In an exclusive interview with CXO Lanes, Karan Ahuja, the Co-founder and CEO of AiVANTA, shared his visionary insights into the transformative power of Generative AI in the digital entertainment and enterprise communication landscape. With a stellar career spanning over 15 years at renowned organizations like Hindustan Times, MX Player, and Shemaroo Entertainment, Karan has consistently driven innovation at the intersection of content, technology, and monetization. As the driving force behind AiVANTA, Karan is on a mission to revolutionize video solutions across industries, emphasizing AI’s potential to elevate roles, enhance creativity, and redefine enterprise communication for a new era.
What inspired you to enter the fields of advertising, content creation, and digital innovation during your early career?
Karan Ahuja: My passion for consuming and creating content naturally guided my career toward content creation and digital innovation. Over time, I discovered the powerful intersection of content, product development, and monetization—a tri-junction that became a defining theme in my journey.
Building and scaling digital products allowed me to transform content into a business asset, focusing on how it could deliver measurable ROI while remaining engaging and impactful. This blend of creativity and strategic business thinking helped me craft solutions that not only resonated with audiences but also drove tangible growth.
As a co-founder, this perspective has deeply influenced my approach. I prioritize aligning great content with scalable product solutions and strong monetization strategies, ensuring that every initiative balances creativity with commercial impact. This trifecta continues to shape my vision for building transformative businesses like AiVANTA.
Could you share a project from your previous roles that profoundly shaped your understanding of technology’s impact on business and creativity?
Karan Ahuja: During my time at PVR Cinemas, I had the opportunity to conceptualize and build VKAAO, a theater-on-demand platform that fundamentally changed and democratized user behavior in the entertainment industry. VKAAO allowed audiences to choose any movie of their preference and screen it at any theater of their choice, putting unprecedented control into the hands of the consumer.
This project profoundly shaped my understanding of technology’s ability to bridge business and creativity. By leveraging data, user preferences, and a seamless platform experience, we redefined how audiences engaged with cinemas, transforming what was once a passive activity into an active and personalized choice. Building VKAAO from scratch taught me the nuances of scaling a digital business, integrating user-centric design, and unlocking new revenue streams in a traditional industry.
This experience reinforced my belief in the transformative power of technology to not only innovate but also create meaningful connections between businesses and their audiences. It’s a philosophy that continues to guide my work at AiVANTA.
What was the key inspiration behind co-founding AiVANTA, and how has your previous experience influenced your mission to advance Generative AI adoption?
Karan Ahuja: AiVANTA emerged from our passion for video and a shared vision to revolutionize enterprise communication. My co-founder, Rupak, and I discovered a strong synergy during our collaboration on video projects at HT, where we saw firsthand how Generative AI could transform video production at scale. This experience revealed a significant gap in the market—a lack of cohesive, user-friendly solutions for businesses seeking to harness the power of video to connect with their audiences.
Our key inspiration was to address this gap by enabling organizations to use video as a dynamic and impactful medium for engagement. With AiVANTA, we aim to democratize access to high-quality, scalable video production, combining creativity with the efficiency of AI. My experience in building platforms like VKAAO and scaling digital businesses has shaped our mission to advance Generative AI adoption, ensuring enterprises can unlock the full potential of video to enhance communication and drive brand growth.
AiVANTA is addressing barriers like quality concerns and job fears around AI. How has your leadership style helped in overcoming such challenges?
Karan Ahuja: At AiVANTA, we address concerns like job fears and quality doubts by shifting the focus to the bigger picture—how AI can create more value and unlock new opportunities. We often joke with client teams, “You won’t be sent home; you’ll get to go home early!” This lighthearted approach underscores how AI can reduce tedious tasks, giving teams more time to focus on strategic and creative work that adds value.
My leadership style emphasizes fostering a growth mindset. I ensure that our conversations focus on how AI expands the pie rather than just redistributing it. By increasing efficiency and enhancing quality, AI doesn’t replace jobs—it elevates them, creating room for new roles, more innovative projects, and greater impact.
This perspective helps us reassure stakeholders that AI adoption isn’t about doing the same with less; it’s about achieving more, creating opportunities, and driving collective growth. This has been central to overcoming challenges and building confidence among clients and teams alike.
AiVANTA emphasizes a culture of self-learning and innovation. How do you envision fostering this as a central tenet for the organization’s growth?
Karan Ahuja: At AiVANTA, our lean team structure is a significant strength that fosters deeper connections, collaboration, and agility. With a smaller, closely-knit team, every individual’s strengths, aspirations, and contributions are well understood, enabling personalized growth opportunities. This intimate understanding allows us to align team members’ personal development goals with the organization’s objectives, creating a shared path to success.
In a fast-moving industry like ours, a lean team ensures rapid decision-making and adaptability. Everyone gets the chance to wear multiple hats, broadening their skill sets and gaining hands-on experience in various domains. This dynamic environment accelerates learning, as team members are not siloed into rigid roles but instead work cross-functionally to solve challenges and innovate.
To support growth, we prioritize continuous learning through workshops, access to industry resources, and mentorship. We also encourage individuals to take ownership of projects, fostering accountability and instilling confidence in navigating an ever-evolving industry. By cultivating a culture of mutual support and shared growth, we ensure that our team not only keeps pace with the industry but also drives it forward.
As CEO, what are your immediate goals for AiVANTA, and how do you plan to further integrate Generative AI into your clients’ operations?
Karan Ahuja: As CEO, my immediate goals for AiVANTA center on scalability, expansion, and deeper integration of Generative AI into our clients’ operations. This involves two key focus areas:
- Building Scalable Solutions: Our priority is to refine and expand AiVANTA’s core offerings to ensure they remain adaptable across industries and geographies. By leveraging our SmartAI Frame technology, we aim to provide highly scalable, cost-effective solutions that address complex challenges, enabling enterprises to personalize and scale their video communication seamlessly.
- Expanding Client Categories: Engaging with newer categories of clients is critical to broadening AiVANTA’s scope. By collaborating with industries beyond our current portfolio—such as education, government, or entertainment—we not only extend our reach but also uncover fresh opportunities to innovate and create value. These interactions will expose us to diverse use cases, helping us build even more robust and versatile solutions.
To integrate Generative AI further into our clients’ operations, we focus on embedding AI into their workflows, making video communication a seamless part of their daily processes. This includes offering tailored API integrations, localized content generation, and enhanced data-driven personalization capabilities. By doing so, we ensure AI not only meets their current needs but also evolves with their future requirements, driving efficiency, engagement, and business impact.
What impact do you hope AiVANTA will leave on the industries it serves, and what personal legacy do you wish to establish as a leader in this domain?
Karan Ahuja: At AiVANTA, we aspire to redefine enterprise communication by creating a platform-based approach that goes beyond conventional solutions. Our vision is to empower clients with the freedom to explore and collaborate with us, leveraging AI to build custom solutions that unlock new communication channels across stakeholders—be it customers, vendors, employees, or partners. By making video communication more scalable, personalized, and impactful, we aim to set a new standard for how enterprises engage with their audiences.
Personally, as a leader in this domain, my goal is to establish a legacy of driving AI adoption in enterprise communication by demonstrating how it can unlock tangible value and measurable outcomes. I want to position AiVANTA as a pioneer in helping organizations seamlessly embrace AI, not just as a tool but as a strategic partner in transforming their communication processes.