MAM
Havas Group India appoints Ravinder Siwach as national creative director for Havas Creative
MUMBAI: Havas Group India has strengthened its leadership in India with the appointment of Ravinder Siwach as national creative director for Havas Creative, effective immediately.
In his new role, Siwach will lead the creative team and drive the next phase of growth for multiple brands under Havas Creative with a focus on further cementing the creative value proposition across all Havas Group India disciplines – creative, media, health, digital, and design. He will report to Havas Group India chairman and chief creative officer Bobby Pawar.
Siwach joins Havas Group India from McCann Delhi, where he was the executive creative director. He has over two decades of experience across agencies such as McCann, DDB Mudra, Contract and brands like Coke, Nestle, Nokia, Reebok to name just a few. Siwach is credited with several award-winning campaigns across national and international awards shows like Cannes, One Show, WARC, Adfest, Spikes Asia, Effies, Abbys and IAA Olive Crown. He has also served as a juror at Adfest and Goafest and is a guest lecturer at various management institutes.
Commenting on the appointment, Havas Group India chairman and chief creative officer Bobby Pawar said “Ravinder has been in this industry for almost two decades and he comes with a rich creative background and experience working on a cross-section of brands and categories. I had the opportunity to work with him in the past and I am confident that his strategic thinking and understanding of the evolving media landscape will take our creative capabilities and output to the next level.”
“I have always admired Bobby as a creative leader and as a human being and excited at the opportunity of working with him at Havas Group India. Havas Group is headed exactly in the direction the future of communication lies. Vivendi companies like Gameloft and Universal Music add depth to the Havas offering and vice-versa which is a huge differentiator in the industry. We have a vision in place at Havas and we are just going to go after it, ‘no holds barred,” added Siwach.
Brands
AI becomes key tool for Indian travellers, Agoda report finds
68 per cent plan to use AI for trips as 33 per cent already rely on it.
MUMBAI: Holiday planning is getting a software upgrade less “Where should we go?” and more “What does the algorithm say?” Indian travellers are increasingly turning to artificial intelligence to map their journeys, with new data from Agoda’s 2026 Travel Outlook Report suggesting that AI is fast becoming central to how trips are imagined, planned and booked.
While 33 per cent of respondents said they already use AI tools for travel planning, a far larger 68 per cent indicated they are likely to rely on it for their next trip pointing to a sharp acceleration in adoption in a market already comfortable with digital-first travel.
What travellers want from AI, however, goes well beyond basic search. The report shows 38 per cent are looking for recommendations on local attractions and activities, while 37 per cent expect personalised itineraries. Destination discovery remains a key use case at 29 per cent, with dining suggestions (23 per cent) and budget management (22 per cent) also emerging as practical applications.
The shift reflects a broader change in expectations AI is no longer a novelty but a planning companion expected to work across every stage of the journey, from inspiration to execution.
Trust levels appear to be keeping pace. Nearly 88 per cent of respondents said they either trust or feel neutral about AI-generated recommendations, including 53 per cent who expressed clear confidence. This builds on earlier trends, with Agoda’s 2025 survey showing nine in ten Indian travellers already using apps to book travel suggesting AI adoption is more evolution than disruption.
The company has been testing this appetite through initiatives such as its 2025 AI-powered Vacation Planner campaign, which generated customised itineraries and visuals based on user inputs, delivered with a layer of celebrity-led engagement.
For platforms like Agoda, which aggregates more than 6 million properties, over 130,000 flight routes and 300,000 travel activities, AI offers a way to navigate scale without overwhelming users turning abundance into relevance.
As AI continues to embed itself into everyday decision-making, India is emerging as a market where travel planning is not just going digital, but decisively intelligent.
