MAM
Sunil Gupta lectures AI’s transformative role at IAA Conversations
MUMBAI: Artificial intelligence isn’t just a buzzword anymore—it’s shaping the way industries think, act, and innovate. At the recent IAA Conversations in Mumbai, Harvard Business School Edward W. Carter professor of business administration, Sunil Gupta delved into AI’s transformative power in marketing, branding, and beyond. The event, titled ‘Marketing in the Age of AI’, was moderated by VML India CEO and an IAA Mancom member, Babita Baruah and organised in association with Harvard Business School.
The session kicked off with Gupta highlighting the disruptive nature of AI and how businesses across sectors are adapting to leverage it. “Almost every business, not just advertising, is thinking about AI and how it will affect their operations,” he noted.
He outlined three ways AI is transforming industries:
1 Augmenting and automating tasks to increase efficiency.
2 Expanding and growing capabilities with innovative tools.
3 Disrupting and experimenting, encouraging businesses to push creative boundaries.
Gupta cited tech giants like Facebook and Google, explaining their use of AI to automate ad creation, audience targeting, and budget allocation.
Gupta emphasised the unprecedented access to consumer data in today’s digital age. “It’s not just about what they buy or search for. It’s also about what they do on social media or why they contact a call centre,” he observed.
AI, he argued, offers the ability to synthesise qualitative and quantitative data to create a 360-degree view of consumers. It enables brands to map customer journeys, uncover pain points, and even predict behaviours. “AI can act as a smart research assistant, helping brands connect the dots across vast datasets,” he added.
Gupta also introduced the concept of synthetic consumers, personas created using past data to simulate market research scenarios. This approach offers quick insights at early product development stages.
Gupta didn’t shy away from discussing the hurdles of AI adoption. “The use of AI will increase competition as it lowers entry barriers, making it easier for anyone to experiment and innovate,” he said.
However, he flagged the risk of short-term thinking in advertising. “With AI’s ability to experiment and fine-tune ROI, there’s a danger that brands might focus too much on immediate results and lose sight of long-term brand building. And advertising is all about building brands,” he cautioned.
Addressing how organisations should approach AI, Gupta urged companies to embrace the technology actively. “You can’t learn to swim by watching someone else. You need to dive into the pool yourself,” he remarked.
He recommended dedicating time to understanding AI’s potential and limitations, noting that no technology has ever reduced workload—it has only shifted it. “Jobs don’t go away, tasks do. AI will eliminate non-value-added tasks, allowing professionals to focus on more impactful work,” he asserted.
On a closing note, Gupta reminded attendees of the importance of starting with the problem, not the technology. “Sometimes, we get so caught up in the technology that we forget the problem we’re trying to solve,” he said, adding that copyright and IP protection will remain critical concerns in an AI-driven world.
IAA India Chapter president, Abhishek Karnani underscored the event’s relevance, “At the India Chapter of the International Advertising Association (IAA), we take pride in being the only body in the industry that brings together creative agencies, media agencies, and media under one roof. This year, our focus is clear—Conversations, Skilling, and Artificial Intelligence—all aimed at preparing us for the opportunities and challenges ahead.”
Organised with support from Free Press Journal as the presenting partner, the IAA Conversations event highlighted the intersection of technology, creativity, and strategy, offering a forward-looking perspective on how AI is reshaping industries.
Most business owners treat their working capital limit like a safety net. It sits there, attached to their current account, ready to be drawn on whenever cash gets tight. And for routine operations, that arrangement works fine. But there are specific situations where a lump-sum loan disbursed quickly into your account is the smarter financial move. Knowing when to pick one over the other can save you real money and keep your business from getting stuck.
The Fundamental Difference People Overlook
A working capital limit, often structured as an overdraft or a revolving credit facility, gives you access to funds up to a pre-approved ceiling. You draw what you need, pay interest on what you use, and replenish it as receivables come in. It is designed for short-term, recurring needs like paying suppliers or covering payroll gaps.
A term loan disbursed quickly, on the other hand, drops a fixed amount into your account. You repay it in instalments over a set period, with a clear end date. The interest rate is typically fixed or at least predictable. These two products solve different problems, and treating them as interchangeable is where businesses get into trouble.
When Speed and Certainty Matter More Than Flexibility
Here’s a scenario that plays out constantly. A retailer gets an opportunity to buy inventory at a steep discount, but the supplier wants full payment within 48 hours. The retailer’s working capital limit is already partially drawn. The available balance might cover part of the order, but not all of it. Requesting a limit enhancement takes days, sometimes weeks, because the bank reassesses your financials.
An instant business loan solves this cleanly. You apply, get approval quickly, and the full amount lands in your account. You buy the inventory, sell it at full margin, and repay the loan over the next few months. The cost of interest on that loan is far less than the profit you would have lost by passing on the deal.
This pattern repeats across industries. A logistics company needs to repair a critical vehicle immediately. A restaurant has to replace kitchen equipment before the weekend rush. A manufacturer lands a large order but needs raw materials upfront. In each case, the need is urgent, specific, and finite. A revolving facility wasn’t built for these moments.
The Hidden Cost of Over-Relying on Working Capital Limits
There’s a psychological trap with revolving credit. Because it’s always available, business owners tend to lean on it for everything, including expenses that really should be financed separately. When you use your overdraft to fund a one-time capital purchase, you reduce the buffer available for daily operations. Then, when a genuine cash flow gap appears the following week, you’re scrambling.
Worse, many working capital limits come with annual renewal. If your financials have dipped, the bank can reduce your limit or decline renewal altogether. If you’ve been using the facility for purposes it wasn’t designed for, your utilisation patterns can actually work against you during the review.
A distinct term loan keeps your working capital limit clean. Your revolving facility handles day-to-day operations. Your loan handles the one-off expense. This separation makes your balance sheet easier to read and your banking relationship easier to manage.
Interest Rate Math That Favours Term Loans
Working capital limits often carry floating interest rates pegged to the bank’s benchmark. The rate adjusts, and over time, especially when monetary policy tightens, your cost of borrowing can creep up without you noticing because you’re only looking at the small daily interest debit.
A fixed-rate term loan gives you certainty. You know exactly what each instalment will be, which makes cash flow forecasting more accurate. For a specific expense with a known amount and a defined payback period, this predictability matters. You can map the repayment against the revenue that expense is expected to generate.
A working capital loan structured as a revolving facility makes sense when your borrowing needs fluctuate week to week. But when you know exactly how much you need and roughly how long it will take to pay back, a term product is almost always cheaper in total interest cost. The discipline of fixed repayments also prevents the slow balance creep that plagues overdraft users.
When Your Facility Is Maxed and Opportunity Knocks
Perhaps the most compelling case is the simplest one. Your existing limit is fully utilised. Business is good, money is coming in, but right now the account is stretched. A new opportunity appears. You can either let it pass or find additional funding fast.
Waiting for a limit increase is not a strategy when timing matters. Applying for a separate short-term loan, getting approval the same day or the next, and funding the opportunity directly is a concrete action with a measurable return. You are not adding long-term debt to your balance sheet. You are financing a specific transaction that pays for itself.
The smartest business owners don’t treat all credit as the same. They match the product to the need. Revolving facilities handle rhythm. Term loans handle moments. Getting that distinction right is one of the quieter advantages a well-run business holds over its competitors.
