Felicia Li-Gaillard on expanded role at Aboitiz Data Innovation, blending marketing and sustainability in data practice

Singapore – Aboitiz Data Innovation (ADI), the data science and AI start-up arm of the Aboitiz Group, has announced that Felicia Li-Gaillard is taking on an expanded role as its chief sustainability officer on top of her existing role with the company as its chief marketing officer, a role she took when she first joined ADI in February 2023.

In an exclusive conversation with MARKETECH APAC, Felicia said that her expanded role will focus on helping ADI map its ESG roadmap and sustainability synergy.

“In my expanded role as chief sustainability officer (beyond my CMO remit), my responsibilities also include developing ADI’s sustainability framework which aligns with the Aboitiz Group’s sustainability synergy and ESG roadmap, ensuring regulatory compliance, fostering external partnerships, and educating ADI employers on our sustainable practices,” she explained.

How she intends to lead ADI’s marketing and sustainability efforts

When asked about her marketing strategy with ADI, Felicia notes that she is focused on ADI’s ambition to become the go-to partner for making AI work in their expanded markets beyond the Philippines and Singapore. 

“When we say “making AI work,” we mean addressing the gap between the hype and the practical implementation of AI in business operations. Many organisations struggle with understanding the foundations of AI or how to integrate it effectively. This is where ADI comes in, with a mission to provide real-world solutions that empower organisations across diverse industries,” she said.

Meanwhile, Felicia says that her sustainability leadership focuses more on ADI actively partnering with government agencies, industry partners, and communities to contribute to ESG goals through our expertise in data science and AI. A recent example of this initiative is ADI’s collaboration with OceanPixel and Baringa on a whitepaper titled “Future Blue Economies”. Said whitepaper explored how leveraging marine resources can drive sustainable development, promote sustainability, and create significant economic opportunities.

“ADI’s role is to offer insights on how data, AI, and technology can be utilised to optimise these efforts. We welcome similar collaborations from other organisations to partner with us,” she added.

Reflection on marketing leadership at ADI

Felicia is no stranger to handling senior marketing leadership roles for various companies across Asia-Pacific. Prior to joining ADI, she was Meta’s interim head of marketing for Facebook Gaming and Audience Network in Asia-Pacific. Prior to that, she also held other marketing roles with Integral Ad Science (IAS) and MoPub, Twitter’s mobile advertising network that was sold to AppLovin in 2021.

For her, what she loves most about her role as CMO is the autonomy and trust that allows her to excel at what she does best—building a fully functioning marketing team and fostering its growth.

“Given that ADI operates like a startup compared to other business units within the Aboitiz Group, we embrace a flexible mindset and often wear multiple hats. This dynamic environment offers my team members incredible opportunities to learn on the job and work across various areas within the marketing spectrum,” she said.

Under his leadership, ADI had also introduced a series of data science and AI products and capabilities, including Alternative Scoring, Transaction Monitoring, Customer Intelligence, and AI for Climate/ESG, tailored for the financial services, industrials, and public sectors. An example of this AI-powered product is ADI’s AVA AI.

“Most recently, we launched AVA AI, our generative AI (GenAI) platform designed to empower enterprises across both the public and private sectors. We have an exciting lineup of new products and markets in the future. This kind of high growth really ignites me and my team to continue pushing boundaries and achieving new results,” she explained.

She also explains that she is a staunch supporter of fostering a great team culture, particularly in connecting employees across 14 countries, and have collaborated closely with their talent team on various initiatives designed to enhance team building, promote company culture, and strengthen employer branding.

“We also prioritise transparent communication and regular updates to ensure all team members feel connected and informed, regardless of their location. Building a strong culture is not just about creating a positive work environment; it is a critical component of our continuous growth and success,” she added.

Tackling marketing challenges in the AI, data scene–the ADI way

When asked about what she thinks is the biggest challenge the AI and data industry face this year, Felicia says that the challenge is building trust, especially in traditional industries and large corporations.

“At ADI, we serve clients primarily from the banking, financial services, power, industrial, and public sectors. While these organizations recognize the need to adopt AI in their operations, they often struggle with data dispersed across multiple sources and systems. This fragmentation leads to missed crucial insights and hampers strategic decision-making,” she said.

Another particular challenge she highlights is data privacy and security; where relying on GenAI platforms that depend exclusively on publicly-available information is prone to generating irrelevant or inaccurate answers and increasing security risks for enterprises.

“These inefficiencies can stifle team productivity and overall operational effectiveness. All these attributes to the cautions about the adoption of AI solutions or finding the right solutions that can meet their unique business needs,” she said.

Felicia further added, “That’s why we launched AVA AI, our GenAI platform designed for enterprises, with the sole purpose in mind to simplify how enterprises interact with their data. By streamlining processes and enhancing workflows, we enable them to not only make informed decisions swiftly and efficiently, but also to uncover valuable insights.”

She also noted that as marketing teams have always been early adopters of the latest trends and technologies. She believes that most marketing teams are now using various GenAI platforms to create AI-powered content. Moreover, she also encourages her team to embrace new technologies, learning to use them to their advantage to improve efficiency and generate highly targeted insights for their audience.

“As a revenue-driven marketer, I am particularly excited about leveraging AI for predictive lead scoring and sales forecasting. By utilising AI to analyse data patterns, we can predict and recommend the next actions for our marketing and sales teams, allowing us to prioritise our efforts on the most promising opportunities,” she said.

Felicia added, “Having an enterprise-grade GenAI interface within the organization is becoming increasingly prevalent in today’s business landscape. At ADI, as a data science and AI company, we are constantly testing new ideas, and I am looking forward to deploying these innovations in our day-to-day operations.”

The article was originally published by Teddy Cambosa on MARKETECH APAC.)