Behind this company’s rapid growth in the data and AI space

“I don’t have a crystal ball” is a common response when people are asked to predict things about the future.

In the case of ADA, however, it just might have one tucked away.

Founded in 2018, the company helps clients achieve their business goals more effectively using data and AI – several years before ChatGPT led to an AI craze.

“We set out to disrupt the big agency groups, which had more traditional approaches in these areas,” says Srinivas Gattamneni, CEO of ADA.

Srinivas Gattamneni, CEO of ADA / Photo credit: ADA

These more traditional methods meant there was a clear gap where data and AI technology could come in and change the game, particularly in areas such as marketing, digital commerce, and customer engagement.

“The key question we wanted to answer was: ‘How could we bring more data and AI into the equation?’” Gattamneni says.

Focus areas

From the beginning, ADA zoomed in on a few key areas.

The first was in the sales funnel, which would mostly be helpful for B2C firms.

According to Gattamneni, many businesses aren’t able to manage their data effectively because of how siloed it is. When companies start pushing their marketing initiatives, different teams within the firm – each using their own set of data – could easily end up taking different approaches, as there wasn’t a single source of truth.

“You’d have chief information officers and chief technology officers investing in data technology platforms,” he says. But separately, the chief marketing officers would be working with media agencies, many of which ran predominantly on traditional approaches that didn’t make use of the available data.”

As a result, ADA placed a strong emphasis on developing solutions that could help an organization bring together its media, creative, commerce, tech, and data capabilities. One example is its CoPilot for Ecommerce solution, which unites data, such as inventory levels and marketing performance, within a single product.

Gattamneni at the launch of ADA’s CoPilot for Ecommerce solution / Photo credit: ADA

ADA is also building customer data platform (CDP) solutions that enable organizations to harness customer insights from a single source. Using the CDP, companies can build better customer experiences, which includes improved personalization and engagement.

In conjunction with AI-powered analytics, ADA’s solutions allow it to offer comprehensive customer insights for clients. In one case, it helped a Singaporean gaming chair company draw on data to become the leading brand in Indonesia and increase its market coverage by 245%.

“You need proper data integration. Otherwise, digital capability is sure to suffer,” Gattamneni points out.

Rethinking money flows

The second area it focused on was cost-efficiency, especially in video marketing content, which was still rather expensive to produce at the time ADA was founded.

Instead of bringing down the cost of production itself, ADA’s approach was to use automation and tech solutions to help clients target the right viewers, delivering personalization on a wide scale.

For instance, it could use data analytics to identify key audience segments and then target them accordingly, rather than a spray-and-pray approach. This improved the video’s cost-effectiveness and gave clients more bang for their buck.

(For instance, here’s a breakdown of how ADA created a content campaign to boost Toyota sales in Indonesia.)

The company has also introduced a service called Content House, which helps businesses create branded, personalized content using a generative AI tool. According to Gattamneni, the tool can create thousands of pieces of content in just a short amount of time.

“Ideally, we could make video content as cost-effective as using a still image,” he says.

All of this is centered around a somewhat unusual business model.

“Marketing agencies tend to get paid as a percentage of media spend, which for me was just ridiculous,” he explains. “It incentivizes them to spend more when they should be looking to drive more efficiency.”

Instead, ADA adopted an outcome-driven model to guarantee clients that its solutions could drive efficiency while generating positive results.

“We would be taking a significant risk, but we showed that we would contribute value to the client,” Gattamneni says.

Upping its game

Since its launch in 2018, the company has grown its annual gross revenue from below US$50 million before Covid-19 to roughly US$300 million today. In the process, it garnered over 400 awards from various organizations across Asia.

By the end of 2023, ADA was valued at US$550 million, a key milestone in its journey to become a profitable unicorn.

“I’d say we’ve easily created roughly US$10 billion to US$30 billion of value in the industry and ecosystem,” the CEO adds.

A dashboard for one of ADA’s solutions, used by dozens of its clients / Photo credit: ADA

However, the company isn’t going to rest on its laurels. Now that the focus on data and AI is bigger than ever, there’s a lot more opportunities in store.

In recent years, the firm has worked on developing AI-powered chatbots, which are currently being used by close to 100 clients. Its conversational AI solutions consist of three main components: the base layer large language model (similar to ChatGPT), a messaging platform such as WhatsApp or Line, and clients’ internal data.

Put together, these form a conversational AI agent that can effectively converse with consumers on behalf of brands. ADA’s work with Dan+Dan, an Indonesian retail company focused on health and beauty products, is one example of this.

During the pandemic, Dan+Dan needed to move into offline sales while meeting customers’ immediate needs. It worked with ADA to deploy an AI-powered WhatsApp chatbot, which mimicked a local store employee speaking to customers.

This led to a 25% increase in product interest and over 1,500 engaged customers in two weeks.

Gattamneni envisions that these AI-powered agents could potentially upend the traditional customer lifecycle and impact every consumer touchpoint.

“Today, the customer journey is very linear and designed to fit a certain flow,” he says. “But we’re trying to move more toward [using generative AI to] evolve the customer journey, transforming it into something that’s deeply personal for every individual.”

“You could go from handling a customer service request to discussing a new purchase order, or some other kind of product discovery – all depending on what the customer needs.”

Branching out

Now that the firm has put the pedal to the metal, it’s looking to grow even further through several avenues.

One of them is geographical expansion. Having started in Southeast Asia, the firm has been entering markets such as India, South Korea, as well as Japan, and it’s now setting its sights on the US.

Through these efforts, it also hopes to expand the impact of some of its other solutions, including using AI to accelerate data solutions and even offer users recommendations and strategies.

You need proper data integration. Otherwise, digital capability is sure to suffer

Virtual and augmented reality are also on the table, as Gattamneni believes they’re good ways to make customer journeys “much more intuitive and immersive.”

Still, the backbone of all these efforts will always be the people that make up ADA, he says.

“We’ve brought people from many different industries into one melting pot,” he adds. “The mash-up of skill sets has allowed us to have a great diversity of thinking and perspectives and enabled us to create a company that can transform and generate huge business value.”

ADA leverages data, artificial intelligence, and technology to transform businesses across Asia. It combines the best of AI and analytics to provide comprehensive digital solutions that drive business performance.

Learn more about ADA and its new AI CoPilots here

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This content was produced by Tech in Asia Studios, which connects brands with Asia’s tech community. Learn more about partnering with Tech in Asia Studios.