India’s Creative-Tech Renaissance Showcased at WAVES 2025 with AI in the Spotlight
From Adobe’s expansive vision of creativity in the AI era to NVIDIA’s deep dives into real-time content generation, the day underscored India’s emergence as a hub of AI-powered innovation.
- Country:
- Bangladesh
The inaugural day of WAVES 2025 in Mumbai brought together a convergence of innovation, storytelling, and digital transformation, with Artificial Intelligence (AI) firmly at the core of discussions. Through a series of high-profile keynote addresses, expert panels, and hands-on masterclasses, global industry leaders illuminated how AI is reshaping the creative and media landscape—not by replacing humans, but by amplifying human potential.
From Adobe’s expansive vision of creativity in the AI era to NVIDIA’s deep dives into real-time content generation, the day underscored India’s emergence as a hub of AI-powered innovation. The sessions painted a future where the fusion of creativity and technology drives new business models, unlocks entrepreneurial opportunities, and transforms content experiences across languages and formats.
Shantanu Narayen on India's AI-Powered Creative Economy
“Creativity has transformed every industry.” — Shantanu Narayen, Adobe
Adobe Chairman and CEO Shantanu Narayen delivered a powerful keynote titled “Design, Media and Creativity in the Age of AI”, outlining the transformative journey from the internet age to a world dominated by intelligent systems. He emphasized that far from eliminating human input, AI is now a collaborative tool for creators, enabling new forms of storytelling, personalization, and design.
Highlighting India’s pivotal position in this evolution, Narayen pointed to the country’s massive online content consumer base—more than 500 million people—as a bedrock for innovation. Regional language proliferation, coupled with robust digital infrastructure, is creating fertile ground for AI-enhanced media experiences.
Narayen proposed a comprehensive strategy for harnessing this momentum:
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Supercharging Creativity and Production – Leveraging AI to speed up workflows in design, imaging, and video.
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Innovating Business Models – Rethinking monetization and distribution with digital tools.
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Leading a Skilled Workforce – Creating AI-driven upskilling programs to prepare India’s youth for creative-tech careers.
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Fostering Entrepreneurship – Building ecosystems that empower startups in generative design, media production, and interactive storytelling.
He closed by thanking the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting for supporting forward-thinking platforms like WAVES, which bring together policy, talent, and technology.
NVIDIA’s Richard Kerris and Vishal Dhupar: Reimagining the Human-PC Partnership
“AI isn’t here to replace jobs—it’s a means to an end.” — Richard Kerris, NVIDIA
In a dynamic fireside chat, NVIDIA’s Vice President Richard Kerris and Managing Director Vishal Dhupar explored the evolving relationship between humans and intelligent machines in the session “AI Beyond Work.”
Dhupar began by likening the current shift to the early days of the personal computer. “PCs used to rest after hours, but humans didn’t,” he said. “Today’s AI systems reflect that tireless creative drive.” Kerris, recalling his early career in 3D animation, shared how tasks that once took weeks are now completed in minutes thanks to AI-powered tools.
Yet, both leaders warned against over-reliance on technology. “AI gives us cameras, but it doesn’t give us the eye of a photographer,” Kerris said. “Understanding the craft remains essential.”
They also touched on NVIDIA’s growing role in democratizing AI tools. From cloud-based GPU access to real-time collaborative platforms, the company is enabling individuals—whether coders or creators—to build, refine, and scale ideas at unprecedented speed.
Bringing Stories to Life with Generative AI: Anish Mukherjee’s Masterclass
“We’re not just building tools—we’re building storytelling universes.” — Anish Mukherjee, NVIDIA
Rounding off the day, NVIDIA’s Anish Mukherjee led an inspiring masterclass on the hands-on use of generative AI in modern media. Titled “Bringing Stories to Life with Gen AI”, the session showcased the convergence of advanced computing, language models, and real-time animation.
Using NVIDIA’s own AI platform stack, Mukherjee demonstrated technologies such as:
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Image-to-Human Generation – Turning 2D visuals into digital actors.
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Multilingual Voice Synthesis – Seamless dubbing across global languages.
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Audio-Driven Character Animation – Synchronizing speech and expression in real time.
He unveiled Fugato, an AI model designed to generate music dynamically for videos, and Cosmos, a model suite for virtual production and simulation—particularly relevant for gaming, filmmaking, and education. These tools are powered by NVIDIA’s Omniverse ecosystem, which facilitates collaborative design and real-time rendering.
Mukherjee also emphasized the role of foundational models like Nemostack, which provide open-source flexibility for developers to train and customize AI solutions across sectors.
“AI-powered characters that respond with intelligence and emotional nuance are ushering in a new form of digital storytelling,” he said. “But the true magic lies in blending data, compute, and human intuition.”
India's Leadership in AI-Creative Synergy
The overarching message from WAVES 2025 was clear: AI is not a disruptor—it is a collaborator. Across each session, participants emphasized that technology must serve the human creative impulse, not overshadow it.
India, with its unique blend of linguistic diversity, digital savviness, and tech talent, is poised to become a global nucleus for AI-led media transformation. With institutional support, open-source ecosystems, and a new generation of AI-literate creators, the future of storytelling looks not only automated—but enriched, inclusive, and ethically grounded.
WAVES 2025 set a compelling tone for the future—where creators and coders, artists and algorithms, co-create the next chapter of the global media narrative.
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