WPP Media has entered a technology partnership with agentic AI start-up Kily to launch AI-led ecommerce planning tools for brands and sellers navigating India’s fragmented marketplace and quick-commerce landscape. The tie-up, announced on 28 July 2026 from New Delhi, integrates Kily’s technology with WPP Media’s commerce operations and its agentic marketing platform, WPP Open.
Kily was founded by former Flipkart and Affle executives Sankalp Mehrotra and Anurag Singh, and builds AI agents that manage ecommerce functions such as product listings, pricing and advertising across online marketplaces and quick-commerce platforms.
How Will WPP Media’s AI Ecommerce Planning Tool Work?
The centrepiece of the partnership is WPP Media’s Integrated Commerce Planner, developed with Kily, which uses AI-led data analysis to support planning, optimisation and decision-making across ecommerce channels. The system draws on data from marketplace platforms, product categories and consumer touchpoints to help brands coordinate commerce planning, campaign activation and measurement across multiple platforms simultaneously, rather than managing each marketplace in isolation.
What Does This Mean for Brands Selling on India’s Marketplaces?
India’s ecommerce landscape has become sharply fragmented, spanning Amazon, Flipkart, and quick-commerce apps like Blinkit, Zepto and Swiggy Instamart, each with its own pricing, inventory and advertising rules. “India’s fragmented multi-marketplace landscape makes a solution like ours critical for judgment, decision making and outcomes at scale,” said Kily co-founder and CEO Sankalp Mehrotra. For Indian brands, the tool promises greater visibility into marketplace activity, inventory levels and media performance from one dashboard, reducing the operational overhead of running commerce separately across each platform.
Industry Reaction and Expert Commentary
“Ecommerce today is no longer linear, it is shaped by multiple signals, fragmented platforms and constant shifts in demand,” said Ashwin Padmanabhan, COO of WPP Media, South Asia. He added that embedding AI-led intelligence into everyday decision-making would let brands move from reactive execution to a more predictive, outcome-driven approach to growth. The deal comes in the same week Nielsen launched its own Ad Intel AI platform, underscoring an industry-wide race among agencies and data companies to embed agentic AI into commerce and media workflows.
What Happens Next?
WPP Media and Kily said they will continue aligning demand, inventory and media investment planning for client brands, with the Integrated Commerce Planner expected to roll out across WPP Media’s India client base. Adoption among large FMCG and D2C brands operating across multiple marketplaces will be an early indicator of the tool’s real-world impact.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the WPP Media and Kily partnership about?
WPP Media has partnered with AI startup Kily to build AI-led ecommerce planning tools, integrating Kily’s agentic commerce technology with WPP Media’s WPP Open platform for brands operating in India.
Who founded Kily?
Kily was founded by former Flipkart and Affle executives Sankalp Mehrotra and Anurag Singh, and focuses on AI agents that manage ecommerce listings, pricing and advertising across marketplaces.
How does this help brands on Indian marketplaces?
The partnership’s Integrated Commerce Planner gives brands a single, AI-driven view of inventory, demand and media performance across India’s fragmented marketplace and quick-commerce ecosystem.
Leave a comment