IS ALGORITHM RUNNING THE SHOW NOW?

From brands generating AI-crafted ads to non-metro cities running performance campaigns with a focus on hyper-personalisation, AI is no longer an experiment. It is now the engine but at what cost and to whom?

- By Reema Bhaduri

ARTIFICIAL intelligence has moved from being a boardroom buzzword to an operational backbone. It is a quiet revolution in marketing since the internet arrived on the subcontinent. According to a 2026 report by Cloud 9 Digital, 78 per cent of Indian businesses now actively use AI for marketing. Indian marketers report saving 12 to 15 hours per week using AI tools, with content creation time dropping by 60 per cent, research time by 45 per cent and reporting time by 50 per cent. The time saved is not being wasted. It is being ploughed back into strategy, creativity, and what CMOs are now calling ‘high-value human work.’ Meanwhile, MiQ’s global programmatic report states that 79 per cent of Indian marketers plan to expand their use of AI over the next 12 months, among the highest adoption intent globally.

At the macro level, the opportunity is staggering. Grand View Research puts India’s AI in marketing market at $4,378.6 million by 2030, a 28.5 per cent CAGR. India’s generative AI market is growing even faster, at 48 per cent CAGR through 2030, as per Statista. Dentsu’s 2026 CMO report adds the global context: advertising spend worldwide is forecast to surpass $1 trillion in 2026 and an increasingly disproportionate share of that is algorithmic, AI-mediated and automated.

From Adex To Algorithm

According to the Pitch Madison Advertising Report 2026, India’s total Adex grew seven per cent on the legacy definition to Rs 1,15,291 crore in 2025. On the expanded definition, which now includes programmatic, performance, and AI-native formats, it grew 12 per cent to Rs 1,55,105 crore. Traditional media shrank by Rs 739 crore. Digital added Rs 8,050 crore on the legacy lens and Rs 16,895 crore on the expanded lens.