iWorld
GUEST COLUMN: Venturing into AI world – Dealing with the Cookiepocolypse
Mumbai: Technological advancements have been at the helm of our evolution. The last decade witnessed some stellar advancements and shifts in our behavior. Recalling a few; we upgraded from 3G to 4G almost in a blink, smartphones and tabs lead the device usage stats and social media has become the new “news finder.” The most important “world wide web feature,” that has been around for a couple of decades, and now is on the verge of sunset is cookies.
And with this development being pronounced crucial by leading tech firms including Google and Apple, naturally, the most pressing question in every marketer’s mind is, how do we continue to target effectively in a cookieless world? The answer certainly is – Artificial Intelligence (AI).
The rise of the new change
Cyberlaw caretakers are under the constant dilemma of addressing the rising concerns about how digital consumer data is being gathered, stored and utilised. Browser giants like Apple Safari, Firefox, and Google Chrome have either already unplugged their third-party cookie storage approach or are working towards the same.
This means the digital marketing space is transforming rapidly. However, this doesn’t necessarily ring a bell of disaster for the marketers. Pico targeting and communication with relevance between businesses and users can still see the light of the day by maximizing first-party data collection on websites. This consent-based data gathering helps to boost the users’ trust, dependency and retention on the platform.
But the marketing fraternity’s concern remains – how do we precisely target communication to the select user cohorts without cookies? The answer, as mentioned earlier, most definitely is by using artificial intelligence. As the times change, our transformation from digital natives to AI natives is just a few miles away. And the cookieless web world might as well streamline the situation more ardently.
How can AI help deal with a cookieless web?
To begin with, AI systems comprise complex neural networks that are trained with billions of data points. On the back of this data, the AI begins to learn and understand actions, predict results and recommend best-suited actions to achieve the desired marketing goal. The most heartening news for marketers is the fact that AI has immense capabilities to provide deep insights into the constantly evolving customer base and improve the understanding brands and businesses have of their users. And all of this without cookies.
From enabling multichannel communication to relevant advertising, AI has the calibre to effectively cement the gap that will spring up in the cookieless world. Thousands of advanced AI models analyze and learn from billions of first-party data with the help of deep learning algorithms and NLP. This further helps the AI to make accurate predictions and provide recommendations in real-time.
As we move towards more stringent privacy frameworks, AI is already revealing high efficiency in improving ROI and amping up business growth incredibly. Additionally, with AI holding the omnichannel communication fort high, marketers can precisely target user cohorts across multiple channels without worrying about the lack of cookies.
(About Author: Neel Pandya is the Pixis CEO for Europe and APAC)
iWorld
Applause, Story TV team up to push microdrama content
Partnership to create premium short form shows for mobile first viewers
MUMBAI: Applause Entertainment and Story TV are betting on short attention spans with a long-term vision, joining forces to create a slate of premium microdramas for mobile-first audiences.
The partnership brings together Applause’s storytelling pedigree and Story TV’s fast-growing digital reach, with plans to co-produce and distribute bite-sized dramas across genres. As part of the deal, Story TV will also adapt the romantic thriller Hello Mini into a vertical microdrama format, signalling a shift in how stories are being reshaped for smaller screens.
Backed by the Aditya Birla Group, Applause Entertainment has built a reputation for high-quality content with titles like Scam 1992 and Criminal Justice. Story TV, launched in 2025, has quickly scaled up with a library of over 1,000 titles across languages and genres, riding the wave of mobile consumption.
Story TV founder and CEO Saurabh Pandey said, “Phones are now the primary screens for content consumption, and microdramas are evolving into a mainstream format. At Story TV, we are blending storytelling with technology to push this format further.”
He added that the collaboration with Applause Entertainment will help expand the reach of microdramas while introducing a layer of premium storytelling to the space.
Applause Entertainment chief business officer Prasoon Garg said, “At Applause, we have always focused on strong storytelling across formats. As microdramas gain momentum, this partnership allows us to explore the space with a platform that understands both the format and its audience.”
With mobile screens shrinking and content getting sharper, the collaboration hints at a future where storytelling is not just shorter, but smarter, designed to fit neatly into the scroll of everyday life.
