MAM
YAAP appoints Smriti Shadra as director-content
MUMBAI: Rainmaker Ventures-backed YAAP has announced the appointment of Smriti Shadra as director-content. She will be based out of the Mumbai office and will report directly to YAAP chief creative officer Deepak Singh.
Speaking on her appointment, Singh said, “Smriti is one of the young and upcoming talents in the industry; with a rare body of work spanning across multiple mediums. We are happy to have her on board; as she is a perfect fit for an offbeat culture that we are looking to create with a team of people having diversified skill sets. I am confident that she will play an integral role in raising the bar of our creative output while leading a team of people from varied backgrounds.”
Commenting on her new role, Shadra, added, “Deepak is very clear about the vision that he has for YAAP, and I am more than happy to be a part of it. Advertising today is continuously changing, so the need of the hour is to evolve with the times. This will surely be an interesting move, as it’ll help me explore a dynamic medium like digital in combination with the design. I'm certainly looking forward to pushing the boundaries and creating some path-breaking work with Deepak.”
Smriti has worked with agencies such as Grey Worldwide, JWT, Leo Burnett, Dentsu India Group, and The Social Street. During her previous tenures, she has worked on brands like DHL, Star, MRF, Britannia, Maruti Suzuki, Max Healthcare, Airtel, The Indian Express, Fortis Healthcare, Madhya Pradesh Police, SBI Cards, Twinings, MOHAN Foundation and Alzheimer’s and Related Disorders Society of India.
She has around 190 Indian and International awards to her credit; across various categories and has been a jury member at The MAA Worldwide Globes, The ABBYS, and The EMVIES. In 2017, Smriti was chosen as an Adobe Young Lantern, acknowledged and judged by the finest jury in the country.
The YAAP Group works with brands like Dubai Tourism, ITC Hotels, Lufthansa, Coca Cola, American Express, SBI Cards, SHRM, NPCI, Assam Tourism along with more than 50 other brands.
Digital
Ethical AI must benefit society, not dominate it, says WFEB chief Sanjay Pradhan at IAA event
At Mumbai event, ethics expert urges businesses and governments to shape AI responsibly
MUMBAI: Artificial intelligence may be racing ahead at lightning speed, but its direction must still be guided by human conscience. That was the central message delivered by Sanjay Pradhan, president of the World Forum for Ethics in Business (WFEB), during the latest edition of IAA Conversations held in Mumbai.
The session was organised by the International Advertising Association (IAA) and the Artificial Intelligence Association of India (AIAI) in association with The Free Press Journal at the Free Press House on 7 March. Addressing a packed audience, Pradhan called for stronger ethical leadership to ensure AI remains a tool that benefits humanity rather than one that governs it.
“Artificial intelligence has rapidly become one of the most powerful technologies humanity has created,” Pradhan said. “It is unlocking breakthroughs in medicine, science and creativity at a pace unimaginable just a few years ago.”
But he warned that the same technology carries serious risks. AI, he noted, can amplify disinformation faster than facts can travel, compromise privacy, deepen discrimination and disrupt millions of livelihoods. Referencing concerns raised by AI pioneers such as Geoffrey Hinton, often called the godfather of AI, Pradhan stressed that the real challenge is not whether AI will shape the world, but whether humans will shape it with ethics and wisdom.
Structuring his talk around four guiding questions, why, what, how and who, Pradhan introduced the audience to WFEB’s emerging AI Ethics Partnership, a global platform aimed at advancing responsible artificial intelligence. He outlined four priority concerns that demand urgent attention: disinformation, bias and discrimination, data privacy and job security.
To make the idea of ethical AI easier to grasp, Pradhan offered a simple metaphor. Ethical AI, he said, is like a three layered cake. The outer layer represents the visible value ethical AI creates for businesses and society. The middle layer is organisational culture that moves ethics from written codes to everyday practice. The innermost layer, however, is the most crucial, the conscience of individual leaders.
Drawing from Indian philosophical thought through WFEB co-founder Ravi Shankar, Pradhan noted that while artificial intelligence can reproduce stored knowledge, true intelligence is boundless and rooted in conscience, creativity and compassion. Practices such as breathwork and meditation, he suggested, can help leaders develop the calm clarity needed for ethical decision making.
The event also featured a discussion with Maninder Adityaraj Singh, chief of staff and head of innovation at Rediffusion Brand Solutions Pvt Ltd, and Yash Johri, lawyer, Supreme Court of India.
Opening the session, IAA India chapter president Abhishek Karnani, highlighted the need for industries to understand and engage with AI responsibly.
“AI has to be befriended and understood,” added Rediffusion managing director and AIAI national convenor Sandeep Goyal. “Its ethical use will determine whether it becomes a friend or a foe.”
As AI continues to reshape industries and societies, Pradhan ended with a simple but powerful call to action. Businesses, governments and individuals must work together to ensure that the algorithms shaping the future reflect human values rather than just cold logic.
