Cars24 eliminates job titles, grades and bands in AI-led organisational overhaul

GURUGRAM: Cars24 has scrapped all traditional job titles, grades and organisational bands across the company, introducing a new operating model called ‘Flatland’ that positions every employee simply as a “Builder.”

The company said the move makes it the first organisation in India and among a handful of technology companies globally to dismantle conventional corporate hierarchy at scale.

Rather than defining employees by rank or designation, Flatland shifts the focus to ownership, decision-making and business outcomes. Under the new model, authority is derived from execution, judgement and customer impact instead of organisational position.

The overhaul is based on the company’s belief that artificial intelligence has fundamentally changed how organisations should operate.

“Hierarchy was one of humanity’s greatest inventions,” said Cars24 builder Vikram Chopra. “It helped organisations scale when information was scarce. AI fundamentally changes that equation. Today, intelligence and context are increasingly available to everyone. The role of an organisation is no longer to move decisions up and down layers. It’s to help exceptional people solve exceptional problems together. Flatland is our attempt to build an organisation for that reality.”

He added, “Every generation gets to question one assumption that previous generations took for granted. Ours may be the assumption that companies need to be organised the way they have been for the last hundred years. We don’t claim to have the final answer. But we believe that question is now worth asking and worth building around.”

Cars24 said the transition has been implemented over the past several months, beginning with senior leadership before expanding across the organisation. While titles and grades have been eliminated, employees continue to have clearly defined responsibilities, performance expectations and decision-making authority.

The company has also redesigned its people policies by removing hierarchy-based distinctions in benefits, travel, reimbursements and IT assets. Instead, these are now determined by role requirements, compensation where applicable and universal employee benefits.

According to Cars24, the organisational redesign has coincided with improved operating performance. Over the past 18 months, the company recorded a 50 per cent year-on-year increase in revenue per employee during the second half of FY26 while contributing nearly 300 basis points to EBITDA without a proportional rise in operating costs. The company also said it turned globally profitable this year while serving more than 41 million monthly active users across India, the UAE and Australia.

“We don’t believe removing titles automatically creates a great culture,” Chopra said. “Culture comes from behaviour. Flatland simply removes the shortcuts that let people mistake position for contribution. We want the person closest to the problem to feel empowered to solve it regardless of where they joined or how long they’ve been here.”

Cars24 said the initiative reflects its broader transformation into an AI-native automotive ecosystem and signals its belief that companies of the AI era will need to rethink not only their products and technology, but also the way they are organised and managed.