Predicting Insights into Consumer Behaviour

In the dynamic landscape of marketing, the 18th BW Marketing Whitebook Summit held at the prestigious Taj Santacruz in Mumbai provided a platform for leading CEOs and CMOs to share their perspectives on the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in marketing strategies. 

The Marketing Roundtable- Predicting Consumer Behaviour with AI, featured eminent panelists from diverse sectors including Sujatha V Kumar, Head of Marketing for India & South Asia at VISA, Sunil Gadgil, Marketing Director at Nivea, Dr. Kamaljit Anand, Managing Partner and Chief Data Scientist at KiE Square, Ajay Dang, President & Head of Marketing at UltraTech Cement, along with the session led person Somesh Surana, Head of Digital Business Group and Marketing at HDFC ERGO. 

The discussion explored the transformative power of AI and its impact on understanding consumer behaviour, personalized marketing campaigns, and the challenges faced by marketers in this AI-driven era.

The session was conducted by Somesh Surana, who talked about AI and machine learning (ML) in marketing. Sujatha V Kumar, emphasized the pivotal role of consumer insights in shaping the successful marketing campaigns. She talked about the significance of predictive AI in comprehending consumer behavior and trends, enabling marketers to target the right audience with personalized offerings. Sunil Gadgil, provided insights into AI playing as an influencing role, rather than the predicting role. He also talked about the fact that being a skin care brand, customer touch points cannot be replaced by AI led interventions, otherwise the probability of error would be too high. 

Dr. Kamaljit Anand, expressed concerns about the fear of over-personalisation by sharing some real-life examples. He emphasized the importance of balance in achieving personalization through AI, citing the need for emotional and immersive AI in the future. He spoke about the role of generative AI ‘influencers’ and how they are impacting consumer choices and decisions. He also spoke about how ML algorithms and generative AI can be used at a retail level to personalise the purchase experience for the customer. Dr.Anand discussed the challenges of data scarcity, highlighting the dependency on data to train high-quality AI. One should start creating a data mart and data pool. Lastly, he explained that the AI backend should be extremely strong, then one should work on the correct front end. Start with non-generative, then go with generative and after that immersive. Moving in this hierarchy can be very useful.

Ajay Dang, acknowledged the benefits of AI in predicting consumer behavior but highlighted the challenges in its execution. He emphasized that technology is the means, but the focus should be on identifying and solving the fundamental needs of consumers.

In conclusion, the 18th BW Marketing Whitebook Summit unveiled a consensus among industry leaders on the transformative potential of AI in marketing. The Summit highlighted that industry leaders widely agree on how Artificial Intelligence (AI) can transform marketing. As marketers face challenges and explore what AI can do, the summit emphasized that success comes from knowing what customers want, keeping things personalized, and using AI as a strong tool to make the overall customer experience better. The future of marketing is closely connected to how AI grows and is smartly used in strategies.