Having grown up in Chennai, Karthik Rao, the global CEO of market research firm Nielsen, is looking to ramp up the company’s presence in India including creating more jobs and developing products for the global market.

“India has the most complex media environment. If we develop products for the Indian market with the level of complexity, we can scale that to other markets around the world. India also has the best natural resources for our business talent. We will be creating jobs in the thousands. The combination of the two things is why we will double down in India,” Karthik Rao, Global CEO, Nielsen, told businessline on the sidelines of the inauguration of the company’s new office in Mumbai spread over  1,50,000 sq. ft.  The new office space in Mumbai and Bengaluru can accommodate 1,500 employees each.

The company recently signed a Memorandum Of Understanding (MOU) worth ₹450 crore at the World Economic Forum 2025 in Davos with the Maharashtra Government, which will create 1,100 new jobs, particularly in technical roles such as AI experts, data scientists, data analysts, and other specialized technology positions. 

“India is a critical market for Nielsen, playing a pivotal role in our global growth and innovation strategy. As we continue to expand our presence, we are not only investing in new offices but also deepening our collaborations across the industry. Our commitment to India extends beyond just growth—we are dedicated to fostering a vibrant ecosystem where talent, technology, and strategic alliances come together to shape the future of measurement and analytics.” 

Building AI tool

The company will also utilise its development capabilities in the country to build its new Artificial Intelligence model.

“The next level of reasoning intelligence is going to be created which will have to become vertical specific. To get vertifical-specific, one needs to use proprietary data that nobody else has access to. We see this as a perfect moment for our company to create new products using AI around the entire value system for content. We have all forms of intelligence information in advertising and content, one can imagine the power of what that does for us from a product development perspective to solve distinct problems. We will build our own models. We will also partner with companies that are on their own journey of building AI capability,” added Rao.