A Conversation With Infosys CMO Sumit Virmani On AI Used With Intentionality + The Power Of Democratized Creativity

The marketing role is at an inflection point and has reached a crossroads. There are two distinctly different types of CMOs emerging. One group who have a toolkit of well rounded skills that are reflective of many areas of expertise that sit across the C-Suite, inclusive of those of the CEO, and another class who are working to remain pure to their original craft.

Some see it as a battle to the finish, but with many leading CMOs becoming CEOs over the past several quarters, it seems the former might be the more superior species evolving. At the heart of this metamorphisis is an ability to rebuild a marketing organization to drive not only a brand, but an entire enterprise, largely by leveraging data, technology and AI, to achieve three goals: efficiency, effectivness and experience.

With that all in mind, I wanted to speak to someone at one of the world’s top technology companies who is leading what digital transformation should look and feel like for some of the top brands in the world. Sumit Virmani is SVP and Global Chief Marketing Officer for Infosys. He is an industry veteran having spent time at other leading organizations such as Polaris Labs and Tata. Following is a recap of our conversation:

Billee Howard: The marketing function is at a pivotal moment. Can you tell me about your thoughts on this shift and how you are approaching it?

Sumit Virmani: It is indeed pivotal for marketing to embrace the transformation that AI – especially Gen AI – is bringing. Efficiency gains in marketing will come from intelligently automating routine operations. Think quick first-drafts of messaging, optimized campaigns, content reused effectively, and brand governance managed better. Gen AI will also enable even the not-so-creatively-inclined marketers to participate in the creative process more easily and help them create better brand experience. And, for those times when we marketers struggle to correlate marketing spends to sales uplift, Gen AI’s ability to personalize communication, glean insights from unstructured and structured data, in real time, can help us all bridge gaps, finetune channel choices, and squeeze more value from campaign spends, thereby driving better effectiveness. This AI-powered future for marketing is also about continuously learning to get very comfortable dealing with perpetual change — because AI is constantly evolving and the only way to benefit from the changing landscape is to learn to change with it.

Howard: AI is what everyone is buzzing about, often without context. You explained it to me in three distinct buckets of how it should be used for: efficiency, effectiveness and experience. How are you putting this to work for your clients?

Virmani: When it comes to our clients we deliver on the promise of AI – bringing them accelerated growth, greater efficiencies, and opportunities to leverage the ecosystem potential. We have a whole set of AI-first services, solutions and platforms that bring our clients value from Gen AI technologies with Infosys Topaz. Topaz helps amplify business potential — bringing them ready to use AI assets, pre-trained AI models, AI platforms steered by AI specialists and data strategists, who use it all to deliver cognitive solutions that are ‘responsible by design’ — uncompromising in ethics, trust, and regulatory compliance.

With AI set to impact the marketing function disproportionately, we are also working on an AI-first solution suite especially for CMOs. Marketing leaders that we are talking to are already excited about its potential and how it can help them embrace AI to accelerate the business impact and reshape experiences.

Howard: You have leveraged AI to approach corporate partnerships in new ways, using it to unleash the power of AI to democratize creativity. Your partnership with the USTA is a great example of this. Please tell me more and about your latest application of this thinking at this year’s French Open.

Virmani: The Infosys Tennis Platform is creating statistics that were unimaginable in tennis nine years ago. Prior, tennis was lagging in tech adoption, especially in the dimensions of AI, mixed reality and digital experiences. Today, we can leverage AI and machine learning to generate point by point match insights previously unimaginable. This includes win predictors, humanized English language commentary, turning points, and most influential points that impacted the outcome of a match at popular grand slams like the Australian Open and Roland-Garros, as well as for over 60+ tournaments on the ATP Tour.

When Gen AI came into play, we asked: what can we do to bring tennis closer to fans? AI delivers an unmatched potential to unleash creativity. We signed Iga Świątek and Rafael Nadal to put the power of creativity in the hands of fans. We created an AI platform giving them personalization opportunities, including celebratory art for Rafael Nadal for fans to post on social channels using a Gen AI concept called ‘Rafa Forever’ that saw close to 20,000 pieces of art generated on RafaForever.com.

At this year’s Roland-Garros for example, Infosys brought a number of new innovations for fans, players and journalists. Fans were able to leverage match insights tools that were launched with several AI powered enhancements to increase engagement and excitement around the matches. Fans were also able to engage in new features powered by Generative AI, including fantasy gaming experiences. On-ground fans also got access to several AR & VR experiences at the Infosys fan zone. Players, coaches and journalists were able to leverage the power of AI for match strategy, analysis and crafting the best stories around previews & match reports.

Howard: CMOs have so much on their plates right now. You mentioned everything from ensuring technology infrastructures are built correctly, to making sure data is AI ready and used responsibly. This boils down to three key areas of upcoming focus for CMOs: tech, talent and trust. Tell me more.

Virmani: You are right. CMOs don’t exactly have it easy just now. The tough macroeconomic environment almost inevitably means growing pressure on marketing budgets. And, the team must find ways to balance short-term growth acceleration with long-term market share gains. Cutting edge digital technology, especially AI, is a gamechanger, in terms of how it can dial up not only efficiency but also the creative leaps that marketing can take. It can also hyper-personalize outreach – a challenge that marketers have grappled with for way too long.

To do that effectively, marketing talent will need to embrace a dual reskilling strategy — learn how to use AI for their business-as-usual messaging, campaigns, and channel choices, while also simultaneously learning to sharpen their human skills — curiosity, empathy, and imagination —everything that AI cannot do. At the same time, the rapid pace of change in these times of AI, also has left consumers feeling a little confused and wary. They, however, trust businesses more than any entity to help them navigate the way forward. This is a great opportunity for brands to live up to customers’ high expectations. Articulating a stated brand purpose and staying true to it is one of the most critical.