Day 2 of Goafest 2026 commenced with a high-impact panel titled ‘AI
Washing: The Truth About AI’, presented by Mediakart, in association with The Times of India and
Vijas Digital. The session explored the growing discourse around artificial intelligence, questioning
the gap between merely adopting AI tools and truly becoming AI-first organisations.
The session featured industry leaders, including Gulrez Alam, Chief Revenue Officer, Affle; Niraj
Ruparel, Creative Technology Lead, WPP & WPP Media; and Smriti Mehra, CEO, English and
business news, Network18. The discussion was moderated by Shubhranshu Singh, Member of the
Board of Directors, Effie LIONS Foundation & Forbes Most Influential Global CMO 2025.
Highlighting the importance of outcome-driven AI adoption and the evolving role of data and
automation in business transformation, Gulrez Alam, Chief Revenue Officer, Affle, said, “AI is
meaningful only when it delivers results and efficiency for clients; creativity and planning mean little
without outcomes. Built on the principle of “garbage in, garbage out,” AI depends on quality data
that must evolve from a rearview mirror into a GPS. Moving beyond screens through wearables and
AI-powered glasses, AI will increasingly understand emotions, gestures, and intent while enabling
instant outputs in a “zero to fast” world. As automation accelerates and bots dominate online traffic,
advertisers will need to identify real human audiences while also engaging with AI bots working on
behalf of humans.”
Emphasising AI’s role in accelerating innovation while underscoring the enduring importance of
human creativity and collaboration, Niraj Ruparel, Creative Technology Lead, WPP & WPP Media,
said, “AI is unlocking massive opportunities for rapid prototyping and innovation, enabling creative
and tech teams to build solutions faster and democratise access to creativity at scale, including for
underserved audiences. Combined with faster internet, AI will accelerate immersive, personalised 3D
and spatial experiences and help brands reach underserved and rural audiences. However,
technology alone is not enough – human creativity and original thinking will remain the true
differentiators. As AI-generated experiences, synthetic media, and emotion-aware systems evolve,
successful adoption will depend on collaboration between creative teams, technologists, strategists,
clients, and consumers, with India’s AI future driven by scalable platforms powered by creativity and
collaboration.”
Highlighting AI’s growing influence on media transformation while reinforcing the importance of
editorial credibility and responsible adoption, Smriti Mehra, CEO, English and business news,
Network18, said, “AI will transform news from information dissemination to intelligence-led
storytelling, making content more personalised and multilingual, while human editorial judgment
remains critical. Most companies today are still in the experimental or partially deployed stage of AI
adoption, even as businesses increasingly use AI to improve outputs, increase speed, reduce costs,
and drive revenue. The media will continue questioning and verifying corporate AI claims and ‘AI
washing,’ while brands face the growing challenge of engaging the remaining genuine human audience online.
As digital ecosystems evolve, premium experiences may increasingly move behind
paywalls, and brand messaging and consumer engagement models will continue to transform.”
Building further on the AI narrative, Google delivered a keynote session titled ‘There’s an Agent for
That – Excelling in the AI Era’. Satya Raghavan, Director, Marketing Partners at Google India,
shared insights into the rapidly evolving AI ecosystem and how businesses can harness AI agents and
emerging technologies to drive innovation, efficiency and growth in a dynamic digital landscape.
Highlighting the shift towards an agent-led AI ecosystem and the growing role of intelligent
automation in marketing and business transformation, Satya Raghavan, Director, Marketing
Partners at Google India, said, “Consumer needs are changing rapidly, with ‘an app for everything,’
and behaviour has moved beyond the traditional funnel as people simultaneously search, stream,
scroll, and shop. AI-powered search and ad ecosystems are enabling more contextual and
personalised experiences, in a world where six generations can coexist in one household – from
Boomers to Gen Beta – and where ‘there is an agent for that’ is becoming the central idea.
“An agent is essentially a system that performs tasks on behalf of someone else, and in that sense,
agencies have always functioned as agents by solving business problems for brands and consumers.
AI agents are valuable only when tied to the right use case, helping automate repetitive tasks so
humans can focus on higher-value creative work. Brands, platforms, and consumers are increasingly
interacting through interconnected agents and sub-agents, from shopping agents that compare and
transact on users’ behalf to advertising agents that optimise campaigns in real time”, he added.
Speaking on the transition from generative AI to the emerging agentic era, and the opportunities it
presents for marketers and creators, he further added, “We are now moving from the generative era
to the agentic era, where you no longer need to know coding – only how to communicate and
instruct. The goal of AI is not to replace humans but to help them work faster and smarter, creating
opportunities for marketers, agencies, and creators to build specialised agents across workflows.
With platforms like Google and partners already deploying ready-to-use agents across media,
creative, and advertising functions, the future of marketing will revolve around identifying the right
use cases and building intelligent agents around them.”
The conversations then shifted to the evolving dynamics of storytelling, influence and audience
engagement with NDTV Presents ‘The Hook: The Craft, The Culture, The Conversation’. The session
featured Darshana Shah, Chief Marketing Officer, Aditya Birla Capital; Rahul Kanwal, CEO & Editor
in Chief, NDTV; Rana Barua, Group Chief Executive Officer, Havas India, SE Asia & North Asia
(Japan & South Korea); Rohit Kapoor, Chief Executive Officer, Swiggy; and Sam Balsara, Chairman,
Madison World. The session was moderated by Alex Matthew, Associate Executive Editor, NDTV
Profit.
Highlighting the evolving realities of consumer attention, media consumption, and the growing need
for always-on brand engagement, Darshana Shah, Chief Marketing Officer, Aditya Birla Capital,
said, “Media fragmentation and shrinking attention spans are forcing marketers to constantly
unlearn and relearn, as consumers increasingly scroll, stream, search, and shop simultaneously.
While branding still depends on what a brand stands for in the consumer’s mind, brands today need
an immediate hook to capture attention within seconds. Storytelling remains relevant, but
campaigns must capture attention within the first few seconds, with ideas rooted in long-term brand
positioning and deep consumer understanding. Moment marketing works best when brands fit
naturally into cultural conversations, while content now drives memorability and stickiness, especially
among younger audiences. Moment marketing works best when brands fit naturally into cultural
conversations, while always-on, relevant content now drives memorability, engagement, and
commerce in real time.”
Emphasising the growing role of cultural relevance, virality, and real-time audience engagement in
modern brand-building, Rahul Kanwal, CEO & Editor in Chief, NDTV, said, “Cultural moments today
can emerge instantly on social media and become massive movements overnight, as seen with
phenomena like the ‘Cockroach Janta Party’ gaining traction within hours and viral moments like
‘Melody’ becoming branding that money cannot buy. Brands today need to quickly recognise and
ride such unexpected viral waves, as storytelling shifts from traditional campaigns to real-time hooks
and engagement. AI and prompt engineering are also challenging traditional creative hierarchies,
enabling younger creators using AI tools to compete with seasoned professionals. Overall, the
advertising world is moving from campaign-led storytelling to culture-led storytelling.”
Speaking about the evolving intersection of AI, culture, and brand storytelling, Rana Barua, Group
Chief Executive Officer, Havas India, SE Asia & North Asia (Japan & South Korea), said, “AI is
creating a new model of storytelling, engagement, and audience conversations, while consumer
behaviour is increasingly shaped by social media and cultural trends. Brands today must decide
whether they want to be meaningful or merely desirable, because without emotional connection or
relevance in people’s lives, no amount of marketing can succeed. While platforms and formats
continue to evolve, brand building and storytelling remain at the core. AI can facilitate conversations
and execution, but it cannot create original ideas or cultural understanding — the real ideas still
come from humans who understand culture, behaviour, and context. The real challenge is not just
execution, but finding the right idea and authentic audience connection, which is why AI will not
replace human creativity or emotional intelligence.”
Emphasizing virality, Gen Z behaviour, and the changing nature of brand building, Rohit Kapoor,
Chief Executive Officer, Swiggy, said, “People today forget and forgive quickly in the era of virality,
so while execution is fast and chaotic, strategy must remain consistent and rooted in what doesn’t
change in human behaviour. Gen Z is not a single audience, and brands must balance virality with
clear guardrails, embracing trends quickly but dropping them just as fast, since today’s ads may last
only around 10 days. Long-term brand building still requires consistency as brands are built over
years while trends are built in days, and although AI is democratising creativity and reducing costs,
human creativity remains irreplaceable.”
Noting about the evolving balance between brand building, performance marketing, and the role of
AI in advertising, Sam Balsara, Chairman, Madison World, added that, “Consistency is what makes
campaigns memorable over time. Many brands today are overfocused on performance marketing at
the cost of brand building, even though performance marketing is important and cannot replace
branding completely. The ideal approach is to balance branding and performance marketing. Ads
today also need far more frequent refresh cycles than earlier, when campaigns could run for years;
now they may need to change every month. AI can help reduce content production costs and improve
speed, but human creativity remains irreplaceable despite these advancements.”
Adding an analytical lens to the day’s agenda, Comscore presented a keynote session titled ‘AI,
Audiences & Cross-Platform Clarity’. Smriti Sharma, Executive Vice President, Analytics &
Managing Director, Custom IQ, Comscore, highlighted the growing need for measurement
transparency and audience understanding across platforms in a world increasingly shaped by AI-
driven consumption and fragmented media behaviours.
Acknowledging the rapid shift in digital consumer behaviour and AI-led discovery, Smriti Sharma,
Executive Vice President, Analytics & Managing Director, Custom IQ, Comscore, said, “Consumer
behaviour in India is evolving rapidly, with users increasingly outsourcing decisions to AI, which is
becoming the recommender, influencer, and decision-maker across the consumer journey.
Consumers are no longer searching traditionally but asking conversational queries, while AI tools are
accelerating creation, shrinking attention spans, and reshaping discovery across fragmented
platforms. In this ‘jugaad ecosystem,’ Indian users trust creators and communities over polished
advertising, pushing marketers to move from placement-led strategies to influence-led ecosystems
powered by connected data.”
Another major highlight of the morning was a session titled ‘The Resets That Shaped Indian
Advertising – And the One We’re Living Through Now’, in conversation with Dheeraj Sinha, Chief
Executive Officer, McCann Group; and Annurag Batra, Chairman and Editor-in-Chief of BW
Businessworld group and the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of the exchange4media group.
Speaking about the future of India’s advertising and marketing ecosystem, Annurag Batra, Chairman
and Editor-in-Chief of BW Businessworld group and the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of the
exchange4media group, said, “The Indian advertising industry is expected to grow from ₹75,000
crore to over ₹2 lakh crore in the coming years, as advertising is not dying—more businesses and
brands are using it to drive growth. The agency of the future will look very different from today’s
traditional structures, evolving into marketing transformation companies that integrate strategy,
media, content, AI, digital, and consulting at the intersection of Silicon Valley technology, advertising
creativity, and entertainment. The strongest agencies will be those who combine these worlds while
reclaiming storytelling as a core strength, even as many storytellers now exist outside agencies. GCCs
will emerge as a major growth engine for India’s marketing services industry, with global networks
increasingly building capabilities here, while the ecosystem becomes more entrepreneurial, agile, and
less hierarchical. AI will improve productivity, but originality, authenticity, and strategic thinking will
remain distinctly human, making uniqueness and creative leadership more valuable than ever.
Branding will only grow in importance, as excessive reliance on performance marketing is
unsustainable—brands are built over years, while trends are built in weeks.”
Speaking about the future of advertising, agencies and AI-led transformation, Dheeraj Sinha, Chief
Executive Officer, McCann Group, said, “Every few years, advertising is declared dead, and AI is
expected to replace jobs, yet India remains one of the world’s most optimistic advertising markets,
driven by a fast-growing consumer economy and rising demand for new brands. Advertising is
shapeshifting, but the opportunity is only expanding, requiring agencies to think beyond short-term
cycles and focus on long-term creativity and brand building. AI is simplifying operations and enabling
leaner, more flexible agency models, allowing creators to independently produce and distribute
content while agencies focus on consumer understanding, strategy, and impactful storytelling. India
is also emerging as a major global hub for marketing and creative services, powered by growing
talent, technology, and entrepreneurial energy.”
The first half of Day 2 concluded with Saptharushi Presents ‘THE WAR ON DATA – Who Owns The
Signal?’, a compelling discussion around consumer data, privacy, digital ecosystems and ownership
in today’s connected world. The session featured Mayank Shah, Vice President at Parle Products;
Anjali Madan, Director, Consumer Experience, Global Marketing, Mondelez International; Sanjay
Sindhwani, CEO, Indian Express Online; and Saikat Sinha, Director, Consumer Experiences, The
Coca Cola Company. The session was moderated by Gowthaman Ragothaman, Founding Chief
Executive Officer, Saptharushi. The panel delved into the ongoing battle for data ownership, the
future of consumer trust, and the growing importance of first-party data strategies in the digital
economy.
Talking about the data-driven customization, Mayank Shah, Vice President at Parle Products, said,
“Data-driven customization works best for high-involvement categories, while FMCG still relies
heavily on mass branding and top-funnel awareness. Bottom-funnel targeting is easier, but building
emotional consumer connections remains the bigger challenge, as real consumption behaviour is still
difficult to decode through data alone. Communities and on-ground market understanding continue
to play a critical role in communication planning, even as segmentation becomes more advanced.
The DPDP rollout is a positive step, making explicit consumer consent, transparency, and responsible
data usage increasingly important for brands and agencies.”
Highlighting about marketing and brand building, Anjali Madan, Director, Consumer Experience,
Global Marketing, Mondelez International, added, “Performance marketing and brand building
should not be treated separately, as consumers don’t distinguish between performance and equity
marketing. Over-focusing on ROAS and conversions can weaken long-term brand equity and increase
future acquisition costs, making it critical for CPG brands to view marketing spends as one
consolidated investment. Real consumer understanding comes from brand interactions, not bought
third-party data, while strong engagement builds richer first-party data over time. Agencies’ future
value will increasingly depend on proprietary data ecosystems, consumer intelligence, and consent-
led data practices, especially as DPDP and privacy regulations strengthen governance. Brands must
avoid chasing only short-term metrics and keep long-term brand building central.”
Speaking about how publishers are adapting to the evolving data and privacy ecosystem, Sanjay
Sindhwani, CEO, Indian Express Online, said, “Indian publishers are moving from anonymous
audiences to first-party data ecosystems built through sign-ups, subscriptions, whitepapers, and
downloads, as owning customer relationships becomes critical. Publishers realised that while
platforms and tools like Google Analytics offered scale and insights, they did not provide ownership
of consumer data. Subscription models further accelerated the need to deeply understand audience
behaviour, even as interoperability and data collaboration remain major industry challenges.
Building strong first-party data systems requires long-term investment, and the future will
increasingly depend on consent-led, authenticated consumer ecosystems under evolving privacy
regulations.”
Discussing the evolving relationship between consumer behaviour, data and brand ecosystems,
Saikat Sinha, Director, Consumer Experiences, The Coca-Cola Company, added, “Beverage brands
are built on deep consumer and cultural understanding, with ecosystems across retail and
distribution playing a critical role. Consumers today want active participation with brands as they
simultaneously stream, scroll, shop, and engage, making brand-led communities increasingly
important. Real-time signals, contextual understanding, and partner ecosystems help brands identify
the right consumer moments, especially in categories driven by experiences and occasions. At the
same time, DPDP preparedness is pushing companies to strengthen data responsibility and
protection practices.”
Day 2 also featured a series of engaging masterclasses that provided delegates with deeper insights
into creativity, storytelling, media innovation, and consumer engagement.LinkedIn presented a
masterclass titled ‘The Creator Playbook: How to build content, credibility and community on
LinkedIn’, led by Preethi Ramamoorthy, Managing Editor (Communities) & Benjamin Joy, Agency
Lead. The masterclass also featured a special guest speaker, Abhishek Patil, Co-founder & Chief
Revenue Officer, GrowthX. The Asian Federation of Advertising Associations hosted a masterclass
titled ‘Algorithm of the heart, stories machines can’t tell’ led by Bharat Avalani, Founder and CEO,
Connecting the Dots Consultancy Malaysia & Global Partner Anecdote, exploring the enduring
power of human emotion and storytelling in an increasingly AI-driven world.
MediaKart conducted a masterclass on ‘Creative That Connects: Leveraging Rich Media in the Right
Context’ led by Shahad Anand, Business Head, while Mudra Institute of Communications
Ahmedabad (MICA) hosted a thought-provoking session titled ‘Mastering Content in an Attention
Deficit Economy’ by Falguni Vasavada, Head – Academics, School of Applied Creativity. Adding
another dimension to the discussions around consumer connection and brand relevance, Shaziya
Khan, Brand Communication Strategist, Insight Chaser, Author, led a session titled ‘Small Is The
New Big: The Connection Brands Are Missing’.
