In the velocity-obsessed world of tech unicorns, culture is often the first casualty of scale. But for Neha Bhandari, HR Leader at CARS24, the equation is different: speed means nothing without trust
In an exclusive conversation, CARS 24’s HR Leader Neha Bhandari dismantles the dangerous illusion that fairness must be sacrificed for growth. She outlines a strategic framework where “felt fairness” and Equitable AI are not merely ethical guardrails, but the very engines of commercial resilience. From leveraging algorithms to eliminate bias to redefining inclusion as a “customer promise,” Bhandari articulates a blueprint for building an organization that scales with its soul intact.
In the high-speed, “growth-first” culture of a tech unicorn, how do you ensure that equitable people-practices are a core driver of that growth, not an afterthought?
In a high-velocity, growth-first environment like CARS24, equitable people practices are not parallel priorities, they are the engine that sustains and accelerates growth. Speed means nothing without trust, and trust comes from fairness, transparency, and consistency in how we treat our people.
Our approach is built on three pillars: data-led decisions, inclusive design of people processes, and deep accountability across leadership. We embed equity from the ground up, whether in hiring, performance evaluations, rewards, or career mobility by ensuring every process is structured, bias-resistant, and transparently communicated. Leaders are trained and measured not just on business outcomes but on how equitably they enable growth within their teams. In a fast-scaling organisation, this discipline ensures that opportunity is not dependent on who is loudest, but who delivers and grows.
Equitable AI is a critical accelerator of this vision. At CARS24, we leverage AI to remove subjective variability, surface insights we may miss, and bring a consistent and fair lens to decision-making whether in talent assessments, workforce planning, or employee experience. The goal is not to replace human judgment, but to augment it with objectivity and accountability. A resilient future demands systems that scale fairly. For us, equitable people practices and equitable AI aren’t just good ethics, they are smart business.
How does a deeply inclusive internal culture at CARS24 translate directly into a more resilient and trustworthy external brand for your diverse customer base?
At CARS24, we’ve always believed that an inclusive internal culture is not just an HR philosophy; it is a strategic business lever. When employees feel respected, represented, and empowered, they make decisions with empathy and operate with a deeper understanding of the diverse customers we serve across India and beyond. This cultural foundation directly influences how our teams design products, deliver service, and solve real-world customer pain points. An inclusive workplace naturally builds a more intuitive, trustworthy, and human-centred external brand.
Internally, inclusion fosters psychological safety, which enables people to speak up, challenge assumptions, and bring fresh ideas to the table. Externally, this translates into transparent pricing, fair value assessments, and seamless experiences, all built by teams that reflect the diversity of our marketplace. Equally important is our commitment to equitable AI, which is becoming the backbone of CARS24’s future. As we scale, AI helps us deliver accurate car valuations, fraud detection, and personalised experiences. But we hold ourselves accountable to ensure that our algorithms remain fair, bias-free, and representative of real customer behaviour.
Inclusive teams building equitable AI create a resilient business, one that customers can trust, consistently and at scale. At CARS24, inclusion isn’t an internal achievement, it’s a customer promise.
What is the single biggest unseen barrier to building a truly resilient and equitable culture within a fast-scaling company, and how do you dismantle it?
The single biggest unseen barrier to building a truly resilient and equitable culture in a fast-scaling company is the illusion that speed and fairness cannot coexist. In high-growth environments, decisions are often made quickly, and when structure lags behind scale, unconscious biases, inconsistent manager judgments, and legacy shortcuts quietly seep into the system. These aren’t visible on dashboards, but they deeply influence who gets opportunities, who gets heard, and who stays.
At CARS24, dismantling this barrier starts with designing for equity, not correcting for inequity later. We invest in clear frameworks for hiring, performance, mobility, and rewards, so fairness isn’t dependent on individual discretion. Leadership accountability is equally critical, every manager is responsible not just for what they deliver, but how they build and empower teams. A powerful enabler in this journey is equitable AI.
As we scale, AI helps us eliminate bias from high-volume, high-speed decisions by standardising assessments, enabling skills-based hiring, and mapping talent potential objectively. It gives us early signals on engagement, inclusion gaps, and workforce risks, allowing people teams to intervene proactively rather than reactively. For us, equitable AI is not about replacing human judgment but elevating it – enabling faster, fairer, and more consistent decisions that strengthen both resilience and trust.
Beyond just representation data, what is the one critical, human-centric metric you track that proves an inclusive culture is truly working for both your people and the business?
Beyond representation data, the most critical human-centric metric we track at CARS24 is “felt fairness.” This goes beyond policy and numbers, it measures whether employees experience fairness in opportunities, recognition, decision-making, and day-to-day interactions. When people believe they are treated equitably, regardless of role, tenure, background, or location, you see it reflected in their engagement, innovation, and willingness to challenge the status quo.
Felt fairness is the strongest indicator that inclusion is truly alive in the culture – not just designed for the organisation, but experienced by the people within it. We measure this through targeted pulse surveys, behavioural insights, quality of manager conversations, and patterns in mobility, development, and attrition. When fairness goes up, so does performance, trust, and customer impact, proving that inclusion is not a soft philosophy but a hard business driver.
Looking ahead, equitable AI will play a transformative role in strengthening this cultural foundation. At CARS24, we are using AI to remove bias from talent decisions, enable more consistent manager behaviours, and democratise access to growth and learning pathways. As we scale, AI becomes a multiplier ensuring fairness, transparency, and consistency at a speed no manual process can match.
For us, the future of resilience lies at the intersection of human intuition and equitable AI – a partnership that builds a culture where every employee can thrive and every customer can trust you.
