MarTech Masters: In Conversation With series will feature video interviews with some of the brightest minds in MarTech, who will be sharing their insights, discussing trends, and addressing challenges within the MarTech landscape.

How would you describe yourself in three words?

Bhavika: I would say knowledgeable, adaptive, and insightful.

What are you most looking forward to about the MarTech symposium?

Bhavika: The connections, the, agenda is amazing. At the same time, I’m looking to make some new connections and networking, and, it’s a quite close-knit group. So I’m very, very keen to connect, with the wider community out there.

What do you think people in the industry are most keen to understand in 2023?

Bhavika: There’s a lot of discussion going on about generative AI, how AI is gonna play a key role? Is AI going to take away their jobs or their jobs gonna be around, or what are the challenges in using AI more and more and how it’s impacting their business – mostly around that those lines. And then the other things I see that often come up into th evarious discussions that I have been is like, the data quality, privacy, security, how all of that comes into the mix, in utilising AI and data and understanding, what are the ethical considerations surrounding AI to ensure there is a responsible and a transparent use of data driven AI technologies.

How do you think AI is going to impact data usage specifically?

Bhavika: It is gonna help to get those deeper insights, quite promptly. Automation is a key, revolutionising the data making process but the challenge, still remains as I addressed before, how they’re gonna be managing the data quality because the data is generated so often, in huge amount, at the same time, they need to have that quality data and with the right balance of privacy and security. So business needs to explore, and understand their ethical considerations surrounding AI, ensuring they are working with that data quite responsibly, and there is a transparent use of data AI technologies.

Businesses are going to need to invest a significant amount of effort in getting data governance and data quality right. Can you share your thoughts on this?

Bhavika: Data is being generated exponentially as we live in that digital age, Data governance is gaining lots of importance, with the recent incidences, and that awareness, the regulatory requirements as as we can see – there are so many changes happening. It is very essential for the businesses to establish those robust data governance framework, which will not only help them define the ownership, but right access control, quality standards, compliance measures, I can go on. And to add into all this mix, we have, automation and AI, which will help to enhance this data governance practices which will give us those leisure to ensure there is right level of accuracy, consistency, insecurity, in place in much more automated fashion. But, definitely, it’s very important, and, more and more business, are already thinking about it and and adapting. And I can tell you this much. The different boards are sitting, this is always a topic of discussion – how are we ensuring our data is secure and how are we making sure that we are governing our data correctly?

What’s your advice to Australian MarTech professionals who want to be the best in the business over the next few years?

Bhavika: I would say, utilise the data in an ethical manner. And with with the right control and measures because your customers are trusting you with that data. At the same time, they are expecting, those personalised, and enhanced experience because of the data that they’re trusting and providing you. So have that right mix in place, in which, you know, customers can trust you at the same time, you can give them what they are trusting you for.

What are the upcoming industry developments that you’re most excited to see unfold?

Bhavika: How generative AI is shaping up? Which is on everybody’s mind. Especially, how is it gonna impact the education sector? And not just education – everywhere. How everything is gonna play up in the in the bigger picture is something that I’m very curiously, monitoring and, looking, what’s next and what is happening in that space, particularly, from the governance perspective, how are we gonna put those guard rails around it? Because it is massive. And at the same time, it is so useful. So that is the space that I personally watching quite curiously and, pretty much, keeping myself updated with what’s happening in the industry.

The platforms and the tech….is it worth all the hype? Or is it really about the people and process?

Bhavika: I think it has to be a right balance, right, if you can get over the top rated softwares and no matter what you implement, it is how people adapt those changes, what real value that they are getting. I always say that it is very important for the technical people to have that knowledge about, what business value that they are adding. And to to align your technology in the way that it is delivering that business value. At the same time, it is very important that there are well defined processess that they can drive the results for which you have got that taken place and, having those communication, collaboration, alignment, it’s very important. Otherwise, no matter you have those fancy taking place, but if nobody is utilising, then it it adds no value. So it is very important to have that right balance. Tools and technologies does make life easier. But what we really want to ensure, it’s giving that value add rather than just making that life easier. We really want them to like, talking about data. We really want them to make data driven decisions, right? If I have these fancy dashboards, nobody is actually looking at that while making the decision, those dashboards are not adding any value to the business.So that adoption, that balance and collaboration is very, very important

Which afternoon activity will you be going to at the symposium?

Bhavika: It all sounds really interesting. But if I were to pick something, I would look at the collaborative workshop because it’s such a such an impressive, attendance that we have got there, the leaders attending over there. There will be there a lot to share and learn and grow with them. So, all the activities are fun as long as we can socialise and learn from each other, is what my real interest is and and share my own experiences, from what what we have learned in our organisation.

Marketing Tech Symposium, 12-13 September 2023, will bring together 150+ of the most influential MarTech leaders from ANZ’s leading organisations to discuss the next generation of MarTech, collaborate, share ideas, and stay on top of the industry’s latest game changers.