Naseef KPO Of Skalegrow: How AI Is Disrupting Our Industry, and What We Can Do About It

An Interview With Cynthia Corsetti

Use AI ethically

As much as it is exciting, the use of AI has raised many ethical concerns. I earlier touched upon how fake AI videos are already creating a problem. If you are using another person’s asset that you don’t own to apply AI, you need to take proper consent and clearly define the ways in which you are going to use it.

Artificial Intelligence is no longer the future; it is the present. It’s reshaping landscapes, altering industries, and transforming the way we live and work. With its rapid advancement, AI is causing disruption — for better or worse — in every field imaginable. While it promises efficiency and growth, it also brings challenges and uncertainties that professionals and businesses must navigate. What can one do to pivot if AI is disrupting their industry? As part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Naseef KPO.

Naseef KPO is the Founder and CEO of Skalegrow, a new-age B2B marketing agency that helps companies in the IT, tech, SaaS, and embedded systems industries grow with marketing. Before starting Skalegrow, Naseef led large marketing teams in multi million dollar companies where he managed the marketing function end to end. Currently, Naseef is focusing on building Skalegrow into an agency that customers and employees will love.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series. Before we dive into our discussion our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you share with us the backstory about what brought you to your specific career path?

I had very humble beginnings in my career. After graduating from the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore in 2016, I joined Hexaware Technologies, an IT company, as a marketing manager. At Hexaware, my responsibilities included managing marketing tools, running performance marketing campaigns, analyzing marketing data, and defining processes.

Post the 4.5-year stint at Hexaware, I joined e-con Systems, an embedded systems company, where I led a 15+ member marketing team. It was a multi-functional team with dedicated people for content, SEO, video marketing, website management, social media management, partner marketing, event marketing, etc. After working in e-con Systems for 2.5 years and making significant contributions to the topline growth of the business, I decided to start Skalegrow in early 2023.

What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?

The marketing agency space is crowded. There is too much noise out there. This makes it super hard to differentiate. However, at Skalegrow, we are taking a different approach. When the entire world of B2B marketing agencies is running behind just IT, SaaS, and tech companies, we have identified embedded systems as an industry that many don’t target.

There is clearly a whitespace there where most embedded systems manufacturers (like robotics companies for example) except a few elites do not have a proper marketing engine set up. We aim to fill that gap by leveraging our experience in the industry and deep technical understanding. This is an unfair advantage for us as it is quite difficult for a player without industry experience to come in and make an impact like we do. We are already working with a few embedded systems companies to redefine their marketing strategies.

You are a successful business leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?

When it comes to the key traits of a successful business leader, I believe everyone has his or her secret sauce. Personally, what has worked for me are an aptitude for continuous learning, the ability to take calculated risks, and caring for the people around me.

Continuous learning is something that has always been a part of my DNA. I started my career as a performance marketing and analytics manager in an IT company. I used that opportunity to gain exposure to the entire spectrum of marketing including, martech, marketing data analysis, marketing operations, content marketing, ads, SEO, etc. I made the most out of this opportunity by learning associated skills by taking online courses, watching YouTube videos, listening to podcasts, and attending webinars. This gave me a comprehensive understanding of how marketing works in B2B companies and prepared me to take up a leadership position in an MNC with the responsibility of managing a large marketing team.

Taking calculated risks is another thing that has changed my life. If you asked me about my future goals in 2021, I would have said that I wanted to become the CMO of a large B2B tech firm. But fast forward to 2023, I am an entrepreneur trying to make an impact by disrupting the age-old marketing agency model.

Caring for people is something I hold very close to my heart. One of the key objectives I have for Skalegrow is to build it into an organization that people would love to work for. Since I have faced the heat of corporate politics myself a lot, I want to create a positive work environment for our people where the only differentiator is performance. I also want Skalegrow to be an inclusive workplace — especially by giving opportunities to less privileged people. This ability to look out for others has helped foster meaningful relationships with the people I worked with throughout my career.

Let’s now move to the main point of our discussion about AI. Can you explain how AI is disrupting your industry? Is this disruption hurting or helping your bottom line?

AI is everywhere, and marketing is no exception. Content generation is one of the most popular applications of AI in marketing. Many believe that this trend started only after the launch of ChatGPT. But the truth is that AI had started finding its applications in content creation much earlier with tools like Jasper and Copy AI.

Some of the other areas where AI is applied in marketing today include:

1. Automated video generation
2. Text-to-speech conversion
3. Image generation
4. Text generation
5. SEO automation
6. Voice-to-text conversion and automated transcription
7. Brand language optimization
8. Ads optimization
9. Conversational AI
10. Email marketing
11. Social media analytics
12. Predictive analytics
13. Content repurposing

Because of the universal nature of LLMs (Large Language Models), technologists are able to leverage them to build products for a wide variety of use cases. One of the upcoming use cases of AI in marketing is events. It is a subset of predictive analytics where event organizers use AI to predict ticket sales and attendance rates.

To learn more about the applications of AI in marketing and how B2B marketers should adapt, have a look at the below article I wrote:

Marketing In The AI Era — How B2B Companies Should Adapt?

Which specific AI technology has had the most significant impact on your industry?

Beyond doubt, it is content generation, that too text generation. While many marketers were familiar with AI content writing tools earlier, the launch of ChatGPT popularized the possibility of using AI for different content writing and editing purposes. Some of the features of AI content writing assistants are:

• Summarizing a large piece of content.
• Coming up with topic ideas for articles and videos.
• Generating content for long-form articles.
• Creating content for short-form mediums like social media, YouTube, emails, etc.
• Converting bullet points into paragraphs.
• Creating ad copy for Google ads, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram.
• Writing product descriptions and website content.

These are just the tip of the iceberg. There are plenty of use cases emerging every day when it comes to effectively using generative AI tools for content creation. AI-based content generation has become so popular that many startups and early-stage companies rely purely on them in an effort to reduce costs.

Can you share a pivotal moment when you recognized the profound impact AI would have on your sector?

This was sometime back in 2021. I was listening to The Digital Marketing Podcast hosted by Daniel Rowles, Ciaran Rogers and Louise Crossley. They spoke about a cool AI tool that blew my mind. It was a text-to-video platform that could automatically convert a script into a full-fledged video with AI avatars within minutes. You could even create a digital avatar of yourself. The name of the tool is Synthesia. Today among other AI-based text-to-video tools like Rephrase AI, HeyGen, Pictory, and Typecast, Synthesia is one of the most popular names in the market.

This moment made me realize the true potential of AI and what it can do to automate various tasks in marketing which we once thought was impossible. AI-based tools also — to some extent — brought a level playing field between small companies and large media houses in terms of the ability to create professional videos and content in general.

How are you preparing your workforce for the integration of AI, and what skills do you believe will be most valuable in an AI-enhanced future?

The reality is that Ai is here to stay. There is no escaping it. Marketers have to learn to adapt to the AI era. We have taken several steps at Skalegrow to make sure we are ready for the AI future.

Since content is getting commoditized with the advent of AI in many industries, creating high-quality content is tough. One of the steps we have taken to overcome this is to deeply understand our customers’ business and solutions. In every piece of content we create, we add an ‘industry touch’ to ensure that the content is relatable to the target audience. At the same time, we use AI tools for generating ideas, summarizing content, and at times rephrasing.

To ensure we take advantage of having AI at our fingertips, we subscribe to relevant AI tools like AI writing assistants, text-to-video converters, and image generators. We train our people to not only use these tools but also modify the output from them further to enhance the quality.

When it comes to skills, I believe the ability to use AI tools to generate an output that meets your needs the best would be valuable. In addition, the ability to improve the quality of AI-generated output by adding a thought leadership flavor to it will be a great differentiator for any marketer.

For example, everybody has access to ChatGPT. But how can you use the right prompts to generate content that is in line with the topic? How do you make sure the content includes different elements like stats, examples, anecdotes, facts, etc.? How do you edit the content to make it 1 among the top 1% content in your industry? These are some of the invaluable skills in the AI-driven future of marketing.

What are the biggest challenges in upskilling your workforce for an AI-centric future?

All my people are from the Gen Y or Gen Z generations. They are all born into the lap of the internet and mobile phones. So, nobody has to teach them how to use AI tools. Most of them pick it up on their own. But the challenge lies in training them to tweak what AI produces to something that would compete with global standards. This applies to everything from content writing to AI-based keyword analysis and design generation.

The second challenge is in choosing the right AI tools. While in some categories there are standout tools, certain others have multiple tools that are equally good. For example, when it comes to text-to-speech conversion, I find Eleven Labs to be — by far — the best tool in the market today. However, when it comes to text generation, I hardly find any difference between a Copy AI and a Peppertype AI. In such a scenario, guiding your workforce to choose the best tools is a huge task.

What ethical considerations does AI introduce into your industry, and how are you tackling these concerns?

We all have seen deepfake videos where the faces and voices of real people are being reproduced without the owners’ consent. This shows that if not properly regulated, there is a high likelihood of identity theft and illegal content creation. Especially with text-to-video conversion where AI avatars of real people are used, a question arises as to how long a company can continue to use the person’s avatar.

For example, if an employee leaves, does the company have consent to continue using his/her digital avatar? Even if consent for indefinite use is written into the employment agreement, who would take responsibility for the ethical use of videos generated using the AI avatar? Are there mechanisms regulated by law that allow the individual to withdraw consent?

These are some of the key ethical concerns that experts are raising when it comes to using AI. At Skalegrow, we take the necessary steps to make sure no misuse of data or breaking of intellectual property happens. Firstly, we don’t use the voice or avatars of any real people. We only rely on the digital characters or voiceovers offered by the tools. Secondly, wherever we use AI, we make sure to explicitly mention it as required. For instance, we let our clients know that we use AI for generating content ideas. At the same time, we validate the same using other parameters like SEO relevance or keyword volume.

These steps make sure that we are open and transparent about our use of AI, and that we stay immune to any potential ethical risks of AI adoption.

What are your “Five Things You Need To Do, If AI Is Disrupting Your Industry”?

1 . Learn to use AI instead of running away from it.

Let’s admit it. AI is here to stay, whether you like it or not. We are moving from a digital native era to an AI-native one. We see the trend across the board with even big players like HubSpot integrating AI into their solutions. So marketers have no choice but to acquire AI skills. The idea is to complement AI with creative skills and experience to bring out the best possible output in what marketers do.

Depending on your role, there are different ways in which you can make use of AI. For example, if you are a content writer, you can use a tool like WordTune to rewrite your content with the help of AI. Or you can use Jasper to create long-form content by giving a short description as input. Since AI is still not perfect, you would probably need to modify the output to ensure it meets your expectations. However, using AI tools reduces the content creation time significantly.

Similarly, other AI marketing tasks like text-to-video conversion, text-to-speech conversion, design/image generation, etc., can significantly reduce content creation time. So there is no reason why marketers should not use AI tools. The future will see a battle between marketers who know AI and those who don’t.

2 . Change your marketing strategy to adapt to the AI era

With trends like Search Generative Experience (SGE), search engines are trying to provide as much information as possible in the search results itself. The traditional model of having users click through to a website to get traffic at any cost is soon going to be obsolete. This is where concepts like zero-click content become relevant.

Zero-click content focuses on providing answers to user queries without them having to click through to a website or submit their contact information. Google’s rater guidelines E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness) will also have a play here where the quality of the content matters more than keyword density or schema markup.

Essentially, marketers need to focus on solving their ICP’s (Ideal Customer Profile) problems through their content rather than ‘tricking’ them into visiting a webpage or submitting a form.

Moreover, marketers need to expedite their content creation and repurposing activities. Now with everyone having easy access to AI with easy-to-use tools that do not require coding, you will be left behind if you don’t use AI to achieve speed.

In essence, marketers need to explore how to adapt their strategy to compete in the AI era.

3 . Use AI only if it makes business sense

One common tendency observed today is to adopt AI just because it is ‘cool.’ This is true not just for marketers but for others too. But remember, it is the outcomes that matter more than what you use for it. Your customers don’t care how fancy your tech stack is. They only want their problems to be solved. If AI can do it, good. If not, no amount of money spent on AI will be useful.

Your employees don’t care about how shiny AI is either. Their only concern is whether AI makes their life better. Does it help them do their job faster and easier? Is it enhancing their overall performance? Are they able to become more productive with AI? These are some of the key questions you need to answer with respect to employees while adopting AI in your organization.

‘Using AI’ should not be your objective. Growing your business and helping your people should be. Use AI as an enabler in that journey.

4 . Use AI ethically

As much as it is exciting, the use of AI has raised many ethical concerns. I earlier touched upon how fake AI videos are already creating a problem. If you are using another person’s asset that you don’t own to apply AI, you need to take proper consent and clearly define the ways in which you are going to use it.

You also need to be wary of data privacy and compliance issues. You should not use any unauthorized data for AI-based analyses. Till proper checks and balances are introduced by government authorities and regulatory bodies, let us take measures to stop the unethical use of AI.

5 . Integrate AI into your daily marketing activities

AI is not an alien entity that only specialized members of your team are supposed to use. I know many marketing leaders who started their careers in the late ’90s staying away from modern martech tools like intent intelligence platforms or funnel builders. We should not allow the same to happen with the AI era. While most of us are comfortable with modern marketing tools that came out before AI got popularized, we also need to see (and use) AI tools just like the others we use on a day-to-day basis.

The only way to prevent that from happening is to treat AI like your friend. Make it a part of your daily job.

Do you create content? Use AI to enhance it.

Are you a visual designer? Use AI to generate stock images and designs.

Are you an SEO professional? Take the help of AI to simulate the behavior of search engines and predict future SEO outcomes.

The avenues are plenty. Start making AI a part of your ‘marketing life’ today.

What are the most common misconceptions about AI within your industry, and how do you address them?

I already spoke about one of the most common misconceptions — which is people start using AI because of FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out). Many think they need to use it because it is a shiny new thing. However, a new technology is only sustainable if it can drive long-term business impact. To overcome this tendency, we need to evaluate every new AI tool or process we come across thoroughly. Ask yourself the following questions.

What business outcomes can the new tool or process deliver? How can you justify its ROI (Return On Investment)? How much budget can you set aside for it over the next few years? Start asking questions like these as you do the evaluation.

The second misconception is that AI does the magic on its own. Well, it does to some extent. But AI tools are far from being perfect. Even the creators of ChatGPT admit that GPT-4 can throw factual errors. In addition, the wealth of knowledge an SME (Subject Matter Expert) has accumulated over the years is something AI can’t replicate. So, always add a layer of human intelligence and creativity above what AI creates — whether it’s text content, images, or data-driven insights.

The third common misconception is AI in marketing is all about content generation. While generative AI takes up the most part, there are other applications of AI in marketing that many are not leveraging as much. Examples include predictive analytics (predicting future lead inflow for example), SEO automation (e.g., automatically updating schemas on a website), and brand language optimization (ensuring all the content and design are on brand across platforms).

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Do you have a story about how that was relevant in your life?

It’s hard to pick one. But there is one by Henry Ford that has influenced me a lot. He said:

“If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”

Innovation always comes from thinking one step ahead. We often give too much value to the opinions of our customers. But the real visionaries are those who guide others in paths unexplored to find better solutions to everyday problems.

At Skalegrow, we try to follow a similar philosophy. We challenge our own thinking as well as our customers’. That helps us come up with creative solutions instead of limiting ourselves to a closed set of ideas and thoughts.

Off-topic, but I’m curious. As someone steering the ship, what thoughts or concerns often keep you awake at night? How do those thoughts influence your daily decision-making process?

The human brain doesn’t like uncertainty. But business is a game of many uncertainties and challenges. At a given time, there are many such things that keep me awake at night. They are often related to customer acquisition, people management, ensuring quality in our service output, etc.

When you have so many thoughts running in your mind, it’s easy to have biases in your decision making. So, to be as objective as possible, I always create a pros vs. cons chart for various possibilities of an issue. I weigh them against each other to arrive at the most logical decision. I also take a second opinion when it comes to critical decisions to ensure I always do what is best for the business.

You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

This sounds simple yet not discussed often.

I wish mental health was a part of our curriculum and corporate life. We all complain about kids not being taught financial literacy and personal wealth management in schools. However, not many still talk about teaching how to navigate stress and ensure mental wellness.

This is true in the corporate world too. Most businesses have a mental wellness program just for the sake of it. But what if every business took their people’s well-being as seriously as their customers’?

A world where mental well-being is as equal a priority as anything else — that’s the ideal world I would want to work towards.

How can our readers further follow you online?

I am most active on LinkedIn, and hence that’s the best place to find me. Here is the link to my LinkedIn profile.

Thank you for the time you spent sharing these fantastic insights. We wish you only continued success in your great work!

About the Interviewer: Cynthia Corsetti is an esteemed executive coach with over two decades in corporate leadership and 11 years in executive coaching. Author of the upcoming book, “Dark Drivers,” she guides high-performing professionals and Fortune 500 firms to recognize and manage underlying influences affecting their leadership. Beyond individual coaching, Cynthia offers a 6-month executive transition program and partners with organizations to nurture the next wave of leadership excellence.