About 40% of an Instagram feed is curated by AI: Experts

A panel delved into the impact of AI on the marketing landscape during the Internet and Mobile Association of India’s marketing conclave.

Moderated by Prasad Shejale, CEO, Logicserve Digital, the panel comprised Arun Srinivas, director - ads business, Meta; Vednarayan Sirdeshpande, director - consumer digital, Mondelez International; Soumitra Dhankar, senior solution and consulting manager, Adobe; G Shainesh, professor marketing, IIM Bangalore and Satish Saraf, co-founder, ValueLeaf.

The dialogue spotlighted that the transformation is not about replacing marketers but empowering them to redefine strategies and deliver unparalleled value through AI in the ever-evolving landscape of digital marketing. 

AI is changing the script for marketers

The session commenced with Shainesh talking about the use cases for AI in marketing. 

He expressed, "An organisation needs to track a portfolio of customers. It is important to assess customer lifetime value, and a huge number of data points need to be mapped. Hence AI can be a use case in this area by providing unique solutions for different consumer silos.”

Speaking about how AI is being leveraged for personalisation at Meta, Srinivas shared, "About 40% of content on an Instagram feed is curated by AI and not the people a user follows as Mark Zuckerberg pointed out in this year's Q1 earnings call. The next step for us is to enhance these machine learning capabilities for advertisers, and marketers to sharpen their targeting capabilities. These advancements from a media channel will provide marketers with niche marketing capabilities.”

Breaking creative clutter through AI

Highlighting how marketers can stay ahead of the curve through AI offerings, Sirdeshpande remarked, "AI will enhance marketing capabilities and hyper-personalise campaigns for consumers. Using tactical generative AI helps target audiences on a personal level. This will lead to marketers tapping into cohorts they wouldn’t be able to and enhance the effectiveness of their campaigns."

Weighing the advantages and drawbacks of AI, Dhankar stated that AI solutions may be detrimental if copyright issues and credibility are not addressed by brands and agencies. 

"When collaborating with a non-human, it becomes difficult to understand if it comes from an accurate and reliable source. We need to approach it through sandboxing, (a cybersecurity practice where you run code, observe and analyse and code in a safe, isolated environment on a network that mimics end-user operating environments). Furthermore, as marketers we need to enhance our capabilities on a customised platform that uses AI. Our goal should be to work with AI tools and not let it determine all our solutions." 

Dhankar acknowledged that in elevating marketers' creativity, AI acts as an augmentation rather than a replacement. 

"AI's role lies in automating tedious manual tasks, allowing marketers to swiftly adapt. As a marketer, creative focus evolves into a role akin to a product engineer. This shift empowers us as marketers to articulate precise demands, setting the context for AI to enhance and complement creative endeavours,” voiced Dhankar. 

Underscoring the positive aspects of AI solutions for the marketing landscape, Srinivas remarked, "With AI, data of customers can be mined and refined. The basics of marketing can be enhanced through these Web 3 solutions, and we will be able to stand out amongst competitors as time efficiency will be taken care of by these solutions."

Speaking about AI's impact on advertising agencies, Saraf expressed, "Agencies have core expertise, as they deal with a host of clients and are curating a plethora of consumer-oriented solutions. We are deeply rooted in brand and consumer behaviours as well as engagement metrics. Hence, there is no chance AI will completely wipe out agencies. With that being said, with AI coming into the picture, more brands are moving their media solutions in-house. AI is a north star for marketers to provide 360-degree solutions in-house and helps them spearhead this."

During a rapid-fire round, prompted by the moderator, each panellist emphasised a key aspect set to revolutionise the marketing landscape with the advent of AI.

Dhankar and Srinivas: AI will revolutionise content creation.

Sirdeshpande: AI will transform intimate one-on-one conversations.

Saraf and Shainesh: AI will redefine consumer engagement.