'Training for transformation': Prasanth Kumar on WPP Media's people and tech-led playbook for clients and growth
In an exclusive interview with Storyboard18's Editor, Delshad Irani, WPP Media South Asia's CEO Prasanth Kumar stresses continuous training, transformation, and measurement as the company puts AI and data at the heart of its India and global strategy.
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For WPP Media, artificial intelligence is not an afterthought. It is central to how the company plans to grow in India and abroad, according to chief executive Prasanth Kumar. “AI will play a very important role in the whole context of how we are preparing ourselves,” he said. “In India, we have enough data today, the biggest consumer base, we are the youngest nation, and we are the people who are experimenting in various forms of growth.”
The rebranding from GroupM to WPP Media was framed in part as a technology story. Kumar said the company’s “vision 2030” is organized around four elements: “collaboration, data, and technology with AI being the core of it, innovation and people.”
That has implications for how advertisers approach their marketing. “The opportunity which is coming in the next five years is about the entire ecosystem of how content, commerce and influencer marketing is coming together. It's not just entertainment,” said the CEO of WPP Media South Asia. “For a marketer, it is very important to understand how I can make my awareness strong, how I can make my conversion stronger, how I can make my loyalty stronger.”
The shift is as much about mindset as tools. “This is a people business,” he said. “The more you prepare our people, the more you prepare our team, the more you prepare our partners, the more we will be able to deliver to our customers.”
Kumar was careful to stress that AI will not simply replace jobs. “The important part is, how do we continuously train, and how do we continuously evolve ourselves? And that's what we are doing,” he said. “So we are not just training for the sake of training. We are training for transformation.”
In his view, this training involves both skill and aptitude. “Skill is very important because without skill you cannot cope up, but aptitude is equally important, because with aptitude, you will be able to balance the change,” he said.
Kumar also returned repeatedly to the challenge of measurement. “The first thing which we all need to accept is, we need to constantly evolve. And if I had to look at 25 years ago, the diary method was relevant. Today it is not relevant,” he said. “The gap today is about how do you create a unified database for a customer to look at. That is the first step which we need to look at.”
Advertisers, he argued, are hungry for more clarity and accountability. “Customers are asking for more transparency, customers are asking for more clarity, customers are asking for more consistency,” he said.
On transparency in media buying, he was direct. “Transparency and compliance is not something which you can negotiate. It is a fundamental principle of our organization… We want to be fair to our clients, fair to our partners, and fair to our people,” Kumar said.
The bottom line, he insisted, is simple: “When you do the right things, you will be able to sleep peacefully.”
