EPISODE 05: Kelly-Marie Fernandes

Kelly-Marie Fernandes has spent 17 years in advertising and adtech, from India to the UK to the Middle East, building and selling data solutions with Yahoo, Amazon, Google, Accenture and Experian. She joins Built for MENA to talk about what the region gets right, what it gets wrong, and why the data foundations matter more than the AI everyone is rushing towards. What we get into: • Why MENA can skip the "Frankenstack" Europe and the US built and leapfrog straight to AI-powered, agentic media buying, but only if the data underneath is solid • Retail media as the region's Emperor's new clothes: real budgets and appetite, just not as advanced as the hype • The biggest mistake companies make, chasing AI before fixing data governance, silos and identity • The UAE government's plan to move roughly half its federal operations to agentic AI within two years • Why this market rewards fast, provable results over long-term brand building • Why localization here is about culture and behaviour, not translation • Where media heads next: commerce media, intent-driven, beyond retail into travel, hospitality, banking and telecom Quick-fire: Ambitious / Future proofing / Identity / Technology / Data governance