AI-Powered marketing: Netcore cloud's vision for the future

In an era where AI-driven solutions are redefining customer engagement, Netcore Cloud is at the forefront of this transformation. As a leader in the MarTech space, the company is leveraging AI-powered tools like Co-Marketer to help brands optimize customer journeys, drive profitability, and deliver hyper-personalized experiences at scale.

In this exclusive interaction, Siddharth Gopalkrishnan, Chief Operating Officer of Netcore Cloud, shares insights into how AI is revolutionizing marketing automation, the company’s approach to data privacy and compliance, its expansion strategy across global markets, and the future of digital marketing. He also sheds light on how Netcore differentiates itself in an increasingly competitive landscape and the immense opportunities within India’s rapidly evolving digital ecosystem.

Netcore Cloud is making significant strides in reshaping customer journeys with Co-Marketer. Can you share how AI is driving this transformation and its impact on delivering personalized experiences at scale?

Co-Marketer was developed to be a marketer’s partner in all aspects of marketing, i.e., to generate deeper insights, perform predictive segmentation, perform predictive analytics, conduct journey orchestrations, and conduct content curation. Netcore’s Co-Marketer simplifies workflows so marketers can focus on creativity and strategy.

Regarding AI driving transformation, Netcore's AI engine is like a Trivago for all AIs—delivering the best answer possible for every element, from content curation to customer segmentation. By sending prompts to Co-Marketer, it leverages customer data to quickly generate large volumes of relevant content, enabling brands to gain insights faster.

In a world where data privacy regulations are tightening globally, how is Netcore Cloud ensuring compliance while maintaining the trust of its clients and end users? Are there any specific measures or technologies you’re particularly proud of?

At Netcore Cloud, we have always been committed to maintaining the privacy and trust of our clients and end users. Focusing on robust privacy-first practices, our technology is developed in compliance with global regulations such as GDPR and CCPA. Since our ultimate goal is enhancing the relationship that brands have with their customers, data encryption, anonymization, and secure storage are foundational to our operations.
A prime example of this is Netcore Cloud’s Consent Management Platform, which allows clients to manage user preferences seamlessly, ensuring transparency and compliance. We have developed advanced AI algorithms are designed to provide insights without compromising individual data privacy.
To maintain the highest data security standards and foster long-term trust with clients, Netcore Cloud continuously invests in certifications and audits.

With Netcore’s growing presence in both India and international markets, what strategies have been most effective in expanding your footprint? How do you tailor your approach to address the unique challenges of different regions?

In the past few years, we have seen tremendous success and growth in several emerging markets, including Southeast Asia, the GCC, and Latin America, by developing products and platforms well-suited to regional markets.

What has worked well for us is that we treat each market differently from a product-market fit standpoint, a use case standpoint for our brands, and how we go to market right. This approach includes using strategic partners where possible.

For instance, we realized that digital maturity in some Southeast Asian markets is still evolving; therefore, it is essential that our platform is accompanied by a much higher degree of service and teams focused on driving adoption. Similarly, in North America, we see that the bigger need is in Search and Discovery, and web and email are the most preferred channels. Hence our propositions are tailored to this for the e-commerce and retail sectors.

At Netcore, our efforts are focused on developing platforms suited to each market since platforms built for emerging markets will not work for developed markets. Our partnerships with Google Cloud, Meta, and other partners form a critical part of our growth strategy. By creating such powerful synergies, we are confident that we can unlock new growth opportunities collectively, thereby redefining customer engagement and delivering exceptional value to our clients worldwide.

The MarTech industry is evolving rapidly, with AI playing a pivotal role. What trends do you foresee shaping the future of digital marketing, and how is Netcore positioning itself to lead in this transformation?

With the advent of AI, we noticed a rapid shift in customer journeys. There is more emphasis on being digital first, i.e., adopting omnichannel strategies, which has seen tremendous growth. This has evolved the marketer’s role, where marketing is no longer seen as the driver of acquisition but also as the driver of profits. At Netcore, we believe that our role is to enable the next set of profit champions across organizations.
The trends I foresee shaping the future of digital marketing are:
a. Overcommunication by Brands: Too many brands are vying for consumers' attention. To truly capture the consumer's attention, each brand needs to stand out by how it communicates with its audience and how it presents itself.

b. Each Journey is Omnichannel: Because of omnichannel journeys, there are numerous touchpoints. Brands will focus on engaging each touchpoint with the communication volume delivered to the consumer. Netcore’s recent survey revealed that 80% of consumers want or seek personalization, but 70% feel they don’t actually get personalized communication.

Brands will be under increasing pressure to optimize communication while focusing on personalizing outreach. This will make brand communication more contextual, actionable, and relevant.

c. Focus on Driving Profitability with Customer Retention: The future of digital marketing is retention-driven. Marketers must maximize customer lifetime value and profitability with customer acquisition costs soaring. Netcore Cloud enables this by transforming marketers into Profit Champions who leverage AI for smarter, more effective strategies.

The MarTech space is highly competitive. How does Netcore Cloud differentiate itself in such a dynamic landscape, and what has been the key to maintaining an edge over domestic and international competitors?

In the highly competitive MarTech landscape, Netcore Cloud differentiates itself through its unique positioning as the only player that can provide everything from Search and Discovery experience, interactive channels with native integrations and highly personalised customer engagement.

Our native email channel, for instance, captures an impressive 70% of the traffic in the Southeast Asian region. Our premium partnerships with Google and Meta across their channels further reinforce our market standing. Our strong performance in Forrester and Gartner lately speaks volumes of our competitive edge.

By focusing intensely on business impact, we deliver measurable outcomes that go beyond conventional metrics like CTRs and conversion rates.

Ultimately, our ability to understand and address the nuanced needs of Brands enables us to drive the adoption of MarTech tools and help them improve their returns

India is a critical market for Netcore. What opportunities do you see in the Indian market, and how do you plan to leverage its potential for growth while addressing its unique customer expectations and challenges?

With a rapidly digitizing economy and increasing internet penetration, India offers significant opportunities for AI-driven personalization and omnichannel marketing. In India, digital transformation is happening across industries like automotive, real estate, FMCG, and BFSI. These digital transformations will necessitate these brands to drive seamless and effective omnichannel journeys for customers.

According to a report, over 600 new brands have entered the D2C space since 2016, with a 25% jump in new brands entering the market in 2023. The Indian D2C market is set to triple to $61.3 billion by FY27, with a 38% compounded annual growth rate driven by macroeconomic factors like a rise in per capita earnings. Most of these recently-launched brands are struggling to bridge the gap towards profitability. We see a big opportunity in helping these brands unlock, whether by optimizing costs or increasing the efficiency of marketing budgets.

The Government of India is actively driving digitalization through initiatives like ONDC. In the next 5-6 years, we will witness a wave of businesses that invest in sustainable, profitable growth.

Netcore plans to support this wave of growth by developing customizable playbooks for each customer and by building our talent pool backed by investments in tech, analytics, and platforms.