration across R&D (innovation hubs), manufacturing (small factories), and marketing. He mentioned tools like the Shikhar app, which help with inventory and marketing insights. He also discussed how generative AI helps create hyper-local campaigns at scale. He underlined the importance of responsible and transparent AI use, referring to Dove’s “Miniatures” campaign.
Sanket Prakash Tulangekar, Director at MakeMyTrip, spoke about Myra, an AI assistant who helps with review summarization, smart search, and travel planning. He noted that Myra works through multi-agent orchestration to respond to various types of queries (hotels, flights, activities). Tulangekar emphasized the need to assess AI-generated content for accuracy and bias, and shared that MakeMyTrip uses red-teaming methods to maintain safety and reliability..
Arjun Choudhary, Vice President at Swiggy, shared how generative AI is being used internally for tasks like creating sales co-pilots, dashboards, and restaurant support. He explained that even non-tech teams now use AI tools for product requirement documents, demos, and business analysis. He also highlighted the use of AI for catalogue enrichment, video generation, and session-level personalization. He described AI as a fundamental productivity tool, calling it a life skill on par with math.
The panel offered grounded insights into how AI is being practically deployed across sectors—not just for innovation, but for day-to-day business improvements
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