In an era where marketing is expected to prove its value with precision, AI is reshaping creativity and accountability. At a recent India CMO Forum Coffee Chat in New Delhi, senior marketing leaders examined how AI is being deployed across the marketing value chain, from content and automation to analytics and attribution, and what this means for creativity, measurement and evolving C-Suite dynamic. The discussion explored where AI genuinely adds value, where its limits lie and how it is redefining the very idea of what creative excellence means.

The conversation yielded valuable insights on the future of AI in marketing. The attached podcast summarises the discussions, but in brief:

• AI has made marketing more measurable, but not always more meaningful.
• Efficiency has improved but creative conviction and long-term investment remain harder to defend.
• The future CMO must blend proof with perspective: filtering signal from noise and defining what matters, not just what can be measured.
• Integration – getting various parts to work together – will be marketing’s biggest AI -related challenge.
• AI will not replace creativity but raise the standard for what counts as creative.
• The defining edge for marketers will be judgement, together with the ability to translate intelligence into imagination and data into distinctiveness.