Breaking the Silo Paradox: Can Brands Build a Truly Unified Data Strategy? | e4m TechManch 2026

Thank you. Uh I think uh it was firstly great to see that uh the the topic did not have AI anywhere which meant that we're still we're still having a conversation that's that's relevant and not going to be relevant not that AI is not but uh the intent of the conversation is obviously to break down where I mean 5 years ago this conversation would have been all about data and putting all the data together. I think uh if we are now having a conversation of putting data together then it's absolutely the wrong panel but now it's about how the data is getting organized how the data is getting used and how while we are solving for the data journey have we solved for you know internal human interventions internal customer journeys internal stakeholder journeys so that we're able to use the data in the right sort of a format for all of the marketing activities or for any of the other activities that we'd like to do. So the intent uh the intent of the conversation like I'm going to try and make it as conversational as possible. So please just jump in whenever you feel like I have a whole host of questions in case we want to do that boring route. But uh but the intent is to just uh just kick off a conversation and anybody who has a point of view on that please please jump in. I'll start with Pawan because he's right to my left. Uh because you're because he's in Mahindra and Mahindra and for me the thinking of it is that the customer journeys are now becoming a lot more broader for you and it's now becoming ecosystem journeys. You're collecting data from your uh you know from your sales your sales people. You're collecting data from even the cars that are coming through uh you're collecting data from from the internet. You're collecting data in all sorts of forms and ways. How is that data coming into a unified ecosystem that's accessible differently to different aspects of your business and therefore what are the kind of business metrics that you're able to track or you're able to affect because of this entire data journey hopefully which has broken the silos already. Thank you uh Pratip for having me. Uh I come from Mahindra auto sector. So we are into business of uh auto automotive uh vehicles both uh ice and uh electric vehicles. So the biggest shift which you all know you have been buyers of uh cars and SUVs for many years. Today's buyer is a self-directed buyer [music] and he has he or she has already made a choice before they come to our showrooms or they visit website. what all what they need is validation whether their choice is right and that's where the shift has already happened for uh in last decade. So what makes it interesting is to uh find those insights and mine the data uh in in what way they are actually interacting with the brand uh whatever may be the medium whether it's a website or WhatsApp marketing or uh in the showroom itself. So the journey customer journey has multiple facets to it. Uh so whatever data that is getting generated we have made it as an unified source for various functions to consume it uh on a on on on a live basis. When I say stakeholders even the stakeholder spectrum has changed. Uh we sell our vehicles to our dealer partners and in turn they sell it to customers. So dealer partners become our major stakeholders in terms of understanding these insights and consuming the data. Uh so this unified platform what we have has not just the lead uh phase when when a customer walks in or uh he's uh searching internet but it also has all the previous informations of that customer the previous ownership uh what is he looking into uh and how do we make a better sales pitch which is again uh a various a platforms have come in giving us models in which uh we can hyperpersonalize what what needs to be told uh in the sales pitch. Uh so this data what I said is an unified data right now and it is it is building every every second that uh as we speak and this is accessible to all the functions. So in that way we have broke the silos in last uh 3 four years time especially postco [music] uh we have been at it uh you know lot of partners have joined in and uh we enrich this platform on a daily basis uh this is being primarily consumed by three departments which I would like to highlight first the marketing to understand you know what the profile of the customers today's customers uh is uh secondly it is being used by quality uh in terms of what customers are saying once they bought brought into the brand. Uh what's the product experience like and the quality team is using every day to improve the quality of the product. Uh and thirdly, it is going back to the uh uh drawing table in terms of product development itself. Uh the design department what we have they use these insights in uh mining what is important for the changing customer profile uh in next 3 to four years to come. What features they value? What is the perceived value of the feature? how much the customer is able to pay uh and what are the strategies to retain how [music] can be the forefront how can be at the forefront in offering the features at the right cost. So overall you know all these who which were in silos have been you know broken and it's an evolving process um and and this is how uh we at Mahindra are approaching uh this breaking the silos paradox. >> Thanks. So I have lots of follow-up questions but well we'll address them uh as we go along. I think Venit to you uh I'd be foolish to think that you guys have not implemented marketing technology and must have implemented hundreds of those platforms already. Uh but you know in my experience when what what I've seen is the biggest reason of mk not working is not because the platforms don't work but because the the organizational change does not happen fast as fast as you like your data to change. Right. uh and for you know for a structure of HDFC Bank like yours where that banking customer first to come into your funnel and then to come into the various different products that you would provide. Uh while that segmentation would hopefully exist what is the biggest what is the biggest resistance to change that you saw on the organizational side that make the silos a lot more prominent than products do? So see ideally it's uh classic problem in banking what we have seen uh combination of multiple factors but if I were to highlight uh let's say around two to three bigger chunks of it obviously the digital transformation the technology at the base at which evolves right and followed by technically the attribution problem which is what you see the newer brands these days the likes of lens card the likes of Tomato and all they don't care right uh one of the biggest reasons with silos Because if you would see I believe across the entire list of all the brands [music] which have been coming here and speaking about what you could notice is that there's a challenge between the offline side the online in our BFSI world we call it the assisted side the unassisted that's one silo within the marketing channel or the entire marketing department itself there are multiple channels which are operating that's another silo right and then followed by idly the transformation informationled silo which is there as a part of the entire organization right so these are the silos which basically do exist and which is what the brands do recognize which is why you know I think all of us are sitting here I've been personally knowing Francis Manu that we that's what I think all of us are trying to do we're trying to break those silos personally with HTFC bank if I were to give you some glimpse of it what we are trying to do is we're trying to [music] uh you know address the area of the assisted the unassisted battle right so if you walk into the any branch of HDFC bank as of today what you would notice is that now we are no longer differentiating between you know this is a customer which is assisted this is unassisted this is the business of this particular uh you know teams XYZ and that's how because the goal is very common right the goal is about customer experience so we've launched something called as an expressway what it does is basically irrespective of any channel a customer walks into a branch they log in just with the help of QR code. Nobody cares about attribution anymore, right? None of the brands are idally and I think even if there are certain ones who are still working in that traditional way, I think it'll all evolve that you will see that none neither the bank does that because the common goal is experience. They know that if they don't break this silo, the customer experience is going to get hampered. So that's the biggest takeaway what I think that you know what in the last two to three years what all the brands are doing uh with HDFC bank also with within marketing itself now while we are talking about the upper funnel within the silos itself which is the unassisted assisted that's what we have tried to attack and explicitly with MK right and MK is now technically able to leverage that fact it is sitting on top of all the teams and it is actually giving organization the direction right so imagine the scope of Matek where ideally the MD of the bank is technically looking at the data which is or the insights which are driven by Matek right he is much more concerned about what is going wrong with the app and if there is anything if there's an issue with the net banking that this is all because it's all about the customer experience right and that's what ideally the technology is doing it's automatically breaking the silos uh while we are not talking much about AI that's what even eventually AI will do it will bloody break the silos, right? Which is what is making this industry run on a very traditional model, right? So that'll automatically happen. Uh let's see how it further goes over the next few years. >> Thanks, Venit. I think Francis, uh your line of business is what most businesses really would love for, right? You have a customer relationship for minimum 20, 30 years, right, in life. uh but that customer relationship in so many of the cases is so long drawn and has so many channels and back channels and intermediaries over there that for you from from the way that I look at it right data is one part of it but to manage that entire customer journey through through all of the data transitions that you are seeing must be probably some of the hardest bits right u and and for me the the question I want to ask is that data has one side of the story the emotion has another side of the story and for you the marriage of the data and emotion in your in your line line of business becomes the most important data continuum journey that you must that you must take on how do you manage that so we try to that's the honest answer but I think you know you touched upon a very important thing you know while vin spoke about you know sales attribution and sales attribution as a big silo and that's true across BFSI I think the big one for insurance uh is also you know something which is slightly philosophical right what is the silo between moment of sale and moment of truth. Right. So it's a time [music] when you've actually kind of sold the product and the time at which as you mentioned you know 40 years in terms of term insurance 20 plus years in terms of savings and ulips etc is it's a very long sort of customer journey and each point of the journey what is a uh what is the moment of time at which the customer really is you know in some sense getting benefits of your product using your product and what is he feeling at that point of time. So that basically is the key silo to build great token and what happens is that you have a lot of energy, time, attention in terms of uh you know how do you kind of improve uh you know sale. So whether it is you know a lead propensity, customer propensity, next best offer and so on and so forth, right? You also have you know a whole bunch of uh you know uh traditional ML there's now even a lot of AI in terms of sentiment analysis and everything else around you know what are customers feeling at a given point in time uh who's likely to churn and so on but there still exists that silo between the two saying that you know how do you kind of ensure that whatever you've been kind of you know you've promised the customer at a given point in time is that promise playing out and playing out over those 10 20 years right so I think That basically is the key silo to be broken. >> That's a that's a very very difficult one and I and I'll come back to you because you need to know the emotional changes that the customer is basically going on and obviously relying on either your relationship managers or your agents and and to keep continuously feeding back that information into your data journey for me would be the most tricky part of of your of your ecosystem. But to to you Suruchi, I think uh you're the only one over here who comes from the corporate communications background. So everyone who wants that change to happen internally uh is obviously going to look at you for for all the help and support to ensure that while they spend the cr of rupees on getting the marketing technology platform, the people who are running the platforms are are also looking at the change that that is coming through it. U as a person who's leading that charge and we'll talk about the other stakeholders that you that you obviously deal with. uh what do you think is is the most important driver of that cultural change within the organization or the levers that you're able to pull to be able to make this change happen because uh the seauite obviously wants it right but the seauite can't do anything till the machinery doesn't start to to flex its own muscle so what's the what's the biggest changes that you've been able to drive and how have you been able to drive it um is is [music] my first question to you >> yeah thank Thank you Pratik and uh such a valid point because uh uh we are all working towards our specific department and we are talking about silos. So uh I've been fortunate to really uh be at the top level and work uh at uh even in my earlier jobs at network marketing levels for media Z uh when I was with Z network and now with Bajage group I'm part of the uh corporate communications piece. So we have two of our manufacturing industries which is Bajach power business, Bajach sugar ethanol and Bajach consumer care. So here uh I'm able to really see what different cultures uh the uh employees are coming from even the kind of business uh strategy or communication that each of the businesses are putting out and at uh that at the same time how is it uh really tying back to the Bajach culture. I think that is something that uh has to evolve for any organization if we are building a brand and especially for legacy brands. But uh of course uh when uh you want to be uh having that relationship with your consumers with your stakeholders that is the kind of communication that's really important that uh you are true to your organizational values and how it all ties back to the uh brand perception that's been there for all these years. So when we are communicating I think uh whenever a new business strategy is made it's uh somehow needs to tie back uh to your original uh brand identity and that is when uh your customers will really relate to your brand and that is when they will really have the trust that's uh uh going to be uh an important factor for any brand uh uh lead generation or uh loyalty of consumers that we keep talking about. So I think uh at [music] that level when we are talking about silos I think how things are changing in all these years and uh when uh Pavan was talking about the uh the the departments that are using that data set. I think every department today should have uh or rather does have but they are not using that kind of uh access to the data that's available uh in today's time. So somewhere it's really important that we realize that uh all our strategies because we are all ultimately working towards having that brand uh loyalty from our [music] customers. So how that's going to make a difference uh from the starting point making a business uh pitch uh may it be a a new product launch or a new uh corporate brand campaign uh anything for that matter how it's going to tie back uh to your identity. I think that's a very important point uh that we uh need to realize and today when uh uh we are talking about content that's being made uh on the go how uh Jenz's are working out uh with uh content creation on their phones and everybody is a content creator today. So our employees uh are really our uh most important stakeholders. if they don't believe in what we are going to sell to the consumers, I think it's never going to translate uh to the outside stakeholder. So that is a uh take that I realiz being at this. >> Thank you Imanu. We're done with the brand guys. Uh my clear question to you is what breaks first the technology, the process or the alignment between teams? It's still truths. Personally I think the alignment breaks first and everything else then crashes along with it. Right? So um start things start building with alignment and things break with uh end of alignment. So that would be uh the answer specific answer to your question but uh you know underlying why do alignments break something that I would share from my experience that uh one of the things and we are into technology services and we implement enterprise solutions for brands and what I've usually seen is the team that decide to purchase a particular way of sol solving a problem the team that is involved in implementing the solution and team that eventually is going to use the solution right is are are like completely different people in an organization with different objectives and u so when rubber meets the road you know uh if you have not really taken the necessary steps u you know uh in it typically what I have seen and that's where we we end up being more successful uh in in uh delivering value in the [music] first version itself. We have this option of telling clients we as in in general the industry like next phase [music] plan right so so this whole next phase thing comes out because no one really thought through u you know uh the need of the end [music] user who is going to actually use the solution. So I think alignment has to start even before the first write of line of code is written or even before anything is thought [music] through. I think the uh requirement gathering needs to happen in a way which keeps in mind the needs of the absolute end user uh and then evolve from there. So if that happens and then obviously things keep changing but uh if if things are aligned at from that perspective it gets built and if that alignment breaks starts breaking. Thanks. I think uh Rajumar I think I'm going to ask you a a very very simple question which has I'm hoping a very complicated answer. Uh but what's happened is that data silos are building uh individual channels right whether it's a particular team or whether it's a particular outcome. I have personally seen lots of organizations being able to win at individual channels but yet lose the customer. Why do you think that that sort of an ecosystem with the complexity of technology that we have access to today with the filteration downwards of data that we are seeing today is still not the complete answer for customer success. And I'm broadly using that term because customer success could be defined in multiple ways. uh I've usually seen that best S so over here, best S so over there, best number of calls, best number of sales, best number of intent. But when it comes down to the last layer, um I've usually seen these data silos or data paradoxes exist in almost every ecosystem. And why do you think that that that actually happens? the fact that you know it's a fact that these exist [music] and uh the answer is actually very simple it's not very complicated because different channels collecting data from different places u I think the one single place to um accumulate all that is missing and it'll be hard it it's not fair because we're all humans and each of us is protecting our share of data and there has to be [music] someone at the top knitting I mean orchestrating all this together so um the answer is quite simple example human behavior I mean everybody is protecting their data and everybody's holding on to their stuff uh well till humans exist uh you know that will continue to be in some way till till we find some channel that can really go through this and uh hold all of this together and give one single picture and >> how have you been able to navigate your clients through these through these times >> uh it's not been easy it is not going to be easy uh well in in my case uh uh you know different people have to buy the idea that you know this can do this for them uh but it's not easy it's not easy it's the same struggle that any [music] any one of us faces whether with so for me that the consumer is the corporate consumer so uh it's actually even tougher [music] so it's not as simple as the >> thanks uh pan I want to I want to bring in the aspect of of emotion right like we're still we're still India buying a car for lots of people is still a highly emotional emotional decision and I'm trying to get in the the absolute structure of data and the you know data doesn't discriminate kind of a kind of a philosophy with a deep rooted emotional truth emotional reason for a person to actually buy and this must be a data input and this must also be a data output right like what you get from your dealers and what you get from in your showrooms as to why most people are making a decision and how some are able to tug the emotional cord a lot more than they are able to tug tug a data cord in a in a place where you're trying to create that balance between emotion and data. How have you your sector your company been able to manage this balance? Very very interesting question and uh this is this is one differentiating factor in breaking the silos. uh especially when emotion travels across the departments uh traditional departments that's the unifying force you know to think uh giving an unified experience which is [music] consistent both in showrooms and workshops and I have to break this journey between showroom and workshops it's very important uh for a product which is you know average price uh of which is about 20 22 lakhs today uh uh in the SUV space that we are And uh emotion plays an important role. Uh it's not uh utility vehicle that they are buying you know which is low priced. Uh this is very very close to our customers and hence how they experience the product. What emotions do they display after buying the product that's where the story starts because that's where the word of mouth uh influences the other buyers to come into the into the showrooms. Uh so we track those emotions uh on a daily basis. So the cycle starts there. I'm going back to what I said earlier to the first question. This emotion gets translated obviously in form of data insights. Uh and uh I have to bring in AI here. We have deployed various AI models across the touch points starting with out sales experience. We capture every element of uh how the customer is interacting with the machine, the product, the SUV. uh for example the customer while driving the vehicle he can give a voice input to Alexa which is integrated into the infotainment system of a problem that he is experiencing then if if he experiences some noise from door I'm taking an example uh he can give an voice input and that gets recorded into the main data platform unified data platform that we have and that is being consumed by the quality the product planning and also the customer experience [music] teams. What do we do with the customer and what do we do with the vehicle with with the product? What do we do with the vehicle when it comes to the next service? This is reactive but we are using AI in lot of proactive stuff and most of the connected cars uh have uh lot of data being generated every second. We use the data to predict lot of models are available and we have deployed the best uh they predict what can go wrong in the vehicle and we call the customer uh and tell that you know this might go wrong so please come and uh get this repaired. So it we are touching the emotional [music] emotional space of the customer and which is interest building uh lot of trust resilience uh towards the brand and the affinity is going up. So that's an after sales experience. I'm moving to the uh sales experience. I'm starting with the showroom journey and uh and in in [music] showroom you know we we have deployed uh we have envisioned a lot of design thinking there but our partners normally himu they come up with the same phrase next phase okay so our aspirations are high uh but whatever we have deployed we have deployed similar to you know scanning a simple QR code in identifying the need what what their need is because it's no more about engine power or uh the speed or the acceleration or the features. It's about the experience of the product, right? Especially in electric vehicle space. It's all about experience. You know that that that vehicle can do anything for you. Uh and we have seen a huge success with our new products XCV 9S and 9E6 B6. So there the customer profile is completely different. They are completely emotionally attached to the vehicle. uh and first of all they are buying into a new technology uh with lot of aspirations and uh and they come to the showrooms with so much of uh information that no consultant can actually you know understand those emotions and there we have deployed AI it is in pilot phase uh again there we capture a lot of emotions why that vehicle is important to them beyond [music] specifications and features uh use case range how how much they drive where do they go how do they interact because electric vehicles have a lot of tech stuff built into that. So emotion sorry I'm keeping it short I can go on and on. Uh emotion plays an important role. Uh one thing which I would like to highlight is that the AI is not just breaking the silos actually it is breaking the structures within the organization. Uh because the data is available to everybody to consume. Uh like a design engineer need not go to somebody to ask how the customer is exper experiencing the product. he knows it and he can do something about it live right so so so I think uh we are just starting lot of interesting stuff fascinating stuff is going to come our way >> thanks thanks Francis I think for you uh unless somebody wants to chime in uh you are you are at the extreme end of the emotion ecosystem and in your case you actually don't even control it most of the times right like when you're dealing with agents and when you're dealing with people who are well they they pseudo belong to your organization but really don't belong to your organization. How does that that emotion out and data in of the customer actually work on this customer journey for you? >> So I think u you know customer emotions are there across different elements of the cycle and there are certain things which are absolutely controllable. the kind of experience that you're giving the customer uh the kind of quality of sale that has been done what has been promised has NVM is selling or not uh the kind of products that you're releasing in the market the charges on some of those products and a lot of this has has you know kind of improved significantly from a customer's perspective uh over a period of time I think we uh can thank the regulator for a lot more sort of u customer specific products which are being launched uh the whole uh you know missale thing which used to exist as as a huge you know sort of black spot on the industry is is is more or less not there right now. But having said that there is still a bunch of things where customers get emotion because uh you know most of the times buying an insurance whether it's an endowment plan or an investment plan or a term insurance is a long long-term sort of plan. uh in the case of uh you know uh investment [music] plans you know you might have invested in uh say an index fund the index fund or the index itself is not doing well since you're tracking that that itself is not how do you separate that emotion saying oh you lost my money from the kind of experience that you can give as an organization so I think some of these things are uh you know critical to manage uh again uh you know a lot of times uh you know the principle uh sort of payer in in India is basically the uh the male patriarch usually but uh the knowledge about the insurance policy and where it is etc is not very well kind of communicated to the rest of the country. So the average time between say a a death occurring and somebody coming to claim an insurance is basically usually around 3 to four months as big as that because a lot of times you did not know this existed how things are and so what we're trying to do in a lot of these cases is you know get a lot of data get basically help people prepare their you know little book of legacy so to speak the equivalent of say a will help people and all these things such that you know there is a lot of data which is coming in at different points in time the nominee the beneficiary what's happening and so on and so forth which takes you know which which while you know being cognizant of the emotion in place here there is you know usually a loss a big loss right still ensures that data comes in and you're able to kind of at least give a great experience on things you can control thanks I think uh you know with with with Vinit with Himmanu and with Raj Kumar I think I want to get one answer to this question. Right. Everybody is moving into this unified siloed ecosystem. I'm going to take a leap of faith and say AI will break those structures. Like you say, not only accelerated it, but like in any ecosystem, if the structures don't exist, AI is not going to be the magic pill [music] that that that any that will change anything. U for me, it's clear sitting on the inside or the outside that the silos are still there, right? like everybody's trying to unify that entire ecosystem. Uh if I had to open out a broad question of if I had to remove one KPI, remove one KPI that you think will destroy these silos, what would that one KPI be both from the brand side and both from the product and agency side and why will that KPI resultant break the silos that you guys that that internally may exist? So see uh as I said even while you know we begin this discussion there is not just one uh ideally one section which is you know resulting into a silo but if I were to say that and the example which I even said about for example a lens card right the channel attribution the assisted the unassisted I'm dead sure is across all of these guys were sitting across all organizations it exists even today so till the time you don't take care of that attribution issue which is a subset of multiple KPIs within the company I think that silo will still remain and the customer experience will obviously take a backseat so that's one big which I see if I if I may add I can't find KPI to be killed but there needs to be a new KPI which will unify you know all all all all the silos silo functions or departments. I think we should approach from that point of view >> and and and and whose responsibility is that and I don't I don't I don't try to try to like you know make it sound like a small problem right but because when when we are discussing this from a from a technology partner agency partner point of view our biggest conversation is who's my stakeholder is it the CMO is it the CIO right and in today's day and age with AI coming into the ecosystem is it the CEO right and therefore whose job is for that unification parameter to exist hopefully for a longish period of time before that total deployment of stage two stage three as as as he said actually happens right and if that unification has to be held together by somebody who's holding it together I think see what's happening is the CMO's job is changing right in today's world it's no longer about just running brand campaigns or marketing it is also about focusing on [music] the business aspect So from a marketing side while there will be tech teams while there will be IT teams and there'll be compliance and everything in the background but forefront of it will be basically value creation right and which is where I believe that all of us are gunning for so it will be technically from it will be sort of overlapped with multiple departments but the core job will still be focused on those five to six guys who are sitting in the boardroom and they're discussing on the value aspect which technically giving you value for the company right so that is eventually what you will see in the next four five years everybody will ideally follow in that direction >> yeah so I just wanted to add that uh for every organization I think at the business level the that KPI will have to be set uh uh for your what is the vision of that particular business and that is when I think all this information all the data is going to be utilized in the right way by all the departments uh uh that are sitting there to achieve that vision of the uh brand because otherwise all the data is available, AI tools are available but how are we utilizing that is uh still uh not uh unified at the brand level. Everybody is interpreting it in their uh fragmented manner for their particular department. marketing wants to get uh the brand uh uh uh availability or visibility and uh sales is has a different targets. Corporate communications has a different target. So yeah, I think the business team will have to set that KPI for every uh organization. >> I really like the idea that you know instead of removing the metric add the metric of you know how many unified uh understanding you have. I just want to expand a bit on how do you define this unification of data, right? I mean um one thing one thing is that your CRM keeps capturing what you know about the customer. You know they inquired with you, you have their phone number, you know what product they showed interest [music] in and things like that. But if you are really an omni channel experience, right? Um you know or for that matter sometimes even digital experience, right? What does a unified profile really mean? you know, I'm coming through a device to your website. I'm coming through a uh another different devices to your website and I can't be a new customer to you uh every time I change my device, right? Or every time I change this thing and the the patience level of people have gone really down. If I've already expressed myself to you uh uh to a brand and if I'm interacting irrespective of which channel I'm interacting with, don't make me feel as if you don't know me. Right? So that is the expectation of the customer that I've already expressed myself to you. Maybe on Facebook, maybe on uh in my in your showroom, maybe on a call center, maybe on an online website, you know, but once I've [music] expressed myself to you, please retain that information about you and use it in my advantage. Right? So from a unification point of view, one is what do you uh the what is of the customer and and and the [music] other things are the events related to how they have interacted with you. But like for example in case of life insurance, you know, before buying the policy, generating the code, interacting, understanding the policy, these are all touch points and then eventually making a purchase and then they renew every year and stuff like that, right? So not just knowing um you know the uh the what do you call it the demographics or the the records or profile of a customer but every touch point and what does it mean for them and giving that meaning and context [music] and then utilizing that to make the customer experience better is is something that brands need to st define as what unification means. >> Yeah. simple actually I think but uh it's I think it's a failure of the CEO or or whoever is the guy at the top to it should be his KPI that all of this comes together it's not the fault of any one department because okay I won't do justice to this panel if I don't ask an AI question But uh uh how has this silo been broken, enhanced, made faster, unified, whatever could be the parameter that uh I already got an applause. uh [laughter] what would be the parameter for uh that or what would be the implementation for any of the parameters of success that you have seen with the small implementation of AI and how is it different from the mk that you have deployed previously this for everyone so maybe I'll start I think u one of the things that we recently started deploying is uh basically ly call auditing using AI. So it's simple we we I mean in life insurance most sales are assisted sales. So there is a contact center and uh people uh call up the contact center. The contact center reaches out for certain set of things. Uh most of these conversations were not sort of they recorded but nothing else was happening. There was some 1% 3% 5% auditing etc that used to happen. So the idea was let's take all of this information let's basically transcript it let's diize it and then let's learn from the conversations is what what's happening and what can happen uh the number of things or uh that that really changed as a result of that. So one was you know just within the contact center efficiency right so each agent had a specific [music] feedback of what he's doing well what he's not doing well in terms of various aspects of the sales process right which is basically generating rapper doing need identification pitching the product well managing any sort of objections and creating a sense of urgency [music] and so on and so forth. At the same time a lot of conversation of what the customer is talking about became very good inputs for the marketing team to go and build you know uh bottomfunnel creatives around. So that basically was a feedback loop to kind of go back and say hey these are the kind of creatives which should work and then you know this same loop can actually kind of close both ends because now you have the creative the conversation and everything else kind of looping into the same place super basically uh what's happening now is while we are trying to say that you know we don't need AI and all but we have to understand the relevance of what is happening 5 years 7 years back or 10 years back you were looking at digital marketing per se which was in itself a silo right so you had a digital marketing within channels across all brands now what is happening is basically you if you want AI to technically work you need to have a mate layer which is basically spread across so that's the idea so if your mate is basically not connected which is what even I think in a way what Himmanu was also highlighting the omni channel the true omni channel will not happen unless you don't have your mk bit in piece you know it if it is not connected then you are done because again AI will run in silos so until unless the middle layer is not sorted which is basically your core which is driven by mate then your silo problem will still continue to exist even going down the line even in the next 5 years right so that's a challenge >> yeah so uh I think you asked about how uh it has helped uh us uh one uh example if I may just share like we have around five lakh [music] sugar cane farmers that are associated with Bajandustan sugar so uh with EI coming into picture we've started our WhatsApp channels and how we are reaching out to these communities and we have 14 sugar mills so every mill has a WhatsApp channel attached to it so uh for that kind of a rural audience this is really a pathbreaking uh uh communication that's coming in from the uh from an organization who they are uh really dependent on like pro uh share like they're working on an entire if uh you know uh sugar production is a six-month business like uh the sugar mills only run for [music] 6 months and the other six months they are producing they are sewing the crops they are uh harvesting the crops so this is a channel that has given them uh u like they can really reach out to us and ask anytime the cane manager measures in their regions uh on how uh we can make the crop better, how we can make the yield better, if the climate is changing, if things are changing, they are aware of this information. So I think that way uh data and uh AI is really helping us move uh forward. But then of course uh what we're talking about how we can utilize this data in the right way [music] and make it uh a point to really serve to our consumers uh and solve their problems. I think that's going to make a difference for all uh of us uh this level. >> I if I may add uh to the views already expressed uh I think AI will play a major role in hyperpersonalization because AI at large is available to every consumer [music] sometimes free of cost uh sometimes on on subscription basis. This hyperpersonalization I think is going to drive how the new models will get deployed adopted uh across uh across the channel across the omni channel. I mean uh I I I was stuck with your earlier question who should be responsible for you know bringing this unification. I think there is no straight answer there. It's food for thought and it I think it will also depend [music] on the industry right for for manufacturing industry it will vary for IT it would vary right uh what will work across the across the sectors is a cross functional approach because people have to understand the emotional part of it right how data is going to uh get used for taking emotional emotional decisions uh which are in in sync with the real time based customer expectations you Customers are real time, media is real time, consumption is real time but the organizations are not real time they are old-fashioned. You know they are still working uh you know with particular structure which I referred to last time. So a can play a significant role in breaking these structures and bringing this uniform approach and there is no single owner. It's a joint responsibility. Personally I think the way the aug structure needs to be defined um has to be reorged in a way that leads to the [music] success. I mean to give you an example that we interact with many brands and we've worked with many years we've been working with SDFC life we've been working with SDFC bank. One of our recent experiences of success was Virus Pains, right? So the way the org I mean they had the opportunity of starting with a blank slate, right? Uh so they they had the opportunity to define the [music] org in a way which aligns to their mission and stuff like that. Right? Now in that one of the key things that I observed was on day one they had a customer experience uh uh division right and they were they the customer experience division was not limited to defining experience for uh D2C customer experience was for across the entire value chain and and you know everything else the marketing the IT or anything everything else were more of a support function to ensure that the customer experience objectives are met. I think it does not happen easily in all the other organizations u u you know and that takes time but I think to to his point it would vary from industry to industry but you know wherever a clean slate is there having a customer experience department defined which is across the value chain you know I think u will make a huge difference and just to put the outcome in place when they started they were number nine in terms of market share today they are number three so you So it it shows the the outcome also shows that it really works. >> Okay. I think I think we're we're we're out of time. Uh but uh you know for me I think the few takeaways is that different industries like you say have have different needs or are at even different levels of maturity. Uh the data unification away from silos will get into hyperpersonalization. But I'm I'm a big fan of the concept of hyper continuation. Right? Basically exactly what he was saying about the ability for the customer to not start from scratch. Patience is dwindling today. My context, who I am, where I'm calling from, what I have interacted with you previously, right? Like I mean it's great that we have somebody from HDFC Bank and HDFC Life. They may see themselves as two different organizations, but for the person sitting on the outside, they're dealing with with HDFC. Um and apart from the legal problems that this this may throw up uh but but the intent of the personalization now going two steps further right which is what I think um AI will enable right beyond the structures of the marketing tech that a lot a large part of the mature marketeers like you guys have [music] already started to implement. Um and I think that will be a fun conversation to have probably you know a year or two later where a large part of this has started to get deployed um with AI. I also personally feel that the context of data and the context of emotion that gap is going to grow further and the simplification that the customer is going to demand from you is going to become bigger. Right? So you may have a lot more context but to simplify that context to something that you may want to buy whether it's because of a data ecosystem from their end or it's a functional need at their end or it's an emotional need at their end will happen. Uh but anybody who's not made this transition of breaking the silos will not fare very well over the next few years. I mean that's that's what my take away from it was and and all stakeholders have to come to understand that this is the core of the business and hence also hire differently. I think marketing teams will get stacked differently or customer experience teams will get stacked differently and and that's the change that will deliver the outcomes that we all hope for. Thank you so much everyone for being here. Um like we discussed previously we could have gone on for hours but uh I think we're stopping them from something for sure. Thank you.