D2C Insider concludes AI summit Frontier to explore AI’s role in consumer businesses

D2C Insider concluded Frontier, a D2C AI Summit, in Gurugram, bringing together more than 150 D2C founders and CXOs, over 25 AI leaders and representatives from more than 100 brands to discuss how artificial intelligence is reshaping consumer businesses. The event focused on the impact of AI across discovery, customer conversations, conversion, retention, operations and unit economics, rather than treating AI as a standalone technology. The agenda examined how AI could influence consumer brands’ business models and P&Ls as companies move from experimenting with individual AI tools to integrating the technology across their operations. The summit featured four AI bootcamps, four operator-led panel discussions, a fireside chat, networking sessions and an AI Experience Zone. The event opened with a workshop by Pradeep Sekhar, India CEO of Base.com, on deploying AI agents to monitor real-time omnichannel profitability. This was followed by a panel discussion titled “The AI-Native Consumer: How AI Is Rewriting Discovery, Conversation & Conversion”. The panel featured Ojasvi Bhatia, Lead AI Partnerships, India at Meta; Apurva Mudgal from Product at WhatsApp; Ayushi Gudwani; Vaibhav Makhija; Aditya Singhal; and Sahil Jindal, Managing Director of the Jindal Group. The pre-lunch session focused on the technology infrastructure supporting AI adoption. The afternoon opened with a fireside chat hosted by Abhishek Shah, featuring Gaurav Mangla, CEO of fastrr by Shiprocket, and Nitin Agarwal. This was followed by a workshop on autonomous AI. Commenting on the objective behind the summit, Abhishek Shah, Chief Evangelist at D2C Insider, said that while many founders have experimented with AI tools, relatively few have integrated AI into their core business operations. The summit also featured an AI Experience Zone, speed networking sessions and curated founder introductions based on participants’ business stage, category and growth ambitions. Drawing from D2C Insider’s community of more than 30,000 D2C founders and operators, Frontier provided a platform for entrepreneurs and ecosystem players to discuss AI adoption and explore potential collaborations.