In order to become a taxi driver in London, potential cabbies have to pass what is widely agreed to be the world’s toughest driving exam, known simply as The Knowledge. The test, which can take up to four years to prepare for and is frequently compared to medical studies, requires would-be cabbies to know not only the streets of London, their names and routes, but also landmarks both big and small, restaurants, shops, and even the small statues that dot the British capital so as to be able to drop their passengers at the requisite place.

However, “Studies are already showing that people’s spatial intelligence is being negatively impacted, thanks to Google Maps and GPS, as we need to use those skills less. Because of this advent of digitization and automation, and speaking from a larger social perspective, there are certain nervous systems, which we’ll be using less and skills we won't be developing, and that’s going to be evolution on steroids,” notes Unny Radhakrishnan, CEO, Digitas India.

In a free-flowing conversation with exchange4media, the advertising veteran shared his thoughts on the complexity of the Indian marketing ecosystem, why walled gardens are going nowhere any time soon and, of course, all things AI.

“It’s the flavour of the season now, and there’s a tsunami of conversation around it. From an industry perspective, I think the impact will be in two ways. One is the way that agencies work. I think, like any other business, business processes would get impacted by AI right away, given that there are so many AI tools for so many different tasks – from text and video generation to voice prompts and coding. That would mean better operational efficiencies,” he said, adding that this means a person will only have to spend 60 per cent of the time they normally would on tasks, leaving them time for creative endeavours, with the rest of the 100 per cent being completed by the use of AI.

“Second is the work we do for clients. A lot of work could get done with video being generated by text prompts even as tools like Adobe's Fireflies are going to get images and all that, meaning a lot of generated content. If you recall, before this whole tsunami happened and everyone started talking, at least three years back, a lot of things were already available like AI-based models. For $20, you could hire AI-based models to be featured on your site, though admittedly they were text-based. Now it’s video,” he noted.

Unny elucidated by pointing to generated video, for instance, which is not really broadcast quality, but the way things are going we will reach that quality soon.

As for pitfalls, “I think that the issue of copyright is going to be a big thing because all these AI models are being trained on human-created content. And also because of that, I don’t see AI coming up with any original ideas soon. Ideation and creativity are going to remain a human endeavour for the foreseeable future.”

Speaking of things that aren’t going away any time soon, operating inside walled gardens is a reality that is not going to change at this point, at least, for now, he asserted.

“About 70 per cent of the revenue for those few big companies comes from the ones operating within those walled gardens and they won’t relinquish that easily. There’s a lot of regulatory work being done by some countries, like what recently happened with Meta and Google no longer displaying news on their websites in Canada, so that news agencies can get back their revenue. Certain efforts are being made in the EU and Australia. That being said, it’s a slow process and walled gardens and big tech are going to continue to play a significant role for marketers,” he says.

This holds especially true in a market like India, diverse and complex with its peoples, geographies, cultures, and languages.

“Given the size and complexity of India, I don’t think the breaking up of walled gardens is that high a priority for the government. What is really fascinating is the way India is leading in the area of digital public goods, which hasn’t really been done to this extent and is really helping carve out a digital identity,” Unny noted.

Radhakrishnan also spoke about the Bhashni program started by the government, a National Public Digital Platform meant to address a global digital ecosystem that, for now, doesn't recognize many Indian languages, dialects and accents.

"So, voice recognition of Indian languages is a big project for the government of India because they feel that a lot of government services could be delivered in people's native tongue, and thereby increase people's access to digital goods and services," elaborated Radhakrishnan, adding, “From a digital public goods perspective, I think we are in a very interesting chapter at this point of time.”