Recently, scientist Geoffrey Hinton, often referred to as the ‘Godfather of AI’, said artificial intelligence (AI) is advancing so quickly that it has exceeded his own expectations, particularly in areas such as reasoning and task completion.
According to him, 2025 marked a major turning point, and AI systems will be significantly more capable in the coming year. So Campaign asked industry leaders to predict how AI could further shape their respective job functions -- what will change, what won’t and what to keep an eye out for.
Some pointed out how enterprises are already moving agentic systems from pilots to production, while others focused on the efficiency benefits that AI could unlock in the next 12 months by streamlining repetitive tasks.
In the spirit of making a wish on New Year’s Eve, we also asked these leaders to pick one feature they wish AI could develop in the new year. A grown-up wishlist, if you will. Here’s what they said:
Kedarswamy Ravangave, executive vice-president – marketing, Kotak Mahindra Bank
How will AI shape my industry/job function: By 2026, AI in marketing will shift from being a tool that executes to an agent that decides. Today, AI helps optimise creatives, audiences or bids in isolation. Over the next 12 months, we will see agentic systems that understand business goals, customer behaviour and brand strategy and then autonomously plan, test, spend and optimise across channels in real-time. For a BFSI brand, this means faster learning cycles, less wastage, and far more personalised, compliant and context-aware customer journeys at scale.
I’m making a wish for: The biggest missing capability today is goal-driven orchestration across the full funnel. I would like an AI that does not just optimise clicks or conversions, but understands brand, growth and profitability together and dynamically balances them. Imagine an AI that knows when to invest in trust-building content, when to push acquisition, when to cross-sell, and when to stay silent based on customer signals, not marketing calendars. That is when AI becomes a true growth partner, not just a performance engine.
Geetanjali Chugh Kothari, chief marketing officer, Generali Central Life Insurance
How will AI shape my industry/job function: It will evolve from being a performance enabler to a true growth partner for marketers—especially in the life insurance category, where trust, timing, and relevance are critical. Over the next 12 months, AI will significantly redefine how we interact and engage with consumers across their life stages. We will see hyper-personalisation at scale, where AI not only understands demographics but also life events and behavioural triggers. This will allow insurers to match customers with need-based offerings at the precise moment protection becomes important, making conversations more contextual and empathetic.
On the operational side, autonomous AI agents will begin handling multi-step tasks such as policy issuance, KYC checks, premium adjustments, and even claim pre-assessment—escalating to human experts only when necessary. Enterprises are already moving these agentic systems from pilots to production, with strong governance and observability frameworks, which is essential for regulated sectors like insurance.
I’m making a wish for: A system that truly understands context, intent, and responsibility in equal measure. I envision AI that can interpret life-stage and behavioural signals, automatically apply regulatory and ethical guardrails, and then translate complex insurance products into simple, personalised explanations—without compromising accuracy or trust.
Imagine an AI layer that empowers marketers to communicate what matters, when it matters, and in language customers understand. This would fundamentally shift life insurance marketing from a transactional, sales-driven approach to one centred on enabling informed decision-making.
Latish Nair, chief digital officer – e-commerce, WPP Media
How will AI shape my industry/job function: AI will bring in a lot of efficiency. It currently solves a lot of complexity, as we’ve seen with WPP Open. It will also give us an opportunity to convert customer occasions better.
I’m making a wish for: An MMM (meta mix modelling) of offsite versus onsite [image] to be done via AI. You just upload the data points and get a clear cutout. MMM is a very expensive proposition to do, so if AI could help to bring the cost down, that would be great.
Ishwinder Arora, vice-president - marketing, Junglee Pictures
How will AI shape my industry/job function: 2025 saw a significant rise in AI-generated advertisements and films, and in 2026, this number is expected to increase exponentially. The use of AI for faster VFX, dubbing, and localisation—a trend already visible in several regional films—is also likely to grow further. On the marketing side, audience targeting and engagement will become increasingly personalised through AI-driven campaigns and interactive audience experiences. However, human creativity and strategy will continue to guide what AI produces. AI will act as an amplifier of creativity, not a replacement for it.
I’m making a wish for: On an overall level, a fully reliable AI feature that can auto-detect and flag misinformation on social platforms in real-time. Social media has become a breeding ground for false narratives, which, unfortunately, affects the common man every day.
On an industry level, it would be interesting to see a tool that can forecast upcoming trends in content by collecting data on content consumption across platforms. This will predict what kind of content will rise next, not just what’s trending now.
Sumeet Narang, president – marketing, Bajaj Auto Ltd
How will AI shape my industry/job function: The changes would be restricted by our adoption of AI and not really by its capability. AI tools and agents should find their way into helping the marketing teams with sharper marketing planning, competition tracking, research insights and project tracking. On the campaign and communication side, I predict AI-generated output will move mock-ups and concepts, where it's being used liberally today, to final execution, be it photography or videos.
I’m making a wish for: AI to aid folks with better time management! I hope there are enough user-friendly tools developed that marketing and agency teams can leverage for faster processing of the information at hand. We need faster action to deal with the rapidly changing environment, and AI can be the game-changer here.
