e-commerce
Walmart taps Shishir Mehrotra for board role as AI bets deepen
Bentonville: Walmart has added fresh Silicon Valley heft to its boardroom, appointing Shishir Mehrotra, chief executive officer of Superhuman, as a director with immediate effect, as the world’s largest retailer sharpens its focus on technology and e-commerce.
Mehrotra will serve on Walmart’s compensation and management development committee and its technology and e-commerce committee, placing him at the heart of decisions shaping talent, platforms and the company’s digital future.
“Shishir brings a rare combination of technical depth and product leadership,” said Greg Penner, chairman of Walmart’s board. “He has helped create and scale platforms that unlock creativity and productivity at global scale.”
For Mehrotra, the timing is deliberate. “This is the most significant technological shift I’ve seen in my career,” he said, pointing to Walmart’s push towards an agentic AI future and its ability to innovate while staying anchored to core values.
A technology veteran with more than 25 years of experience, Mehrotra is best known for building category-defining platforms. Before leading Superhuman, formerly Grammarly, he was chief executive officer and co-founder of Coda, an AI-led productivity platform. Earlier, he served as chief product officer and chief technology officer at YouTube, helping scale it into the world’s largest video destination and one of Google’s fastest-growing businesses.
Mehrotra holds a dual bachelor of science degree in mathematics and computer science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The appointment comes as Walmart’s digital engine continues to fire, with its advertising business surging 53 per cent and e-commerce growth crossing 20 per cent for the seventh straight quarter.
As Walmart doubles down on technology, data and AI-led commerce, Mehrotra’s arrival signals a clear intent. This is not just about retail scale any more. It is about building the future of platforms, at speed.
e-commerce
Instamart and Duolingo launch street spell check campaign for Instaprint
Duo the owl fixes signboard typos across cities to showcase instant printing.
MUMBAI: If spelling mistakes had a sworn enemy, it might just be a bright green owl with a printer. Instamart has teamed up with language learning platform Duolingo for a quirky nationwide campaign that turns everyday spelling errors into a public spectacle while promoting its instant printing service, InstaPrint. The playful activation takes aim at the many misspelled shop boards and public signs scattered across Indian streets. From “saloons” that promise haircuts rather than drinks to menus and posters peppered with punctuation mishaps, the campaign sends Duolingo’s mascot Duo on a mission to restore linguistic order.
Armed with Instamart’s instant printing feature, Duo prints corrected versions of the mistakes on the spot and pastes them over the originals. The result is a series of humorous street interventions that have quickly begun circulating on social media.
Photos and videos of the grammar correcting owl have been widely shared online, with amused users reacting to the unexpected spell check patrol. One user joked, “Ab ayega na maza bhidu,” capturing the internet’s delight at the unusual campaign.
Behind the humour lies a practical message. The activation is designed to showcase the capabilities of Instaprint, Instamart’s printing service that allows users to print documents and posters almost instantly.
The company says the feature is meant for everyday needs such as printing resumes, visa documents or last minute posters without the usual scramble to locate a print shop.
Instamart introduced Instaprint in 2025 across select metropolitan cities including Bengaluru, Mumbai and Delhi. The service allows users to order printed materials directly through the platform, extending the quick commerce model beyond groceries and household essentials.
By combining Duolingo’s famously persistent owl with India’s street level spelling quirks, the campaign taps into the internet’s long running fascination with grammar mistakes while demonstrating a real world use case for instant printing.
After all, in a world full of typos, sometimes what you really need is a quick printer and a very determined language teacher.
