Happy Monday! Digital platforms and brands are building their own AI storefronts. This and more in today’s ETtech Morning Dispatch.
Also in the letter:■ IT witnesses slow growth
■ Summer safeguards for gig workers?
■ Capital-A announces fund close
Platforms, brands take to agentic commerce as fintechs plug ePay gaps
As large language models (LLMs) reshape how consumers discover and buy products online, digital platforms and brands such as Flipkart, Bigbasket, Ajio, and Firstcry are racing to build their own AI storefronts on LLMs like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google Gemini, people familiar with the matter told us.
What is it? Agentic commerce is a form of automated shopping in which AI agents handle the entire journey on behalf of users, from search and selection to checkout and payment.
The push: Consumer internet firms stepped up investments after fintechs enabled payments on LLMs in February.
Razorpay, for instance, is powering agentic commerce using the UPI Reserve Pay protocol. It has partnered with platforms such as Zomato, Swiggy, and Zepto and is running pilots with 15–20 merchants.
How it works: These new AI storefronts bring the full website experience into the LLM interface. Platforms are building this through model context protocols (MCP), which let them plug their catalogues and transaction flows directly into model-native experiences.
What experts say: Adoption of agentic commerce in India is still low, but leading brands are positioning themselves early.
For now, deployments are concentrated among larger companies. Industry watchers argue the next phase will require common standards and plug-and-play tools that allow smaller businesses to participate with minimal integration effort.
Also Read: ETtech Explainer: Agentic harness, the software that makes AI tick
ET Awards for Corporate Excellence: Groww’s Lalit Keshre wins Entrepreneur of the Year
Lalit Keshre, cofounder and CEO of Groww, won the Entrepreneur of the Year award at the ET Awards for Corporate Excellence 2025, recognised for building India’s largest stock-broking platform in under a decade.
The award follows Groww’s blockbuster public listing and sustained post-IPO performance, which have pushed its market capitalisation to around Rs 1.36 lakh crore.
How Groww scaled: Keshre credits the company’s trajectory to the team, customer trust, and India’s digital public infrastructure.
"We are equally thankful for the progressive regulatory environment and the digital public infrastructure, without which it would not have been possible for us to build Groww," he said.
RateGain Travel Technologies wins Emerging Company of the Year aided by AI-powered growth
RateGain Travel Technologies won the Emerging Company of the Year honour at the ET Awards for its rapid post-pandemic scale-up and its profitable growth profile. The company has ridden the rebound in global travel and hospitality, which has lifted demand for digital solutions across the sector.
About RateGain: Founded in 2004, RateGain aggregates real-time data from more than 1,100 sources and uses AI to help travel and hospitality clients track market dynamics and manage pricing. Its products span revenue management, competitive intelligence, social media marketing, digital campaign execution and brand engagement.
Tepid FY27 revenue growth awaits top five IT services companies
India’s top five IT services firms are projected to post modest revenue growth of about 2% to 5% in FY27, following a subdued FY26 marked by geopolitical uncertainty, AI-led pricing pressure and the rapid scaling of global capability centres (GCCs).
A closer look:
- TCS clocked a 2.4% drop in revenue in constant currency terms in FY26, its first annual drop since listing.
- Wipro’s revenue fell for the third consecutive year in FY26, down 1.6%.
- Infosys and HCLTech managed modest gains, with revenue up 3.1% and 3.9% year-on-year in constant currency terms.
Outlook: The signals point to a prolonged slowdown rather than a decisive turn into a strong upcycle.
Even with slower growth, margins at the top firms have held up, aided by tighter controls, greater automation, and benefit-sharing models with clients. This suggests that while revenue momentum has weakened, the sector is focused on protecting profitability.
Analyst take: Forecast ranges for the nearly $300 billion IT industry have widened. Delayed deal ramp-ups, the conflict in West Asia, and broader macroeconomic uncertainties are weighing on client decision-making and lengthening sales cycles.
Gig workers’ body urges govt to enforce heatwave protection
The Indian Federation of App-Based Transport Workers (IFAT) has asked the labour ministry to mandate heatwave safeguards for gig workers under the Code on Social Security, 2020.
Driving the news: The proposal calls for paid cooling breaks, access to drinking water, heat alerts, flexible work timings, and protection from delayed-delivery penalties.
The demand covers workers in delivery, ride-hailing and home services, where soaring temperatures can quickly erode both safety and earnings. IFAT argues that heat protection should be treated as a basic right for platform workers, and points to measures adopted in countries such as South Korea, Singapore, France and Japan.
Yes, and: The Telangana Gig and Platform Workers Union has launched a “glass of water” campaign urging customers to support delivery workers during the summer. The unions have also been vocal on broader labour issues, including last year’s strike and the rollback of 10-minute delivery guarantees earlier this year.
Also Read: Platforms brace for impact as gig workforce returns home
Other Top Stories By Our Reporters
Capital-A announces first close of Fund II: Capital-A, an operator-led venture capital firm focused on manufacturing and deeptech, secured the first close of its second fund at Rs 160 crore. The firm plans to invest in early-stage companies across aerospace, robotics, energy transition, and industrial hardware, among other sectors.
Infanticide case at Foxconn exposes workplace welfare gaps: The recent case of infanticide at Foxconn’s Devanahalli unit has renewed scrutiny of workplace welfare at large electronic hubs, which employ substantial numbers of young women. The incident has highlighted the need for stronger mental health support, better workplace safeguards, and broader access to reproductive healthcare.
Flipkart elevates Minutes head Kunal Gupta to SVP: IPO-bound Flipkart has elevated Kunal Gupta, head of its quick commerce arm Minutes, to senior vice president (SVP) from vice president (VP), according to an internal note seen by ET. Gupta took charge of Minutes after Kabir Biswas exited the Walmart-backed company in October.
Global Picks We Are Reading
■ Palantir employees are starting to wonder if they’re the bad guys (Wired)
■ Google banks on AI edge to catch up to cloud rivals Amazon and Microsoft (FT)
■ AI optimism surges in Asia, unlike in the US (Rest of World)
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