Tighter FSSAI and State FDA checks and rising fraud risks across expanding supply chains are accelerating AI adoption among Indian FMCG companies. Hindustan Unilever, ITC, Nestle India, Tata Consumer Products, Dabur and Marico are among companies whose latest annual reports point to wider use of AI and digital tools across procurement, manufacturing, quality control, sales and supplier monitoring, although none separately discloses spending on AI-led fraud detection or third-party risk management.
The direction of spending is nevertheless clear. Dabur and Marico explicitly refer to increased technology investments, while Nestle India provides some of the clearest evidence of technology being integrated into supplier-compliance and third-party risk processes. A Deloitte India survey separately found that 94 per cent of Indian enterprises expected AI expenditure to increase, 68 per cent identified security, compliance and governance as a priority, and 48 per cent reported deploying AI at scale in supply-chain operations.
The need is becoming more acute as FMCG and quick-commerce networks expand, multiplying the vendors, distributors, warehouses, merchants and workers that companies must police. Large retail and commerce companies such as Tesco, Walmart and Swiggy, alongside FMCG manufacturers, are leaning on verification technology across three risk points — establishing whether vendors and distributors are genuine, verifying workers entering warehouses and delivery networks, and monitoring FSSAI, food-safety and other statutory compliance across factories, warehouses and logistics operations.
Fraud Risks
That broader technology push is showing up in the risks companies are asking such systems to detect. Ajay Trehan, founder and CEO of verification technology company AuthBridge, said some large FMCG companies it works with have close to 50,000 third parties on their books, including businesses onboarded years earlier without systematic re-verification.
“Sectors that are growing faster typically tend to see more fraud,” Trehan told businessline. “Whichever industry grows faster tends to attract more fraudsters.”
The vulnerabilities are already visible in AuthBridge’s checks. About 9.8 per cent of cases examined had an FSSAI licence that was expired or forged, while cross-verification has revealed mismatches between GST and FSSAI records. Its systems have also encountered cancelled GST registrations, incorrect certificates and input-tax-credit trails involving vendors that did not exist.
Workers add another risk layer as warehousing and delivery networks expand. AuthBridge said 3-4 per cent of gig workers it screened had some criminal record, with checks covering identity, criminal records and driving licences.
Checks and Monitoring
AI is being deployed differently at each point. AuthBridge’s Know Your Business systems analyse corporate and statutory information around vendors and distributors, while its FIRM facial-identity technology addresses impersonation during worker onboarding. GroundCheck.ai extends verification to physical operations and compliance at factories, warehouses and logistics locations.
For food companies, the technology can cross-check FSSAI, GST, PAN, ownership and address information, identifying inconsistencies that may be missed when documents are examined separately.
The bigger shift, Trehan said, is from checking a partner once to monitoring it continuously. An FSSAI licence can expire after onboarding, a GST registration can be cancelled and filing behaviour can change, potentially providing early signals of financial stress.
AuthBridge estimates this shift is creating a ₹1,200-crore addressable third-party risk management market in India. Its own TPRM business currently generates around ₹20 crore, against overall FY26 revenue of just under ₹200 crore, but Trehan sees the vertical potentially reaching ₹200 crore within one-to-two years and ₹400 crore in three years — illustrating how sharply technology providers expect demand for continuous fraud and compliance monitoring to expand