For strong Silicon Valley presence, Flipkart is focusing on products based on Artificial Intelligence

Flipkart's research arm F7 Labs, based in the US, is considering a stronger presence in Silicon Valley, for which it has shifted its focus on building artificial intelligence (AI)-based products.


This will also help the leading Indian e-commerce player in improving business processes and customer interactions.

The 10-person strong team is working towards making a model tat would help the e-commerce company determine the products that customers return the most. This would help in making a better and less costly way to manage those returns.

The model would also automate the moderation of the comments and product reviews that customers post on the website.

"Given the scope of the opportunity to deploy AI solutions to an ecommerce market like India, we are looking to grow the lab. There are Indian expats in the Valley who we think would be interested in working on the large data sets that we have at Flipkart," Mihir Naware, Director Product at F7 Labs, told ET in an interview.

On the strategic location of the labs team in terms of being distant from the constant upheavals in the Indian e-commerce market, Naware said, "There is an understanding at Flipkart that, to deliver at scale we will need artificial intelligence and that the Valley is the place where the cutting-edge research is being done. We talked to the CEO after he took over and there was a lot of encouragement. In that sense, we are slightly isolated from the changes," he added.