Generative Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Marketing

Time of India

2 days ago

HighlightsGenerative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) represents a significant breakthrough in technology, allowing organizations to create original content across various mediums, enhancing nearly every function within a business. Companies like Mondelez and Amazon are leveraging GenAI to deliver hyper-personalized experiences, resulting in increased customer engagement and significant returns on investment. The application of GenAI in supply chain operations is expected to revolutionize industries, with the Asia Pacific region leading the charge in adopting this technology for efficiency and cost savings.
By Prof. Anupam Narula
Many people today are familiar with AI chatbots and image generators capable of producing convincing text and visuals within seconds. These tools are powered by
Generative AI
(GenAI)—a transformative technology that uses advanced algorithms to create original content across text, images, audio, and more.
At the heart of GenAI are foundation models (FMs)—deep learning models trained on vast and diverse datasets. Unlike traditional AI, which is typically designed for a single, narrowly defined task under human supervision, foundation models are highly adaptable. A single model can perform a wide range of tasks, such as writing content, generating code, or composing music, by learning to recognize and predict patterns—like the next word in a sentence.
This adaptability marks a major leap in AI capabilities. Generative AI signifies a paradigm shift in how organizations develop and deploy artificial intelligence—from task-specific tools to generalized, scalable intelligence that can enhance nearly every function within an organization.
The Game Changer Across Industries
The true power of generative AI lies in its ability to create entirely new content—text, images, and more—making it a transformative technology with the potential to disrupt nearly every sector of the economy, much like the internet did decades ago. Organizations across industries are actively exploring how GenAI can reshape critical functions, like marketing & sales, customer experience journey, target marketing, value creation, product development &
customer service
, and supply chain operations.
However, the timeline for realizing these benefits varies by use case. In the near term, industry experts identify GenAI's ability to synthesize structured and unstructured data and deliver highly targeted marketing campaigns as its most immediate advantage. Looking further ahead, over the next five years, GenAI is expected to deliver its greatest impact on back-end operations—particularly in optimizing supply chains, improving efficiencies, and automating complex workflows.
The advantages of adopting GenAI are significant, with the potential to impact virtually every aspect of a business—from enhancing customer experiences to streamlining workflows. Yet, along with these opportunities come challenges such as managing computational costs, addressing ethical and bias concerns, and ensuring effective training and user adoption.
Strategic Focus for Marketing Success
To succeed in increasingly complex, digitally driven markets, organizations must address four critical strategic questions. These guideposts will help refine content creation efforts, align AI initiatives with marketing objectives, and ensure responsible and efficient use of GenAI. Prioritizing these considerations is crucial for maximizing value while managing associated risks.
Generative AI and the Landscape of Marketing and Sales
In a world where digital transformation is no longer optional but essential, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are revolutionizing how businesses market and sell their products. Now, with the emergence of generative AI (
Gen AI
), the pace of change has accelerated—and the impact is being felt right at the sales frontlines.
Open-source Gen AI platforms are increasingly being adopted by sales teams to enhance performance, automate routine tasks, and drive deeper customer engagement. Meanwhile, sales-tech companies are investing heavily in Gen AI to create smarter, faster, and more personalized sales solutions.
As business complexity grows in a digital-first economy, these advanced technologies are becoming indispensable. Companies that fail to embrace them risk falling behind. Forward-looking organizations, however, are using this moment to gain competitive advantage. Many are targeting an annual increase in market share of at least 10 percent by embracing a combination of strategic initiatives:
Investing in advanced sales technologies to streamline operations and drive efficiencyBuilding hybrid sales teams that blend human expertise with AI-powered toolsOptimizing sales across third-party and in-house digital marketplacesAchieving excellence in e-commerce by refining every stage of the digital sales funnelDelivering hyper-personalized experiences, tailoring messages to individual decision-makers based on real-time data, behaviour patterns, and predictive insights.
Hyper-personalization is emerging as a game-changer. It involves crafting unique, data-driven messages for each customer based on their profile, needs, past interactions, and anticipated behaviours. This approach not only enhances customer satisfaction but also drives conversions and builds long-term loyalty.
As the sales landscape continues to evolve, the message is clear: Agility, Innovation, and Customer-centric mindset are no longer optional—they are vital for sustained growth. Companies that understand and adapt to this reality are poised to thrive in the era of AI-powered sales.
Generative AI and the Customer Experience Journey (CXJ) drive the next frontier of Market Personalization.
The rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI), particularly Generative AI (Gen AI), is reshaping the marketing and sales landscape across three pivotal areas: the customer experience journey (CXJ), growth acceleration, and productivity enhancement.
Customer Experience Journey (CXJ)
Gen AI enables hyper-personalized content and offerings by leveraging individual customer behaviour, personas, and purchase history. This allows companies to map dynamic customer journeys, identify critical touchpoints, and continuously drive engagement. AI-powered chatbots can now respond in real-time, enhance onboarding with personalized training materials, and improve retention through predictive churn modelling.
Growth Acceleration
AI unlocks top-line growth by equipping sales teams with real-time analytics and customer insights to effectively capture demand. It identifies untapped audience segments by analysing vast datasets—demographic information, behavioural patterns, and market trends—and uses this insight to craft highly targeted marketing and sales strategies.
Hyper-personalization is a competitive advantage. In B2C, AI enables precise segmentation and tailored campaigns. In
B2B, winning organizations are moving beyond account-based marketing, using Gen AI to personalize outreach at scale.
Productivity and Sales Efficiency
AI boosts sales effectiveness by automating repetitive tasks such as data entry, follow-ups, and research—freeing sales professionals to focus on high-value interactions. AI agents, a newer development enhanced by Gen AI's natural language capabilities, can now autonomously perform tasks, make decisions, and interact with both internal systems and customers. These agents can escalate complex issues to human teams, ensuring a seamless customer experience.
Mondelez
, home to brands like Cadbury, Oreo, and Chips Ahoy, is leveraging Gen AI to create hyper-personalized marketing experiences. The company focuses on enhancing campaign measurement and content creation. A notable initiative,
'My Cadbury Era'
, allowed users to generate personalized vintage posters using selfies and selected ad eras—demonstrating how Gen AI can merge personalization, engagement, and brand storytelling. Mondelez reports that personalization powered by Gen AI increases ROI by 20–30 percent.
Amazon launched
Rufus
, a Gen AI-powered shopping assistant, to help customers navigate its vast product ecosystem. Rufus offers personalized recommendations and product comparisons, helping users make quicker, more informed decisions. This approach enhances the online shopping experience by reducing friction and simplifying choices through AI-driven personalization.
Gen AI unlock Value Experiences, New product Development, Innovation, and Customer Service. Value Experiences: From Products to Emotional Connections
Consumers are shifting from materialism to meaningful experiences. Today, value lies not just in products but in how customers feel. GenAI is central to this evolution, enabling hyper-personalised, emotionally resonant interactions that build deeper brand loyalty.
Modern consumers define value through three pillars: Living It – Immersive, real-world and digital brand experiences, Enhanced Product – Smart, intuitive offerings that adapt and evolve, Lasting Engagement – Sustained emotional and functional value over time.
Brands like Coca-Cola are leading this transformation. Their 'Create Real Magic' platform invites digital artists to create AI-generated artworks displayed on global billboards, blending creativity with global reach. The Coke SoundZ app creates audio experiences tied to brand rituals—like the pop of opening a can—deepening sensory connections with users.
Kraft-Heinz, too, redefined value experience through playfulness and crowd participation. Its DALL·E 2-powered campaign reimagined "ketchup" visually, engaging younger audiences and rejuvenating brand relevance. These digital-first, emotionally intelligent experiences show how GenAI can enhance customer relationships far beyond traditional marketing.
New Product Development: Reimagining What's Possible
As GenAI capabilities advance, New Product Development (NPD) is becoming a primary frontier. Combining AI-driven insights with human creativity allows businesses to co-create, test, and iterate at unprecedented speeds.
While still in early stages, AI-assisted NPD holds the promise of revolutionising innovation pipelines through Predictive trend modelling, Rapid prototyping of concepts and Smart simulations and digital twins.
The Coca-Cola Company is harnessing these advantages through its '
Prod X
' production studio, powered by NVIDIA's GenAI technology. Operating in 100 markets, it enables rapid development and localised innovation—helping the brand adapt products and marketing to diverse consumer cultures.
In the medium to long term, GenAI-powered NPD will not only streamline traditional processes but unlock entirely new categories, formats, and experiences.
Innovation: Creative Disruption at Speed
GenAI is catalysing a renaissance in business innovation. Its multimodal capabilities—blending text, video, image, and audio generation are breathing new life into product design, marketing, and consumer interaction.
Examples are abound:
Kraft-Heinz's AI-generated ketchup labels created a buzz both in real life and in the metaverse.GE Appliances used GenAI to develop Flavory AI, which scans fridge contents to suggest recipes, and AI assistants that simplify appliance usage.Trip planning, fashion styling, and virtual brand avatars are redefining how brands connect with and serve customers.
Personalisation is now in hyperdrive, fuelled by machine learning algorithms that adapt experiences in real time. This has led to the emergence of A-Commerce (AI-led commerce) where intelligent agents assist consumers with decisions, purchases, and discovery. The speed of innovation is breathtaking, and we are only at the beginning. Brands that hesitate risk becoming irrelevant in the wake of this accelerating transformation.
Customer Service: Loyalty Through Intelligence
Customer service has emerged as one of GenAI's most transformative applications, with 16 percent of industry professionals ranking it as a top strategic priority for the next five years. AI tools are already handling everything from FAQs to complex complaint resolution—driving satisfaction and cutting operational costs.
But it's not without risks. Mismanagement can damage trust. Key challenges include:
Data security and privacy concerns (raised by over 50 percent of industry professionals)Lack of transparency in AI decision-makingCultural and linguistic misalignment
Businesses must prioritise ethical deployment, including clear disclosure of AI use and opt-out options for data sharing. In high-stakes areas—such as financial advice or healthcare—GenAI's recommendations must meet high accuracy standards, as service providers will be held accountable.
GE Appliances' AI solutions exemplify responsible GenAI service. Instead of frustrating customers with manuals, users get voice-activated support for maintenance and repairs—boosting confidence, usability, and brand satisfaction. When done right, GenAI can become the foundation of brand loyalty, not just a customer service tool.
Generative AI can drive the Next Gen Supply Chain
Leveraging GenAI to drive operational efficiencies across the supply chain remains the final battleground for businesses looking to leverage the technology's benefits and optimise cost savings. Tackling the supply chain is a strategic priority over the longer term due to the number of external partners involved, leading to higher levels of complexities. As such, many are focusing on lower hanging fruit such as personnel and customer service.
Gen AI has started revolutionizing the logistics industry. It's poised to boost performance and trillions of dollars in operations, with roughly $190 billion in travel and logistics and $18 billion in supply chain operations. Gen AI offers value-clearing opportunities across the entire logistics operations value chain. This ranges from core operations—activities like planning, optimization, warehousing, transportation, and asset maintenance—to support functions, like procurement, customer experience, back office, legal, and HR. In a nutshell, gen AI enhances various aspects of the value chain and leverages advanced AI models to create new, content-optimized processes and improve efficiency across logistics operations.
The benefits are impressive. For example, gen AI can significantly reduce the lead time for producing documentation by up to 60 percent. This includes auto-generating and consolidating shipping documents, identifying potential mistakes, digesting corrections, and reducing human errors and the workload of logistics coordinators by 10 to 20 percent.
While most industry experts anticipate deploying Generative AI (GenAI) to enhance back-end operations over the next five years, the Asia Pacific region is expected to move faster, particularly in its application of GenAI to supply chains. According to McKinsey, 41% of companies in Asia Pacific plan to use GenAI within the next year to improve supply chain efficiency—compared to just 36% globally over the next five years. This regional acceleration is driven by the advanced manufacturing capabilities of countries such as China, South Korea, and Japan, as well as the proactive adoption of next-generation AI by forward-thinking nations like Singapore.
Industries such as luxury goods, finance, and travel have reported the most significant impacts from traditional AI over the past year. Meanwhile, sectors like consumer electronics and finance are leading the charge with GenAI adoption.
The rise of GenAI is fuelling rapid advances in digitalisation, automation, and business transformation, particularly within white-collar functions. As companies race to capitalise on new opportunities, they are seeking optimal use cases that can harness the vast data-processing capabilities of large language models, including text and image-based inputs.
Importantly, GenAI's influence extends beyond the private sector. Governments and all players in the supply chain ecosystem—including regulators and micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs)—are grappling with how to boost efficiency, cut costs, and ensure operational safety and security. Achieving these efficiencies requires cohesive collaboration across the entire chain, from policy to execution. This need for alignment explains why the full benefits of GenAI in supply chains are still gradually unfolding.
The transformation of supply chains is happening across the board—from planning to delivery. Automation is gaining traction in customer service roles, exemplified by the growing use of AI copilots. Similarly, dynamic pricing, long used in the travel industry, is now being adopted more widely, including in retail.
Wavye.ai, a pioneering force in autonomous vehicle (AV) technology, is set to roll out a fleet of self-driving vehicles in collaboration with
Uber Eats
by 2025. This strategic partnership aims to transform the food delivery landscape through cutting-edge AI and automation. The company has attracted significant investor interest, recently securing over USD 1 billion in funding from industry giants including NVIDIA, SoftBank, Microsoft, and Uber. This capital infusion supports the development and deployment of Wavye's next-generation AV2.0 platform.
Built on Embodied AI and powered by Generative AI (GenAI) neural networks, AV2.0 vehicles are self-learning, adaptable, and vehicle-agnostic. These systems enable the AVs to process real-world sensor data in real time, allowing them to make dynamic, context-aware driving decisions without human input. While the technological advancements offer exponential gains in efficiency and scalability, consumer trust and safety remain critical. Additionally, the rise of driverless delivery services raises important ethical considerations, particularly regarding potential job displacement in the gig economy—a sector already marked by economic uncertainty.
As the industry moves toward greater autonomy, balancing innovation with social responsibility will be essential for long-term success and public acceptance.
Singapore stands out as a global leader in GenAI deployment. Under its Smart Nation 2.0 and National AI Strategy 2.0 (NAIS 2.0), the city-state is leveraging GenAI to drive innovation and improve public services. Notably, its "Virtual Singapore" digital twin uses GenAI to simulate scenarios for urban planning, disaster preparedness, and risk management.
The government is also partnering with major tech players—such as Google through AI sandboxes and Microsoft via the AI Pinnacle Program—to explore GenAI applications in finance and beyond. These initiatives aim to ensure that GenAI benefits Singapore's residents while mitigating associated risks. Efforts like Job Transformation Maps are being developed to help workers reskill and stay relevant in a changing job market.
With strong leadership from the public sector, Singapore is paving the way for the private sector to explore new business models and revenue opportunities built on GenAI.
The Importance of GenAI and the Future of Marketing
Consumer expectations for greater personalisation continue to grow, with the most digitally savvy audiences demanding richer, more tailored experiences throughout their customer journey. In response, retailers, brands, and hospitality operators are increasingly leveraging Generative AI (GenAI) to enhance interactions, deliver smarter recommendations, and offer highly personalised assistance.
In today's competitive market, GenAI empowers businesses to elevate customer interactions from merely functional to genuinely memorable—building deeper relationships and fostering stronger brand loyalty.
GenAI is transforming the marketing landscape by enabling:
Dynamic content creation at scaleFaster operations and streamlined workflowsGreater audience engagement through hyper-personalised experiencesLocalized advertising and precise post-campaign analysisUpskilling opportunities for marketing teamsCost efficiencies and automation of repetitive tasks
Importantly, GenAI is also enhancing creativity in product ideation and development. It supports the optimisation and scalable measurement of content performance, driving both innovation and impact.
As adoption increases, performance-oriented marketing metrics will evolve. Human oversight will remain critical to ensure quality control, copyright compliance, and brand consistency. For smaller businesses, a more measured approach—adopting GenAI on a manageable scale—can help test its value and compatibility with internal operations.
GenAI is no longer a fringe innovation, it is reshaping the commercial and creative landscape. By redefining value, accelerating innovation, transforming product development, and enhancing service delivery, GenAI presents an unprecedented opportunity for growth.
The brands embracing GenAI aren't just keeping pace—they're setting the standard for a more intelligent, engaging, and profitable future. For those yet to begin, the message is clear: adapt now or risk being left behind.
So, whether your organisation thought to execute the Generative Artificial Intelligence to empower businesses and to elevate customer interactions from merely functional to genuinely memorable—building deeper relationships and fostering stronger brand loyalty?
(The Author is Professor, Trainer, and Consultant in Marketing at Lal Bahadur Shastri Institute of Management, New Delhi, India. The views expressed are personal.)