Business Development Executive

Apna launches India's first AI Interview Prep Lounge in Mumbai to transform job readiness experience. The AI Interview Prep system supports over 25,000 roles across companies. JUNE 7, 2026, 11:17 PM Apna, an AI-native early-career talent platform, has launched an AI Interview Prep Lounge at the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Kaushalya Vikas Kendra in Mumbai. The facility, inaugurated by Union Minister Piyush Goyal, is designed to help job seekers practise interviews, receive real-time AI-driven feedback, and access job opportunities through an integrated preparation ecosystem. Inaugurating the centre, Goyal said, "The Apna AI-enabled Interview Centre represents the future of skill development and employment generation. By leveraging artificial intelligence to identify opportunities, bridge skill gaps, and prepare candidates for the evolving job market, this initiative will empower our youth to build successful careers and contribute meaningfully to India's journey towards Viksit Bharat 2047." The new facility features three AI-powered interview preparation kiosks. They are integrated with Apna's interview preparation platform and will also be part of weekly walk-in hiring drives at ABVKVK, creating a unified journey from preparation to placement for candidates.

Apna Group strengthens AI leadership bench, appoints John Philip as CBO for BlueMachines.ai. Apna Group has appointed industry veteran John Philip as Chief Business Officer for BlueMachines.ai, its newly launched enterprise Voice AI platform. The appointment comes at a time when Indian enterprises are moving decisively from experimentation to scaled deployment of AI solutions. According to a recent EY-CII report, 47% of Indian enterprises now have multiple AI use-cases live in production, reflecting a clear shift from pilots to performance. Blue Machines, launched recently, delivers enterprise Voice AI agents with sub-300 millisecond latency, multilingual capability and deployment cycles that go live within days instead of months. The platform is already being adopted across lending, mutual funds, insurance, healthcare, recruitment and edtech. As CBO, John will lead the business strategy for the Voice AI vertical, scale the enterprise pipeline across India and global markets, and strengthen go-to-market and revenue operations. He will work closely with Apna Group Founder and CEO Nirmit Parikh, along with product and engineering teams, to accelerate deployment cycles and deepen customer partnerships. John brings over two decades of leadership experience across enterprise technology, telecom, cloud infrastructure and AI-led solutions. In his previous role as Chief Revenue Officer at Gnani.ai, he drove revenue growth, enterprise partnerships and GTM strategy for its conversational AI business. Prior to this, he held senior positions at Avaya, Cisco, HP, AGC Networks, Avaya GlobalConnect, and TATA Telecom, leading multi-region mandates and building high-performing sales organisations. The leadership addition comes as enterprises accelerate the adoption of AI in core business operations. A recent Microsoft-ET study notes that 93% of Indian business leaders plan to deploy AI agents within the next 12-18 months, underscoring the growing demand for scalable, production-ready AI systems. "John's sales leadership experience across Avaya and Cisco gives him a sharp understanding of how large enterprises adopt mission-critical technology," said Nirmit Parikh, Founder & Group CEO, Apna Group. "Blue Machines is setting the benchmark in enterprise Voice AI with the fastest, most reliable deployments in the industry. With a strong product foundation and John's ability to build trust with enterprise customers, we are positioned to scale rapidly." Reflecting on his new role, John Philip, Chief Business Officer, Blue Machines, said, "Having spent years in enterprise technology, I have seen firsthand how difficult and unpredictable AI deployments can be. Most platforms take months to stabilize, and even then, the results are inconsistent. Blue Machines stood out to me long before I joined because it just works. The platform goes live in days or weeks, delivers consistently low latency across languages, and solves the hardest part of Voice AI - reliable production deployment. I am genuinely thrilled to lead a business that is setting this benchmark for the industry. The opportunity ahead is massive, and I look forward to working with Nirmit and the team to take Blue Machines to a global scale." Since its launch, Blue Machines has quickly positioned itself as a strong contender in India's enterprise AI landscape, driven by its real-time accuracy, multilingual capability, and production performance across regulated and high-volume sectors.

India-based apna appoints new CEO for jobs marketplace. Apna, an India-based recruitment marketplace operator, has appointed Kartin Narayan as CEO of its jobs vertical.