AI isn’t replacing our jobs; it’s helping us work faster: Grapes’ Shradha Agarwal

At the Independent Digital Agency Connect 2025, Shradha Agarwal, Co-Founder and Global CEO of Grapes Worldwide, spoke on ‘Human-Centric AI in Creative Campaigns: Striking the Balance of Trust, Emotion & Efficiency’. Her session was an honest and humorous look at how creativity and artificial intelligence can coexist to create faster, more emotional and efficient campaigns.

Agarwal began by saying, “AI is not replacing our jobs. It is just like what computer was to my father-in-law or internet was to some of us when we were growing up. AI is doing that to us, helping us with speed, cost and efficiency so that we can do our job faster.” She recalled the initial struggles of adapting to the new technology. “We struggled, toppled, got up, did it again 100 times to just reach the stage now where we are at,” she said. Grapes, she added, has now created its own AI tool to generate images, videos and creative content for both digital and offline needs.

She reminded the audience that AI changes fast. “What you learned last week has already changed this week. AI is also growing old. Product AI is a passé, we’ve all seen it. Now it’s about what we can do with the human inside it,” she said. According to her, good creative output depends on balancing emotion, trust and efficiency. “If you put together this creative in front of any user, that person should not be able to tell that this is AI or a real shoot. And your job is done,” she said.

Talking about empathy in creativity, Agarwal added, “Photo shoots always had empathy, instinct, imagination, feelings, because there was a director shooting it. Now imagine if you actually put all that with AI, and you can instruct it to change lights, backdrop, art, everything at super speed.” She shared what she called her nine rules of human-AI content, saying, “Lead with human tension, not just a prompt. It’s human first, AI second. Think of AI like your camera. You just need to instruct it right. If your instruction is great, you’ll get a great output. The first time you use AI, it might even take longer than manual work, but have the patience to live through that.”

Agarwal also spoke about Grapes’ own AI-led campaigns. For the condom brand HiSmart, when celebrity shoots became difficult, the agency created India’s first AI brand ambassador named Myra. “She went on billboards, even got flagged at Mumbai airport because she was revealing too much,” she said with a laugh. “But all of that happened without another shoot being conducted.”

She cited another case of MamyPoko Pants, where an AI character called Poko-chan performed so well that Japan adopted the Indian simulation. “We trained the AI on it, and then to scale it, asked users what he should do next on his birthday, and literally uploaded videos every 20 minutes,” she said.

Emphasising practicality over perfection, Agarwal noted, “Nobody’s noticing. Consumers hardly have attention span, they’re not going to notice small things. Move on.” She added that keeping human judgement involved is essential. “Keep a human in the loop. If you’re not 100% sure that this works, check with another person. But lie to that person, tell them it was a real shoot and then take feedback. If they can’t tell it’s AI, the job is done,” she said.

Agarwal illustrated how AI is changing production economics, mentioning a campaign shot virtually for a fraction of traditional costs. “What would have cost ₹60–70 lakh in the UK, we did in AI for ₹20,000,” she said, adding jokingly, “Actually, I haven’t paid the client yet, but that’s a separate case.”

She closed her session on a practical note. “Let your P&L decide whether you want to go AI or physical shoot. Don’t wreck your head. Keep giving changes, do blue, do black, do green, and still continue to deliver great pieces of work,” she said, summing up her belief that human imagination remains the core, even as AI becomes an everyday creative partner.