Agile and Quick: Shabana Badami Knows How to Successfully Apply Cutting-Edge AI

Written by Jay Kalansooriya

When you think of a ninja, what comes to mind? Do you imagine a mysterious figure, ready to chop and pounce his way to victory? Or do you think of a woman from India who had made a name for herself in the Asia markets as a sales, business development, and marketing leader?

Shabana Badami is in her own way a master of operational strategy. She's smart, agile, quick, and knows where and when to strike. She specializes in leveraging AI-powered solutions, data-driven strategies, and go-to-market execution to drive sustainable growth and establish market leadership. With two decades of experience under her belt, she has worked across the board, holding positions in sales, marketing, and scaling businesses. For the past six years, she was the Head of Performance Solutions at Google Asia Pacific and based in Singapore.

"At Google, I led a team of elite black belt AI solution experts, focused on crafting AI-powered, data-driven strategies for some of the world’s most influential advertisers and agencies," says Shabana. Together, they have embedded generative AI into digital marketing, advertising and commerce, orchestrated cross-industry AI adoption, and worked to combine Google's AI capabilities with its business goals to drive marketing transformation in the region.

This performance won her accolades from her employer, including the prestigious Google Next Billion Users Award. In addition to leading her team of AI ninjas, she also developed for herself an advisory role and gave talks about her experiences in the industry.

"This has cemented my reputation in the digital and AI transformation space," Shabana says.

Always motivated

Born and raised in India, Shabana has always been motivated to stay at the intersection of technology, innovation, and revenue growth. This has what has driven her career decisions and indeed got her into the technology space to begin with.

Initially though she studied business, earning in succession a Bachelor's degree in Commerce, and topping it off with a Post-graduate degree in Management Studies from the University of Mumbai, where she excelled in Economics and Business Ethics. (In recent years, she has also achieved new credentials, including one from MIT in No Code AI and Machine Learning and another from Google through its Technical Cloud Series).

Her first career posting was as National Manager of OEM Sales at Tech Pacific India, now Ingram Micro, where she led strategic partnerships with global tech giants such as IBM, HP, and Wipro. "I was instrumental in establishing India’s first call center operations, enhancing customer experience, and delivering cost efficiencies," Shabana recalls of this first position.

Later she moved on to working in the financial services sector with ICICI Prudential Life Insurance. There she held the post of Relationship Manager. "I successfully brokered the firm’s first few corporate agency tie-ups and curated high-impact customer engagement programs,” says Shabana. After that, she worked at Oracle India for five years, managing complex, business-to-business sales for key accounts like TCS and Air India. Google India was next, and Shabana held several senior leadership roles, including Industry Manager for financial services and Enterprise Account Manager for Google Cloud.

She's been in Singapore since 2018 in her more recent role, one that had helped contribute to a revenue surge, much of it earned on the back of new technologies. "I've championed AI-first marketing solutions and launched innovative products at Google," she says of her position.

All of these experiences have made her a highly sought after executive. "Life has placed me at the epicenter of innovation, market expansion, and revenue growth in Asia’s most dynamic markets," says Shabana.

Giving back

Given her experiences to date, Shabana has been keen to give back. She does this through authoring white papers on emerging digital trends, for instance. In this way, she can contribute to thought leadership in the marketing and commerce space. Shabana has also served as a regional council member for the Interactive Advertising Bureau Southeast Asia & India, where she contributed to shaping digital policy frameworks and fostering innovation across the ecosystem. Appearances as speaker and panelist at flagship industry events such as Google Marketing Live and Global Mobile Marketing Association also followed, as she has been asked to share her insights with others in the business.

Close to her heart is mentoring, and she is currently working with two promising women-led startups, India's Toshitaa Transformers and Pinkayne.AI, which is based in Singapore and the United Arab Emirates.

"I have provided them with strategic advisory and growth consulting, helping shape their business models and go-to-market strategies," says Shabana. She has also served as a jury member for the Women of the Future Awards in Southeast Asia and is a frequent speaker at women in tech forums to inspire and support the next generation of diverse talent, she says.

Somewhere beyond the sea

While Shabana has chopped her way to the top of the industry in the Asia Pacific region, she's also developed an interest in North America. "I believe I'm well-positioned to contribute to the critical technologies industry in the US," she says. "East Asian economies are demonstrating how technology can be effectively used to address societal challenges, such as healthcare, climate change, and humanitarian crises. Western companies can benefit from studying these approaches and adapting them to their own contexts. Because I have deep expertise in AI, I have this knowledge of digital transformation and e-commerce."

She says that AI can play a crucial role here, as she assists US enterprises in unlocking operational efficiency, setting up new revenue streams, and accelerating digital maturity across key sectors such as retail, finance, and technology. Whether she eventually heads over the Pacific Ocean to make good on this promise is yet to be seen, but she's certainly considering it.