"AI can mimic our voice, but it cannot capture our vision."

Burson WPP senior director Kaveri Roy on what happens when marketing agencies navigate the collision of artificial intelligence, cultural nuance, and global storytelling — and why "localization" is no longer about translation, but about co-creating with context to build campaigns that resonate across India, APAC, and beyond.

Based in Mumbai, Kaveri has spent 15 years at the intersection of marketing, communications, and cross-cultural strategy. From early content roles to planning and digital leadership at Fleishman Hillard and Economist Impact, she has helped both global brands and regional players navigate the realities of Asia's diverse markets: the cultural elasticity required to contextualize campaigns, the friction between Western frameworks and local meaning, and the hard truth that what works in Brooklyn rarely works as-is in Bangalore.

In this episode:

• Why cultural context is not a data set: how AI's Western bias shows up in tone, metaphor, and what "success" looks like

• The hidden cost of copy-paste campaigns: why Nike's "Just Do It" works in the West but P&G's "Thank You Mom" resonates deeper in collective cultures

• What ESG means across regions: in Europe it's regulation, in India it's inclusive growth, in Southeast Asia it's resilience and adaptation

• How to bridge HQ and regional teams: contextualize, don't just translate — and why co-creation with local teams is non-negotiable

• India's shift from creative back office to pilot market: the role of agility, cultural intelligence, and language fluency in shaping global campaigns

• Leadership in the age of AI: why intuition is not magic — it's curiosity, mental stillness, diverse feedback, and pattern recognition that machines cannot replicate

If you work across global and regional markets, lead brand strategy in culturally diverse ecosystems, or want a clearer lens on why AI cannot replace the human bridge of culture, this conversation will reshape how you think about marketing in a world that moves faster than planning cycles.

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If the topics discussed resonate with your own leadership challenges or the conversations happening in your organization - assessing international leaders, aligning global and local teams, building capabilities across regions. You can reach us at LYC Partners to set up a consultation.

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Produced by Bonjour Podcast (Melanie Hong), Leaders in Motion blends storytelling, strategy, and data-driven insight, giving today’s leaders a roadmap to anticipate tomorrow’s challenges and lead with intention.

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