People Move · August 2026

Shiprocket expands Saumya K.'s mandate as Group CHRO and Business Head of 10XPeople.Ai.

Shiprocket has elevated Saumya K. to an expanded leadership role as Group Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) and Business Head – 10XPeople.Ai, bringing the company's people agenda and its growing AI-led HR technology business under her leadership.

Shiprocket has expanded Saumya K.'s mandate, naming her Group Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) and Business Head – 10XPeople.Ai, the company's AI-native people technology platform.

The expanded mandate marks an interesting shift for Saumya, moving her role beyond traditional group-level HR leadership into direct business ownership. In addition to leading Shiprocket's people strategy, she will now spearhead 10XPeople.Ai. The appointment was reported on August 26, while her expanded role is understood to be effective from July 2026.

The expanded mandate

For HireRoute, the appointment stands out because it reflects a broader change taking place across the HR leadership landscape. Senior people leaders are increasingly being asked to move beyond talent, culture and organisational development to take on technology, transformation and business responsibilities.

From people leadership to business leadership

Saumya has been part of Shiprocket since 2021, when she joined the company as SVP & Head HR. She was elevated to Group CHRO in 2023, taking charge of the people function as the organisation continued to scale. Her latest role adds another dimension to that journey by giving her responsibility for building and growing 10XPeople.Ai.

Her career spans more than two decades across human resources, talent development, learning, rewards, organisational development and employee engagement. Before joining Shiprocket, she spent close to five years with Yum! Brands, where she worked as Associate Director – Talent, Learning & Rewards. She has also held leadership roles at Gap and Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages, alongside earlier stints with Perfetti Van Melle and the Tata Group.

Building 10XPeople.Ai beyond Shiprocket

10XPeople.Ai has been built within Shiprocket as an AI-native HRMS and people-intelligence platform. The platform is designed around agentic AI, with its AI agent, Sophie, built to handle employee queries as well as execute HR-related actions and workflows.

Saumya recently shared that the platform is already being used by more than 1,500 daily users inside Shiprocket and has handled over 70,000 conversations with Sophie and more than 550 onboardings. The next phase is aimed at taking the platform to enterprises beyond Shiprocket and eventually to customers globally.

Her dual responsibility therefore puts her in an unusual position: she will remain responsible for the people function that uses and shapes the technology internally, while also leading the business that takes that technology to the wider market.

The move also comes as Shiprocket continues to broaden its positioning beyond logistics. The company describes itself as an end-to-end e-commerce enablement platform, with businesses spanning domestic and cross-border shipping, technology, marketing tools and financial services.

HireRoute Take

Saumya's expanded mandate reflects the changing contours of the CHRO role itself — one where people leadership is becoming increasingly intertwined with AI adoption, technology strategy and business growth.