MAM
Outbrain appoints Gulshan Verma to lead expansion in India
NEW DELHI: Gulshan Verma has been appointed as country manager of Outbrain India, an online content discovery platform.
In his new role he will be in charge of leading the company’s expansion in the Indian subcontinent especially in India where he will be responsible for leading the setup and growth of Outbrain.
Outbrain has seen tremendous user growth in South-east Asia and India in the last 18 months – from zero to over 800 million page views on a publisher network that has grown to over 150 strong in the same time period. Outbrain has also had success recruiting the top talent in the industry, doubling its employees over the course of the past 12 months.
Outbrain regional director SE Asia & India Anthony Hearne said, “Outbrain is the pioneer of content discovery, and we are fully committed to helping more people in India discover the most interesting, relevant and trusted content. South-east Asia and India are huge growth regions for Outbrain, so we are excited to bring Gulshan’s experience to bear to lead the charge in securing continued growth here in India.”
Verma brings to Outbrain over 15 years of experience in the digital media industry, having worked in Europe, North America and now Asia. His most recent role was with Komli Media as chief revenue officer. Prior to that, Gulshan was director of sales strategy for Yahoo! India, and before that, director of product marketing for Yahoo! search marketing in the United States.
Outbrain announced in March 2014 a multi-year strategic partnership agreement with Times Internet to bring the most interesting and personalised content recommendations possible to Times Internet readers.
Brands
Google says Gemini AI cuts irrelevant ads by 40 percent
AI driven search and ad tools boost relevance and results for brands.
MUMBAI: In the never ending hunt for the right ad at the right moment, artificial intelligence may finally be sharpening the aim. Google says the integration of its multimodal AI models, Gemini, has reduced irrelevant advertisements across its platforms by 40 percent, as improved query understanding allows ads to match user intent more closely.
Speaking at a roundtable on Thursday, Google vice president of Global Ads Dan Taylor said the company has been steadily deploying Gemini powered upgrades to interpret complex search queries more accurately. “We have been making Gemini based improvements to query understanding at a rate of almost one launch per month over the last two years. As the models improve and our ability to deploy them improves, ad quality continues to get better,” Taylor said.
The improvements come as Google leans deeper into AI driven advertising tools. According to the company, 2025 saw a threefold increase in Gemini generated creative assets produced by advertisers using its AI powered ad solutions.
The company also highlighted how these tools are influencing marketing performance for brands in India.
Insurance marketplace Policybazaar recorded a 28 percent rise in health insurance sales while reducing cost per sale by 23 percent after adopting AI Max, a tool that interprets natural language search queries to improve ad targeting.
Meanwhile, hospitality platform OYO reported 50 percent higher return on ad spend (ROAS) and a 25 percent reduction in cost per acquisition after combining its existing search campaigns with Google’s Performance Max (PMax) advertising campaigns.
Taylor noted that evolving consumer behaviour is also reshaping how brands approach digital advertising. According to Google’s data, 86 percent of shoppers in India using Google Search said they were open to trying new brands or products, suggesting that AI driven discovery tools could increasingly influence purchase decisions.
Beyond advertising, Google is also investing in what it calls agentic commerce, an emerging model where AI agents autonomously assist users in discovering, comparing and purchasing products online.
“Our goal with agentic commerce is twofold, first, to remove the grunt work of shopping so consumers can focus on the fun parts; and second, to work hand in hand with the industry to build the foundations needed to make agentic commerce seamless and secure across the web,” Taylor said.
The push into AI enhanced advertising and commerce comes as Google’s core ads business continues to grow. The company recently reported $82.28 billion in advertising revenue, marking a 13.5 percent year on year increase.
For advertisers navigating an increasingly crowded digital landscape, Google is betting that smarter algorithms and sharper intent signals will make ads feel less like interruptions and more like timely suggestions.
