From Public Relations to Multimillion-Dollar AI Engagement: Shobnom Zarin Chetona expands corporate communications role

 Shobnom Zarin Chetona has reached a new milestone in a corporate communications career spanning more than six years, taking a central customer-facing role in an international AI and communications contract valued at approximately US$4.37 million.

The agreement connects Australia's APP AI Pty Ltd with Singapore-based Go Fintech Pte Ltd and India's One97 Communications Ltd, owner of the Paytm platform.

Under the signed agreement, APP AI will provide its Media AI Enterprise platform through a combined software and managed corporate communications service. The initial term runs for five years and three months, with a monthly retainer of US$69,436 and an indicative initial-term value of US$4,374,468. 

At the centre of the engagement's communications function is Chetona.

The commercial terms explicitly identify Shobnom Zarin Chetona, Corporate Communication Manager, as the dedicated resource for the account. 

The appointment represents a significant expansion of responsibility for a professional whose background encompasses media relations, stakeholder engagement, public relations, journalism and corporate communications.

Her responsibilities under the international engagement include customer engagement, quarterly business reviews, product adoption, requirements gathering, user feedback and communications planning. 

The contract also assigns the dedicated role responsibilities covering implementation coordination, customer communication, executive briefings, service-improvement recommendations, product-update communication and liaison between the customer and APP AI's technical and product teams. 

Chetona is also named to lead quarterly executive review sessions and coordinate strategic communications reviews, giving her a continuing role throughout the commercial relationship rather than involvement limited to its launch. 

The arrangement demonstrates how corporate communications is evolving within AI companies. Communications executives are increasingly expected to understand products, customers and commercial strategy alongside conventional media and reputation responsibilities.

APP AI's service reflects that convergence. Its Media AI offering combines monitoring, sentiment analysis, crisis intelligence, competitor intelligence, media outreach, executive dashboards and AI-assisted reporting.

The platform's media-outreach component is specifically designed to support professional public-relations activities while maintaining consistent messaging and brand standards. 

For Chetona, the international engagement represents a shift from managing communications around a business to helping manage communications as part of the business itself.

The agreement provides for quarterly customer visits involving workshops, reviews, training and product-optimisation discussions, with Chetona or another authorised representative expected to attend. 

It also names her as coordinator for knowledge-transfer activities and other customer-facing communications throughout the relationship. 

The result is a professional role positioned between corporate communications, technology and international account management.

With more than six years of experience and a career spanning fintech, media and AI, Chetona's latest responsibility provides a tangible commercial dimension to her professional record.

The achievement is not simply association with a multimillion-dollar agreement. It is that the signed commercial agreement itself identifies corporate communications—and Chetona specifically—as an ongoing component of how APP AI intends to deliver and manage the relationship.

That distinction makes the contract an important milestone in her development from communications practitioner to a professional entrusted with responsibilities supporting a significant international technology engagement.