Make AI the enabler, but don’t let it take away the soul of storytelling

One is a seasoned brand marketer and the other is a creative veteran and the crossfire between them on the role of AI could only get interestingly power packed and that’s exactly what it was – the crossfire session between  Kedarswamy Ravangave, Head of Marketing
Kotak Mahindra Bank, and Santosh Padhi (or Paddy), Founder and Chief Creative Officer,
Into Creative, on day 1 of OAC 2025.  

Centered on the theme, ‘Human imagination v/s AI Generation: The OOH creative marketing crossfire’, the session saw the two professionals debate on the role of AI in OOH creativity. 

Kedar set the context for the crossfire by building a strong case for AI-inclusive business environment, while addressing  the common apprehensions with regard to AI and its impact on jobs. “Having worked on AI, I can say that it’s going to be a big enabler and not something against you. So it’s good to embrace it,” he pointed out.  

Then Paddy, representing the creative community, spotlighted the danger of AI taking away the soul and emotion of any piece of communication or story-telling. “As creative people we do welcome any technology that enhances story telling. But with AI, our fear is that it could take away the soul of storytelling,” said Paddy clearly pointing to the widespread adoption of AI due to its cost and time efficiency and warning against the ill effects. “It’s like a new drug, and we should be mindful of how we use it. In the context of brand marketing, brands are ultimately talking to human beings, and if there’s no soul in the communication then there’s no differentiated impact,” said Paddy. 

It was then Kedar’s turn to highlight how AI-led Large Language Models (LLM) are evolving that can closely understand human emotions and are driving depth of understanding of human data at unparalleled scale. He pointed to the importance of directing AI applications in the right way for best outcomes as AI performance ultimately depended on human prompts.    

The insightful volley continued with Paddy pointing to the need to retain our unique cultural identity or core in order to drive effective communications and Kedar throwing light on the scope for personalisation in mass messaging with the use of AI powered data analysis.      

One point both Kedar and Paddy converged on was the need to preserve artistic creativity and authenticity without the intrusion of AI and both reiterated the point with some striking examples.  Next, even as both pointed to the creative possibilities in OOH with technology,  Paddy drove home the long standing need to push for creativity in OOH and “create magical stuff” . In the context of OOH, Kedar also emphasised the need to make content the differentiator using AI tools and make the medium measurable. Kedar also talked about new AI led DIY marketing platforms that are facilitating quick and easy campaign planning for brands. Well, both Kedar and Paddy summarised their points very effectively. Paddy’s concluding message was very clear: Let’s make sure we control AI and not the other way around, while Kedar pointed to the growing need to define human relevance across many professional roles.  With that, both gave the OAC audience a lot of food for thought.