Practo Appoints Cijo George as Vice President of AI to Lead Platform Integration

Digital healthcare platform Practo has appointed Cijo George as Vice President of Artificial Intelligence, as the company deepens its use of AI across patient and provider services while expanding internationally.

George will lead Practo’s AI strategy across its platform, working with product, engineering and clinical teams to strengthen applications in care navigation, provider tools and platform intelligence. He will report to co-founder and CEO Shashank ND.

The appointment comes as Practo continues to scale its operations in India and expand into overseas markets including the UAE and the United States. The company has been investing in technology-led healthcare delivery, leveraging its data across patients, clinics and doctors to improve service efficiency and outcomes.

In his new role, George will focus on integrating AI into how patients discover healthcare services and how providers deliver care, with an emphasis on improving accuracy, consistency and decision support at scale.

George brings nearly two decades of experience in artificial intelligence, machine learning and platform engineering. He previously held senior roles at Observe.AI, where he worked on large-scale AI systems for enterprise customers. Earlier, he led platform and AI initiatives at Belong.co and was part of the advanced technology group at NetApp, focusing on machine learning applications for distributed systems.

Practo said AI will play a central role in unlocking insights from the longitudinal healthcare data it has built over the past 17 years, enabling improved patient outcomes and more data-driven clinical support.

George holds a Master’s degree in High Performance Computing from the Indian Institute of Science.

The move signals Practo’s intent to position AI as a core layer of its healthcare platform as competition intensifies in digital health services both in India and globally.