From AI ecosystems to micro-trust: Why India’s marketing playbook is being rewritten

India’s advertising industry is entering a structural reset. Artificial intelligence, commerce-led media, quick commerce platforms, and regional creator ecosystems are rapidly reshaping how brands reach consumers.

According to WPP Media’s This Year Next Year (TYNY) 2026 outlook, India’s advertising market is expected to grow 9.7% in 2026 to ₹2.01 lakh crore, with digital accounting for 68.1% of total ad revenue. But the bigger shift is not just digital growth—it is the reconfiguration of the entire marketing ecosystem.

In an interview with Fortune India, Upali Nag Kumar, president – strategy, WPP Media South Asia, says brands must rethink everything from how AI is deployed to how search visibility is measured and how regional trust is built.

From AI pilots to orchestrated ecosystems

Most brands today are experimenting with AI in isolated use cases—writing social media copy, analysing campaign performance, or automating workflows.

But Kumar says the next stage of marketing will be defined by agentic ecosystems, where multiple AI systems collaborate across the entire marketing lifecycle.

“The foundational requirement for AI to work well is data,” she says. “Today, marketers have fragmented datasets—CRM data in one place, campaign data somewhere else, loyalty data elsewhere.”

To scale AI meaningfully, brands must first build integrated data architectures.

“AI needs to understand that the customer in your CRM database is the same person interacting with your

brand on a D2C platform or commerce site,” she explains.

The second transformation is organisational.

Currently, most AI use cases are human-led and task-based. “In the future, it will become agent-led and human-governed,” Kumar says.

Instead of instructing AI to perform individual tasks—such as writing a post—marketers will define outcomes.

“For example, instead of asking AI to create content, you might say: ‘Maximise ROI for Q3.’ That triggers multiple AI agents working together—data, media, and creative systems.”

The marketer’s role shifts from execution to orchestration.

Search is moving from clicks to “share of model”

Another fundamental shift is taking place in how consumers discover brands.

With generative AI now embedded into search platforms, users increasingly receive direct answers rather than lists of links.

“The metric completely changes,” Kumar says.

Earlier, search performance was measured by clicks and traffic. But in an AI-driven environment, brands must track “share of model”—how frequently AI systems reference their content.

“When you search on Google today, the first thing you often see is an AI-generated summary,” she explains.

Winning visibility now depends on whether the AI trusts and cites your content, which is why the metric moves from clicks to share of model—how often the AI cites your brand in its answers.

That means brands must move beyond keyword-driven SEO to creating authoritative knowledge ecosystems based on E-E-A-T principles—experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness.

Commerce media is booming—but balance matters

Commerce-led advertising is expected to be the fastest-growing media segment in India.

According to WPP Media’s forecast, commerce media will grow 24.2% in 2026.

Yet Kumar cautions against viewing commerce purely as a performance marketing tool.

“It’s a myth that commerce equals only short-term sales,” she says.

Econometric modelling shows that commerce media can also contribute to brand equity and awareness.

However, brands must balance demand fulfilment and demand creation.

“When you advertise on commerce platforms, you are largely fulfilling demand—people already intend to buy,” Kumar says.

To create new demand, brands must reach consumers outside the marketplace ecosystem, using tools such as programmatic advertising and lookalike audience targeting.

Quick commerce is collapsing the marketing funnel

The rise of quick commerce has also compressed the traditional consumer journey.

“Today discovery and purchase can happen within minutes on the same platform,” Kumar says.

But its role varies significantly across categories.

For high-involvement purchases such as smartphones, the discovery journey still happens elsewhere.

“No one really needs an iPhone in 10 minutes,” she says.

However, for digital-first food or CPG brands that exist primarily online, quick commerce platforms can become powerful discovery engines.

“There is no single answer,” Kumar explains. “Brands must define whether quick commerce is a demand generator, a demand fulfilment channel, or a full-funnel ecosystem.”

From mega reach to micro trust

Influencer marketing is undergoing its own transformation.

Instead of chasing large follower counts, brands are increasingly focusing on micro-influencers embedded within specific communities.

“In the past the goal was mega reach. Today the focus is micro trust,” Kumar says.

Regional context plays a major role in building credibility, and consumers today know influencers are paid; trust increasingly comes from creators who feel culturally close to them.

“A homemaker in West Bengal may use a product very differently from someone in Tamil Nadu,” she explains.

As a result, national brands are adopting a layered strategy—large influencers for reach and regional creators for deeper engagement.

Regional brands have a cultural advantage

With digital accounting for over two-thirds of India’s advertising revenues, regional brands have gained a powerful lever—vernacular storytelling and hyperlocal relevance.

“Regional brands absolutely have an advantage in local cultural context,” Kumar says.

But national brands are catching up.

“Large brands no longer treat India as one market. Many now run national campaigns with regional adaptations.”

For national brands entering regional markets, success depends on both distribution and cultural integration.

“You need both physical availability and mental availability,” Kumar says.

“There is no point running campaigns if your product is not available deep inside the market.”

Women’s sports: the next big brand platform

Another emerging marketing opportunity is women’s sports, which is rapidly moving into the cultural mainstream.

Brands that invest early can secure premium placements before prices rise.

But the narrative needs to evolve.

“Women’s sports marketing has largely focused on empowerment,” Kumar says.

“The next phase will be about community, lifestyle, and everyday relatability.”

Importantly, she adds, brands must integrate these partnerships with commerce.

“It’s about making every impression shoppable so that engagement also drives business outcomes.”

Privacy becomes a competitive advantage

As marketing becomes more data-driven, privacy and compliance are becoming critical. India’s Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act requires brands to operate with explicit consumer consent.

“Everything has to be compliant,” Kumar says.

But compliance does not necessarily limit scale.

“Brands can still achieve scale through federated data partnerships where consent is already built into the ecosystem.”

These models allow brands to run personalised campaigns while remaining privacy compliant.

The future: integrated marketing ecosystems

For Kumar, the central theme across all these shifts—from AI systems and commerce media to regional creators and privacy-first data—is integration.

“Demand generation happens when the entire ecosystem works together,” she says.

As India’s marketing landscape becomes more AI-driven, commerce-enabled, and culturally localised, brands that build connected ecosystems rather than isolated campaigns are likely to lead the next phase of growth.