From writing creative briefs to generating high-quality images and writing slogans, Generation AI entered the marketing and conquered it. Has the initial hype died down or is it still a floating bubble waiting to burst? Or is it a success and not just hype? The outlook on Generative AI in marketing have been diverse. Global Brand Summit 2024Organised by ETBrandEquity.com, marketers from India’s top brands came together to highlight lessons learnt around Generation AI in marketing.
The session featured Anoop Manohar, CMO, Axis Bank; Nitin Saini, VP Marketing, Mondelez India; Raj Rishi Singh, CMO & CCO, MakeMyTrip; Rahul Talwar, CMO, Max Life Insurance; and Pooja Modi, VP, GenAI Jio Business, Haptik. The session was moderated by Parul Bajaj, Managing Director & Partner, BCG India.
Parul kicked off the discussion by saying, “AI is everywhere. It’s in the movies we watch, the ads we see, and even the coffee we drink.” She highlighted a BCG survey of chief marketing officers (CMOs), which found that 70% of respondents are optimistic about the future of Gen AI in marketing and 84% plan to launch it. AI-powered products and soon services. This paved the way for a deeper exploration of how various companies are integrating Gen AI into their operations and strategies. Additionally, she mentioned that personalizing consumer experiences was the most significant impact CMOs could foresee. Manohar explained her company’s journey with Gen AI, sharing the bank’s strategic investments, including the creation of a center of excellence and the implementation of an internal Gen AI system called “Adi.” The internal use case for Gen AI helps employees respond to customer queries by extracting transaction data and providing process guidance, showing promising results in improving both efficiency and customer satisfaction.
Manohar stressed the importance of being cautiously optimistic about AI in a regulated sector like banking. “We don’t know how it’s going to play out, but we’re certain it’s going to change the way we work and change the industry,” he said.
Talwar, also from the BFSI sector, mentioned the recent use case of Gen AI undertaken by Max Life Insurance to create personalized engagement strategies. He described initiatives like a campaign with cricketer Rohit Sharma, powered by Gen AI, that drove significant business results. “It is critical to ensure the right engagement hooks for acquisition and retention, focus on personalization and deliver content in a more relevant manner, rather than just constantly promoting life insurance,” Talwar said.
He also highlighted Millie, the brand’s AI chatbot, which exemplifies their efforts to provide a one-stop solution for customers. Talwar believes that engagement remains key and initiatives like these ensure that long-term engagement goals are more achievable than traditional methods.
Building on the theme of customer engagement, Modi highlighted the evolution of chatbots with Gen AI. She shared examples of how customers like Tira have benefited from these advancements. “With Gen AI, we’ve been able to create truly human conversations, with the chatbot offering advice and helping build customer trust,” Modi explained.
She added that generation AI enables a greater degree of personalization as it can tailor content and engage individuals rather than cohorts. Speaking about the impact of these developments, Modi said, “The real impact is that these chatbots can now replace human workforces in a tangible way, deliver better ROI and improve customer satisfaction.”
Echoing the importance of customer engagementSaini spoke about the success of personalized video campaigns powered by Gen AI, such as Cadbury’s birthday song and Silk’s Valentine’s Day video. “These campaigns have generated high-quality engagement,” he noted. “Over 2 million personalized birthday songs have been created. And this is high-quality engagement because it’s not just impressions for the sake of impressions. People have spent quality time creating personalized content and gifting it with a Cadbury box.”
Moreover, Saini believes that AI is the next big inflection point for the industry. To drive this transformation, he has identified two or three areas to focus on: developing the right capabilities to stay competitive, creating a strong ecosystem of external partners, and leadership to navigate uncertainty.
Continuing the conversation, Singh explained how MakeMyTrip, an online travel aggregator, is using generative AI, with its multifaceted capabilities, as a transformative force to meet consumer needs and improve business operations.
Its ability to converse and behave like humans, the success of voice-assisted booking in regional languages, and contextual summarization of reviews have been the pillars in improving current consumer pain points for MakeMyTrip. “When users search for hotels, their requirements vary. For example, leisure travelers may look for amenities like a swimming pool or sea view, while business travelers prioritize proximity to meetings. Generative AI helps distill these different user-generated contexts into simple USPs for properties, thereby matching consumer needs with property features. This personalization enhances the user experience,” Singh explained.
The panel concluded with unanimous agreement on the transformative potential of Gen AI in marketing. Content creationImage recognition and generation and video creation were the main use cases for Gen AI that marketers were betting on.
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