Striking the Perfect Match with AI

AI is fundamentally transforming the way businesses operate, and few understand this better than Amarinder Singh Dhaliwal, Chief Product Officer (CPO) of IndiaMART. As a leading B2B marketplace, IndiaMART connects millions of buyers and sellers, streamlining transactions and improving matchmaking accuracy. AI has played a critical role in enhancing the efficiency of IndiaMART’s platform, ensuring that suppliers and buyers find the perfect match seamlessly.

According to Dhaliwal, AI’s ability to process massive amounts of data in real-time has revolutionized the marketplace experience. AWS, with its suite of AI-powered cloud solutions, has been an essential partner in this transformation, enabling IndiaMART to leverage machine learning (ML) models for personalized search, secure transactions, and language translation.

A journey rooted in data and the internet boom

Dhaliwal’s fascination with data began early in his career. After completing his engineering degree from IIT Delhi in 1993, and an MBA from IIM Ahmedabad in 1995, he started his career as a financial analyst. His curiosity about leveraging data for actionable decisions eventually led him into the world of AI.

During the dot-com boom of the early 2000s, he closely followed the evolution of internet-based businesses in global markets. Inspired by the scale of platforms like Amazon, he recognized that India’s digital economy would follow a similar trajectory. This realization led him to build an online automobile portal with one of India’s largest media houses, and later manage their e-shopping business. At the time, e-commerce in India was in its infancy, with limited consumer trust and transaction volumes. However, the rapid adoption of mobile internet post-2013 spurred significant growth. Dhaliwal co-founded an online fashion brand, 'Done by None’ in 2011, running it successfully for four years. He then had a brief stint with Micromax before joining IndiaMART in 2016.

At IndiaMART, he saw a major paradigm shift as vast amounts of data became available. The influx of mobile users and the increasing affordability of internet access opened new opportunities for AI-driven optimization. IndiaMART, catering to Tier II and Tier III suppliers, became a marketplace where businesses could discover the best products and suppliers. AI was the natural next step in enhancing IndiaMART’s efficiency, enabling smarter matchmaking between buyers and sellers.

AI-Powered matchmaking: transforming the buyer-seller experience

IndiaMART operates at an enormous scale—handling over 15 matchmaking requests per second, hosting 100 million visits monthly, and managing a supplier base of 8 million across 100,000 categories. With such a vast and diverse dataset, traditional algorithms had limitations. AI, however, allowed IndiaMART to refine its matchmaking processes significantly.

On how AI improved the buyer experience, Dhaliwal said, “previously, searches were purely keyword-driven. A buyer looking for plastic bottles would type `plastic bottles’ and manually sift through results. However, with AI-driven contextual understanding, buyers can now input detailed requests, such as `100 ml plastic bottles at the best price in Delhi,’ and receive highly relevant results.”

The supplier-side matchmaking process has also benefited. When a buyer generates a Request for Quote (RFQ), AI helps determine the most relevant suppliers for that request, ensuring suppliers see the best opportunities aligned with their offerings. AI processes supplier verification data, behavioral metrics, and industry trends to optimize these connections dynamically.

Understanding context: The challenge of language and semantics

One of AI’s biggest strengths is its ability to understand context. Dhaliwal illustrates this with language-based examples. In India, users search in multiple languages, often using different scripts or mixed-language phrases. A single word can have vastly different meanings based on context. For example, patti can refer to chai patti (tea leaves), `PVC molding patti’ (a plastic molding strip), or `tej patti’ (bay leaves). AI helps IndiaMART interpret these nuances accurately.

Similarly, spelling variations pose challenges. Dhaliwal said, “The word `jewelry’ alone has over 300 different variations used by buyers. AI-powered ML models can identify these patterns, ensuring the right products appear despite spelling inconsistencies. AI is also crucial in identifying whether a user is searching for a product or a company - a distinction essential for a B2B marketplace. And this is only getting better with improving voice assistants.

Alexa and the future of human-machine interactions

The rise of voice assistants like Alexa have significantly influenced how people interact with machines. AI-driven chatbots and conversational AI are becoming more sophisticated, making human-machine interactions feel increasingly natural.

Dhaliwal noted, “in IndiaMART’s ecosystem, AI-powered chat systems have changed the way buyers and suppliers communicate. Traditional phone calls are being replaced by chat-based interactions, allowing users to manage conversations at their convenience. Buyers can now raise product inquiries, lodge complaints, and receive resolution updates—all through AI-driven chatbots.”

For suppliers, AI streamlines catalog management. Instead of manually updating products, suppliers can now upload images through chat, and AI automatically categorizes and tags them correctly. This speeds up the listing process and improves accuracy.

While speed of transactions and managing scale is important, safety and compliance is equally essential. Dhaliwal pointed out that maintaining platform integrity is a priority for IndiaMART. Here, AI plays a crucial role in ensuring that the marketplace remains safe and compliant. AI-driven content moderation identifies and removes prohibited listings. For instance, while paan masala is banned, paan masala-making machines are permitted. AI ensures contextual understanding of such listings, preventing compliance issues.

Supplier verification is another critical area. AI scans GST data, transaction history, and behavioral patterns to detect fraudulent suppliers. Pattern recognition algorithms track phone numbers, IP addresses, and email identifiers to flag suspicious activities. AI also helps identify good versus bad bots, preventing malicious attacks while allowing legitimate business queries.

GenAI is also impacting the business in multiple ways. In fact, the emergence of Generative AI (GenAI) has been a game-changer for IndiaMART. Since ChatGPT’s release in late 2022, conversational AI has drastically improved. AI agents now facilitate buyer-seller conversations more intelligently, providing suggested responses based on context.

For instance, if a supplier receives an inquiry for `20 plastic bottles,’ AI predicts that the next logical questions would be about capacity, location, and delivery time. Similarly, buyers receive AI-driven comparisons, making negotiations smoother. This level of automation enhances efficiency, especially given IndiaMART’s high transaction volumes.

AWS as a Strategic AI Partner

“AWS has been instrumental in IndiaMART’s AI journey. One major collaboration involved building an AI-driven language translation model. Given India’s linguistic diversity, accurate translations require contextual awareness rather than word-for-word conversion. AWS’s AI tools helped IndiaMART maintain accuracy and usability in translated product listings,” Dhaliwal said

Additionally, IndiaMART moved significant workloads to AWS’s cloud infrastructure in 2017. AWS’s reliable hosting, computing power, and AI capabilities have supported IndiaMART’s scalability and security needs.

IndiaMART also recently hosted a hackathon in collaboration with AWS, where teams leveraged AWS’ AI capabilities to develop innovative marketplace solutions. Such partnerships are crucial in keeping IndiaMART at the forefront of AI-driven innovation.

The future of AI in B2B marketplaces

Looking ahead, Dhaliwal believes AI will fundamentally change search and discovery in B2B marketplaces. “Traditional keyword-based searches are evolving into full-context queries, processed by AI-driven agents. In the near future, buyers will rely on AI agents to find suppliers, while marketplace AI will intelligently match them based on trustworthiness, experience, and pricing metrics” he said.

Dhaliwal envisions a future where human-machine collaboration enables unprecedented progress. AI will become a tool accessible to everyone, be it a student in Africa or a researcher at Harvard. The challenge will be to ensure that AI is used responsibly, with ethical guardrails to prevent misuse. Despite concerns, he remains optimistic, believing that AI will create a more connected, innovative, and `beautiful world’.

Beyond his professional work, Dhaliwal is a passionate sports enthusiast. He has been playing squash for years and took up running in 2023. His fitness journey includes completing a half-marathon in New Delhi in 2023, an ultra-marathon (50 km) at Border Run in Jaisalmer in 2024, and even a half Ironman 70.3 triathlon. An adventurer at heart, he enjoys skiing, hiking, and exploring the outdoors.

He also dedicates time to continuous learning. Whether attending AWS conferences, experimenting with AI tools, or engaging with industry experts, he remains committed to staying at the cutting edge of AI advancements. “I’m curious by nature. In a world that keeps changing, I need to be at the top. I need to learn, read and understand. So, I have basically used these methods, one is, of course, to make sure I study and keep myself updated. Number two, is to be the user of that product” he said.

Dhaliwal’s journey is a testament to the power of AI and what a curious mind can achieve. From optimizing matchmaking to enhancing human-machine interactions, AI is driving innovation at IndiaMART. With strategic partners like AWS, IndiaMART continues to refine its platform, ensuring that millions of buyers and sellers benefit from AI’s capabilities.

As AI evolves, Dhaliwal remains optimistic about its potential to make the world more efficient, intelligent, and interconnected. Through responsible implementation and continuous learning, he envisions a future where AI not only transforms businesses but also enriches lives globally.