Ex-Pixis CEO Neel Pandya’s Climaty AI Raises $2M to Fuse Climate and Marketing Tech

• Neel Pandya–led startup will leverage the funding to accelerate its Agentic AI ecosystem and expand globally, delivering carbon-conscious marketing solutions to brands and agencies.

Climaty AI, the world’s first CliMarTech (Climate + Marketing Technology) company founded by former AI startup CEO Neel Pandya,has raised $2 million in early-stage funding to accelerate its vision of building carbon-conscious marketing solutions powered by Agentic AI. With over two decades of experience across L’Oréal, Vodafone, GroupM, and as the former CEO of Pixis, where he helped scale the company to a $225M-funded global brand, Neel brings deep expertise at the intersection of marketing, AI, and technology. The round was led by Turbostart, a global venture capital and accelerator fund, along with participation from leading AI experts and angel investors.

Global advertising spend has crossed $1 trillion. However, nearly 37% is lost to ineffective targeting, weak creative, and duplication. Climaty AI addresses these inefficiencies with their Agentic AI ecosystem, a self-optimizing marketing infrastructure that learns continuously, adapts to goals in real time, and orchestrates campaigns end-to-end with human oversight built in.

Climaty’s four Agentic AI-powered media agents — Campaign Builder, Creator, Optimizer, and Analytics — are designed to transform the way the industry works by removing manual inefficiencies, giving back media planners their valuable time to focus on strategy, and enabling agencies to deliver faster, more precise outcomes. This means greater transparency, smarter campaigns, and measurable results with sustainability built in — creating a win-win future where performance and responsibility go hand in hand.

With this early-stage funding, Climaty AI will advance its proprietary Agentic AI tech stack and expand its footprint across APAC, EMEA, the UK, and North America, where demand for sustainable and high-performance marketing is surging.

Ganesh Raju, Founder, Turbostart, said, “Marketing platforms of the future will combine performance with accountability. Climaty AI is shaping this new standard with CliMarTech and Agentic AI. We’re excited to support this journey from India to the world.”

Neel Pandya, Founder & Global CEO, Climaty AI

Neel Pandya, Founder & Global CEO, Climaty AI, added, “The most successful brands will treat accountability as a driver of performance. Agentic AI and sustainability are at the core of everything we do at Climaty AI.”

Climaty AI has shown early traction with a pilot for Opella, enhancing marketing efficiency while minimizing carbon footprint. Its solutions have been tested successfully across EdTech, Consumer Healthcare, Automotive, and CPG sectors, highlighting relevance across diverse marketing environments.

Zee Spotlight Debuts with Hyundai: A Game-Changer in Omnichannel Brand Engagement

Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (ZEEL), India’s leading Content and Technology powerhouse, has unveiled its latest high-visibility advertising innovation – Zee Spotlight under the ‘Z’ RISE Initiative. Designed to deliver unmatched brand salience across the network, Zee Spotlight offers advertisers a clutter-breaking mix of premium brand touchpoints across both General Entertainment Channels (GECs) and Movie channels.

As part of this new offering, Zee Spotlight brings together a powerful combination of Stings, Branded Windows, In-show Funnel Placements, QR-code Astons, and Tags on GECs, along with Branded Carousels, L-bands, Astons, Stings, and Tags on Movie channels. True to its name, each of these element puts a spotlight on every stage of the AIDA Model (Awareness, Interest, Desire, Action). This holistic suite which will also activate multiple impact elements on OTT platform ZEE5, will enable brands to maximize impact, strengthen recall, and seamlessly integrate into viewers’ content journey through an omnichannel approach.

Hyundai Motor India Limited, a brand synonymous with innovation and leadership in the Indian automotive industry, has come onboard as the exclusive inaugural partner for Zee Spotlight. With this association, Hyundai will leverage the network’s unparalleled reach and visibility to further connect with millions of consumers across the country.

Speaking on this initiative, Laxmi Shetty, Head- Advertisement Revenue, Broadcast & Digital, Zee Entertainment Enterprises said: “With Zee Spotlight, we are reimagining how brands engage with audiences in a highly fragmented media ecosystem through an omnichannel approach. This offering provides advertisers with high-frequency, high-visibility brand presence across our most watched entertainment destinations. We are delighted to have Hyundai, a brand that resonates strongly with innovation and excellence, as our very first partner for this journey.”

Mr. Virat Khullar, AVP & Vertical Head - Marketing, Hyundai Motor India Limited added: “At Hyundai, we are constantly seeking innovative avenues to connect with our customers. Zee Spotlight initiative is a cutting-edge platform that redefines brand story telling through an omni-channel lens. The partnership will allow Hyundai to seamlessly integrate with Zee Entertainment’s diverse ecosystem across general entertainment channels (GECs) and movie channels, offering an unique opportunity to engage with viewers in a more dynamic and immersive way. As a brand driven by innovation, we see this partnership as a powerful step forward in building deeper connection with consumers across India’s vibrant landscape.”

With this collaboration, ‘Z’ continues to set new benchmarks in advertiser-led innovations, ensuring brands receive maximum resonance while enhancing the viewing experience for millions of households. 

Driving Quality Leads for Auto Dealerships with AI Marketing Automation

Auto dealerships are navigating a shift from footfall-focused strategies to digital-first engagement models. Today’s car buyers demand fast, relevant, and connected experiences across multiple touchpoints. AI marketing automation is helping dealerships move from manual, fragmented outreach to seamless customer journeys powered by real-time intelligence and automation. With tools like predictive analytics, personalized recommendations, and messaging platforms like WhatsApp, dealerships are enhancing both lead quality and buyer experience.

Personalization at Scale: Meeting Buyers Where They Are

AI allows dealerships to go beyond mass marketing by delivering tailored communication based on customer behavior and preferences. Instead of sending the same message to every lead, dealerships can now analyze factors like search history, vehicle interest, and location to recommend specific models or offers. For instance, a potential buyer browsing electric vehicles can receive personalized WhatsApp messages featuring financing options for EVs or promotional benefits tied to sustainability.

This level of customization not only boosts engagement but also builds trust, nudging buyers closer to conversion through timely, relevant communication.

Predictive Analytics: Identifying Purchase Intent Early

AI-powered analytics can assess behavioral patterns and past interactions to estimate how likely a lead is to convert. Dealerships no longer need to treat all leads equally. High-intent prospects such as returning users exploring multiple trims or comparing models can be prioritized by the system for follow-up.

In addition to improving sales team efficiency, predictive analytics can help automate intelligent responses via WhatsApp, flagging interested leads and triggering tailored communication that keeps the buying momentum alive.

WhatsApp Chatbots: Real-Time Engagement That Converts

One of the most powerful tools in this AI-led ecosystem is the WhatsApp chatbot. Auto dealerships are increasingly using WhatsApp to drive instant, interactive engagement. From answering pricing questions and sharing brochures to collecting customer information and booking test drives, chatbots enable dealerships to engage leads 24/7.

Instead of relying on web forms or delayed call-backs, WhatsApp chatbots allow prospects to schedule test drives, explore vehicle options, or request call-backs through a platform they already use daily. This approach significantly reduces drop-offs and enhances the overall buying experience.

Booking Test Drives with a Single Tap

Traditionally, test drive bookings required multiple steps such as calling the showroom, waiting for confirmation, and hoping for availability. With AI-enabled WhatsApp chatbots, this process becomes frictionless. A customer browsing a car online can receive a proactive WhatsApp message prompting them to book a test drive. With pre-integrated calendars and location data, the bot can offer available time slots, send confirmation reminders, and even help with navigation to the dealership.

This real-time automation not only simplifies the booking process but also improves attendance rates and reduces manual follow-up.

Virtual Showrooms: Bringing Cars to Life Digitally

The future of car buying is immersive, and virtual stores are leading the way. Maruti Suzuki decided to consider a new way to engage with customers. This is when, In partnership with DaveAI, the idea of NEXAVERSE – a standalone Metaverse was formulated to launch the Grand Vitara in a virtual Nexa showroom. These digital showrooms replicate in-person experiences and enable users to view different trims, personalize features, and interact with the car virtually.

CRM Integration and Lifecycle Nurturing

AI tools integrated with CRM systems provide end-to-end visibility into the buyer’s journey. Whether it is tracking a prospect’s interaction across WhatsApp, website, or virtual store, or triggering smart follow-ups based on intent signals, automation ensures no lead is left behind.

WhatsApp conversations, once disconnected from CRM systems, are now fully traceable. This allows dealerships to measure engagement, plan next actions, and personalize the follow-up process with context-rich insights.

Conclusion

In a landscape where car buyers expect instant responses, personalized messaging, and digital exploration options, AI marketing automation is helping auto dealerships deliver. From WhatsApp chatbots that manage real-time bookings to predictive insights that prioritize the right leads and virtual experiences like Nexaverse that transform how vehicles are explored, the shift is clear. Dealerships must evolve to meet the digital buyer’s expectations. By embracing AI tools purpose-built for the automotive industry, dealerships can not only generate better leads but also build stronger, more connected customer journeys that drive higher conversions with less manual effort.

Adobe Expands AI Agentic Offerings, Adds New Agent Capabilities in Adobe Experience Platform

• Adobe unveiled Product Support Agent, a new AI Agent in Adobe Experience Platform which helps marketers and experience teams resolve issues impacting marketing workflows
• Product Support Agent is the latest addition to Adobe’s suite of purpose-built AI Agents; it joins the now generally available Data Insights Agent, which simplifies the process of deriving insights from customer data in Customer Journey Analytics
• Product Support Agent and Data Insights Agent are powered by Adobe Experience Platform (AEP) Agent Orchestrator, which allows businesses to build, manage, and orchestrate AI agents across Adobe and third-party ecosystems

Today, Adobe (Nasdaq:ADBE) announced several updates to Adobe’s agentic functionality, including Product Support Agent, a net-new agent which provides an interactive, and guided way for marketers and customer experience professionals to diagnosis and resolve issues impacting marketing workflows in Adobe Experience Platform applications. As part of this expansion, Adobe is also announcing the general availability of Data Insights Agent, the first agent built on the Adobe Experience Platform Agent Orchestrator, which provides the foundation for businesses to orchestrate purpose-built AI agents that engage directly with customers and support the daily work across Adobe applications and third-party ecosystems.

Product Support Agent is designed to support marketing and customer experience teams in their Adobe Experience Platform applications by providing an interactive way to troubleshoot, diagnose, and escalate issues. Too often, marketers experience operational roadblocks that can interrupt workflows and pull their focus away from strategic, high-impact work. Troubleshooting application issues and managing support tickets, can be time-consuming and distract from core responsibilities as they often involve cross-functional inputs and collaboration, and can mean tracking down fixes that require navigating complex workflows and technical documentation, distracting them from core responsibilities. By delivering in-the-moment troubleshooting guidance and case management, Product Support Agent enables faster resolutions and greater operational efficiency.

As soon as a user asks for help with creating a support ticket within the AI Assistant conversational interface, the Product Support Agent gathers relevant contextual data from the environment automatically—logs, metadata, user session details, and more—and accurately pre-fills the support case, which the user can review before submitting. This ensures critical information is captured from the start and enables the agent to handle triage-level tasks like ticket categorization, prioritization, and context gathering, so support teams can begin working on the issue earlier with no delays.

Users can also get real-time status updates for of any open ticket directly through the same AI Assistant interface, without switching tools or logging into separate portals. Product Support Agent will soon be able to provide proactive notifications whenever there’s a change in case status. This reduces follow-ups and means support case requesters can be alerted as soon as there’s progress, allowing them to communicate confidently with stakeholders and stay in control of the support experience.

As part of this expansion, we are also announcing the general availability of Data Insights Agent, the first agent built on the Adobe Experience Platform Agent Orchestrator. Data Insights Agent allows users to query data directly using natural language, just simple questions like “What channels drove the most conversions last week?” and in an instant the Data Insights agent builds the visualization in the Analysis Workspace within Adobe Customer Journey Analysis.

Data Insights Agent not only simplifies insight generation for marketers by allowing them to query their data in natural language and generate visualizations from scratch, but also lets you make changes to previously built visualizations and build analysis iteratively.

“Adobe’s Data Insights Agent will be a major unlock for our organization, shortening the time it takes to find and deliver actionable insights,” said Lokesh Alluri, digital and marketing analytics manager, Lenovo. “By streamlining time-intensive workflows, from reporting to forecasting, we can ensure that every stakeholder has timely data to drive initiatives that enhance customer satisfaction.”

Experience Platform Agents are built for a new era of work where AI is powering creativity and marketing execution to help teams move faster, work smarter, and stay in control. Agentic AI will never replace human expertise, but it can certainly work alongside experts to help create more capacity so they can focus on creative solutions that will drive greater business impact than ever before.

Growth Protocol, backed by Nazara and Lysto, debuts its mainnet on Avalanche

Growth Protocol has officially launched its purpose-built Layer-1 blockchain today, backed by Nazara Technologies and Lysto.The platform is designed to propel the future of advertising on-chain, with real-time engagement through tokenizing digital advertising campaigns. Growth Protocol is signaling a major shift in how global brands connect with 150K+ daily active users already on the platform post the private testnet launch.

Growth Protocol is a blockchain marketing protocol that removes ad intermediaries, enforces radical transparency, guarantees equitable payouts, and restores sovereign digital identity to users—powering trustless Web3 campaigns.

Thanks to the Avalanche tech stack, Growth Protocol delivers sub-second finality and 10,000+ transactions per second to support high-throughput, fraud-proof marketing at scale. “Growth Protocol delivers exactly the kind of real-world adoption we envisioned Avalanche enabling—low-latency, high-speed infrastructure powering proof-of-performance at global scale,” said Emin Gün Sirer, Founder and CEO of Ava Labs. “It raises the bar for transparency in a trillion-dollar industry.”

Nazara Technologies, early backer of Growth Protocol and India’s only publicly listed gaming company and a leader in mobile gaming and esports is bringing its marketing applications on chain. Two Nazara titles are already live on-chain. “Nazara has spent 25 years putting fun into the hands of players,” said Nitish Mittersain, CEO and Founder of Nazara. “Now, with Growth Protocol, we’re helping advertisers and publishers reach and reward our players with absolute trust and efficiency. This is the future of game marketing.”

Growth Protocol replaces centralized, opaque ad-tech stacks with smart contract-based, real-time settlement. “Digital advertising still loses a substantial chunk of every dollar to intermediaries,” noted Sadiq Ahamed, Co-Founder of Growth Protocol. “We’re rerouting that value back to creators, publishers, and gamers—while giving advertisers and auditors an immutable ledger of truth.”

About Growth Protocol

Growth Protocol is a high-performance Layer-1 blockchain designed specifically for tokenizing digital advertising campaigns. By uniting Smart Goals, tokenized attribution and real-time settlements, it eliminates fraud, slashes customer-acquisition cost and guarantees that 100 percent of ad spend reaches real users. The protocol is backed by Nazara Technologies and Lysto, and supported by leading Web3 investors and technologists.

About Nazara Technologies Ltd

Nazara is India’s only listed gaming and Esports Company, with majority ownership of several leading gaming and esports brands with presence in India, the US, and other global markets. In esports, Nazara has India’s leading esports platform NODWIN Gaming and Sportskeeda/Pro Football Network in the sports media space. Nazara’s offerings in the interactive gaming segment include gamified early learning ecosystems like Kiddopia and Animal Jam, a leading IP based gaming studio ‘Fusebox’, India’s most popular cricket simulation franchise, World Cricket Championship (WCC), and a wide portfolio of casual games distributed through telco partnerships in many emerging markets. Additionally, Nazara controls Datawrkz, a digital ad tech company supporting its portfolio companies and external clients with demand-side user acquisition and supply-side ad monetization services. Website: https://www.nazara.com.

About Avalanche

Avalanche is an ultra-fast, low-latency blockchain platform designed for builders who need high performance at scale. The network’s architecture allows for the creation of sovereign, efficient and fully interoperable public and private Layer 1 (L1) blockchains which leverage the Avalanche Consensus Mechanism to achieve high throughput and near-instant transaction finality. The ease and speed of launching an L1, and the breadth of architectural customization choices, make Avalanche the perfect environment for a composable multi-chain future.

Supported by a global community of developers and validators, Avalanche offers a fast, low-cost environment for building decentralized applications (dApps). With its combination of speed, flexibility, and scalability, Avalanche is the platform of choice for innovators pushing the boundaries of blockchain technology.

HubSpot to Acquire Frame AI, An AI-powered Conversation Intelligence Platform

HubSpot has announced its agreement to acquire Frame Al, an Al-powered conversation intelligence platform. This acquisition aims to enhance HubSpot's ability to deliver real-time insights from unstructured data, such as emails, calls, meetings, and conversations.

Founded in 2016, by George Davis, Robbie Mitchell, Jesse St. Charles, and Brandon Reiss, Frame AI is an AI-powered conversation intelligence platform that transforms unstructured data, such as emails, calls, meetings, and conversations, into real-time insights and actionable recommendations, helping businesses anticipate customer needs and deliver exceptional experiences.

With Frame Al, marketers can create hyper-personalized content that aligns with their brand voice. Sales teams can prioritize deals with deeper context from calls, emails, and meetings. Service specialists can address churn risks earlier through real-time sentiment analysis.

Once the acquisition is complete, the Frame AI team will join HubSpot to integrate conversational insights directly into Breez, HubSpot’s family of AI technologies embedded across its customer platform.

“This acquisition is an important step in our mission to help businesses grow better with AI,” said Yamini Rangan, CEO of HubSpot. “AI is only as powerful as the data behind it. While structured data has long been the foundation of CRM, unstructured data—like conversations—holds the key to deeper insights into customer sentiment, behavior, and intent. With Frame AI, we can bring these insights into the customer platform to help businesses grow smarter and faster.”

"We’ve always admired HubSpot for its early and distinct choice in unifying customer data. It has been the heart of their platform, and we’re ready to help take it to the next level,” said George Davis, co-founder and CEO of Frame AI. “Whether it’s helping to optimize campaigns, close deals faster, or prevent churn, we’re excited to bring our experience in conversational intelligence to help HubSpot customers grow.”

Frame AI raise a total of $17.03 million over five funding rounds from prominent investors including Greycroft, FirstMark Capital, and G20 Ventures.

Post acquisition, Frame AI will become a wholly owned subsidiary of HubSpot.

In October, HubSpot acquired Cacheflow, a platform specializing in B2B subscription billing management and configure, price, quote (CPQ) solutions. Last year in December, HubSpot completed the acquisition of Clearbit, a top B2B data provider. This acquisition aims to bring rich third-party company data into HubSpot's system, enhancing the context around customers and prospects.

Infosys Launches AI-Amplified Marketing Suite Infosys Aster™

Infosys, today announced the launch of Infosys Aster™ – a set of AI-amplified marketing services, solutions and platforms that deliver engaging brand experiences, enhanced marketing efficiency, and accelerated effectiveness for business growth. It drives AI-led transformation of marketing with integrated, real-time view across customers, brands and channels, enabling companies to increase ROI from marketing. With creative services, experience design, digital commerce, MarTech orchestration, performance marketing and marketing operations, Infosys Aster™ brings agility to the marketing value chain for B2B and B2C brands. With Infosys Aster™, global brands have realized up to 50% increase in repeat buyers, 30% improvement in the cost of marketing operations, and 40% increase in sales.

Deliver Engaging Brand Experiences: Infosys Aster™ delivers lasting connections with its human experience design approach amplified by the power of technology. Utilizing advanced technologies like real-time Unreal Engine 3D, AR/VR/XR, and digital twin CGI modeling, it delivers immersive experiences that foster customer intimacy. By taking advantage of AI-powered customer and marketing data platforms, it enables brands to unlock insights from data while also drawing on the power of ecosystems to deepen omnichannel engagement. For example, as the creative partner for an international racing giant, Infosys Aster™ created a holistic digital ecosystem – with compelling visual experiences that were highly customized for user groups – to boost engagement. Taking advantage of a dynamic content engine along with a simple ticketing system, Infosys Aster™ helped the business turn millions of fans into lifelong customers.

Enhance Marketing Efficiency: Infosys Aster™ combines gen AI-amplified content and creative services, intelligent recommendations from the MarTech stack, and marketing insights to deliver cost-effective campaigns faster. It also boosts efficiencies through marketing shared services by centralizing and automating content and design operations, reducing time and cost to activate campaigns. The suite’s AI capabilities, powered by Infosys Topaz™, help brands improve channel efficiencies by analyzing performance data and adapting strategies in real time. For example, a global health-tech company took advantage of Infosys Aster™ to accelerate their campaign management cycles – from setup to execution for 80+ markets driving savings in cost of operations.

Accelerate Effectiveness for Business Growth: Infosys Aster™ helps businesses create shared digital foundations, by integrating MarTech and enterprise systems, to create new avenues to value for sales and marketing. AI-driven analytics and customer insights help marketers increase customer lifetime value by personalizing outreach, nurturing meaningful conversations, and garnering high-quality leads. This supports brands in driving effective lead-generation campaigns, marked by better cross-sell and up-sell opportunities. Marketers can also capture demand and nurture repeat purchases with the suite’s real-time recommendations based on customer behavior. Predictive insights also help in influencing pricing strategies. For example, a retail chain used AI-amplified insights from Infosys Aster™ to develop their app-based promotional loyalty program that resulted in sales boost for them. The digital commerce platform, integral to Infosys Aster™, has a proven record in shaping e-commerce as an enterprise growth-lever.

Infosys Aster™ offers a range of powerful features to enhance marketing efforts and drive business growth:

1. Personalization: Tailor content and experiences for individual customers based on their preferences, behavior, and demographics.
2. Predictive Analytics: Leverage AI to forecast trends, identify opportunities, and optimize marketing strategies.
3. Automated Campaigns: Streamline marketing workflows with automated campaign creation, execution, and tracking.
4. Customer Journey Mapping: Visualize and optimize customer interactions across touchpoints.
5. Data Insights: Gain actionable insights from data analytics to refine marketing tactics.
6. Content Recommendations: Deliver relevant content to users at the right time.
7. Multi-Channel Engagement: Reach customers through various channels (web, mobile, social media, email, etc.)

Compatibility with existing marketing tools

Infosys Aster™ is designed to integrate seamlessly with existing marketing tools. Its flexible architecture allows it to connect with various systems, including customer relationship management (CRM) platforms, email marketing tools, analytics solutions, and more. By leveraging APIs and data connectors, marketers can enhance their workflows and leverage the power of Infosys Aster™ alongside their existing technology stack.

Satish H C, EVP and Co-head of Delivery, Infosys, said, “Our clients want to tap into new avenues of growth, while deepening customer intimacy, efficiently, in near-real time. They understand the role that modern agile marketing, enabled by data and AI, can play to accelerate their strategy and disintermediate execution. Infosys Aster™ helps our clients’ marketing organizations master the duality of marketing effectiveness and marketing efficiency to truly transform into customer-champions and growth-partners.”

“Businesses need marketing to be their core engine for reimagining customer experience and driving growth. In the era of AI-first enterprise transformation, CMOs have a unique opportunity to be the true C-Suite partner and orchestrator of value across the organization,” said Sumit Virmani, EVP and Global Chief Marketing Officer, Infosys. “At Infosys, we count on AI to amplify our capabilities – deepen brand experiences while driving effectiveness and efficiencies. We know that Infosys Aster™ – the same AI-amplified services, solutions and platforms that delivers value for us – can transform marketing into the powerful growth engine CMOs need for it to be.”

Peter Bendor-Samuel, Founder & CEO, Everest Group, said, “AI presents immense value to marketers, from driving hyper personalization to promising enhanced efficiencies and effectiveness across insights generation, creative workflows, and customer support. This is enabling marketers to not only glean productivity improvements, but also drive growth mandates. This journey is best enabled by partnering with a service provider that brings together strong tech capabilities with a deep understanding of the marketing domain. Infosys Aster’s AI-led marketing capabilities, coupled with Infosys’ experience of driving marketing and experience transformations, is well positioned to serve the needs of progressive marketers.”

Infosys Aster™ has nurtured best-in-class digital agencies, proven AI capabilities, deep industry experience, decades of delivery excellence and a diverse partner ecosystem. WongDoody, Infosys’ creative digital innovation agency, brings together unique capabilities in creative consulting, experience design, immersive experiences, and future-proof marketing. Infosys Aster™ uses the AI and gen AI capabilities of Infosys Topaz™ in a ‘responsible by design’ approach to amplify marketing capabilities and enhance effectiveness of the function. Infosys’ deep industry experience and expertise in connecting the complex enterprise ecosystem to the customer facing marketing function, while managing organizational change, helps CMOs achieve strong business impact. With over 350 global awards, 20+ design studios, 50+ partners, and 400+ marketing assets including use cases, solutions, and platforms, Infosys Aster™ is accelerating experience, efficiency, and effectiveness for B2B and B2C marketers globally.

Björn Schick, Chief Experience Officer and Member of the Executive Board, smart Europe GmbH, said, “At smart Europe, we share a similar value set with our strong partner Infosys Aster™, which prioritizesthe individual customer experience thanks to sustainable concepts and the appropriate use of technology. In today’s dynamic digital landscape, smart must secure a strong presence to connect with customers at every touchpoint. Infosys’ human-centered design studio, WongDoody, has developed a performative 3D digital twin-based platform for us. This platform creates personalized customer journeys with our vehicles, enhancing the experience and unlocking new creative possibilities with gen AI. It simplifies and economizes the production of on-demand personalized visual content, increasing our flexibility to present and promote our brand and its growing product portfolio effectively to customers worldwide.”

“Infosys Aster™ is bringing expertise to help us reimagine, engineer, and activate best-in-class omnichannel experiences for our customers, partners, and prospects enabling them to quickly access the relevant and up to date information they need. We see the potential of AI to amplify these capabilities and significantly raise the bar in the delivery of personalized content, ensuring predictability of engagement. We are elevating the way we connect with our customers and how our customers connect with us,” said Tom Portman, Group VP, Online Transformation and Group Head of Digital Channels, ABB.

To know more, please visit: Infosys Aster™

Adobe Announces General Availability of AEP AI Assistant for Brands to Automate Tasks

Adobe has announced the general availability of the Adobe Experience Platform (AEP) AI Assistant. This new AI Assistant is designed to enhance enterprise productivity by providing a generative AI-powered conversational Interface. It's integrated within Adobe Experience Cloud applications, including the Real-Time Customer Data Platform, Adobe Journey Optimizer, and Customer Journey Analytics.

The AEP AI Assistant is capable of answering technical questions, automating tasks, simulating outcomes, and generating new audiences and journeys. It leverages generative experience models to provide insights based on an organization’s unique data, campaigns, audiences, and business goals. This is a significant step in democratizing access to enterprise applications and empowering more individuals to participate in content production and insights workflows.

Brands will soon be able to leverage AEP AI Assistant to generate everything from new customer experiences to audiences for personalization campaigns and visualizations for data analysis. This will include generating entire marketing assets such as emails and web pages with copy, design and images via Adobe Firefly—driving always-on experimentation as a result.

AEP AI Assistant will also deliver creative briefs that accelerate content production, auto-generated through existing assets such as PDFs, slide decks and Word documents. To support automation, AEP AI Assistant will help teams bypass tedious tasks from organizing data segments into folders to ensuring that AI-generated content meets brand-approved standards.

Brands like General Motors have been working with the AEP AI Assistant to boost productivity and accelerate time-to-value, while democratizing access across their organizations. With the ability to process large volumes of data and interactions, the AEP AI Assistant is poised to transform how brands engage with customers and manage their workflows.

Key features of the AEP AI Assistant

The Adobe Experience Platform AI Assistant boasts several key features designed to enhance enterprise productivity:

Conversational Experience: It offers a conversational interface that allows users to interact with Adobe applications more intuitively.

Generative Experience Models: These models are tailored to specific use cases within the Adobe Experience Platform, enabling quick navigation and data processing.

Knowledge Graph: An internal representation of data that translates database queries into human-readable answers, providing insights across various meta-stores.

Operational Insights: In beta, this feature generates answers about metadata objects like attributes, audiences, dataflows, and datasets, without looking at data within the sandbox.

Product Knowledge: It can answer questions grounded in Experience League documentation, aiding in product understanding and troubleshooting¹.

Custom Models: Augmenting base models with customer data, these models provide customer-specific context and can power predictive use cases. 

Decisioning Services: These services inform the AI Assistant's responses, offering next steps, recommendations, or multi-turn conversation capabilities.

These features are designed to help users understand concepts, gather insights, generate segments, troubleshoot problems, and ultimately increase the quality and speed of their work while adhering to data security standards.

Accenture and Adobe to Co-Develop Industry-Specific Generative AI Solutions

Accenture and Adobe have announced collaboration to co-develop industry-specific generative AI solutions aimed at accelerating marketing transformation. This strategic expansion of their over 20-year relationship will leverage Adobe Firefly, Adobe’s family of creative generative AI models, to help organizations create personalized content at scale.

The partnership will focus on integrating Adobe Firefly Custom Models into Accenture Song's marketing services, providing clients with the necessary insights to train bespoke models on their proprietary data and brand guidelines. The solutions will initially target the retail and consumer goods, automotive, financial services, and health industries, aiming to streamline the content creation process and reduce manual adjustments.

David Droga, CEO of Accenture Song, highlighted the increasing demand for scalable generative AI solutions and the potential for these technologies to democratize creative asset development and accelerate content supply chain transformation.

 

With an initial focus on the retail and consumer goods, automotive, financial services and health industries, the new solutions will leverage Accenture’s extensive data and AI engineering capabilities and systematic approach to responsible AI, coupled with its approach to driving unified brand experiences. By integrating the solutions with Adobe’s broader suite of generative AI-powered solutions and client systems, organizations can realize value faster with content that is globally consistent, locally relevant and industry specific. Additionally, Accenture engineers will be trained to be specialists in Adobe Firefly, allowing them to provide support for clients deploying generative AI campaigns.

"Brands today are looking for ways to go beyond experimenting with generative AI to achieve real impact,” said David Droga, chief executive officer, Accenture Song. “Whether it’s consumer goods companies scaling their product data and images in e-marketplaces worldwide, or healthcare providers ensuring brand standards for patient safety, the demand for scalable generative AI solutions is increasing. By bringing together Adobe technology with Accenture Song’s tech-powered creativity, we can help democratize the ability for teams to develop creative assets and accelerate content supply chain transformation.”

According to Accenture research, business leaders are positive about the potential of generative AI—97% expect generative AI to be transformative for their company and their industry, yet only 31% of organizations say they have started investing “significantly” in generative AI initiatives. Accenture is committed to providing solutions for clients that help them navigate the reinvention of work, transformation of their organization and responsible adoption of AI.

"Businesses have an unprecedented opportunity to leverage generative AI to deliver truly personalized experiences that connect with their customers,” said David Wadhwani, president, Digital Media Business, Adobe. "Firefly is an enterprise grade solution that powers a full suite of generative capabilities - from content generation to editing to assembly - through our industry-leading applications and enterprise automation APIs. We are excited to partner with Accenture to define and implement solutions that empower organizations around the world to harness the power of AI."

By generating content that aligns with brand style and design language, marketers can build templatized campaigns that can be refined based on performance data, streamlining the content creation process and reducing manual adjustments. Accenture engineers will also be trained as specialists in Adobe Firefly to support clients deploying generative AI campaigns.

Singapore-based MarketingTech Startup Jixie Gets Acquired By Accenture

Accenture’s tech-powered creative group, Accenture Song (formerly Accenture Interactive), has been making significant investments in Southeast Asia. In last month, Accenture Song announced an agreement to acquire Rabbit’s Tale, a Bangkok-based creative and digital experience agency. Last year in September, the company acquired Romp, which was ranked one of Indonesia’s top three creative and most inclusive agencies in 2021.

Now in a latest today, Accenture has announced that it agreed to acquire the business of Jixie, a Singapore-headquartered media and marketing technology company, for an undisclosed amount.

Post acquisition, Jixie’s intelligent digital marketing platform and team will be integrated into Accenture to strengthen its marketing transformation capabilities and resources through Accenture Song, helping Indonesian clients deliver more personalized experiences to enhance customer engagement for sustainable business growth.

Founded in 2020, Jixie is headquartered in Singapore and focus on servicing clients in Indonesia. It offers a comprehensive suite of monetization and marketing growth tools. The acquisition of Jixie's business is the second investment made by Accenture in Indonesia after the acquisition of Romp.

Jixie platform is a robust advertising ecosystem that connects publishers and brand owners with the ability to co-create solutions through reliable customer insights. This transforms marketing from a fragmented process with limited control into a strategic priority, amplifying simplicity while safeguarding brand safety, consumer data and privacy.

The integration of Jixie’s platform into Accenture Song’s marketing capabilities will help clients optimize customer data effectively and efficiently into actionable insights, regaining the control, speed and trust needed to securely capitalize on Indonesia’s fast-growing digital economy that’s projected to reach US$146 billion by 2025 before growing eightfold by 2030.

Jayant Bhargava, country managing director, Indonesia, at Accenture, said: “The convergence of marketing, data science and technology creates opportunities for businesses to redefine their customer engagement model. Jixie’s intelligent digital marketing solutions complement our technology expertise, providing a winning proposition for businesses to bring a higher level of personalization and effectiveness to their marketing efforts. This acquisition will allow us to better serve our clients in navigating complex marketing challenges in this era of interconnected digital world, which is crucial in driving long-term growth.”

With Jixie’s platform, publishers can access monetization tools, such as header-bidding solutions and performance marketing, to improve advertising returns. Brand owners can also seamlessly enhance and integrate content securely without intermediaries, allowing them to utilize valuable insights for unique and meaningful brand engagement. Jixie can help publishers double their monetization returns and support brand owners in significantly increasing campaign clickthrough and conversation rates while enriching customer data.

“The value of data in today’s rapidly changing digital economy is immense, and the digital media ecosystem has seen much disruption, including the impending loss of third-party cookies. Jixie is an impactful platform that amplifies publishers’ perspectives and simplifies the digital marketing experience. This investment extends Accenture Song’s data-led commerce and marketing transformation work in Indonesia, empowering clients with highly relevant and results-driven solutions for sustainable business growth,” said Joseph Tan, Indonesia lead for Accenture Song.

Vincent Martin, co-founder and managing director, Jixie, said: “Jixie has seen proven success in its marketing performance capabilities that boost publishers’ revenue and the formation of an ecosystem that has attracted advertisers to run successful campaigns. The next step for us is scale. We’re thrilled to be joining Accenture and contribute to shaping a more sustainable media industry, helping companies leverage their data in a trusted and advantageous manner in service of their customers.”

Majority (53%) of Companies Planning to Provide GenAI Training for Their Marketing Teams in the Next 6 Mths – Capgemini Report

The majority of marketers (62%) believe that generative AI will augment human creativity, enhancing unique human qualities such as intuition, emotion, and context understanding. Organizations already investing in generative AI for marketing dedicate 62% of their total marketing technology budget towards it, seeing this breakthrough technology as a catalyst for creativity and innovation in marketing. That’s according to Capgemini Research Institute’s latest report ‘Generative AI and the evolving role of marketing: A CMO’s Playbook’, which reveals that half of organizations have already set aside specific budgets and almost half (47%) have allocated teams for the implementation of generative AI in marketing.

The report found that 57% of marketers expect generative AI to act as a catalyst for unlocking new creative possibilities, particularly when collaborating between human and AI-driven innovation; 55% foresee this motivating teams to think beyond conventional boundaries. In the next two to three years, marketers already using generative AI expect it will be applied across data analysis (90%), search engine optimization (89%), customer services (89%), content creation (88%) and image and video generation (86%). As a result, marketing functions are actively establishing practices to use generative AI across marketing domains.

According to the research, organizations believe that this technology can help in building a unique brand image (67%), accurate analysis of customer and market trends (65%), reduction in marketing costs (66%), and increase efficiency in generating content and results (65%).

Gagandeep Gadri, Managing Director of frog, part of Capgemini Invent, said, “The future of marketing will undeniably be influenced by the widespread adoption of generative AI to deliver personalized content and communication; it’s value realization will need a fusion of strategic choices, human centered creativity and a good understanding of the art of the possible in a very fast-moving space. In many ways this feels like the Digital boom from 20 years ago, where the brands that succeeded were those that stayed true to their values but were brave and bold on how digital could deliver growth for their business. The same will apply for generative AI.”

Addressing ethical and regulatory issues will be key

As AI algorithms become increasingly sophisticated, marketers will continue to face complex ethical considerations around issues such as the responsible use of customer data, the transparency of AI-driven decision-making processes, and ensuring algorithms do not reinforce social inequalities.

The research indicates that only 30% of organizations have implemented clear guidelines for the use and oversight of AI systems and less than half consider attributes of trust, privacy, and responsibility when selecting AI systems for marketing activities. Less than half of organizations (42%) are implementing measures to protect themselves from challenges related to the use of generative AI in marketing, such as monitoring or searching for AI-derived versions of their work, including logos and artwork.

Bridging the generative AI skills gap

According to the report, the majority of organizations (71%) anticipate that certain marketing roles will be significantly or moderately impacted by generative AI including SEO specialists, digital marketing and creative directors, PR/communication specialists, copywriters, and customer insight specialists.

The majority (63%) of organizations recognize that the demand for generative AI skills in marketing significantly outstrips supply. To address this skills gap and harness the full potential of generative AI in marketing, organizations are implementing internal and external strategies. On average, 53% of companies are planning to provide generative AI training for their marketing teams in the next six months, with companies in the Netherlands, India, Australia, and the US most likely to implement this initiative. Sectors such as media, insurance, automotive, and life sciences also show higher-than-average commitment to generative AI training for their marketing teams.

Marketing is emerging as a strategic force to drive organizational success

The research shows that marketing has transformed in recent years, with Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) increasingly playing a central role in strategic decision-making processes. In business-to-consumer (B2C) sectors, 71% of C-suite respondents see marketing as a strategic partner in driving business growth and 72% of B2C organizations involve the CMO in critical decisions to drive business goals and objectives. CMOs have assumed greater direct responsibility for contribution to revenue growth (49%) and profit-related decisions (44%) over the past two years, increasing by 25 and 19 percentage points from 2021 respectively.

Almost 60% of organizations are integrating generative AI into their marketing efforts, out of which 37% are actively implementing it across various initiatives, while an additional 21% are in the experimental phase. In order to succeed, organizations are adopting diverse AI strategies tailored to their specific marketing needs and available resources. Nearly a quarter of organizations rely solely on external applications and platforms for generative AI in marketing, however, half of them are in the process of either developing or using in-house applications alongside external tools.

Infographic

Methodology

The Capgemini Research Institute surveyed 1,800 executives overseeing marketing strategies across diverse organizations worldwide with an annual revenue of over USD 1 billion. The organizations came from a range of sectors, including automotive, banking, consumer goods, insurance, retail, telecom, utilities, high-tech, manufacturing, life sciences, public sector and media. They are based in 14 countries across North America, Europe, and APAC. In addition, 25 in-depth interviews were conducted with Chief Marketing Officers and marketing leaders with firsthand knowledge or awareness of their organizations generative AI initiatives. Charts comparing 2021 and 2023 data exclude respondents from B2B sectors, as they were not part of the 2021 survey. The covered sectors include automotive, banking, consumer goods, insurance, retail, telecom, and utilities.

How to Use Metaverse for Marketing and Make Money

The recent COVID-19 pandemic saw the global digital dependency rise to unprecedented heights, thereby fundamentally changing consumer behavior. This means a more significant percentage of consumers started working, learning, playing, and shopping online.

The metaverse is a virtual place that is real-time, realistic, and – in many circumstances – interconnected, where one can undertake any real-world activity virtually in a 3D space. When you think about it, the potential for monetization of such a world is unlimited.

It's a hybrid of augmented reality, virtual reality, and blockchain technology. Users can take advantage of ultra-fast bandwidth, the internet, and virtual reality headsets.

The metaverse activities are genuinely incredible, from working in virtual offices to relaxing in the blockchain-based game and managing their crypto funds and portfolio.

Future Impact Of the Metaverse on Marketing

The rise of the metaverse is sure to lead to the creation of new marketing techniques and opportunities to explore the 3D virtual world. The Metaverse is a nexus of markets, decentralized government, digital identities, and other elements.

Companies can use Metaverse to attract new audiences, boost consumer confidence, and investigate a potential revenue stream. For example, Roboblox boasts 200 million active players who spent $319 million on in-game cash in the first half of 2020.

The sky's the limit for savvy marketers on the block as big brands like Nike, Facebook, and Gucci continue to position themselves into the present Metaverse, employing gaming platforms like Fortnite and Roboblox to produce immersive forms of advertising and new forms of viral brand awareness. So, how do you make money?

You can make money in the metaverse in many ways, such as:

Gaming

The Metaverse creation has seen the rise of a category of games known as play to earn that enables users to play games and get rewarded with crypto. The rise of this category has been remarkable and is expected to become as popular, if not more popular, than traditional gaming.

Virtual Shopping

The COVID-19 pandemic saw the meteoric rise of online shopping, with more and more consumers preferring to shop online. With the metaverse, businesses can immerse themself in the virtual world to make shopping more accessible and interactive for their consumers. Companies can sell items like NFTs (for digital art) and wearables(for avatars).

VR Games

Companies like Fortnite quickly jumped on the metaverse train to bring their players VR games. And they have never regretted it. So creating and monetizing VR games is one of the best ways to make money in the metaverse.

Live Events

The recent pandemic made it very difficult to host live physical events. Still, with metaverse, artists and companies can host massive audiences in the virtual world, while event organizers can sell tickets for the event.

Art Creation

The rise of NFTs has made it very easy for artists (primarily digital artists) to make money from their art. The increase of NFTs has been nothing but meteoric, with companies also joining the fray and creating digital collectibles for their consumers.

Companies and individuals can also open art galleries to display their art in the metaverse.

Real Estate in the Metaverse

Like the real world, the metaverse allows users to buy and sell properties, opening up a new frontier for real estate in the 3D space.

Design and Architecture

Even architects are not left behind in this amazing opportunity. Architects and designers can create and design 3D structures for users in the metaverse and get paid.

Incorporating Real Life Marketing with your Metaverse Marketing

One of the best ways to take advantage of the metaverse is to incorporate your virtual marketing with your real-life marketing. This means you can replicate what you offer in the real world in the metaverse. The same has proven to be an authentic way to further interact with your consumers.

Author

This content is an authored work by Abhishek Singh Rajpurohit, the Co-Founder & CMO of a Web 3.0 startup called Acknoledger which is a Global Consortium that maps, monetizes, and distributes Web 3.0 Digital Assets Seamlessly across all the Metaverses and Gaming NFTs. Launched product in October 2021 and raised a funding of around 4.2 million and are a publicly-traded cryptocurrency.

Currently, he is working on a new start which is an amalgamation of gaming and blockchain and will be launched in the summer of 2022.He is an MBA graduate from Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communication, He has authored a book on online reputation Management “ Protect your online identity like your virginity” and he is quite vocal about the darker side of the digital age. Also featured on TED talks MUMBAI.

Rural Tech Start-up Hesa Acquires Digital MarketTech Platform Gullybuy

 

Hyderabad based rural technology startup Hesa recently announced its acquisition of GullyBuy- a digital MarketTech platform, based out of Pune. By acquiring GullyBuy’s software and IP, that helps consumers with comparison of local/city merchants to buy products, Hesa will include last-mile sales enablement on its platform more efficiently. Founded in 2019, GullyBuy offers unique technology that simplifies local shopping experience through a digital marketplace that directly connects buyers and stores in neighbourhoods (gullies) across India.

The acquisition of GullyBuy will further strengthen Hesa’s presence in rural geographies and empower village level entrepreneurs (Hesaathis) to manage a powerful last mile e-commerce capability so end consumers enjoy a faster, smoother and simplified shopping experience. Leveraging technology and its 32,000 and growing on ground workforce called Hesaathi, Hesa efficiently connects end-to-end business to the rural population at the doorstep for buying, selling, promoting, marketing, services and more. The robust supply chain and user-friendly API allows Hesa to create business and employment opportunities in remote areas.

Commenting on the acquisition, Vamsi Udayagiri, Founder and CEO Hesa said, “We are excited to announce our first acquisition of GullyBuy. Its mobile first technology is aligned with Hesa’s vision of curating unique solutions for rural India. As India’s largest tech integrated marketplace that enables ease of commerce in rural India, the IP and software acquisition of GullyBuy, will further enable Hesa to execute and manage large scale operations.”

Swati Deodhar, Co-founder, GullyBuy said “Our unique technology combined with Hesa's commerce platform will empower their strong network of rural entrepreneurs via new business capabilities. With innovative solutions for local stores, a segment that has been underserved by the digital economy, our objective together is ease of management for local businessmen with rapid scale.”

Focusing on user efficiency and expansion, Hesa is on a growth trajectory with 32,000 micro entrepreneurs on its platform across 5 states in India. With 65+ brand partnerships and 60,00,000 consumer base, Hesa is committed towards ease of commerce and business in rural India through their unique technology platform.

Top 5 Marketing Tech Companies That Are Enabling Corporates To Host Virtual Events

The coronavirus crisis has impacted the outbound activities & events majorly. At a time when the entire corporate world pivoted their basic functionality to sustain the effects of the lockdown, the events & conferences also went virtual.

Today, marketers are making use of virtual platforms to conduct virtual events like conferences, exhibitions, webinars, live streaming etc. These tools help marketers to offer value to their customers. From showcasing their products to making major announcements and connecting with developers, technologists and B2B customers, it’s clear that virtual events are high value across the board.

Here are top 5 platforms that enable industries to engage with their audiences virtually:

1) B2B Sales Arrow: B2B Sales Arrow is a research based Marketing Technology Company that plans and executes Corporate Events all across the globe. They try & provide end to end solutions for conducting seamless virtual events with specialization in IT Automation, Event Management, Digital Marketing, research based Database Development and Lead Generation. They also help corporates to develop business pipelines by providing them solid market research, customized database positioning and branding related consultation.

2) Hubilo: They are an intelligent hybrid event platform in India. The platform provides virtual booths that help sponsors and exhibitors to showcase their product and services. They also organize breakout sessions to make the group meetings more engaging.

3) Brazen: They are one of the most used online hiring event platforms by 500 companies and top universities. The platform assists live webinars and even deals in events promotion. Brazen is much more than a video interviewing or web conference tool, with features including multiple event booths, live video broadcasting, one-on-one chat.

4) Tocca: They are a flexible platform that is adaptable to different event needs. The platform is fully integrated with internal systems and re-uses the past events to save time. They are a virtual space that simulates in-person events, sponsors & booths and creates multiple different sessions & tracks suited to your needs.

5) Digital Jalebi: Digital Jalebi delivers interactive experiences. They help their clients to establish channels of communication with their audience on a more emotional level. Digital Jalebi is a fusion of new media design and technology and draws heavily from digital art, visual communication, architecture, and programming.

BONUS

6) Everytale - An all-in-one virtual events platform bringing people to interact everywhere around the world. The idea is to enable people to share ideas regardless of any barriers of their origin, language, or social background.