Bata India has shifted its creative operations from an agency-dependent model to an AI-led system, with the company saying autonomous AI agents now handle its creative workflow from briefing and content creation to publishing, response management and post-performance analysis.

The system was developed with AI marketing technology company Zocket and is being operated by Bata India's in-house marketing team.

The company said the move is expected to save more than USD 1 million a year in agency and production costs. It has also been using AI agents to manage its online reputation for the past three months, including monitoring and responding to conversations across key social platforms without external agency support.

Under the new setup, briefs are generated using brand and category intelligence, while AI tools create and adapt assets across formats, route them for review, schedule and publish content, and feed performance data back into subsequent briefs.

Bata India said the system uses a live intelligence layer built with Zocket that tracks footwear trends, consumer signals, brand conversations, campaign context and market movements. The technology is then used to generate and adapt images and videos for digital campaigns, product communication and seasonal activity.

The company said the shift is intended to reduce dependence on outsourced execution rather than eliminate human involvement. Its marketing team continues to oversee brand direction, consumer strategy, campaign development and final decisions, while the AI system handles much of the execution.

According to Bata India, the model has also increased output per marketer and reduced campaign turnaround times.

Bata India’s move also reflects a broader shift in how large consumer brands are approaching marketing. As campaign calendars become more dynamic and consumer feedback becomes more immediate, brands are looking for systems that can support faster creative turnaround, real-time listening, sharper moderation and more consistent brand governance.

Badri Beriwal, chief strategy officer and chief business development officer, Bata India, said, “At Bata, we are continuously strengthening the way we engage with today’s consumer. Digital conversations are no longer limited to campaign windows. They are always-on, fast-moving and increasingly visual. We have moved from being entirely dependent on agencies for creative execution to running our full creative calendar on AI — briefing, creation, review, publishing and the learning loop that follows. It has made us significantly faster and more productive, and it is saving us over a million dollars a year in agency and production costs that we can now reinvest in building the brand.”

Karthik Venkateswaran, co-founder and CEO, Zocket, said, “Zocket is proud to support Bata India on one of the most complete AI transformations we have seen in consumer marketing. Bata has moved from debating AI to deploying it, putting autonomous AI agents to work across brand moderation and creative production, powered by a living knowledge graph of the brand and its consumers. Bata’s team has set the benchmark for what category leadership looks like in the AI era, and we are committed to supporting them as they take it further.”