Artificial intelligence has never been more embedded in marketing than it is today. It powers campaigns, analyses mountains of data in seconds, and predicts what a customer might want before they even know it themselves. But in the scramble to automate, a deeper question lingers in boardrooms and brand war rooms alike: can AI truly capture a brand’s soul? Or is the real magic still in the human touch? 

Watch the full session here moderated by Anupama Mitra, Correspondent, Martechai.com:

For Antriksh Johari, Martech Lead at Tata Digital, who has worked at the intersection of data and marketing for years, the answer is clear. “AI helps us understand the nature of our customers and fine-tune our messages, but the true brand essence is built on human connection,” he said. His conviction is rooted in experience. At a previous role, an AI-driven system sent personalised birthday messages to customers based on the data it had. For those without a recorded date of birth, the default was set to 1970. The result was a marketing disaster. One such message went to the next of kin of a deceased customer, shattering trust instead of strengthening it. The lesson was obvious. The algorithm had all the data points but none of the emotional context.

That inability to feel is exactly why Tanvi Taneja, Martech Professional - Axis, Citi & Fintech startups insists on caution. “AI, when done with caution, can enhance brand communication by providing uniform messaging while still respecting human emotions,” she said. In her view, AI has become a critical tool for online reputation management and sentiment analysis. But she also sees the flip side. “Empathy cannot be exactly simulated by AI and may have certain downsides to it, like misuse of data.” She has seen it play out with brands that could have headed off PR disasters had they paired machine efficiency with human oversight. For her, branding is still a long game, one that requires patience, real listening, and emotional intelligence.

Sanjay Shetty, Chief Business Officer at Quess Corp., comes from a different angle but lands in a similar place. “AI is transforming businesses by enabling data-driven decisions, fostering transparency, and enhancing both internal and external stakeholder engagement,” he said. In his business, AI has become indispensable in recruitment and talent retention, mapping candidates to the right roles, predicting attrition, and even shaping employer branding. But he insists that the tech works best when coupled with what he calls “tech and touch.” The data can point the way, but the final decision, especially in people-driven businesses, must pass through human judgment. “It’s no longer a good-to-have. It’s a business imperative,” he said, but quickly added that transparency and fairness must underpin every use of AI.

In education marketing, Ashish Gupta, Marketing Head, IDP Education has been exploring AI’s limits first-hand. His organisation has deployed chatbots and AI videos to guide students through complex study-abroad processes, from course selection to visa prep. The efficiency gains are obvious. But so are the shortcomings. “AI is a powerful tool for streamlining processes, but the real magic happens when it collaborates with human empathy to create meaningful customer experiences,” he said. When the company tested AI-generated videos featuring a digital model delivering key information, they found engagement lagged. Students missed the warmth, spontaneity and eye contact that human presenters brought. “AI can help fine-tune the message for customers, but the human touch is essential for high involvement products like education,” Gupta said.

That mix of agility and emotion is something Ruchita Munish, AVP at Axis Max Life Insurance, is also working to perfect. In her industry, loyalty is built on trust and empathy over years, even decades. “AI offers incredible agility and insights, but it’s the human touch that brings true value, especially in emotionally-driven industries like insurance,” she said. Her team has used AI to create personalised videos featuring cricket star Rohit Sharma, addressing individual customers about their specific policies. The scripts were generated by AI but refined by humans to ensure they carried the right tone. “AI is the best assistant you can have to provide agile outcomes, but ultimately, it's the human who must introduce empathy,” she explained.

These perspectives converge on a simple truth: AI can accelerate processes, personalise at scale and uncover patterns invisible to the human eye. But it still lacks the subtlety to read between the lines of a customer’s tone, the pause in a voice, or the cultural nuance in a sarcastic social media comment. In some cases, brands have crossed lines unintentionally, creating unease among customers who feel watched too closely or targeted too personally.

Johari warns against letting automation run unchecked. He prefers a model where AI supports personalisation but does not drive fully dynamic customer journeys. He recalls running controlled tests on ad campaigns to see which creatives worked best, scaling only after monitoring responses closely. “It is better not to reach a customer at a wrong time than to reach him at a right time,” he said, stressing the need for guardrails.

Taneja notes that the maturity of an organisation’s data often determines whether AI insights can be trusted over human intuition. Much of the data stored over the past decades was collected for human analysis, not for machine learning models. This makes it prone to biases and gaps that AI can amplify if not corrected. “A few years from now, when data quality improves, we may be able to rely more on AI outputs,” she said, “but for now, human insight is irreplaceable.”

Shetty points out that the growing demand for AI talent itself is proof of how deeply organisations are investing in it. In his view, the question is no longer whether AI should be integrated into core business functions, but how to do so responsibly. His team has built KPIs to measure AI’s impact not just on speed and efficiency, but on the candidate experience and long-term client relationships.

Gupta, meanwhile, has been experimenting with regional language content powered by AI translations but finds human intervention still essential for tone and cultural accuracy. In education, reassurance and trust are as important as facts. Without the right tone, even perfectly accurate information can fall flat.

Munish believes the path forward is in co-creation. She envisions a future where AI takes on more of the mechanical work, freeing humans to focus on the emotional and creative aspects of brand building. For now, though, every AI-generated customer message at Access Max Life still passes through human review.

In the end, all five agree that AI should be seen as a collaborator, not a competitor. The goal is not to replace the marketer’s instinct with an algorithm’s output, but to blend the two. Algorithms can’t feel, but they can inform. They can’t empathise, but they can highlight the moments where empathy matters most.

The question for every brand in this new landscape is not whether to use AI, but how to ensure that in the pursuit of scale and efficiency, the human essence of the brand is never lost. As Johari puts it, “AI is a mix of everything, but it’s the human connection that turns data into meaningful brand experiences.” In a world of automated messages and predictive analytics, that might just be the competitive advantage that endures.