As AI rapidly reshapes the contours of advertising, marketing, and consumer engagement, two sessions emerged as the standout conversations on Day 2 of Goafest 2026, offering a glimpse into how brands, platforms, and users will interact in the future.
Speaking at the session ‘There’s an Agent for That – Excelling in the AI Era’ on Day 2 of Goafest 2026, Satya Raghavan, director, Marketing Partners at Google India, shared insights into the rapidly evolving AI ecosystem and how businesses can harness AI agents and emerging technologies to drive innovation, efficiency and growth. “We are now moving from the generative era to the agentic era, where you no longer need to know coding – only how to communicate and instruct,” he said.
Moving Beyond the Funnel
AI-powered search and advertising ecosystems are enabling more contextual and personalised experiences in a world where six generations – from Boomers to Gen Beta – can coexist in one household, he said. Highlighting the shift towards an agent-led AI ecosystem, he said consumer needs are changing rapidly with ‘an app for everything’, and behaviour has moved beyond the traditional funnel as people simultaneously search, stream, scroll and shop.
He also pointed out that advertising agencies have always functioned as agents by solving business problems for brands and consumers. Having said that, AI agents are valuable only when tied to the right use case, helping automate repetitive tasks so humans can focus on higher-value creative work. Brands, platforms and consumers are increasingly interacting through interconnected agents and sub-agents – from shopping agents that compare and transact on users’ behalf to advertising agents that optimise campaigns in real time, he said.
Finally, the goal of AI is not to replace humans but to help them work faster and smarter, creating opportunities for marketers, agencies and creators to build specialised agents across workflows. With platforms like Google and partners already deploying ready-to-use agents across media, creative and advertising functions, the future of marketing will revolve around identifying the right use cases and building intelligent agents around them, he concluded.
Recommender Shift
Adding an analytical lens to the AI discussion, Smriti Sharma, executive vice-president, analytics, & managing director, Custom IQ, Comscore, highlighted the growing need for measurement transparency and audience understanding across platforms. In the session titled ‘AI, Audiences & Cross-Platform Clarity’, she said users are increasingly outsourcing decisions to AI, which is becoming the recommender, influencer and decision-maker across the consumer journey.
“Consumers are no longer searching traditionally but asking conversational queries, while AI tools are accelerating creation, shrinking attention spans and reshaping discovery across fragmented platforms. In this ‘jugaad ecosystem’, Indian users trust creators and communities over polished advertising, pushing marketers to move from placement-led strategies to influence-led ecosystems powered by connected data,” she summed up.