June 25 (Reuters) - IndiaMART, one of India's largest online marketplaces, plans to double its spending on artificial intelligence tools every six months as it steps up efforts to curb fake listings and improve content checks, a senior executive said.
The company connects buyers and sellers across a wide range of categories - from phone chargers and lawn mowers to pharmaceutical products and industrial machinery, and even anatomical skeleton models - but does not typically oversee transactions.
IndiaMART is using AI to identify proxy accounts through pattern matching across seller profiles, while introducing real-time voice-to-text tools to speed up processing of buyer requests, tasks previously handled by call centre employees, Chief Product Officer Amarinder S Dhaliwal told Reuters in an interview last week.
IndiaMART has faced persistent concerns over counterfeit listings. It was included in the U.S. Trade Representative’s 2022 "Notorious Markets" list, which flagged counterfeit goods on the platform as a "serious concern."
The company said it is developing some AI tools in-house and is also working with external AI firms, but did not name the partners.
IndiaMART, which has taken a cautious approach to investments in artificial intelligence, did not disclose its AI budget. The company's technology and content expenses in fiscal 2026 were around 2.26 billion rupees ($23.94 million).
Content is of two types - supplier contamination, where sellers with bad intentions come onto the platform, and malicious listings such as drugs or firearms, Dhaliwal said, adding that AI tools have improved the filtering of such content.
IndiaMART said it matches about 600 buyers with suppliers every minute and draws approximately 90 million visitors a month. With about 220,000 sellers on its platform and a buyer conversion rate of around 45%, the company aims to eventually host 1 million sellers, Dhaliwal said.
($1 = 94.3875 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Rishika Sadam; Editing by Eileen Soreng)
