Programmatic’s Shift: Signals, Context & AI

Q1. Could you start by giving us a brief overview of your professional background, particularly focusing on your expertise in the industry?

Eleven-plus years building revenue at the intersection of programmatic, data, and content. I’ve led monetization and partnerships across Gaana, ShareChat/Moj, CarDekho, Condé Nast India, and Bobble AI — spanning publisher-side yield, brand partnerships, and first-party data commercialization. Currently focused on programmatic curation and supply-path strategy across APAC, alongside advisory work through SGCube Consultants in AdTech and content monetization.

The through-line across all of it: finding the gap between where money is being spent and where value is actually being created.

Q2. How is programmatic evolving from a scale-driven model to a signal- and intent-driven revenue engine, especially in privacy-first environments?

Scale was always a proxy. The industry used reach as a currency because it was measurable, not because it was meaningful.

Privacy deprecation — GDPR, ATT, and now DPDP in India — isn’t breaking programmatic. It’s exposing how much of it was built on borrowed identity. Third-party cookies didn’t deliver intent. They delivered addressability. Those are very different things.

The real shift is toward ownable signals — first-party behavioral data, contextual depth, and curated supply paths where the…