What is Agentic AI and why is it the latest buzz in tech?
PANEL OF EXPERTS. (From left) Dheeraj Kumar, Shashank Sharma, Govind Balakrishnan and Pierre Tapia—PHOTOS BY TYRONE JASPER C. PIAD
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA—If you receive an email about a fine dining deal a few minutes after buying a luxury watch, don’t be surprised. This is just artificial intelligence (AI) at work—providing consumers with a personalized experience based on their spending behavior.
After swiping the card for payment, AI can already somehow build a customer profile with the hope of improving the overall shopping experience. If you have the financial capacity to purchase a watch with a price tag of over P1 million, there is a high chance you are a high net-worth individual who likes to splurge—and AI can detect this.
And so AI will try to curate an experience a rich person might enjoy doing after buying an expensive watch. Donning a shiny new piece of jewelry is worth celebrating over a fancy meal with at least three courses, after all.
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But for this to actually work, Shashank Sharma, Adobe senior director for digital experience in Southeast Asia and Korea, says it has to be done in real-time—make that pitch before that customer with a new watch steps out of the shopping mall. Otherwise, the customer may not be able to consider visiting that restaurant.
“You need the right data. You need to be able to understand who that person is,” he tells Inquirer on the sidelines of the Adobe Summit.
“Make sense of it in real-time,” Sharma says. “Use that content to drive customer experience.”
This is where “agentic” AI—designed to operate autonomously based on present data—comes in.
The Adobe official says this technology—which is this year’s buzzword—is a powerful tool that can elevate the way companies do customer engagement.
“You do that not just for one customer but millions and millions of customers. And that’s why we call it personalization at scale,” Sharma says.
Open arms
The good thing is Filipino enterprises are up to the challenge of ramping up the use of AI in their operations, Sharma says.
“There is an incredible amount of intent, as well as potential, given the growth that we’ve seen in the Philippine economy,” he says.
As consumers spend more on the local brands, Sharma says that expectations of better customer service have significantly risen as well.
And the enterprises, he explains, must match the consumers’ expectations “by ensuring the customer experience they give to their customers is hyper-personalized.”
One of the Filipino companies keen on leveraging agentic AI tools to beef up content creation is PLDT Inc.
Dheeraj Kumar, chief AI advisor of PLDT’s wireless unit Smart Communications Inc., says the Pangilinan-led group is using AI tools to personalize marketing efforts as a way of boosting customer engagement.
‘AI native’
“We actually want to democratize the content and personalization at scale,” he says on the sidelines of the summit.
Optimizing customer experience, however, is just one thing. Kumar says the overall vision of the group is to make it an AI-native organization in the long run.
Apart from Adobe, PLDT also recently teamed up with Amazon Web Services to equip Smart with advanced analytics and machine learning capabilities, advancing its AI initiatives.
The Smart official says they have been searching for more overseas partners—including those from China and Barcelona—to beef up their technical know-how.
“We are actually very serious about it. We are also committing a lot of investments,” Kumar says.
Forum photo
The telco giant has earmarked P68 billion to P73 billion in capital expenditures this year.
In addition to AI investments, PLDT will also spend on building new cell sites, upgrading existing telco facilities, deploying home fiber ports as well as constructing submarine cable systems and data centers.
Streamlined messaging
Apart from instantaneously producing targeted content for customers, Adobe Express director Pierre Tapia raises the need for streamlining messaging and branding of companies—and an AI platform can help them do so.
Otherwise, companies may deal with revenue losses, he warns.
He says when the content is not attuned to the company’s marketing strategy, the customers will not fully grasp the message.
“[As such], you’re spending time populating channels with content where there’s no engagement and that has real effects on the organization,” Tapia explains.
For example, brand perception can be at risk when a brand logo presentation in different campaign is not consistent.
“It can be a bit of a turnoff,” he says.
Govind Balakrishnan, senior vice president and general manager of Adobe Express, cites iconic beverage brand Coca-Cola, an Adobe customer, to make a point.
“Imagine seeing a Coke ad or a Coke bottle with a slightly different color of red. I don’t think many of us will actually buy that,” he says.
“Every element of the brand—be it the font, the color, the logo—every element contributes to brand recognition, and the moment you make a slight modification, it will have an impact on your brand identity,” Balakrishnan explains.
Taking the first step
While implementing AI strategy can be a big task, Sharma says taking the first step is the best way to hit the ground running.
“You need to start somewhere. Do not hesitate to fail. Yes, there are risks but then, the rewards are also very high,” he says.
Companies can “quickly fail, learn, retry, adjust, optimize and do it,” Sharma quips.
“But if you don’t even get started, and you wait for other brands to succeed, the gap might just widen way too much and it’ll be a difficult catch-up,” he says.
Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen, during his welcome remarks at the summit, says the company is ready to equip its customers with AI tools to help them ramp up content creation, as well as data analysis.
“I really believe we’re [in] the golden age of design, and enterprises all across the globe are investing in people and technology to elevate the look and feel of all of their communications,” Narayen adds. INQ
