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Marketing has always been a critical pillar for any business to grow and succeed. Presently, this has become a more challenging task due to the overload of data, but technology has now come to the rescue.

Given this environment, Pyxis One, a three-year-old Artificial Intelligence (AI) startup, is providing a tech platform for businesses to navigate through this maze to make marketing more integrated, targeted, accurate, and rewarding.

Neel Pandya, a seasoned marketing professional with experience of working with global brands such as L’Oreal, Vodafone, and Unilever, has joined as the CEO for APAC region at Pyxis One. As a passionate marketer, he will now be driving Pyxis’ growth in the region and will also oversee sales and hiring.

In an interview with YS, Neel says,

“Technology provides ways for marketing teams to move away from a siloed way of operating to a more unified way of operating.”

Here are the edited excerpts from the interview:

YS [YS]: Given your wide experience with global companies such as L’Oreal, Vodafone, and Unilever, what prompted you to join a young startup like Pyxis?

Neel Pandya [NP]: I have been following Pyxis One’s growth story for almost a year now. When I first came across the Pyxis One platforms, I was instantly struck by the innovation and simplicity — a philosophy, I discovered, the whole team here inherently follows. The Pyxis vision intrigued me because for over 13 years, I’ve worked in the marketing, media, and digital part of brand growth. And now to be at the forefront of the AI and technology-led brand growth ecosystem is not just an exciting challenge but also helps me bridge the gap of advertisers’ need with AI capability in day to day marketing.

YS : How is technology changing facets of marketing? Could you please elaborate.

NP: That’s a really interesting question, and in fact, it is also one of the reasons why I love marketing.

It is my belief that with each new kind of technology that gets introduced, the marketer’s role becomes more and more nuanced.

For example, here at Pyxis One, our AI infrastructure is designed for marketing and business growth. The AI environment we provide brands with makes marketing more integrated, targeted, accurate, and rewarding. Within this environment, marketers are being equipped to make sense of tumultuous amounts of data and formulate never done before strategies that can fast track growth. In essence, marketers now have the efficiency needed to become marketing data scientists — the trainers of their AI systems, if you will.

Technology provides ways for marketing teams to move away from a siloed way of operating to a more unified way of operating. I think it’s extremely important for teams to have access to all types of data in order to take a truly data-backed approach.

Like I always say, the same data can form the base of strategies for different teams, the power lies in understanding this early and harnessing it efficiently.

YS : What will be your key role and responsibilities as the CEO of the APAC region for Pyxis?

NP: My current and initial focus is mainly on expanding the marketing, sales and operations teams to cater to the APAC customer base. We have a budding community of AI experts within Pyxis that will serve as our product innovations and AI adoption, education and awareness team. My immediate responsibilities will be to grow and lead this global team of experts along with looking into strategic partnerships and integrations across the APAC business landscape.

YS : How is the APAC region faring when compared to North America or Western Europe in terms of adoption of technology in marketing?

NP: Actually, it’s interesting to note that the APAC region is most primed for AI adoption. The Asia-Pacific region accounts for more than 53 percent of the global internet population, and that right there is a volume of data only AI can efficiently handle.

The APAC region is actually quite far ahead when it comes to investing in AI technology. For example, from my conversations with leaders across APAC, I have already started noticing subtle differences. The APAC region is quite interested in machine learning, and different categories of AI in itself, whereas North America leans slightly towards (though not by too much) AI as assistants and process automation.

But most importantly, businesses have begun to quickly understand the need for AI and its far-reaching effects. So it is important to have strong awareness and education focussed teams that will help these businesses navigate their way through AI technology.

YS : What do you feel is the USP of Pyxis as an AI-driven startup?

NP: Internally, Pyxis has one of the most talented teams of young minds. The energy is high, always on and always raring to do something different. So one of our USPs is definitely the minds that brainstorm together here. These minds contribute profoundly to our belief that marketing and growth cannot take place in a siloed manner. One of the advantages of such a close knit and motivated team is the transparency and the flat hierarchy that comes naturally to everyone.

This contributes to our biggest USP of bringing seemingly unconnected teams together. Our AI environment brings the consumer research teams, R&D teams, marketing and sales teams, and even brand and agency teams together to function as one whole. I think that is what differentiates Pyxis One’s AI platforms from others. It’s akin to seeing the whole picture in its entirety instead of concentrating only on the parts without sight of the whole.