Artificial intelligence is beginning to reshape the way brands plan and measure outdoor advertising, bringing greater transparency, accountability and data-driven decision-making to a medium that has traditionally relied on experience and estimates. OSMO is among the companies driving this shift with LOC8, an AI-powered platform designed to help advertisers evaluate the real-world effectiveness of outdoor media sites. In this interview with Tech Achieve Media (TAM), Mangesh Shinde, Co-founder, OSMO, discusses the technology gap that led to the development of LOC8, the growing role of AI and Generative AI in out-of-home (OOH) advertising, and why human creativity and strategic thinking will remain central even as AI transforms campaign planning and measurement.
TAM: What technology gap in OOH led OSMO to develop LOC8?
Mangesh Shinde: It was more than a technology gap. We felt that something important was missing from OOH planning. OOH planning in India has become more data led. The two dimensions of People and Places helped us understand audiences better, analyses how they move and identify the right catchments. However, they still does not tell us how the audience actually experienced the OOH communication. The location may be right, and the audience may be relevant, but was the OOH asset by itself was capable of earning attention? That missing third dimension, Placement, led us to develop LOC8.
TAM: How is OSMO leveraging AI to help brands plan and optimise OOH campaigns more intelligently?
Mangesh Shinde: LOC8 is equipped with India’s first proprietary annotated dataset of OOH inventory and a computer vision model trained specifically to identify and analyses outdoor media assets. It analyses real world site videos and measures factors such as visibility duration, viewing angle, perceptual size, traffic speed, obstruction, surrounding clutter and the visual zone in which an asset appears. This helps brands objectively quantify site quality and understand whether an asset is genuinely capable of earning the attention of a moving audience.
TAM: What role do you see Generative AI playing in the future of OOH advertising?
Mangesh Shinde: Once the core campaign idea is established, Generative AI can make OOH creative development faster, more contextual and easier to scale. It can adapt the master creative across formats, cities, locations and audience contexts without losing the central idea. In planning, Generative AI can help create and compare multiple campaign scenarios, simulate different combinations of markets, locations, formats and budgets, and estimate their likely delivery before the campaign goes live. However, the original idea and strategic direction will continue to come from human creativity and judgement. Generative AI will enable planners and creative teams to explore more possibilities, make faster decisions and execute campaigns more efficiently.
TAM: Many industries have undergone digital transformation through data and AI. Do you believe OOH is now at a similar inflection point? What role is OSMO playing in accelerating that shift?
Mangesh Shinde: Certainly. We are seeing this evolution through DOOH, programmatic capabilities, anamorphic content, augmented reality and AI-powered planning. OOH is no longer operating in isolation. It is increasingly driving social media conversations, earned media and connected consumer experiences across channels. At OSMO, we are helping accelerate this transformation by bringing greater intelligence, transparency and accountability into media planning. Through LOC8, brands can evaluate sites using real-world video evidence and objective visual performance metrics rather than relying only on static photographs or assumptions. Our vision is to make OOH planning as measurable, accountable and data led as other media channels, while preserving the scale and impact that make outdoor advertising unique.
TAM: How does OSMO ensure that AI-generated insights remain transparent and explainable, especially when brands are making significant media investment decisions?
Mangesh Shinde: Transparency has been one of the core principles behind LOC8. We do not simply provide a final score or recommendation. Clients can view the original site video, see the asset identified by the platform and review the individual metrics behind its assessment. They can understand how long the asset remained visible, where it appeared within the field of vision, its perceptual size, obstruction levels and the surrounding visual clutter. This creates a clear evidence trail and allows clients to understand, validate and confidently act on every recommendation.
TAM: How do you see AI redefining the OOH ecosystem over the next five years?
Mangesh Shinde: The industry will see newer metrics, greater automation and more intelligent tools that enable planners rather than replace them. Planning will become more predictive, site selection more objective and creative communication more contextual. Measurement will also move beyond estimated exposure towards understanding visibility, attention and business impact. This will help reduce dependence on guesstimates, optimize campaign performance and allow planners to make faster and better informed decisions.
We will also see stronger integration between OOH and digital platforms, creating more connected consumer journeys. AI will not replace creativity or strategic thinking. It will strengthen them by reducing guesswork and improving decision making. That is the future we are building towards through LOC8.
