Practo appoints Srijesh Kumar as global CPTO; bets on AI-led platform push

Digital healthcare platform Practo on Tuesday said it has appointed Srijesh Kumar as its global chief product and technology officer, as the company sharpens its focus on platform-led growth and artificial intelligence integration.

Srijesh will lead product and technology functions end-to-end, aligning engineering, data and product teams under a unified structure to drive the next phase of the company’s global expansion.

Focus on AI, platform architecture

The appointment comes as Practo looks to deepen the use of AI across its platform, with a focus on improving patient experience, care delivery and outcomes.

Founder and CEO Shashank ND said the company is at an “inflection point” where AI is reshaping how healthcare systems are built and scaled.

“We’re at an inflection point in how technology is shaping healthcare globally, with AI redefining how systems are built, scaled, and experienced,” he said.

Role and mandate

In his new role, Srijesh will be responsible for strengthening platform architecture, accelerating product innovation and building systems that leverage the company’s healthcare data to deliver measurable outcomes.

He will work across engineering, product and data teams to embed intelligence across the platform, including areas such as discovery, decision-making and care delivery.

Srijesh brings over two decades of experience in product engineering and platform development. He joins from Salesforce, where he served as Vice President, leading product engineering for industry cloud offerings.

Prior to that, he held leadership roles at Expedia Group, and has also worked at Adobe and Microsoft.

“What drew me to Practo is the opportunity to work on problems that have a real, human impact at scale,” Srijesh said, adding that building global platforms from India remains a key opportunity.

The appointment follows the recent hiring of Cijo George as Vice President of Artificial Intelligence, as the company builds out its technology leadership team.

Practo operates a global healthcare platform connecting patients with over 700,000 doctors across more than 2,400 cities, while also offering hospital management systems to healthcare providers.