Practo has appointed Cijo George as Vice President – AI. In this role, he has been leading the company’s artificial intelligence strategy, focusing on building scalable AI solutions that improve healthcare outcomes, enhance clinical decision-making, and drive operational efficiency.
The company has announced his appointment in an official update. In the announcement, Practo has highlighted its commitment to building AI systems that go beyond experimentation and deliver tangible value at scale in healthcare settings.
Prior to joining Practo in February 2026 as VP and Head of AI, George has served at Observe.AI for over four years. He joined the company in June 2021 as Manager, Machine Learning, a role he held until July 2023. He was then promoted to Senior Manager, ML and Engineering from August 2023 to January 2025, before taking on the role of Director of Engineering, AI Platform from February 2025 to January 2026. Between January 2021 and May 2021, he has also taken a brief career break in Bengaluru.
Earlier, he has worked at Belong.co for close to three years. He joined as Senior Data Scientist in February 2018 and served until December 2018. He was then elevated to Technical Lead, AI from January 2019 to November 2019, and later became Head of Platform and AI from December 2019 to December 2020.
Before that, George has spent over five years at NetApp between August 2012 and January 2018. He has worked as Member of Technical Staff II in the Advanced Technology Group (CTO Office) from August 2012 to July 2015 and was subsequently promoted to Member of Technical Staff III from August 2015 to January 2018.
He has also worked as a Student Researcher at Indian Institute of Science from August 2010 to July 2012 at the Supercomputer Education & Research Center (SERC). He began his professional career as a Software Engineer at Nokia Siemens Networks, where he served from July 2009 to July 2010 in Bengaluru.
