From manual hustle to AI muscle:
How Southeast Asia and India are rewriting media buying

The digital marketing industry across Southeast Asia and India is undergoing one of its most profound transformations in years. Manual media buying, once the backbone of digital advertising, is being replaced by AI-driven optimisation. What this shift delivers is striking: 48 percent more app installs, doubled revenue, and leaner teams able to focus on strategy rather than repetitive execution.

The IAB SEA+India AI Council recently convened leaders from WPP Media, Google, Meta, PubMatic, Omnicom, Magnite, and others to explore this change. Their discussions highlighted a common conclusion: AI in media buying is no longer an experiment but the new operating system for marketing in the region.

A region built for AI

Southeast Asia and India are uniquely suited to AI-driven marketing. Diverse languages, fragmented media ecosystems, and shifting regulatory environments make manual optimization slow and inefficient. AI systems, by contrast, excel at processing multiple variables simultaneously. They can adapt in real time, providing precision and speed at a scale humans cannot match.

Nikhil Motwani, Senior Director at WPP Media, explains that the sophistication of today’s AI has moved far beyond early bidding algorithms: “We’ve reached an inflection point where, manually, we are not able to consider enough dimensions for optimizations versus what AI systems can deliver.”

India is leading global adoption. With 92 percent of marketers already using or experimenting with generative AI, it has become a testbed for innovation, helping accelerate adoption across the wider region. Platforms like Meta and TikTok are embedding AI directly into their toolkits, while third-party providers are pushing forward with advanced optimization solutions. The region has quickly become a laboratory for the future of digital advertising.

Proving AI in action

The real power of AI becomes clear through practical campaigns. In Thailand, CIMB Thai Bank piloted Meta’s AI-driven Advantage+ App campaigns in conjunction with...