Albertsons, one of the largest US food and drug retailers, has appointed Sunil Gopinath to head its global capability centre (GCC) in India. Gopinath, who takes charge in September, joins from Rakuten, where he led the Japanese e-commerce giant’s India centre for nearly a decade. Albertsons, which operates 2,200 stores, is known for brands such as Safeway, Vons, ACME, and Kings Food Markets. In an exclusive video interaction with Avik Das, Gopinath talks about his strategies and priorities as Albertsons plans to hire about 1,000 employees in the next 18 months, and what will drive the next phase of GCC growth in India. Edited excerpts:
What will be your strategies and priorities for this newly opened capability centre?
There are three main priorities. First, to get the centre up and running with the right capacity — people, skills, knowledge, and infrastructure. Second, to map the company’s key priorities and strategic initiatives to the India centre. This could include omnichannel-based solutions, supply chain, recommendation engines, next-generation search, or even the pharmacy business. Essentially, the goal is to establish the organisation here as a fully autonomous, cross-functional pod. Third, to build an artificial intelligence (AI) Centre of Excellence (CoE) — developing key AI capabilities and intelligent data science models to make shopping easier for customers, improve employee productivity, and delight customers.
All this also involves hiring the right AI talent, since not everyone will be specialised in every area. For example, Albertsons uses conversational AI to deliver a strong digital shopping experience. That involves working with large language models and fine-tuning them. I need to ensure that the top two or three curated AI verticals are established.
As this CoE takes shape, what role will this GCC play in improving the shopping experience for your US customers?
This team is being built as a product-led innovation centre that will create impact at scale for more than 40 million customers every week. For instance, we’re working on health-focused solutions — meal plans, recipes, 30-minute grocery pickup, and an advanced loyalty programme that makes it easier for customers to access value.
We’re also focusing on overall wellness as part of the customer experience. The question is: how do we help our customers manage their lives so they can shop healthier, manage prescriptions and pharmacy appointments, and take on lifestyle challenges?
We will have product managers and user experience designers here. Because this centre will be a complete pod of all these functional skills, whatever the team builds here will have a global impact.
What sort of hiring plans and leadership roles do you foresee for this GCC?
We plan to hire about 1,000 people over the next 18 months, up from around 300 at present.
On the leadership side, roles could include product management, data science, AI, engineering, and architecture. There will be functional leadership roles and vertical leadership roles reporting to me. We will also have leadership positions in consumer experience, supply chain, infrastructure, Cloud, and security.
I don’t think there’s such a thing as an ‘India-only’ leadership role or a ‘US-only’ leadership role. These are technology leaders and functional leaders, and they’re all pretty much global roles. Alongside leading the India centre, I also hold the global functional role of leading data and AI.
What do you think will drive the next phase of GCC growth in India?
Leadership will be critical. Running centres far from headquarters requires maturity, collaboration, and empathy.
We also need deeptech talent in AI and data, which is essential. For GCCs to move to the next level, they have to be integrated into the company’s overall business narrative. It’s no longer about tech for tech’s sake. The conversation has to be: Why are we doing this? To optimise supply chains, improve margins, increase customer retention, grow monthly and daily active users, and create new business.
The team has to be part of the company’s strategic and business story. If you miss that, you risk becoming a small outpost that struggles to fit into the bigger puzzle.
 "Albertsons looks to make in India for the global market: Sunil Gopinath")
