Practo Appoints Cijo George as Vice President of AI to Drive Platform Intelligence

Cijo George brings nearly two decades of experience in machine learning, AI platforms, and product-led engineering, building production-grade AI systems and working on machine learning approaches for distributed systems.

Practo has appointed Cijo George as Vice President of AI to lead artificial intelligence initiatives across its digital healthcare platform, strengthening AI integration in care navigation, provider tools, and overall platform intelligence.

Founded in 2008, Practo operates as a digital health platform that connects patients with doctors, clinics, diagnostic centres, and hospitals. Over the past 17 years, the company has built a substantial repository of longitudinal healthcare data spanning patient journeys, provider performance, and treatment outcomes.

As global healthcare systems increasingly rely on artificial intelligence to enhance clinical decision-making and operational efficiency, digital platforms such as Practo are investing in AI leadership to convert data depth into actionable insights.

“For the last 17 years, we have been building deep healthcare intelligence across patients, doctors, clinics, and outcomes,” said Shashank ND, Co-founder and CEO, Practo.

“AI unlocks the full potential of this data, helping patients get better outcomes and enabling doctors with insights that can genuinely improve care delivery. Cijo brings exceptional depth in building real-world AI platforms, and his belief in using AI to drive meaningful impact strongly resonates with our purpose. We’re excited to have him on board and look forward to building the next phase of Practo’s AI journey together.”

Cijo George brings nearly two decades of experience in machine learning, AI platforms, and product-led engineering. Before joining Practo, he held senior leadership roles at Observe.AI, where he contributed to building production-grade AI systems deployed by global enterprises.

Earlier, he led Platform and AI initiatives at Belong.co, focusing on search and personalisation technologies, and was part of the Advanced Technology Group at NetApp, working on machine learning approaches for distributed systems. He holds a Master’s degree in High Performance Computing from the Indian Institute of Science.

“What drew me to Practo is the opportunity to apply AI in ways that can directly improve how patients experience care and how doctors deliver it,” said Cijo George, Vice President of AI, Practo.

“Practo operates at unmatched scale and has built deep, longitudinal healthcare data across patients, providers, and outcomes over many years. Combined with its position as a neutral platform across the ecosystem, this creates a powerful foundation to build AI systems that can meaningfully improve health outcomes at scale, and I’m excited to contribute to that journey.”

In his new role as Vice President of AI, Cijo George will oversee Practo’s AI charter and collaborate closely with product, engineering, and clinical teams. His mandate includes integrating AI more deeply into how patients discover and access care, and how providers deliver care with greater accuracy, reliability, and consistency at scale.

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