What Sunder Madakshira teaches about AI in marketing

I think creativity was, is and will always continue to be the forte of the human mind. Hi Sundar, one of the biggest promises of AI is hyper-personalization. Why has hyper-personalization become so important for marketers today? You know, hyper-personalization has become very important because of the environment. Just look at the environment in which an average customer or a consumer is, in any part of the world, but more so in India. He's got multiple channels, he's got access to the internet all the time, there is a lot of distraction.

It is assumed that an average human being dwelling in an urban area is exposed to anywhere between 25-30,000 messages every day. And every message that he gets is a marketing message in some way. Not all of that is relevant and that's a huge taxation on his mind and his ability to absorb. So even when we believe that people are actually consuming content, what we realize is they're not. It's just that they are interacting with it for a very short period of time and then they get off that content.

So hyper-personalization is the best tool the marketer has and he has to get as sharp as he can to ensure that the messages that he is giving are actually relevant to the audience. The audience is understanding it. The audience is hearing what they want to do. And very importantly from a marketer's perspective, acting on that message. And that's why hyper-personalization is so important. Can you give us a few examples of how Adobe is using AI across its offerings and whether the same has helped the brand grow?

Definitely. I think AI is embedded in all of Adobe's offerings and many examples that are there. One of which is Photoshop as we all know is one of our flagship products. It has got several AI embedments into it. One of that is how it is able to sense the typical pattern in which a designer designs. So this is one of the simple but very, very impactful usages of AI in our own products. There are countless examples of how AI is being used to enhance creativity, especially in marketing and advertising. Is creativity then no longer like unique to humans?

No, I think creativity was, is and will always continue to be the forte of the human mind. There are two parts of that creativity, right? One which is repeatable. Something that the creator repeats. So for example, if you are an architect, there are some parts of your design which you tend to repeat. But there are other enhancements which actually create differentiator between two designs that you actually do depending on what your customers actually need.

So the parts which are repeatable are going to become, you know, increasingly the forte of AI which will ensure that the human effort is not in some sense wasted on doing things which are repeatable. But the absolute creative part, which is the creative part of the creative part is something that will always continue to be, you know, the forte of the human mind. You know, a recent Forbes report stated that marketers still do not understand how data and analytics can contribute to profit growth.

Why is this so and why do so many AI investments, you know, they fail to take off despite so much potential? I would say that the awareness of AI and, you know, related technologies is definitely the awareness of that is increasing in the marketers as we go along. Yes, it's always a spectrum. It will never be possible that everyone is equally aware and uses AI to the best of their ability. It's never possible like any other field. But what we are seeing is the cutting industry leading brands have adopted this and embraced

it with in its entirety and they are seeing the benefits of that, you know, in, you know, percolate as actual business benefits and value to them. So yes, the answer is if, if, if, if, if I believe that every marketer is a cutting edge understanding of AI and its impact, the answer is no. But I think we are seeing a large number of people understanding and actually deploying it. I think we passed that stage of just bare basic awareness. Now, coming to the second part of your question, why do those, these investments not pay off?

Again, I think my view is that depending on how much of deployment has actually happened and the manner in which it has been deployed. Are you using AI for example to help you in your most business critical functions? For example, understanding your customers, understanding what they need and crafting products and services. If you were to employ in that most critical function for an organization, I think you will see disproportionate results.

But if you use it for other aspects which are probably not high priority for you, then it is a useful deployment from that perspective of learning. But its business impact would still be less. How do you see AI evolving this year? Are there any interesting trends that marketers can look forward to? Oh yes, I think you know every year we are just getting better at it. But in the coming years, what I would definitely see AI do more is to be able to generate many, many more customer insights.

I think that is a core job of a marketer and he will be only assisted in a better way in understanding what the real, what the consumers really need. I think it is the other area that I am actually looking forward to, we have seen it in a few cases, but that would definitely increase is identification of segments. Segmentation is a very important task. Segmentation of a market is super critical for the sales and marketing function. And I expect that identification of more micro segments to happen. Can you give us a few examples of that?

Yeah, so you know for example segmentation based on the basis of psychographics. So, that is an interesting thing and one of our customers actually has done it. See, whenever you segment a market, it is relatively easy to segment a market on the basis of the demographics. You want to find out, you know, what people of different age groups are doing, of different genders are doing, urban, rural etc. That is relatively easy because it is a physical manifestation and most companies have actually, you know, really got on to that task fairly well.

But I think when it comes to hyper segmentation, which is identifying segmentation on the basis of smaller segments, but on the basis of psychographics, which is about how people actually work, is an interesting use case. And that is a very important thing. And that is a very important thing. And that is a very important thing. And that is a very important thing. And that is a very important thing. And that is a very important thing. And that is a very important thing. And that is a very important thing. And that is a very important thing.

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