Smytten has appointed Shishir Varma as Chief Executive Officer of PulseAI Research, its AI-driven consumer intelligence and research platform.
Varma joins the company after a stint at Kantar, where he most recently served as Managing Director, Insights, Japan. He brings over 30 years of experience in consumer insights, having worked across APAC markets including India, China and Japan.
The platform, formerly known as Smytten PulseAI, has been rebranded to PulseAI Research, reflecting a shift towards combining AI-powered research with real consumer behaviour and always-on insights. The company stated that the move is aimed at transitioning from project-based research models to a more continuous, intelligence-led approach.
With prior experience at Kantar, Varma handled leadership roles across consumer insights businesses, including responsibilities spanning research, analytics and business operations.
In under 18 months, PulseAI Research has partnered with over 150 enterprise clients, indicating growing demand for faster and more scalable research solutions.
The platform is built on Smytten’s ecosystem of over 30 million users, enabling access to observed consumer behaviour at scale. According to the company, this allows brands to derive insights based on actual interactions rather than claimed responses.
Shishir Varma said, “Consumer research has been constrained by speed, scale, and the authenticity of data. With PulseAI Research, we’re fundamentally rethinking that model by combining real product interactions with AI-led insights to create a more reliable and dynamic understanding of consumers. What excites me the most is the ability to tap into observed behavior and unlock insights that are not just faster, but significantly more predictive and actionable.
We believe the future of consumer intelligence will be built on real-world interactions at scale, not just surveys. PulseAI Research represents a new category where AI meets live consumer behavior, enabling brands to make sharper, more confident decisions in days, not weeks. The opportunity to build this intelligence layer-powered by millions of authentic product experiences and translate it into meaningful outcomes for brands, is incredibly compelling.”
Siddhartha Nangia, Co-founder, Smytten and PulseAI Research, said, “We are thrilled to welcome Shishir as the CEO of PulseAI Research. He is highly relevant for where we are taking this platform, given his deep grounding in insights and analytics, strong credibility with brands, and proven ability to scale data-led platforms globally. He has the rare combination of a builder’s mindset and large-company experience, having set up and grown Millward Brown (now part of Kantar) in India from scratch. We are confident that he will help us disrupt the consumer intelligence space and evolve PulseAI Research into a category-leading, AI-driven intelligence engine.”
The platform combines behavioural data with AI and large language model-based analysis to deliver real-time consumer insights, qualitative research at scale and ongoing brand and campaign intelligence across sectors including FMCG, auto, education and gadgets.
