Practo Names Cijo George As Vice President Of AI

Practo has appointed Cijo George as Vice President of Artificial Intelligence, tasking him with leading the company’s AI charter across its platform. The move comes as Practo expands its footprint in India and international markets, including the UAE and the United States.

George will work across product, engineering and clinical teams to deepen AI integration in care navigation, provider tools and platform intelligence. He will report to Shashank ND, co-founder and CEO, Practo.

From Data To Outcomes

Over the past 17 years, Practo has built healthcare data spanning patients, doctors, clinics and treatment outcomes. The company now sees AI as the layer that can translate that longitudinal data into more consistent care experiences.

“For the last 17 years, we have been building deep healthcare intelligence across patients, doctors, clinics, and outcomes,” said Shashank ND, co-founder and CEO, Practo. “AI unlocks the full potential of this data, helping patients get better outcomes and enabling doctors with insights that can genuinely improve care delivery. Cijo brings exceptional depth in building real-world AI platforms, and his belief in using AI to drive meaningful impact strongly resonates with our purpose. We’re excited to have him on board and look forward to building the next phase of Practo’s AI journey together.”

In practical terms, that means improving how patients discover care, reducing friction in appointment journeys and helping providers deliver services with greater accuracy and reliability at scale.

Building AI For Production, Not Pilots

George brings nearly two decades of experience in machine learning and platform engineering. Before joining Practo, he held senior leadership roles at Observe. AI, working on large-scale AI systems deployed by global enterprises. Earlier, he led Platform and AI at Belong.co, focusing on search and personalisation, and was part of the Advanced Technology Group at NetApp, where he worked on machine learning approaches for distributed systems. He holds a master's degree in high-performance computing from the Indian Institute of Science.

His background suggests a focus on deploying AI systems in production environments rather than experimental use cases, a critical distinction in healthcare, where reliability and compliance matter as much as innovation.

“What drew me to Practo is the opportunity to apply AI in ways that can directly improve how patients experience care and how doctors deliver it,” said Cijo George, vice president of AI, Practo. “Practo operates at unmatched scale and has built deep, longitudinal healthcare data across patients, providers, and outcomes over many years. Combined with its position as a neutral platform across the ecosystem, this creates a powerful foundation to build AI systems that can meaningfully improve health outcomes at scale, and I’m excited to contribute to that journey.”

AI As A Platform Layer

Healthcare platforms globally are moving beyond digitising appointments to embedding intelligence across the care cycle, from discovery and triage to follow-ups and analytics. Practo’s decision to create a dedicated AI leadership role signals a structural shift: AI is no longer a feature but an operating layer.

By aligning AI development closely with product and clinical teams, Practo aims to ensure that machine learning systems are grounded in real-world healthcare workflows rather than abstract experimentation.

With this appointment, the company strengthens its leadership bench as it invests in technology depth and global expansion. As healthcare platforms scale across markets, the challenge will be less about deploying AI tools and more about ensuring those tools consistently improve patient and provider outcomes.