Latest news with #TuhinaPandey
Time of India
7 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
MarTech+: The AI reality check
Dear Reader, Here's a truth we don't say out loud enough: Most marketers aren't afraid of AI, they're tired of the hype cycle. We've been promised transformation, but what we've gotten is a lot of pilots, pitch decks, and… not much RoI. This week, we get real about that. Plus, we decode the language of AI and peek into how startup marketers are quietly rewriting the playbook with what we're calling vibe coding . Let's jump in. AI Promised Growth. CMOs Got a Rut. Only 19% of AI pilots are meeting RoI expectations, finds a study by IBM. That's a brutal stat for CMOs who are being told to 'drive profitable growth' So, what's holding enterprises back? Turns out, legacy marketing models don't gel with AI unless you've built the right data foundation. IBM's Tuhina Pandey calls out the missing piece: foundational data models that drive responsible growth, not just experimental sprints. Read more Why you should care: Because AI hype is turning into CMO pressure and the only way out is by fixing what's under the hood, not just dressing up the dashboard. AI 101: A Glossary Worth Bookmarking AI's not just this year's buzzword. It's a decades-long evolution that saw contributions from people like Alan Turing and John McCarthy, and it's reshaping marketing from the inside out. This explainer distills the key milestones and terms every marketer should know, from machine learning to neural nets. Read more Why you should care: Because being fluent in AI-speak is no longer optional. It's how you stay credible in the next CMO meeting (or your next career jump). Rise of Vibe Coding: When Marketers Build Their Own Tools No support from dev teams? No problem. Startups are letting marketing teams build campaigns themselves, with no-code tools and AI assistants doing the heavy lifting. It's quick, agile, and designed to cut through legacy bottlenecks. Read more Why you should care: Because 'vibe coding' might be the biggest unlock for smaller teams to compete with giants, faster, cheaper, smarter. Stories you might have missed AI search pushing an already weakened media ecosystem to the brink Brands press enter; GEO to show up more in AI searches Instagram live streaming rules change CCI refuses probe into startup body's complaint against Google's online search ad services Amazon will offer OpenAI models to customers for the first time Over to You What's your AI implementation journey so far? Pilot stuck? Tools working? We want to hear how you are bridging the hype vs. reality gap. Tag us on LinkedIn @ETBrandEquity and let's make this a two-way street. Stay tuned for the next edition of MarTech+ newsletter rolling out every week on Wednesday. – Team ETBrandEquity
Time of India
7 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
Can CMOs guide enterprises out of the AI rut?
Today, modern CMOs face multiple challenges. The average CMO tenure is on a downward spiral, currently at 4.3 years. Organisations increasingly view the CMO as a direct business and revenue driver, with 64% of CMOs saying they are responsible for profitability and 58% saying they are responsible for revenue growth. The consumer is 'always on', constantly generating data that signals their intent to discover, purchase or seek assistance. A recent CMO study published by IBM claims that the successful marketing organisations and CMOs will not be the ones with bigger budgets or shinier tools but the ones that reinvent the operating model that delivers business growth. The reality is that CMOs are being undermined by operating models of a bygone marketing era and need to become interpreters and integrators between different siloed functions to deliver value to customers. Tuhina Pandey , director - APAC communications and marketing, India and South Asia, IBM, in conversation with shared why AI holds the key to enabling marketers to deliver on customer expectations, organisational demands and unlock growth. However, marketers need to tackle operational realities before they can successfully implement AI. Edited Excerpts Q. How is the outdated marketing 'operating model' holding back marketers from delivering what their organisation demands? There is not a new or old operating model, but how you respond to the needs of the marketing environment today. Marketers are grappling with a harsh paradox. At one end, there is an expectation to champion topline (revenue) growth, achieve a higher degree of profitability, increase return on investment (RoI), and improve expense-to-return ratios. AI is the way to do it. Bring in automation, cut down on repetitive tasks, and generate content on the fly so you can respond to clients with agility. Even if marketers accept this reality, organisations are not structurally or culturally prepared to leverage AI. Q. Let's talk about the current marketing environment. What are the customer expectations? Clients want messaging that is relevant to them and hyper-personalised. You have to intercept the client's journey; you can't just push your products onto them. You need to meet them in a moment of need or a moment of intent with the best solution. However, I can say this of most B2B enterprises: 99% of data is sitting untapped by AI. If you layer AI and MarTech tools onto data that is siloed, where there is no single source of truth, that isn't collaborative, isn't current, or isn't of high quality, then the results are not going to be great. We are solving for the wrapper and not the core. Q. Where are enterprises in their data journey? Most enterprises' data journey is a 'work in progress'. The way enterprises like banking, finance and retail utilise their data is different depending on customer expectations and the regulatory environments, which determine much of how they leverage their data. Regulation, compliance, and the law of the land mandate that you have certain governance frameworks for your data. The good part is that India Inc. is experimenting with AI and has been able to derive outcomes. There are purpose-built AI models where you can backward integrate to try and solve a business problem and pull the requisite data. But if you really want to scale and derive the benefits of AI, then you have to put in the hard yards. That's going to be a journey of a year or two before we start seeing outcomes in the Indian business environment. The good part is that the industry attitude has changed to 'how can we drive real impact with AI' versus 'let's experiment with AI'. Taking our own example, the IBM Client Zero story is pretty compelling. We've gone on record to say that we've saved $3.5 billion in bottom line because we are using AI automation in our processes and workflows. Q. How can AI unlock value in the marketing function? On the marketing side, we're seeing disruption in many areas. One is the line of business or the functional side, such as workflows and processes. When you're integrating AI into your workflows and processes, you have to overhaul them and find the most efficient way of doing it. If you just automate with AI without changing the processes, you won't get the outcomes. On the MarTech stack, it has become very important to have a customer data platform or unified data platform to get the source of truth right and break silos. You can't get an integrated truth about your customers if your data isn't integrated. Additionally, aligning functions like marketing, sales and operations has become equally important. The report talks about a potential 20% revenue unlock if there is tighter alignment between these three functions. You need to synchronise internally between these three really well to ensure continuum in the client's journey, so that there is no breakage or seepage. We're seeing a lot of applications of AI in garnering insights, analytics, segmentation, content generation, and being the marketer's creative assistant on a day-to-day basis. But what we're really conscious of is the responsible AI part of it. Organisations should be able to explain their AI models in a transparent way. This is especially true for marketing functions which deal with customer data, pain points and needs. Not working with responsible AI is like running very hard but in the opposite direction. At IBM, we're disproportionately focused on creating foundational datasets. We believe in AI augmentation but are also conscious that we need to scale responsibly. Q. Today, consumers are 'always on' or in a state of perpetual demand. Even if organisations recognise that they need to leverage AI to cater to consumer expectations, will they be comfortable with completely autonomous interactions? What about the human in the loop? Consumers don't care who is on the other end as long as they are comfortable with the interaction and trust the outcome. Ultimately, you will have automated systems marketing for you. Autonomous agents already exist. The real question is: who is going to connect the dots between the AI and the biases of your data, your creative vision, and the relationship between human and AI? It is not an 'either-or' question, but rather an 'and' question. Will you have completely autonomous environments? Yes, in bits and pieces, but on a longer continuum it will be both humans and AI. We will have digital colleagues in the near future and certain micro-processes will have autonomous agents, but humans will have a role to play for this to succeed. Q. While AI pilots are happening across enterprises, your report points out that only 19% are able to deliver the expected RoI. So, what should organisations and marketers focus on? This is a big reality check when it comes to AI. So, it is equally important for enterprises to figure out what's most important to them. Having clarity of thought means they can apply resources and AI budgets to those problems. Also, if the AI model eats out of the same data pool as every other enterprise, then you will get the same results. That's why AI needs to be fed with your proprietary data. The good news is that enterprises are saying, 'Let's look at the problems that we can solve using AI' and not look at it as a silver bullet. The phase of piloting AI projects for six or twelve weeks is over. Now, organisations are putting in the two years of hard work into AI so that they can start reaping the benefits. AI is just like the mobile phone or the internet. We need to be real about its applications and embed it at the core. It needs to become a part of how enterprises do things rather than become the thing itself. Q. There has been consumer backlash to AI-generated content. A NielsenIQ study found that consumers found AI ads less engaging. Is AI doomed to be relegated to backend processes and not customer-facing communication? There is a sea of sameness surrounding AI-generated content. If every organisation is using the same data, then the outcome is not going to be very different. Every corporation has unique institutional knowledge, lived experience of that enterprise, expertise and character. Unless you're patient in building foundational data models, putting in the guardrails, being responsible and accountable, then you will not be unique in your communications. Every human being has the same set of organs and body parts, but we're different in the way we perceive the world, our formative years and experiences. So, the question is: how are we curating AI? (This interview is part one of a two part series.)
Time of India
09-07-2025
- Business
- Time of India
India marketing leaders under pressure, turn to AI for growth: IBM 2025 study
Highlights63% of Indian CMOs are under pressure to deliver profitability; 53% for revenue growth Only 26% believe they have the talent needed to achieve their goals for the next two years Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) are under growing pressure to drive profitability and revenue growth, even as they navigate the complex demands of AI integration, ecosystem leadership, and talent transformation, reveals the IBM CMO Study findings from the global study by the IBM Institute for Business Value (IBV) show that 63% of Indian CMOs are now accountable for delivering profitability, closely aligned with their global counterparts (64%). Additionally, 53% are directly responsible for driving revenue growth, underscoring the CMO's expanding role beyond traditional brand stewardship. Additionally, Indian CMOs are prioritizing customer experience, tech modernization, and business model innovation to future-proof their organizations, alongside scaling service delivery and marketing, and sales effectiveness. Yet, they face critical gaps in responsible AI, talent readiness, and data utilization. The findings highlight a growing disconnect between ambition and execution in the age of generative AI. 'As AI radically transforms how businesses engage, operate, and grow, Indian CMOs are uniquely positioned to lead this shift by harnessing AI responsibly,' said Tuhina Pandey, Director – APAC Communications & Marketing, India and South Asia, IBM. She added, 'While the potential of AI is clear, what's needed now is a bold new playbook, one powered by trusted data, skilled talent, cultural reset, and AI augmentation.' Key India findings: Business Transformation Priorities: CMOs are focusing on Customer Experience (41%), scalability of delivery of services (37%), technology modernization (37%), marketing & sales effectiveness (34%), and business model innovation (32%) to drive future AI Gap: Only 26% of Indian CMOs have established responsible AI guidelines to ensure fairness, transparency, and accountability in automated Paradox: While 44% of CMOs believe their function is ready to integrate Agentic AI, only 26% believe they have the necessary talent to achieve their goals over the next two years. In India, just 23% of CMOs have prepared their teams for the cultural and operational shifts AI agents will bring. Untapped data: 63% agree that generative AI's value lies in proprietary data, yet only 1% of enterprise data is being tapped. Cross-functional silos: Only one-third of organizations have cross-functional view of the customer journey. CMOs estimate that fully aligning marketing, sales, and operations could unlock up to a 20% increase in revenue. Ecosystem focus: 62% of Indian CMOs prioritize partnerships, well above the global average of 47%.
Time of India
09-07-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Indian CMOs to prioritise CX, tech modernisation and business model innovation: Study
HighlightsAccording to the IBM Chief Marketing Officer Study 2025, 63 percent of Indian Chief Marketing Officers are now accountable for delivering profitability, closely aligned with the global average of 64 percent. While 44 percent of Indian Chief Marketing Officers believe their function is ready to integrate agentic artificial intelligence, only 26 percent feel they possess the necessary talent to achieve their goals over the next two years. Indian Chief Marketing Officers excel in ecosystem focus, with 62 percent prioritizing partnerships as a strategic initiative, compared to the global average of 47 percent. The modern chief marketing officer faces a stark reality: despite commanding larger budgets and more sophisticated tools, most marketing organisations are structurally incapable of delivering the results that boards now demand. This is not merely an operational challenge, it has become an existential threat. According to the IBM CMO Study 2025 , CMOs are under growing pressure to drive profitability and revenue growth while navigating the complex demands of AI integration , ecosystem leadership and talent transformation. The findings from the global study, conducted by the IBM Institute for Business Value (IBV), reveal that 63 per cent of Indian CMOs are now accountable for delivering profitability, closely aligned with their global counterparts at 64 per cent. Furthermore, 53 per cent are directly responsible for driving revenue growth, signalling the CMO's expanding influence well beyond traditional brand stewardship. Indian CMOs are also prioritising future readiness. Their current focus includes customer experience , technology modernisation, and business model innovation, alongside efforts to scale service delivery and improve marketing and sales effectiveness. However, these ambitions are challenged by critical capability gaps in areas such as responsible AI, talent readiness, and data utilisation. The study highlights a widening disconnect between strategic aspiration and practical execution, particularly in the age of generative AI. 'As AI radically transforms how businesses engage, operate, and grow, Indian CMOs are uniquely positioned to lead this shift by harnessing AI responsibly,' said Tuhina Pandey, director - APAC communications and marketing, India and South Asia, IBM. She added, 'While the potential of AI is clear, what's needed now is a bold new playbook, one powered by trusted data, skilled talent, cultural reset, and AI augmentation.' The study's findings in India provide sharper insight into this tension between opportunity and capability. While 44 per cent of CMOs believe their function is ready to integrate agentic AI, only 26 per cent believe they have the necessary talent to achieve their goals over the next two years. Just 23 per cent have prepared their teams for the cultural and operational shifts that AI agents are expected to bring. The data gap is equally pressing. Although 63 per cent agree that the value of generative AI lies in proprietary data, only 1 per cent of enterprise data is currently being utilised. This suggests that while the strategic direction is understood, the underlying infrastructure and readiness to support it are still lacking. Organisational silos continue to hinder progress. Only one-third of organisations report having a cross-functional view of the customer journey. CMOs estimate that achieving alignment across marketing, sales and operations could unlock up to a 20 per cent increase in revenue, yet this integration remains elusive. Indian CMOs do, however, outperform their global peers in ecosystem focus. Sixty-two per cent place partnerships as a strategic priority, well above the global average of 47 per cent. This indicates an emerging recognition that collaborative ecosystems will be central to marketing-led innovation in the years ahead. Ultimately, the role of the CMO is transforming rapidly. Expectations are rising, yet structural limitations remain. The path forward will require more than budget increases or technology upgrades. It calls for a complete rethink of operating models, anchored in responsible AI, agile talent, and cross-functional collaboration , to bridge the gap between marketing ambition and enterprise value.
Time of India
09-07-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Indian CMOs under pressure to deliver profitability amid AI, talent and data challenges: IBM study
Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) in India are increasingly being held accountable for delivering not just brand value but also profitability and revenue growth , as they navigate the complex terrain of AI adoption , evolving customer expectations, and workforce transformation, according to the IBM CMO Study 2025 , released today by the IBM Institute for Business Value (IBV). The global study, conducted in partnership with Oxford Economics, reveals that 63% of Indian CMOs are now directly responsible for ensuring profitability, closely mirroring the global figure of 64%. Meanwhile, 53% of Indian CMOs are tasked with driving revenue growth, marking a significant expansion in the traditional remit of marketing leaders. 'As AI radically transforms how businesses engage, operate and grow, Indian CMOs are uniquely positioned to lead this shift by harnessing AI responsibly,' said Tuhina Pandey, Director – APAC Communications & Marketing, India and South Asia, IBM. 'While the potential of AI is clear, what's needed now is a bold new playbook, one powered by trusted data, skilled talent, cultural reset and AI augmentation.' The study finds that Indian CMOs are aligning their strategies to meet both short-term performance goals and long-term transformation imperatives. They are focusing on customer experience , scalable service delivery, technology modernisation, marketing and sales effectiveness, and business model innovation. These priorities reflect a clear pivot towards future-proofing the organisation while ensuring operational efficiency and customer-centric growth. Despite the enthusiasm around generative and Agentic AI, significant challenges remain. Only 26% of Indian CMOs report having responsible AI guidelines in place to ensure fairness, transparency and accountability in automated decision-making. While 44% believe their functions are ready to adopt Agentic AI, just 26% feel confident they have the right talent to meet their goals over the next two years. Only 23% have prepared their teams for the cultural and operational changes that AI will bring. Live Events The study also finds that although 63% of Indian CMOs agree that proprietary data is key to unlocking generative AI's potential, only 1% of enterprise data is currently being utilised, a stark indication of underused digital assets. Organisational silos continue to hamper effectiveness: just one in three organisations has a cross-functional view of the customer journey, and CMOs estimate that fully aligning marketing, sales and operations could lead to a revenue uplift of up to 20%. On a more optimistic note, Indian CMOs are leading globally in forging ecosystem partnerships. Around 62% prioritise external collaboration as a strategic imperative, significantly above the global average of 47%. The IBM Institute for Business Value, in collaboration with Oxford Economics, surveyed 1,800 CMOs and Chief Sales Officers (CSOs) across 33 countries and 24 industries between March and May 2025. Although the roles of CMO and CSO were both included, findings are attributed to 'CMOs' for simplicity. The research explored executive priorities, customer experience strategies, AI and technology adoption, data usage, cross-functional alignment and talent readiness.
