In this rapid-fire conversation, Martech journalist Brij Pahwa sits down with AI visionary Jaspreet Bindra—founder of AI&Beyond and Tech Whisperer Ltd, ex-CDO of Mahindra and Microsoft, and author of The Tech Whisperer—to explore how generative AI is poised to transform marketing, the challenges around data privacy and copyright, and the unique role of Indian philosophy in shaping AI ethics. Bindra shares candid insights on the evolution from the “Mad Men” era to the digital age, and now into an “AI customer” paradigm where infinite choice, anticipation, and conversational buying assistants will redefine the marketer’s playbook.

Brij Pahwa: You have worked extensively in AI, digital transformation, and emerging technologies. How do you see it reshaping marketing specifically this year and beyond?

Jaspreet Bindra:
Sure. Well, thanks, Brij. Good to be here—and happy to have this conversation. We’ve had many technologies come in over the last almost 100 years, and many of them have reshaped functions, including marketing.

I think the last big reshape in marketing due to technology was with digital technologies—social media networks, search, etc.—when the customer became what I call a “digital customer.” From a low‑technology usage, low‑choice, physical buying environment, it became a humongous‑choice, search‑and‑click kind of environment. Marketing professionals had to undergo a gut‑wrenching change—from billboards and morning‑traffic ads to digital campaigns.

After that, the next tectonic shift is going to happen with AI, specifically generative AI. AI has been around for a long time, impacting efficiencies, SEO, programmatic buying, but generative AI is a cognitive, creative, generative technology. Marketing is largely cognitive and creative—strategy, messaging, connecting with the customer. I believe that after the digital customer, there will be a new kind of “AI customer.” Rather than massive choice, there will be infinite choice; rather than recommending, it will anticipate; rather than search‑and‑click, it will be conversational and immersive. The customer will have a personal‑shopper‑type buying assistant. Marketers will need the same massive shift from the digital era to the AI era—across B2C and B2B.

Brij Pahwa: While the change is expected, huge issues loom: the death of third‑party cookies by end‑2025, and large copyright cases against generative AI platforms. How should marketers collect information when data becomes harder to obtain?

Jaspreet Bindra:
You can’t circumvent this—this era is dead. It’s like asking how to still buy afternoon‑traffic billboards—people don’t look at them. Yesterday, I was building a new website and everyone worried about Google’s SEO algorithms—but search itself is gradually declining. Technologies evolve gradually then suddenly. People will look for information and what to buy through hundreds of AI chatbots. My advice to CMOs: start preparing for an era where customers express purchase intentions on AI bots, not search engines. Traffic will move to AI chatbots. There are startups—backed by Andreessen Horowitz and others—working on capturing the AI‑chatbot customer. That’s where marketers need to focus.

Brij Pahwa: From the ethics point of view—predictive marketing is becoming the new fad. Where does ethics come in when, say, Blinkit data shows up on Flipkart or Instagram seems to “read your mind”?

Jaspreet Bindra:
Copyright and privacy are big angles in the overall ethics debate. Lawsuits like New York Times vs. OpenAI will set precedents in the next one or two years. AI companies will need to pay publishers—already happening with OpenAI and Google deals. This is inevitable; you can’t stop data scraping entirely.

Frankly, ethics in AI today are far better than ethics in social media. In AI, we’re framing principles, guidelines, talking regulation. In social media, we did nothing, so data flows indiscriminately. In India, we’re less privacy‑conscious—our demographics and economics don’t value privacy; data is out there via Aadhaar, UPI, etc. As a society, we must recognize this and learn from social media’s mistakes when framing AI ethics.

Brij Pahwa: You’ve also worked on AI and spirituality. Can you shed some light on that?

Jaspreet Bindra:
I focus on how Indian thought and philosophy can influence solving ethical questions in AI—not spirituality per se, but philosophy. Today, ethics debates rely 90% on Western schools—consequentialism, deontology, etc.—and maybe 10% on Chinese schools. But 1.5 to 2 billion Asians think differently. We prioritize collective or societal privacy over individual privacy. My dissertation at Cambridge was on privacy in the Indian context.

Brij Pahwa: Can you give specific examples of bringing Indian thought into AI ethics?

Jaspreet Bindra:
Two examples:

1. Right to Privacy: India’s Supreme Court recognized privacy as a fundamental right, but the judgment’s first 20 pages cite Aristotle, Kant, and Western case law on “the right to be left alone.” In Indian texts—Advaita Vedanta and the concept of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam (“the world is one family”)—there’s no concept of individual privacy. We think in terms of collective or family privacy. Privacy laws and guidelines in India will work only if reframed through this lens.
2. Jan AI: Similar to Digital Public Goods (DPG) reaching 1.4 billion Indians, we need “Jan AI”—bringing generative AI to the masses. Today, maybe 1.4 million Indians use AI; we must scale that to 1.4 billion through public‑good models.

Brij Pahwa: Finally, if you were to write a sequel to The Tech Whisperer, what would it be?

Jaspreet Bindra:
In The Tech Whisperer, Chapter 13 was written by AI (pre‑GPT) over seven months; Chapter 12 was written by me. Last year, I repeated it with GPT‑4 in 22 minutes (on the free version)—a measure of progress from 2019 to 2023. Writing an AI sequel is hard because the field moves fast. I’m co‑authoring a book releasing in June on “AI literacy”—how everyone needs to become AI literate. A true sequel to The Tech Whisperer will wait until AI settles down.

Brij Pahwa: Thank you, Jaspreet—lots of new perspectives. All the best for your book and we’ll continue this conversation soon.

Jaspreet Bindra: Thank you very much. Good talking to you.