The economic ripple effects and new realities of AI adoption

The panel discussion on “The Economic Ripple Effects and New Realities of AI Adoption” at the 6th edition of the PR & Corp Comm Women Achievers Summit 2025 brought together industry leaders who explored how artificial intelligence is reshaping communications, trust, storytelling, leadership, and the future of work. 

Moderated by Venkatesh Somayaji, Director & Founder, Visage11 Advisors, the session featured Dolly Tayal, Managing Director, Burson; A+niruddho Chakraborty, Head of Communications, India, Embraer; Rituparna Sengupta, Director – Communication and Outreach, Wadhwani AI; and Tehseen Zaidi, Communications Specialist, Syngenta Group – IT Digital.  The session discussed aspects beyond the usual conversations around efficiency and productivity to examine the deeper human, ethical, and implications of AI adoption.

Opening the discussion, Venkatesh Somayaji discussed the unprecedented pace at which AI has entered the communications industry. “Nothing has been as fast-paced as a tsunami like what AI is doing to us,” he said, adding that according to a Microsoft study, nearly 200,000 jobs in the communications industry alone are expected to be impacted by AI, with PR at the epicentre of this transformation.

Tehseen Zaidi, Communications Specialist, Syngenta Group – IT Digital, spoke about the importance of ethical and responsible AI adoption. Sharing an incident from Syngenta’s global AI awareness sessions, she recalled how employees across 80 countries received a deepfake audio message that perfectly mimicked the voice of the company’s global CEO. “The voice was so real, the messaging was so real, that we were not able to make any difference on who’s speaking. This was my first lesson that being human is most important, applying our mind is most important, and being alert is most important,” she said.

Zaidi emphasised that while AI can empower communicators and reduce workloads, it cannot replace authenticity and human judgement. Referring to the future of communications professionals, she noted, “Communicators who evolve with AI will be there in the long run, and communicators who will not enhance their skills and learn how to use it wisely will be left behind.”

She also highlighted the growing gender gap in AI adoption and leadership, sharing that women account for only 22-30% of global AI professionals depending on the study. “If women are absent from AI design and governance, biases will get amplified and exclusions will get automated. If diversity is missing at the coding table, inequality gets scaled through technology,” she emphasised.

Speaking about AI accessibility in agriculture and rural India, Zaidi explained how Syngenta has developed multilingual AI-powered tools for farmers, particularly women growers. She spoke about platforms like the Cropwise Grower App and Crop Doctor App, which allow farmers to access crop pricing, weather forecasts, disease detection, and advisory services in regional languages. “Technology should not be a luxury. Our ambition is connecting technology to growers, especially women and youth,” she said.

Rituparna Sengupta, Director – Communication and Outreach, Wadhwani AI, brought the conversation back to social impact and inclusivity. She shared how Wadhwani AI has been deploying AI-driven solutions at the grassroots level, including newborn healthcare tools that can assess infant health metrics in under 15 seconds.

Reflecting on public perception around AI, she observed that while AI is rapidly entering everyday life, it still remains “a mysterious thing in the room” for many people. “Humans are always at the core of AI. The problems existed before technology. AI came later as an overlay to strengthen delivery and solve those problems,” she said.

Sengupta strongly stressed that empathy, accountability, and human judgement will continue to remain central to AI adoption. “AI without human touch is going to be a completely reckless engine. You will always need humans to steer it and ensure it delivers greater good,” she noted.

On the future of AI integration, she advised communicators to remain in control rather than becoming dependent on technology. “Don’t let AI drive you. Use it to strengthen your work, just don’t become a slave to it,” she said.

Dolly Tayal, Managing Director, Burson, offered insights into how global communications firms are integrating AI into reputation management and strategic communications. She reminded the audience that AI is ultimately a tool and not a replacement for human intelligence. “AI is an analytics tool. It doesn’t bring judgement, it doesn’t bring cultural intelligence. The brave recommendations still come from people,” she said.

Tayal shared a case study where Burson used an internal AI tool called ‘Decipher’ to test campaign messaging against parameters such as believability, virality, and impact. While the communications team initially believed the messaging was strong, the AI analysis revealed that it lacked emotional and cultural resonance with audiences. “The tool helped us realise our messaging was not landing culturally and emotionally. We tweaked it, and the campaign performed significantly better,” she explained.

She also recounted a humorous yet alarming personal experience where her husband used AI tools to generate a fake song featuring rapper Snoop Dogg as a brand ambassador for a restaurant chain. “Even as a communicator, I couldn’t figure out it was fake. That’s the power and the danger of AI,” she admitted.

Addressing concerns around authenticity in AI-generated communication, Tayal argued that authenticity does not come from data collection but from interpretation and human insight. “Everybody can access the same tools. Authenticity comes from how you decipher the data, identify the white space, and bring differentiation using both AI and human intelligence,” she said.

On concerns around AI replacing jobs, Tayal dismissed the idea that efficiency should translate into workforce reduction. “Earlier, tasks that took 30 hours can now be done in 3 hours. The idea is not to reduce 10 people. The idea is to use the remaining time to create more intelligence, more learning, and more value,” she explained.

Aniruddho Chakraborty, Head of Communications, India, Embraer, spoke about AI adoption in the aerospace sector, where trust, safety, and precision are non-negotiable. He identified insights, content, and creativity as the three biggest areas where AI is transforming communications functions.

“In aerospace, the human impact is massive because millions of people are flying every day. AI helps us gather insights, assess messaging impact, and improve quality control, but credibility always remains human,” he said.

Adding a lighter moment to the session while making a larger point about overdependence on AI, he humorously shared an example of an 18-year-old using ChatGPT to decide when to shave before attending a party. “Don’t use AI for dumb stuff. The last mile should always be human,” he candidly remarked.

Chakraborty noted that AI has significantly improved internal communications, especially in large global organisations operating with lean communications teams. “AI allows communicators to manage far more touchpoints and communicate more effectively across geographies,” he said.

He also stressed that the most critical role of communicators in the AI era is knowing when to respond and when not to. “Sometimes the most important decision in communications is deciding not to say something wrong,” he observed.

As the session concluded, the panel collectively agreed that AI is not something to fear but something to embrace responsibly. The discussion concluded that while AI will continue to redefine communication, productivity, and storytelling, the future will still belong to communicators who will carry technological understanding and the ethos of empathy, ethics, creativity, and human judgement hand in hand.