Goafest is the premier festival for advertisers, marketers, and media professionals in India, held annually in the vibrant setting of Goa. Celebrated over three days, this iconic event is a grand celebration of creativity and innovation, spotlighting the finest work in advertising and media from across India and South Asia. Hosted by the Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) in collaboration with The Advertising Club, Goafest features inspiring keynote sessions, insightful panel discussions, prestigious award ceremonies, and unmatched networking opportunities.
In 2025, the festival will unfold at the luxurious Taj Cidade de Goa, offering a perfect blend of business, creativity, and coastal charm.
Day 2 witnessed a session steal of the day with ‘From Code to Commerce: Growth in the AI Age’, where the discussion involved how AI is transforming industries and repositioning brands’ interactions with consumers. The session was well moderated by Anuradha SenGupta, independent producer and journalist, as she began the session by taking into perspective how generative AI particularly via channels like ChatGPT has moved into mainstream awareness and accelerated huge changes across industries, including structural reforms in top international organizations.
Joining her on stage were four leading industry professionals who are powering AI-driven transformation in their industries: Arjun Choudhary, Swiggy’s Vice President; Sanket Prakash Tulangekar, Director at MakeMyTrip; Tejas Apte, Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) Head of Media and Digital Marketing; and Pragya Bijalwan, Voltas Limited Chief Marketing Officer.
Every speaker provided an insightful view of AI adoption across operations. marketing, product development, and customer experience by their unique organizations.
Pragya Bijalwan was the first to comment and highlighted the ways in which AI is delivering comfort and convenience to consumers. In HVAC systems,” she said, “AI improves customization and supports predictive maintenance.” From intelligent services to optimized operations, Voltas is leveraging AI to foretell customer needs even before they arise. “AI actually humanizes technology,” she continued, pointing to its increasing contribution to consumer-going products. Her view on the impact on the workforce? “AI will not displace jobs but it will certainly require reskilling. This is not a threat it’s evolution.
Tejas Apte opened the curtain on how deeply infused AI is into HUL’s DNA. “From innovation centres to intelligent factories, AI permeates our ecosystem,” he revealed. One of the shining tools of HUL is the Shikhar app, which enables general trade partners with intelligent stock suggestions and customized marketing assistance. But that’s not all. We now create thousands of hyper-localized ad creatives with GenAI and test them in minutes,” he uncovered. Referencing the Dove “miniatures” campaign as an example, Tejas emphasized, “Responsible AI use, with transparency, is non-negotiable.”
Travel was next, and Sanket Prakash Tulangekar, MakeMyTrip Director, was introducing everyone to their AI assistant, Myra. “From summarizing reviews to drafting full itineraries, Myra does it all,” he mentioned. Using multi-agent orchestration, Myra answers everything from hotel preferences to activity suggestions. But Sanket was quick to highlight the challenges too. “We must evaluate AI-generated content for bias, accuracy, and appropriateness,” he cautioned. “We’ve implemented red-teaming to make sure our AI outputs remain safe and reliable.”
From food to future tech, Arjun Choudhary gave a fascinating inside look at how AI is transforming India’s favorite food delivery app. We’re applying GenAI all the way from sales co-pilots to intelligent dashboards and even assisting restaurants,” he said. What struck him was the way AI has enabled even non-technical teams. “Teams that never wrote a line of code are now producing product requirement documents, doing demos, and extracting profound business insights,” he said. “We apply AI to everything catalogue enrichment, video creation, session-level personalization you name it.” His biggest insight? “AI is a life skill now. As fundamental as math. A productivity key.”
The thing that made the panel so enlightening was the absolute balance of optimism, skepticism, and practical examples. From customer experience to content creation, from intelligent apps to more intelligent teams every speaker concurred: AI isn’t arriving. It’s here. And the brands who take it boldly but responsibly will be the ones thriving in this new world.
As the session concluded, one thing was certain: The ride from code to commerce is no longer a technology department’s responsibility. It’s a business-wide change in mindset.
Goafest 2025 did not merely celebrate creativity it fueled a future where innovation drives and AI powers the engine.
-Khizra khan
