The Future Is Now: Vibhor Kapoor Of AdRoll On How Their Technological Innovation Will Shake Up The Tech Scene

Persistence and perseverance are underrated. There are more people that give up just before they are about to reach a milestone or get the breakthrough than you think. Just go one step further and see what it unfolds.

As a part of our series about cutting-edge technological breakthroughs, I had the pleasure of interviewing Vibhor Kapoor.

Vibhor Kapoor is the President of AdRoll, a marketing and advertising technology platform for Direct to Consumer brands. Vibhor’s charter at AdRoll includes driving AdRoll’s revenue growth, overseeing product, strategy, sales, operations, and marketing.

With almost three decades of industry experience, Vibhor brings business leadership expertise in SaaS and Cloud platforms. Most recently, he was a Senior Director in Adobe’s Digital Media Business, where he led marketing and GTM efforts to incubate new categories in experience design and developer platforms. Before joining Adobe, Kapoor was a Vice President of Marketing at Box, leading product marketing, evangelism and demand generation for their API platform. He also spent a decade at Microsoft in leadership roles across marketing and product management and was an early member of the team that built Microsoft’s Azure business. Earlier in his career, Vibhor spent several years at General Electric and Hewlett Packard in product management, sales and commercial operations.

Vibhor holds an MBA from Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University in Illinois and a Bachelor’s in Technology from the Indian Institute of Technology in Varanasi, India.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit about you. Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?

Good stories are always about a journey and about the intersection of several different turning points. My story is not a specific one, but one of many chapters which have unfolded themselves into this section of my life. The very early phases of my career were focused on building a strong technology foundation in undergraduate school and at Hewlett Packard. What followed was a journey into building business acumen and leadership skills at a global level with General Electric. The last decade and a half has been about product strategy, growth and marketing skills built on a foundation of data and analytics, most notably at Microsoft and Adobe. The cumulation of these experiences has been instrumental in my career path and in shaping how I got here.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?

There are many stories I could share, but what is most interesting for me is that my greatest professional growth has repeatedly come from career choices that were not obvious and less traditionally rational. I recall instances when my peers told me to not take a role because of so and so reasons, but I went against the grain and built rich experiences. I was a manager of managers in an established business division, but I jumped to take an IC role in an emerging business. These decisions, which can be very unpredictable in career and professional experiential growth, have been defining for who I am today.

Can you tell us about the cutting-edge technological breakthroughs that you are working on? How do you think that will help people?

AdRoll has been built on 10+ years of harnessing AI to drive incredible ad performance, and we’ve only just begun. We’re enhancing our AI usage to optimize every step of the campaign process — from content creation, to ad spend, to intelligent analysis that can enhance future marketing strategies. AdRoll’s AI capabilities enable marketers to truly do more with less, from start to finish.

This journey began with our groundbreaking BidIQ technology, which uses machine learning to optimize ad campaigns to marketers’ specific goals and optimize the price paid for ad impressions. Unlike many of our competitors, AdRoll’s data engine is built entirely from scratch and is constantly improving based on years of processing massive volumes of data from thousands of advertisers and internet users. With each learning, BidIQ gets even better at ensuring each and every ad is targeted at the right person, at the right time, using the most relevant message.

Our attribution was then enhanced with the introduction of our cross-channel performance dashboard, which provides marketers with recommendations based on a comprehensive analysis of campaign performance across channels, all in one place. Never again will marketers need to chase down learnings and waste precious time crunching numbers. Instead, the dashboard provides insights that can be used to tweak campaign settings, giving BidIQ the ability to generate even better ad performance.

And then we arrive at some of our latest AI innovations, the first of which is AdRoll’s Creative Partner. Through an integration with ChatGPT, this generative AI tool enables marketers to beat writer’s block by creating high-impact, on-brand campaign messages. For those using AdRoll as an email provider, this tool can create outputs for both suggested subject lines and body copy, leveraging brand preferences including tone, text length, and even emoji usage. We also recently launched AdRoll’s AI Contextual Targeting Assistance, which harnesses AI to generate topic and location suggestions for users’ contextual ad campaigns. By simply inputting the product or service they offer, users will receive up to five AI-generated recommendations within seconds, which they can then edit or apply directly to their campaigns.

We believe high-performing marketing should be accessible to every business, no matter their size or budget, and we are thrilled to expand our AI utilization to make that dream a reality.

How do you think this might change the world?

As President of AdRoll, I am constantly excited about the impact our AI-powered technology will have on democratizing high-performing marketing and advertising.

We’re already making great strides with AdRoll’s Creative Partner, which provides users with suggested email copy that matches their brand’s tone and current messaging, and we’re very excited about some further updates to Creative Partner that are coming down the pike. Combine this with our Contextual Targeting Assistance, our tried and true BidIQ technology and cross-channel performance dashboard, and AdRoll is providing invaluable support at every stage of the campaign journey, no matter if you’re a team of 10 or a lone entrepreneur. This will dramatically level the playing field for businesses who are attempting to do more with less, further promoting innovation and economic growth at a time that is otherwise financially uncertain.

Beyond advertising, I’m interested to see how AdRoll’s AI-powered technologies may spur developments in other fields, encouraging the broad usage of AI for more informed choices, more individualized and customized experiences, and responsible data management. Here at AdRoll, we envision a world where businesses are flourishing, customers are interacting with content that is personalized to their needs and interests, and ethical AI principles help lead marketers in the right direction. AdRoll’s AI technology is expected to have a beneficial and long-term effect on society as a whole.

Keeping “Black Mirror” in mind, can you see any potential drawbacks of this technology that people should think more deeply about?

What an interesting question! As our AI tools continue to evolve, there’s an increasing number of opportunities for users to both use and unintentionally abuse them. As marketers, it’s our duty to follow certain rules to make sure we’re using these AI tools properly and ethically. Here are several important rules to remember:

First, intellectual property should be respected by everyone. Generative AI platforms are trained on data lakes and question snippets to find patterns and create rules around them. That implies that whatever material this technology produces, draws on material that has already been created. Make sure the AI tools and models you are using have the proper licenses and rights for creating material or pictures, in order to avoid copyright infringement. To make sure the information generated by the AI tools is reliable, always reverse image search and fact-check it.

Second, remaining transparent and ethical is critical when using AI in marketing. While our tools can be helpful for generating content, using AI-generated words to speak for someone else is extremely risky and ethically gray, even with their permission. Never utilize AI to pose as someone else, especially when it comes to user-generated content (UGC) creation.

Third, although many tasks can be automated using AI technology, human oversight must be prioritized to guarantee the results of this technology are compliant with ethical and legal standards. At the end of the day, artificial intelligence is exactly that — artificial. Even with all the improvements in AI technology, there are still certain qualities and traits that humans possess that AI cannot imitate.

Fourth, and above all else, make sure you’re protecting your and your business’s privacy. As previously mentioned, everything entered into open-source platforms like ChatGPT can become publicly available. Do not ever share private or secret company information to a publicly accessible generative AI tool. In order for your company’s IT staff to keep an eye out for future security breaches and data leaks, you should be sure to inform the team if you plan on using generative AI technology.

These technological breakthroughs offer tremendous potential for marketing professionals to enhance their strategies and improve efficiency, however, this technology must be used responsibly. By respecting intellectual property, prioritizing data security, conducting transparent and ethical marketing practices, and maintaining human oversight, marketers can harness the full benefits of the technology while minimizing potential risks.

Was there a “tipping point” that led you to this breakthrough? Can you tell us that story?

I feel that tipping points are overrated. What often gets ignored are the small, incremental, but deliberate and persistent, efforts with intentionality. The breakthroughs we can relate to in generative AI today are getting a lot of attention, but let’s not forget the decades of data, large language models and machine learning foundation that have enabled it. Similarly, we often focus on obvious career points where someone gets elevated in scope, accountability and leadership; but let’s talk about the path they took and the steps they navigated to get there, not just the milestone. Should we only celebrate parenthood when a child gets admission to college or starts to drive or gets their first home run? I don’t believe so. Let’s celebrate the atomic actions and progress over milestones.

AdRoll’s BidIQ technology is built on 10+ years of processing massive volumes of data from thousands of advertisers and internet users and constantly improving — the cumulative effort is the breakthrough!

What do you need to lead this technology to widespread adoption?

The belief from marketers that AI is here to enhance their work, not replace it. As marketers, we are masters of understanding how human emotion and storytelling can forge true connection with our customers — that is our passion and our focus. AI exists to execute this direction so that marketers can focus their skill sets on enhancing strategy, creating a more accessible, efficient path to best-in-class marketing.

What have you been doing to publicize this idea? Have you been using any innovative marketing strategies?

For starters, speaking with Authority Magazine, so thank you for your time! Long before the burst of generative AI buzz, we at AdRoll have been steadily promoting the value of harnessing AI to make informed, data-driven marketing decisions, using tools such as our platform’s BidIQ technology. Removing human error in the minutia of ad targeting and bidding opens up a world of opportunity for marketers to focus on more strategic, large scale pursuits, all while enhancing their campaign performance.

In the near future, we are incredibly excited to share how we’re evolving our AI capabilities to create an even easier, more efficient experience for marketers, so keep an eye out for more from us.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

It would be less fair for me to name a specific individual, but I owe it to all my mentors — the ones that are reading this know who they are. This is for them. They have been selfless and generous in their time and their wisdom, in sharing their successes, being vulnerable to share why they failed, and they have been bold in giving feedback to me straight.

How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?

There is no better feeling than giving. While I have been associated with purpose-driven groups and missions throughout my career, I have derived the greatest satisfaction in taking time to mentor and guide other professionals.

A mentor is not someone that necessarily gets you all the answers or the perfect path to what your pursuit may be. A mentor is your partner in reflection, in debate and in tackling resistance in ideas — they open your mind to what may not have been on the horizon. I love playing that role and have dedicated a fair amount of time at most stages of my career.

What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why?

I am a big believer in the power of 3s, so I will give you 3.

1. Curiosity is more powerful than you think. It will help you grow and will help everyone around you flourish. You need to have the curiosity to look at challenges from a multitude of angles — this approach has exposed me to solving holistically and building broader perspectives. As an example, if you work in product, thinking about the interplay with marketing, sales, and financial performance gives you a very different view versus being singularly focused.
2. Credibility is everything. We live in a world where answers are not straightforward, there is less black and white, more gray and more nuances. Trust and credibility have immense bearing on all decisions.
3. Persistence and perseverance are underrated. There are more people that give up just before they are about to reach a milestone or get the breakthrough than you think. Just go one step further and see what it unfolds.

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire 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.

It would be about fostering diversity in all walks in a more bold manner that it is embraced today. I have had a fundamental belief that diversity is core to human potential. While there is a lot of emphasis on DEI today and that is good, it is also a very small part of what it should be and could be. Diversity is an ethos that I would inspire more broadly — in how parents shape the experiences and beliefs in their children, in how educational institutions and academia impart content and perspectives, in how employers and managers open doors to diverse ideas and how the community opens doors to people and divergent perspectives. Every great idea has been called absurd at one time but ideas have progressed society.

At AdRoll we practice that principle in digital marketing too — the notion that marketing can be personalized while your data is private can seem orthogonal but we believe in it and are focused on solving in the industry.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

One of the guiding principles that has stayed with me for a very long time is best expressed in this statement from Theodore Roosevelt — “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” I love this statement as it is about resourcefulness, grit and navigation through challenges which have been part of my core value set.

Some very well-known VCs read this column. If you had 60 seconds to make a pitch to a VC, what would you say? He or she might just see this if we tag them.

What if I told you that marketing can be personalized and also keep your information private? What if I told you that you can connect people with the products and services they love while ALSO protecting their privacy online? AdRoll has had a pivotal role in helping brands and businesses connect with their customers, and we are on a path to continue that mission while keeping users’ personal data protected.

Customers should have the choice to connect with brands they love without compromising the privacy of their data. Brands and marketers should be able to engage with customers with speed and efficacy to meet customers where they are. That’s the reality we want to enable for customers, brands and marketers.

How can our readers follow you on social media?

You can follow me on Twitter and LinkedIn using the links below.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/vibhork?lang=en

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vibhor/

You can follow AdRoll on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram using the links below.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/AdRoll

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/adroll/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adroll/?hl=en

Thank you so much for joining us. This was very inspirational.