AI is turning audience measurement into a real-time business tool, says Nielsen CTO Anil Goel

Artificial intelligence is fundamentally changing the economics of advertising, but perhaps its biggest impact will be on how marketers measure audiences and evaluate campaign performance.

For decades, audience measurement was largely retrospective. Brands launched campaigns, waited for post-campaign reports, and evaluated success based on reach and impressions. That model is rapidly giving way to real-time intelligence as media consumption fragments across television, OTT platforms, social media, creator ecosystems and connected devices.

"AI is dramatically improving how quickly we can process audience data and generate actionable insights," Anil Goel, chief technology officer at Nielsen, tells Fortune India. "Customers increasingly expect answers in real time rather than waiting for campaign reports."

The shift comes as India's advertising and media industry undergoes a structural transformation. According to GroupM's This Year Next Year 2025 report, India's advertising market is projected to grow 7% to ₹1.64 lakh crore in 2025, with digital accounting for nearly 60% of total advertising revenues. Digital and television together will contribute 86% of overall ad spending, underscoring the growing complexity of measuring audiences across multiple screens.

That complexity is only increasing. The latest FICCI-EY report shows digital media has overtaken television as India's largest media segment, while the country's media and entertainment industry reached ₹2.78 lakh crore in 2025, driven by streaming, digital advertising and live experiences.

Can AI deliver a single source of truth across fragmented media?

Against this backdrop, Nielsen is investing heavily in AI-led measurement technologies that unify viewing behaviour across television, streaming platforms, desktops, mobile devices and digital video.

"Audience behaviour doesn't happen on one screen anymore," says Goel. "Consumers move across platforms throughout the day. Measurement therefore has to provide one comparable, de-duplicated view of audiences regardless of where they consume content."

The company is increasingly using machine learning to analyse massive volumes of video and audio content, automate audience classification and improve cross-platform attribution. The objective is to help advertisers optimise campaigns while they are still running rather than after budgets have already been spent.

Equally important is the industry's shift from measuring exposure to measuring outcomes.

"The conversation has evolved from asking how many people watched an advertisement to understanding what business outcome it created," says Goel. "Brands want to connect media investments to sales, customer acquisition and engagement."

That transition is reflected globally. Nielsen's 2025 Annual Marketing Report found that only 32% of marketers currently measure digital and traditional media holistically, while cross-media measurement remains one of the industry's biggest challenges. At the same time, 71% of marketers with annual advertising budgets exceeding $1 billion believe AI-powered personalisation and optimisation will have the greatest impact on marketing this year.

Goel believes Gen Z's consumption habits are accelerating the need for better measurement. Short-form video, creator-led content and multi-device viewing have made traditional ratings systems increasingly inadequate.

Looking ahead, he expects AI to reshape not only audience measurement but also content valuation, media buying and advertising effectiveness. "The industry will increasingly rely on trusted, independent and AI-enabled measurement to navigate an increasingly fragmented media ecosystem," he says.

For Nielsen, the future of audience measurement is no longer about reporting what happened yesterday. It is about helping advertisers decide what to do next.