This interview was conducted by Brij Pahwa, Editorial Lead, exchange4media and MartechAI.com.
Dr. Ashish Bajaj is the Group Chief Marketing Officer of Narayana Health, and one of India’s most respected marketing and MarTech leaders. He has recently authored The MarTech Playbook, a practical handbook designed to simplify how marketers build technology stacks and apply AI at scale. In this conversation, he discusses first party data, AI driven personalization, DPDP, AI agents, and what the next five years will look like for modern marketing.
Q. Martech is still seen as a niche domain. What inspired you to write The MarTech Playbook and how are you simplifying it for marketers?
A. Technology is evolving at a pace we have never seen before. Our generation has witnessed the dot com era and now the AI revolution in one lifetime. When I started setting up MarTech stacks in earlier roles, there were no reference points. We learned through mistakes and through partners who had done it before us. I felt there was a real need for a practical playbook that takes marketers from zero to one. The book is straightforward, free of jargon, and focuses on how to think about stack building, cohort design, and tool selection in a world of more than seventeen thousand tools.
Q. With so many tools available, how should brands choose between building in house and buying off the shelf?
A. It depends completely on scale and maturity. Small or early stage companies should not build everything themselves. They should use existing tools and focus on growth. As organizations scale and accumulate large sets of first party data, it starts making sense to build in house because internal teams understand the data better and can customize systems faster. Building internally is time consuming and expensive, but if an organization has both resources, the impact can be significant.
Q. Marketers often struggle to use first party data well. Why do brands still misuse or underutilize their own data?
A. Many organizations sit on gold mines and do not unlock the value. A major issue is that consumer insights and data analytics teams are treated as cost centers. If you combine NPS, revenue performance, and cohort based insights, you can clearly see who to target and why. AI now enables personalization, creative generation, and delivery in seconds. It is the most exciting time to be a marketer, but also the most demanding time because expectations and complexity are high.
Q. Does data driven marketing come at the cost of creativity?
A. Not at all. Ten years ago marketers relied more on emotions because there was limited data. Today creativity plus data leads to sharper communication and better targeting. The formula is simple: emotions plus data equals the right message to the right audience. Creativity has not reduced. The tools around it have changed.
Q. The new DPDP regulations introduce strict compliance and penalties. What shifts will marketers need to make now?
A. The industry has been preparing for over a year. Now that rules are defined clearly, marketers know what is allowed and what is not. It adds a new dimension of responsibility and creates clarity. I see it as a positive development because it formalizes responsible marketing and strengthens trust.
Q. Real time personalization is becoming essential. What makes execution challenging today?
A. The real challenge is not technology. It is learning how to use it well. AI allows us to create millions of personalized landing pages, app experiences, and creative variations. Personalization is possible at scale across CRM, websites, and media layers. Training is critical. We are investing in structured learning for our teams so they can operate tools independently and measure impact end to end.
Q. AI agents are trending rapidly. Are you seeing practical use cases already?
A. Yes. We are using agents for repetitive and mundane workflows like reimbursement forms and support documentation. It improves speed and customer experience. Human intervention only comes in when corrections are needed. Banks and other industries are already applying agents in advanced voice based use cases. The adoption curve is steep and this will scale very fast.
Q. Will AI agents make marketing teams smaller in the future?
A. Every new wave creates fear at first. It will make marketers smarter and more productive. It is too early to predict job impact through real data. But what is certain is that productivity will increase significantly. I finished a full project presentation in seven minutes using AI today. That is the scale of change.
Q. What is one technological shift in the next five years that will surprise the industry?
A. Extreme personalization. Content, interfaces, and product experiences will adapt uniquely to each user. Two people watching the same film may see different endings. The scale of personalization will reach millions of individual variations. It will change how industries think about experience, retention, and loyalty.
Closing
This conversation reflects the most critical shift in modern marketing: the transition from intuition led decisions to systems powered by AI, insights, and real time personalization. The MarTech Playbook is now available as an e book on ZebraLearn. The pace of change ahead is immense, and as highlighted here, the next few months will likely reshape the industry yet again.
Stay tuned to exchange4media and MartechAI.com for more conversations shaping the future of marketing and AI.
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