Thriving in a Marketing world: Uncertain Waters and AI

In tech’s relentless churn, marketers feel that most of the things they do can become debris — quickly made irrelevant by the next new shiny thing, made outdated in a seemingly short passage of time (thanks to social media fads and whims that last for a whole 24 hours) and ephemeral trends that seem to take over the world in a relatively shorter period of time than it ever used to. Is there a way out of the matrix, and is #AI a solution or a perpetrator?

I recently attended a roundtable on #GenerativeAI and its impact on Marketing with the fantastic and multi-powered Arun. The burning questions that participants (marketing leaders helming technology organizations) asked themselves revolved around the theme of ‘Surviving & Thriving, and how Communicators Navigate AI Era’s Uncertain Waters’.

However, the question that I struggled the most with was around ‘how I can stay ahead of the curve as a Marketer working in a #GenAI tech organization’. And though it felt reassuring to hear from other marketing leaders thinking about similar serious cognitive discord in an existential way, but it didn’t really scratch my itch.

So, my pursuit to the existential question, led me to the book ‘Quantum Marketing’ by Raja, Mastercard’s CMO and I particularly loved some of his potent advice that stands the test of time for a worthy marketer, but more so in the age of #GenerativeAI that we live in now.

I’ll summarize them here:

1. Anticipate, Don’t React: Rajamannar saw cashless payments coming way before Apple Pay was a thing. His recommendation in the book is to observe for what’s not being said explicitly, or ‘reading the silence’, ‘seeing the white space’, seeing what is volatile and more importantly what is not. He says, ‘insight can come from the white, sparse spaces between data that people usually overlook’.

He foresaw the rise of contactless payments and digital wallets as early as 2014, well before Apple Pay and Google Wallet gained traction. His team then engaged with tech startups and fintech innovators to understand nascent trends in blockchain, biometrics, and IoT payments. India back then was experimenting with payment wallets, micro payments, peer to peer lending and much more. This foresight led Mastercard to invest heavily in these opportunity areas, before the cashless/cardless technology went mainstream.

This pre-emptive style led him to reposition the word “card” from their logo in 2016, anticipating a future where physical cards would be obsolete. And God forbid, uncool.

He shifted brand messaging from “Priceless” to “Start Something Priceless,” reflecting a predicted move towards experiential value in digital economies.

2. Brand as a Chameleon: Raja says, most brands are treated as fortresses — solid, unchanging. But, a brand isn’t a castle; it’s a living thing. It should sense the future’s temperature and adapt its colors before the season changes.
Why it’s psychologically powerful:

We crave stability, especially in our professional identities. But in tech’s choppy waters, rigid identities sink.

Rajamannar teaches us brand fluidity — not as strategy, but as a mindset. When you see your brand as adaptable, you become adaptable. Most brands cling to identity; he makes identity elastic, ready for futures we can’t see yet.

My best take from this part is to treat your marketing self also as an ‘elastic self’ and use opportunities to transform yourself from time to time.

3. Trust as Technology: When data privacy fears loomed, Mastercard didn’t hide and cower, instead they launched transparent data campaigns — preemptively.

Most see trust as a soft, human thing. Rajamannar sees it as code, something you hardwire into your systems before bugs appear.
Why it’s psychologically powerful:

In our tech-driven world, we’re wired to see tech and emotion as oil and water. This splits our professional psyche: “Be tech-savvy” vs. “Be human.” Rajamannar heals this divide.

By making trust a tech feature, he shows that our tools can carry our values. Suddenly, being technical and being ethical aren’t two opposing sides of a coin— they’re one. It’s unifying, empowering..

In my humble opinion, this book isn’t just about staying ahead in tech, it’s about rewiring your marketing brain to see invisible patterns, to hear inaudible shifts.
In a world where change is the only constant, that’s not just smart marketing and the deepest lesson isn’t about tactics. It’s about identity.

In tech’s relentless churn, marketers may feel like most of the things they do can become debris — quickly made irrelevant by the next new shiny thing, made outdated in a seemingly short passage of time (thanks to social media fads and whims that last for a whole 24 hours) and ephemeral trends that seem to take over the world in a relatively shorter period of time than it ever used to. But, Rajamannar says: No. “You’re the navigator. You don’t just ride waves; you sense their first ripples.”

Similarly, as part of the survival mechanism, your brain doesn’t wait. It predicts.

Most people think our brains react to things after they happen. That’s wrong. If it were true, we’d be dead. Instead, our brains are always one step ahead, anticipating what’s next. This isn’t just clever — it’s how we survive. Our ancestors didn’t outrun saber-toothed tigers with their telepathy or super fast legs (sans the Nike) — they predicted where the tigers would be.

This superpower is called predictive processing. It’s not new, but most don’t have the self-awareness that it can be harnessed, can be trained.

Predictive processing shapes everything — what you see, hear, smell, how you move. It’s always on, always learning, always refining its guesses.

Hear a song? Your brain predicts the next note. Walk on uneven ground? It adjusts your stride before you stumble.

That’s predictive processing. Not just for survival. For thriving in a complex world.

Now, marketers use Gen AI to predict. Not react.

Most marketers think they’re responding to trends. Wrong. By then, it’s too late. The best marketers use Gen AI to see what’s next.

Gen AI doesn’t just analyze data. It predicts patterns. Customer behaviors. Market shifts. Brand perceptions.

Gen AI reads a million comments for you and predicts the next viral hashtag.
It scans global news, forecasts tomorrow’s consumer values. Predicts what is worth investing it today.
AI studies purchase histories. Anticipates the next product category with the max shopping volume. And this predictive power is gold.

I am glad to report that marketers can feel less fearful and more hopeful on what the future holds, by shaping small mindset nudges. Instead of just reacting to changes, you can start anticipating and shaping them.