1. AI in Advertising – Superpower for Growth or the Industry’s Slow Poison? Your POV?
We are at the threshold of one of the most powerful shifts in the history of media, advertising, and creativity. AI is not a threat—it’s a superpower. It’s a once-in-a-generation opportunity to rethink how we reach, serve, and uplift people through communications.
2. We are witnessing global layoffs across industries, especially in media. While market instability driven by factors like tariffs, war, and global economic slowdown is undeniable, many industry leaders also acknowledge a growing preference for automation over manpower.
Do you believe AI is also playing a significant role in the recent wave of layoffs within our industry?
The world is seeing disruption. But let’s not let disruption become a distraction. What AI allows us to do today was simply not possible in our lifetime. And the real win lies not in cost cuts or efficiency headlines—it lies in impact. While some roles may change, AI is also creating entirely new kinds of jobs and opportunities we couldn’t have imagined a few years ago.
As someone who’s spent years at the intersection of creativity, technology, and media innovation, I see this era as one of co-creation between humans and machines. My focus is clear: use AI not just to do more, but to do better—more inclusive, more human-centred, and more meaningful creative work.
Where AI Meets Purpose
Let me share a few recent examples. Through our work on AI for Perfetti Van Melle, we unlocked access and engagement in geographies still dependent on feature phones—audiences that mainstream digital marketing has largely left behind.
For Britannia Aeye, we pioneered a multimodal AI solution leveraging our partnership with Google Gemini for the visually impaired, a step to empower 1.4 billion people globally who live with some form of disability. These are not stunts. These are real, purpose-led applications of technology that demonstrate how comms, media, and creativity can solve complex human problems when guided by intention.
3. AI vs. Originality: Is the Future of Advertising Losing Its Human Touch?? Your POV?
The question isn’t “AI vs. Originality.” The right question is: how can AI amplify originality?
Creativity is not going anywhere. But its expression is evolving. The human mind remains the source of meaning, emotion, and cultural insight. What AI offers is speed, scale, and the power to test, learn, and personalize like never before.
We’ve entered the intelligent media era—where media doesn’t just carry creative; it speaks to it, evolves with it. One cohesive ecosystem, where WPP’s creative, media, and tech units operate as a single force, solving at scale.
4. In a recent interview we asked a media veteran about the Indian advertising industry’s position in the global market. He responded:
“We should dominate and lead – not copy. Indian media industry events like Goafest should be a global festival – ‘World Fest’ would be a better name, and it should aim to replace Cannes in a decade. Stop being subservient. Roar.”
We would love to hear your point of view on this statement, along with your thoughts on India’s role in the global AI-driven advertising landscape:-
India has all the ingredients to be at the forefront of the global AI-led creative movement: scale, diversity, cultural richness, and tech talent. Indian advertising has the power to shape the narrative, not mimic it. As jury chair for technology at Goafest, I believe Goafest could become a world fest. But we don’t get there by replicating the West. We get there by solving our own unique problems in uniquely Indian ways—then exporting those models to the world.
5. Niraj, you are someone who truly owns this space, when it comes to emerging technologies and innovation, I don’t think anyone could answer this better than you. We’ve followed your work and posts closely, and it’s clear how deeply you engage with what’s next. So my question is:-
As AI begins to influence not just execution, but also strategic thinking, creative insights, consumer behavior prediction, and media buying, do you believe it will fundamentally reshape how campaigns are even conceptualized (which is already happening)?
If so, where should the human mind still lead and are we truly heading toward a machine-led world or AI-dominated future?
Human First. Always.
AI reshape the way campaigns are conceptualised. It already is. Strategy, creativity, insight, execution—they’re all being augmented.
But where must the human lead? In asking the right questions. In bringing empathy. In knowing what matters. In choosing what not to do. Machines can render ideas; only humans can anchor them in purpose.
This is not a machine-led future. This is a machine-assisted human future. And that’s a future worth building.