Anamika Kachroo

As a woman, I personally feel my success came from being fortunate enough to get the right environment. Women are determined and willing to go the extra mile, but sometimes the environment, circumstances, situations, and influencers don't facilitate that. My success and my determination to get up again and do it again and prove myself was because I was doing it for myself, and my environment ensured that I didn't have to prove it to anybody. Nobody was watching me - it was for me. I had mobilizers in my life who gave me the right environment to really thrive. I was able to excel because I got the right environment with my current employer, where they believed in me. They gave me the space to really relearn and start afresh. Many companies don't want to hire women coming back from a career break, but my company saw my skills rather than seeing the gap as a shortcoming. That supportive environment, combined with my internal determination to succeed for myself rather than for external validation, is what I attribute my success to.

I would definitely advise them to be aware of AI and what's happening, and make sure you have skills to know how to use the tool effectively. Back when we started college, there were no digital marketing or Google Ads - we had to learn them while working on the job and do add-on courses. So the new generation, I would definitely advise them to get skills which AI is not able to replace you with, which is human empathy. If you want to get into marketing, having the ability to listen and absorb is critical. Maybe having ADHD might be a new skill in the future, because you're hypersensitive to information and you process it differently than AI. It's a very different outlook, but I just feel - how do you set yourself apart from technology? You're not competing with people anymore. You're not competing with 20 people applying for one job. You're competing with 20 people plus AI. So why shouldn't an employer hire you and not have AI do your job, especially in marketing? Being a good listener and having empathy to understand buyer personas is going to be critical, because ultimately communication is for people. Decisions are still made by people. Buyers are people. It's not AI. So there is still opportunity in maintaining that creative aspect in the marketing field, even though AI is a tool.

The biggest challenge right now is that AI is really getting too much incorporated in day-to-day tasks. Marketing used to be a team effort, but now AI is taking up a lot of tools and workloads. While it's good that we can automate stuff, I'm not sure how far AI is going to go and how marketing is going to be affected - whether people are going to be downsized or what's going to happen. We currently have so many tools to automate marketing tasks, but I'm not sure if AI will be able to keep up with the creativity of understanding buyer personas, because it's all just stats-based. I'm not sure if it has that human element to marketing and creativity. On the opportunity side, if you are a marketer and you have good listening skills, there's still a future. People think marketing is more about being an extrovert and being out there, but it's more about being a good listener. If you have empathy and can understand buyer personas, there's opportunity, because ultimately the communication is not for computers or technology - it's for people. Decisions are still made by people. Buyers are people. It's not AI. So there is still opportunity in maintaining that creative aspect in the marketing field. Being a good listener and absorbing the environment is going to be critical in marketing going forward.

Purpose is something that seems to be objective, and people use it in different ways, but purpose should be connected to you. It should be inward, not outward. If your purpose is you, you will succeed. If your purpose is external, monetary, materialistic, or outward - if it's about proving something, getting accolades, or needing external validation - you will drop out midway. You won't be content. If the purpose is inside, if it's for you, you're doing it for yourself, you will push to the last minute to really get out of that situation. I think purpose should be inwards, not outside. It's just you. You are the purpose. This is your life. You're doing it for yourself, not for your child, not for your husband, not for your parents, not for material comfort. You're doing it for you, because at the end of the day, that's what gives you satisfaction. That internal purpose and doing things for myself rather than external validation is the most important value to me.