AAAI constitutes Council for AI; Prasad Shejale of LS Digital to chair

The Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) has constituted a Council for AI, to be chaired by Prasad Shejale, Founder and Group CEO of LS Digital. The Council is part of AAAI's 2026–27 agenda to broaden specialist participation and give member agencies a stronger voice in shaping the industry's future.

The Council's mandate is to make the advertising industry an informed and influential voice on artificial intelligence, and to ensure that the industry's perspective carries weight wherever AI is being shaped: among agencies, brands, technology partners, big tech platforms and government. Its vision is to make Indian advertising a trusted, informed and influential voice in how AI is built, governed and applied, and to make every agency, large or small, AI-capable.

To deliver on that mandate, the Council will work on five fronts:

• Capability: Training programmes that build AI fluency across agency leadership and teams, from strategy and creative to media and data.
• Evidence: Regular reports and benchmarks on how AI is being adopted across Indian advertising, and on the trends that will matter next.
• Standards: Practical guidance on the responsible and commercially sound use of AI, covering disclosure, intellectual property and the client–agency relationship, and aligned with ASCI's guidelines and the IT Rules.
• Voice: Consolidated industry positions for engagement with government, regulators, brands and technology platforms.
• Applied practice: Playbooks and use cases that help agencies of every size move from experimentation to results.

The Council will bring together members with strong AI backgrounds and a clear point of view on where the technology is heading, drawn from large networks, independent and regional agencies, and data and technology specialists. It will track emerging trends closely, take an active part in national and global conversations on AI, and help steer the industry from an applied perspective.

Prasad Shejale, Chair, AAAI Council for AI, said:

"AI is the biggest shift our industry has faced, and advertising should not be a spectator to its own transformation. Through this Council, we want the industry to speak with one informed voice: to agencies, to brands, to partners, to big tech and to government. We will train our people, publish what we learn and take positions backed by evidence. I have always believed AI is an Iron Man suit, not a replacement: it makes people more capable. The Council's job is to help every agency in India put that suit on, and to help shape the rules of the road while we do it."

Dr Sandeep Goyal, President, AAAI, said:

"Prasad is a rare combination of a technologist, entrepreneur and visionary. As AI rewrites the rules of advertising, we need a practitioner who has built and scaled technology businesses globally. Prasad's leadership will ensure that AAAI members are not just adopters of AI, but leaders in shaping India's AI-first advertising future. We are delighted to welcome him as Chairman of our Council for AI."