How Agentic AI is shifting the focus from segmentation to individualisation

New Delhi: As brands strive to remain relevant in a fast-evolving digital landscape, agentic AI is emerging as a transformative force capable of reshaping how organisations engage with consumers at scale and in real time. 

At MMA IMPACT India 2025, industry leaders explored its implications for marketing strategy, personalisation, and operational efficiency.

Varun Dandona, Head – Enterprise Business at Adobe, made a compelling case for agentic AI, positioning it as the next frontier beyond generative AI. 

Unpacking his understanding of Agentic AI, Dandona said, “Agentic AI introduces decision-making and automates orchestration. Essentially, it functions as an intelligent operator that understands your goals and tasks and then takes action. It can work alongside people or at the backend to handle mundane operational work, tasks that previously consumed a lot of your bandwidth.”

Tracing the evolution of customer experience over the past 25 years—from the dial-up era to the present wave of intelligent automation—Dandona outlined how each phase of innovation has empowered marketers to improve speed, scale, and relevance in communication.

According to Dandona, while generative AI allows brands to create and personalise content rapidly, agentic AI introduces autonomous decision-making into the marketing stack. It can interpret goals, respond to signals, and take action across systems, thereby freeing teams from repetitive operational tasks and enabling highly targeted interventions.

“Today, 95% of organisations are in the zone of experimenting with generative AI. What does generative AI do? It helps you create at scale, personalise at scale, and ideate at scale, to put it simply. What comes next is agentic AI,” he said. 

He illustrated the importance of such interventions by contrasting two recent campaign outcomes. One brand launched a single creative across multiple Indian states and saw flat attribution. A competitor, meanwhile, used dynamic, localised creatives to great effect, highlighting how relevance, not just reach, drives success in today’s environment.

Dandona emphasised that the future of marketing lies in transitioning from broad segmentation to individualised experiences. Today’s consumers expect brands to recognise their intent, respond in the moment, and deliver value across touchpoints. Agentic AI, he noted, makes this level of responsiveness possible and scalable.

As organisations face increasing pressure to deliver more with less, Dandona concluded that the adoption of agentic AI is not merely a technological upgrade—it is a strategic necessity. Its ability to unify intelligence, execution, and personalisation marks a pivotal shift in how brands connect with customers in the digital age.