Prashant Anand

Co-Founder

Tokyo, Japan2 yrs 2 mos experience

AI EnabledAI ML Practitioner

Key Highlights

Led ML/NLP applications at Mercari for customer support.
Developed ML-driven product moderation system.
Speaker at PyCon JP 2024 and PyCon APAC 2023.

Stackforce AI infers this person is a Machine Learning Engineer specializing in E-commerce applications.

Contact

Skills

Core Skills

Machine LearningNatural Language Processing (nlp)

Other Skills

Large Language Models (LLM)MicroservicesA/B TestingClaude CodePyTorchPython (Programming Language)ClineOpen WebUIChatGPTOpenAI APITransformersTerraformAzure OpenAIGo (Programming Language)Deep Learning

About

Hey 👋, I'm Prashant, a Machine Learning Engineer based in Tokyo, Japan. I write Agentic Coding Weekly newsletter. Read: https://www.agenticcodingweekly.com/ From 2019-2025, I used to work at Mercari, Inc. in Tokyo, building production ML systems for Japan’s largest C2C marketplace. At Mercari, I led ML/NLP/LLM applications on Japanese text in Customer Support and Trust & Safety domains. I led the development of ML-driven product moderation system for Mercari Shops. Before that, I shipped features like automatic high-risk inquiry escalation, LLM-powered auto-replies, and intelligent inquiry routing. B.Tech, IIT Delhi (2019). Speaker, PyCon JP 2024 and PyCon APAC 2023. See interesting things I have built at anandprashant.com/projects

Experience

2 yrs 2 mos

Total Experience

1 yr 8 mos

Average Tenure

6 mos

Current Experience

Agentic coding weekly

Author

Nov 2025 – Present · 6 mos

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Engineers using Cursor, Claude Code, Copilot, or similar tools to write code professionally and want high-signal updates and tactics.
Engineering managers and technical leaders who want to understand the current landscape well enough to guide their teams, make informed decisions, and evaluate team performance.
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Mercari, inc.

3 roles

Staff Machine Learning Engineer (MG4)

Aug 2024 – Oct 2025 · 1 yr 2 mos

Senior Machine Learning Engineer (MG3)

Promoted

Jul 2021 – Jul 2024 · 3 yrs

Implementing a chatbot to answer customer inquiries using a Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG)-based approach with large language models (LLMs) like GPT.
Designed and implemented a routing algorithm for customer inquiries using ML and NLP to reduce the number of transfers between CS agents. This increased the accuracy of assigning skills to inquiries by 8.2% and reduced the average number of transfers per reply by 26.4%.
Developed and deployed a template suggestion feature that allows CS agents to quickly select the suitable template for replying to customer inquiries. This reduced the average time spent responding to an inquiry by 2.2% and is used for 31% of customer inquiries by the CS agents.
Collaborating with the hiring team and have conducted 12 technical interviews and evaluated 26 technical assignments for hiring mid-career, new grads, and intern ML engineers so far.
Created a technical assignment currently in use for company-wide hiring of ML engineers specializing in NLP.

Large Language Models (LLM)Natural Language Processing (NLP)Machine Learning

Machine Learning Engineer (MG1/MG2)

Oct 2019 – Jun 2021 · 1 yr 8 mos

Implemented A/B test framework in the customer support tool used at Mercari by the CS agents to reply to customer inquiries. This allowed us to A/B test new features, including ML ones, understand their impact on business metrics, and make iterative improvements in a data-driven way.
Developed a microservice for sending automated replies to specific types of customer inquiries that don't require human intervention using ready-made templates.

Machine LearningMicroservicesA/B Testing