JioStar leaders outline AI‑driven product vision and Connected TV growth at APOS 2026
At APOS 2026, Bharath Ram, Chief Product Officer at JioStar, and Vijay Seshadri, the company’s Chief Architect, outlined how JioHotstar is strengthening its product and engineering foundations to serve one of the world’s largest streaming audiences.
Speaking during the session titled India Streaming: The Product View, the two leaders discussed how consumer‑first design, artificial intelligence and large‑scale engineering are shaping the next phase of the platform’s evolution. Bharath said the approach begins with understanding India’s diverse audience across mobile, Connected TV and premium segments, noting: “A lot of product vision starts backwards from the consumer experience.” He added: “The sooner you can remove yourself out of the way and give consumers the content they want… the retention cycle kicks in automatically.”
Bharath highlighted the rapid growth of Connected TV, pointing to nearly 100 million devices in the market and describing how major events such as the IPL have encouraged mobile‑first viewers to adopt big‑screen habits.
Vijay spoke about the engineering demands of operating at national scale, from handling millions of concurrent interactions to managing nearly 5 million subscription requests per minute during peak moments. He noted that discovery remains one of the industry’s biggest challenges, saying: “Nothing much has changed in content discovery in the last 15 to 20 years.” He described conversational discovery as a major shift, with more than 60% of users choosing voice over text when given the option.
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The pair also discussed JioHotstar’s work in AI‑driven content intelligence. Bharath explained how the platform’s video‑understanding layer, JAMS, is enabling deeper context within scenes, remarking: “If you truly start peeling the layers of the onion… the separation between content and commerce starts thinning.”
Both leaders pointed to growing opportunities in interactive and commerce‑driven experiences, from live engagement formats to integrated purchasing journeys. Vijay said: “The next sector to be disrupted is product commerce,” adding that a seamless buying experience within content could drive major change in the coming year.
Their discussion underscored JioStar’s focus on building a unified, intelligent and highly scalable ecosystem that supports richer entertainment experiences across screens.
