AI’s double-click: More speed, less soul?

In the rush to harness generative AI, Indian enterprises are not just playing catch-up; they are racing ahead. According to Adobe's 2025 AI and Digital Trends India snapshot, nearly one in four Indian businesses (23%) has already realised measurable ROI from generative AI implementation — the highest rate in the Asia-Pacific region. That figure alone signals a country not merely experimenting with AI but embedding it into core operations.

Yet, beneath the shine of early success, a deeper reckoning awaits. As enterprises crank up the scale on content generation and automation, the underlying data infrastructure, regulatory preparedness, and creative culture are being put to the test.

"Indian businesses are setting the global pace for realising ROI on AI initiatives as most are improving scale, speed and efficiencies," said Prativa Mohapatra, vice president and managing director, Adobe India. "For further growth, businesses will need to invest in solving data challenges and adopting agentic AI to free teams from repetitive tasks and enable more meaningful interventions that deliver relevant and real-time personalised customer experiences."

India's AI priorities: Operational power, creative paradox

The Adobe report, based on insights from 345 business leaders and 841 consumers, identifies customer journey optimisation and automation of repetitive tasks as top priorities for Indian firms in 2025. These are pragmatic focus areas—fuelled by increasing content demands and shrinking go-to-market windows.

But are we witnessing a gradual trade-off between creativity and convenience?

Anindita Veluri, director of marketing at Adobe India, offers a nuanced take. "We believe that efficiency and creativity are not mutually exclusive – in fact, they’re deeply complementary. AI is not here to replace creativity; it’s here to augment it, empower it and give it space to thrive,” she told Campaign.

Prativa Mohapatra, vice president and managing director, Adobe India.

Indeed, Veluri argues that the time reclaimed by automating repetitive marketing tasks gives creative teams more freedom to focus on storytelling, brand building, and emotional resonance—elements that drive long-term brand equity.

After years of tentative AI pilots and industry-wide unease, advertising leaders are now leaning into AI’s practical potential. “AI’s going to help us become better and serve our clients better,” said Ketan Desai, managing director, .Monks India. Henry Cowling, chief innovation officer at .Monks, added that AI is shifting the creative landscape.

“It’s not about winners or losers—though I don’t want to be insensitive—but giving more people access to creative tools is fundamentally a good thing,” he told Campaign. Cowling noted many CCOs now see AI as a way to empower younger talent and accelerate their growth.

Still, marketing leaders must tread carefully. As 85% of executives expect generative AI to supercharge content volume and speed, the temptation to value output over originality could backfire.

"Today’s marketing isn’t just about content — it’s also about connection," Veluri adds. "AI can accelerate workflows, but it doesn’t replace originality. The spark of creativity, the need to communicate authentically – that’s inherently human."

Data foundations: The unresolved tension

Even as Indian companies charge ahead with AI innovation, many are still wrestling with foundational data anxieties. Adobe’s report reveals that 57% of executives cite governance, compliance, and privacy concerns as top barriers to scaling AI. Industry estimates suggest as many as 80% of professionals still operate in data-siloed environments.

"At Adobe, we view the promise of GenAI not just through the lens of innovation and ROI, but through responsible innovation," says Veluri. "The foundation of any successful AI deployment is data. Yet, issues like fragmented ecosystems, compliance uncertainty and privacy concerns continue to challenge progress."

Anindita Veluri, director of marketing at Adobe India.

Adobe’s solution? A framework grounded in ART principles: Accountability, Responsibility, and Transparency.

"We don’t treat AI as a one-size-fits-all solution. Instead, we encourage businesses to begin with focused use cases, rigorously test for outcomes, and expand responsibly," she adds. "That’s how we move from experimentation to transformation, and lead with impact that lasts."

Humanising automation: Agentic AI’s role

AI is rapidly transforming global advertising, with examples ranging from Rahul Dravid offering AI-powered personalised coaching tips for kids in a Bournvita campaign, to a robotic arm rewriting Romeo and Juliet using an algorithm trained on Shakespeare’s handwriting for Bic. Both campaigns were created by WPP, which is investing £300 million annually in data, machine learning and technology.

On the other hand, their clients, like Air India, are embracing the shift from static automation to agentic AI—systems that can act on behalf of users while maintaining contextual understanding. It’s a strategy that prioritises speed and service, but not at the cost of user experience.

Dr. Satya Ramaswamy, chief digital and technology officer at Air India.

"AI is no longer a futuristic concept at Air India – it’s the engine powering our customer-first transformation," said Dr. Satya Ramaswamy, chief digital and technology officer at Air India. "From AI.g, our GenAI chatbot, to the intelligent eZ booking platform powered by agentic AI capabilities, we’re creating a travel ecosystem that’s proactive, fast, intuitive, and deeply personalised."

While Air India is personalising every touchpoint while maintaining a seamless brand narrative, Veluri points out that the success of such AI implementations rests on one thing: trust.

A shifting creative supply chain

With marketing teams increasingly turning to AI for campaign ideation and asset generation, Adobe is observing shifts in both internal structures and external partnerships.

"Organisations are evolving their creative team structures to adapt to the shift in technology," Veluri notes. "They are no longer siloed; they now work closely with data and marketing groups, forming more integrated and agile workflows."

The result is a rise in hybrid roles like "creative technologists" and "prompt engineers" who act as bridges between the creative vision and the algorithms that help execute it. While some large enterprises are developing in-house tools for speed and brand consistency, hybrid models involving agencies remain prevalent.

"We’re seeing both models gaining traction, depending on an organization’s maturity and strategic priorities," says Veluri. "It’s not a binary shift – it’s about flexibility."

For agencies, this evolution demands a reinvention of production pipelines—rethinking timelines, skill sets, and most critically, the definition of "creative work."

WPP CEO Mark Read recently called AI “fundamental” to the business, while acknowledging its potential to significantly alter agency jobs, even as WPP faces stiff competition from peers and mounting pressure from big tech players like Meta and Google. The latter have already dominated ad spend in the UK—nearly two-thirds of this year’s £45 billion—by providing digital tools for buyers and publishers. Now, with Meta planning to roll out AI systems that can generate and optimise full campaigns, concerns are rising across agencies about creative redundancy and job losses.

Managing risk without killing imagination

When 85% of Indian executives say they expect GenAI to significantly boost content production, questions around brand safety, originality, and creative control inevitably arise. Adobe’s approach blends creative output with intentionality.

"To scale responsibly, agencies must design pipelines that blend technology with human judgment," Veluri explains. "This ensures speed doesn’t come at the cost of brand integrity or creative depth."

Ketan Desai, managing director, .Monks India

Adobe’s generative tools, like Firefly and GenStudio, are designed to embed brand governance directly into creative workflows—offering built-in IP protection, asset consistency, and flexible deployment across platforms.

While countries like Japan and Singapore are permitting AI models to train on copyrighted data, Indian enterprises are treading more cautiously. "Responsible AI innovation must begin with respect for intellectual property, transparency, and integrity," Veluri asserts. "For Indian companies, the path forward is clear: adopt AI frameworks that are transparent, traceable, and built on trusted data," she says.

The broader push is also visible in Adobe’s leadership of the Content Authenticity Initiative, now joined by over 4,500 members globally. As brands innovate at breakneck speed, such guardrails are becoming not just advisable, but essential.

Indian enterprises may be leading the global charge in AI adoption and ROI, but sustaining this edge requires more than speed. It demands introspection, infrastructure and intent. The temptation to chase content velocity must be tempered by a commitment to brand voice, customer confidence, and ethical design.

For creative and marketing professionals, the AI age is not about choosing between automation and artistry. It’s about ensuring that one fuels the other. As Veluri puts it: "The future of marketing lies not in choosing between efficiency and creativity – but in embracing both, fully and fearlessly." In a market where expectations rise as quickly as innovation curves, striking a balance between creativity and efficiency may well be the only sustainable edge.