India is leading global AI adoption in marketing, with 53% of Indian CMOs expecting 5% to 9% incremental revenue from AI, higher than the global average of 43%, and 57% funding AI initiatives directly from their departments.

A survey of 300 CMOs shows 96% believe AI is driving end-to-end transformation, yet only about one-third have scaled AI agents and 8% run campaigns with multiple autonomous AI agents.

Agentic commerce is a top priority for Indian CMOs (73%), well above the global rate, with 52% expecting major impact from personalization and 88% believing gen AI enables near real-time sensing and action.

Investors should weigh the high upfront and ongoing costs of building and deploying advanced AI systems—computing power and talent—against the measurable ROI of AI projects.

The market shift toward agentic commerce, where AI acts autonomously for consumers, creates demand for AI implementation services for IT firms and opportunities for consumer-facing digital natives to boost efficiency, personalization, and margins.

Regulatory and privacy risks are significant in India under the DPDP Act, with data handling for AI personalization exposing firms to compliance penalties and reputational damage, plus operational risks from autonomous AI decisions.

There is growing emphasis on answer engine optimization (AEO), with brands increasingly discovered through AI-generated responses rather than traditional search rankings.

Agentic marketing uses autonomous AI systems to manage campaigns, optimize media spend, and engage with consumers in real time, moving beyond keyword-based approaches.

Investors should monitor AI ROI in filings, including tangible revenue or cost savings, impact on free cash flow and margins from AI spending, management commentary, and regulatory compliance updates.

Experts say AI is shifting from experimentation to a central, long-term business strategy across sectors in the Indian economy.

CMOs acknowledge GenAI is reshaping brand discovery and evaluation, but warn most marketing organizations aren’t ready to compete, emphasizing needs for integrated, agentic operating systems, strong data foundations, and talent.

Industry leaders urge moving beyond isolated AI tools to fully connected agentic operating systems with data foundations, brand intelligence, multi-agent orchestration, and the right talent.