Marketing Conclave 2026
18th October, 2026
Marketing Conclave 2026
Humanising the AI Marketing Loop
Dates: 18th October, 2026
Venue: The Westin, Gurgaon
Great Lakes Institute of Management, Gurgaon, hosted the Marketing Conclave 2026 (MarCon '26) on the theme, “Humanising the AI Marketing Loop,” at The Westin, Gurgaon. The conclave brought together 50+ CMOs, brand heads and senior marketing leaders to take on one question the industry keeps circling: if AI can now write, design, target and even sell, where does the human fit in?
The day featured two keynotes, three panel discussions and the release of an original survey of 121 marketing leaders, with conversations on brand storytelling, AI-led discovery, customer experience and trust at the point of sale.
Opening Address
The conclave opened with an address by Mr. Gautam Lakhamraju, COO and Director of Admissions, Great Lakes, Gurgaon. Setting the tone for the day, he spoke about the question every marketer now faces: as AI takes over more of the decision-making, and customers rely on AI summaries instead of brand websites, how do brands keep the human at the centre?
He also shared how Great Lakes keeps its curriculum close to industry, from introducing Analytics as a specialisation in 2013 to building AI into the classroom today, so that students use AI to solve real business problems rather than as a shortcut.
AI in Marketing Survey 2026
The conclave featured the release of the “AI in Marketing Survey 2026,” presented by Mr. Nitin Verma, GM – Marketing & Admissions, Great Lakes Institute of Management. The survey gathered insights from 121 senior marketing leaders across 16 sectors on how brands are actually using AI today.
The findings showed an industry that has moved well past experimentation, but one that remains wary of what AI is doing to brand voice, consumer trust and the way brands get discovered.
Key Insights from the Survey
- 42% of organisations already run AI at scale, and 96% expect AI-generated brand content to grow over the next two to three years.
- Homogenised, generic content is seen as the single biggest risk to brand storytelling.
- Marketers draw a clear line: 72% accept AI in product descriptions, but only 17% in customer testimonials.
- 54% have seen engagement improve with AI content, yet nearly one in four has not measured the impact at all.
- 75% have started optimising for AI-led search, with machine-readable content and online reviews seen as the strongest levers
Panel Discussion 1 : Brand Storytelling with AI — Pros vs. Cons
The first panel discussion asked whether AI has made brand storytelling better, or just faster, and what happens to a brand's voice when the machine does more of the writing.
Panelists
Nikhil Dey
Director, Adfactors PR
Kanika Mohan Saxena
VP Digital – Video, Music, Games & Vi Super App, Vodafone Idea Limited
Abhishek Chaturvedi
EVP & NU MD, TBWA\Lintas
Abhishek Asthana
Founder, Ginger Monkey LLP
Partho Sengupta
Chief Creative Officer, The Times Of India
Dilip Yadav
Co-Founder, First Partners
Key Discussion Highlights
- AI has made content faster and cheaper, but it has also made brands start to sound alike.
- Original, human-made work is gaining value precisely because it is becoming rare.
- The risk is not the tool, but brands handing over the thinking along with the production.
- AI can guide the work, but the human must stay in the driving seat and own the signature.
- Trust is now a brand asset that a single fake image or piece of misinformation can damage.
Keynote Address by Neeraj Sharma, MD, Accenture
The first keynote was delivered by Mr. Neeraj Sharma, Accenture, who opened with an experiment: two videos of a song he had written, one made by a human and one by AI.
Key Takeaways
- When content becomes infinite, the only thing that remains scarce is meaning.
- AI doesn't build a brand; it amplifies what the brand already stands for.
- As knowledge and intelligence become available to everyone, trust and empathy become the lasting differentiators.
- The intent behind an AI-led campaign shapes how audiences receive it.
- Marketers stay in control as long as they choose the questions, set the purpose and own the output.
Panel Discussion 2 : Winning Over AI Agents and Algorithms
The second panel discussion explored who marketers are really marketing to when AI tools search, compare and shortlist on a customer's behalf: the customer, or the algorithm choosing for them.
Panelists
Alekhya Chakrabarty
Senior VP Marketing, Info Edge
Dilpreet Singh
Head – Loyalty CRM & Partnerships, ITC Hotels Limited
Prithwish Mukherjee
Senior VP & Head of Marketing, Tata Play Fiber
Sahil Chopra
Former VC & Ex-Founder
Tushar Garg
Head of Product, Marketing & Growth, HT Digital Streams
Anjali Dutta
VP & Global Head Digital Experience, Tech Mahindra
Key Discussion Highlights
- AI agents are becoming the first audience a brand must convince, but the customer is still the one who decides.
- Today's consumers have more choices but less patience.
- Personalisation can surprise and delight, or quietly narrow what customers get to see.
- Brands can't game the algorithm; a good product and genuine customer love are what it rewards.
- A shortcut never gives clarity: marketers learn what works only by experimenting with AI.
Keynote Address 2
Rajesh Dogra, Chief Customer Experience Officer, Air India
The second keynote was delivered by Mr. Rajesh Dogra, Air India, on customer experience, the area where the tension between AI and the human touch is most visible.
Drawing on India's passport services transformation and Air India's ongoing overhaul, he showed how technology delivers at scale when the process is built around the customer.
Key Takeaways
- Technology works when the process is redesigned around the citizen or customer, not the system.
- Measuring customer feedback every single day keeps large-scale services accountable.
- At Air India, more than 140 new systems, GPS-tracked ground equipment and AI-assisted contact centres support operations.
- Through every change, the human touch that customers remember most has to be protected.
Panel Discussion 3 : Establishing Trust in AI-Assisted Conversions
The final panel discussion focused on the sale itself, examining whether AI that sounds convincingly human on a call or a chat builds trust, or quietly erodes it.
Panelists
Vikas Gandhi
Business Head – Electrical Consumer Division, Havells India Ltd.
Satinder S Juneja
Global Marketing Head, Birlasoft
Chiranjiv Dhar
Business Head WF SBU & alumnus of Great Lakes, Chennai
Neeraj Jha
Business Head, Eurosport, Warner Bros. Discovery
Himanshu Khanna
Group CMO, CKA Birla Group
Rohit Garg
Business Head, Indiatimes
Cherryn Dogra
Chief Marketing Officer, Bharti Real Estate
Key Discussion Highlights
- AI can handle routine, low-value transactions, but high-value and complex sales still need a human to close them.
- Customers should be told upfront when they are speaking to an AI agent.
- Whatever an AI agent promises on the brand's behalf, the brand must honour.
- Customers forgive a human's mistake far more easily than a machine's.
- AI should sharpen the salesperson, not replace them: the last mile of trust remains human.
Vote of Thanks
The event concluded with a vote of thanks by Dr. Amit Kumar, Associate Professor & Area Coordinator – Marketing, Great Lakes Institute of Management, Gurgaon. He thanked the keynote speakers, moderators, panelists, delegates and organising teams for making the Marketing Conclave 2026 a meaningful platform for dialogue on keeping the human at the centre of AI-led marketing. The day closed with high tea and networking.
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