A notification appeared as I was half-watching a basketball game on a recent evening while browsing a retail app: “Game night? You can get 15% off your regular spicy wings. It was strangely specific. Not exactly spooky. Just… conscious.
Something bigger is happening in marketing, and that little moment captures it. Artificial intelligence is transforming brand communication into something more akin to a conversation, not just better targeting. A smaller billboard. More conversation.
| Category | Details |
|---|---|
| Key Technology | AI-driven personalization & conversational intelligence |
| Industry Adoption | 92% of brands report using AI-powered personalization |
| Consumer Impact | 82% say personalized experiences influence brand choice |
| Notable Platform | Medallia |
| Reference | https://www.medallia.com |
92% of brands now use AI-powered personalization tools, per recent industry research. And, somewhat surprisingly, customers appear to reward it. Approximately 82% of respondents claim that at least half of their shopping experiences are influenced by personalized experiences. These figures imply a fundamental change in expectations as well as in technology.
Marketing functioned as a megaphone for decades. Segment-specific broad messaging: “Millennial women.” “Suburban dads.” The model remained fundamentally broadcast-based even as precision increased with the use of digital tools. These days, artificial intelligence (AI) systems examine browsing habits, past purchases, customer support chat tones, and even voice pauses to produce responses that seem customized for each individual.
Teams create what they call “experience orchestration” inside Medallia’s glass-walled Silicon Valley headquarters. The concept is straightforward: use information from previous interactions to inform the current one. The phrase may sound technical. The system may change pricing visibility or display a review to address hesitancy if a customer leaves their cart empty twice while comparing similar products.
Considering that social media gave consumers a public voice, this might be the biggest shift in the relationship between brands and consumers.
Personalization isn’t the only change. It’s involvement.
A German automaker recently introduced an AI-powered campaign that lets prospective customers create personalized car photos in practically any setting they can think of, such as an SUV scaling a mountain trail they’ve previously hiked or a sedan parked outside their home. The experience was more akin to co-creating a future purchase than watching an advertisement. That is a small but significant distinction.
Custom emails, dynamic website layouts, product recommendations, and even customized visuals are now produced in real time by AI tools driven by machine learning and natural language processing. A skincare regimen with visual representations of the results could be recommended by a beauty brand after analyzing a customer’s uploaded selfie. Based on past travel experiences, weather trends, and browsing habits, a travel platform could create a customized itinerary.
As this is happening, it seems like marketing is getting closer to mimicking human speech in terms of predicting needs, changing tone, and reacting appropriately.
Static attributes like age, zip code, and purchase category were once the mainstay of traditional personalization. These days, AI systems create dynamic profiles that change with each scroll and click. The system adjusts outreach timing based on the user’s shopping habits, such as late at night or during lunch breaks. It determines if a user prefers long-form content or succinct summaries, or email or SMS.
AI can produce dozens of variations, adjusting them in real time based on engagement signals, in place of A/B testing two subject lines over several weeks. The end result is an experience tailored to an individual rather than a campaign tailored to a particular demographic.
It appears that investors think this degree of personalization will boost sales. According to studies, businesses that use sophisticated personalization techniques can see much greater revenue increases than those that only use generic messaging. However, statistics don’t adequately convey the psychological change that is taking place.
Generic outreach is no longer tolerated by consumers. They anticipate being acknowledged.
Large amounts of contextual, behavioral, and occasionally emotional data are needed for deep personalization. Understanding and surveillance are two different things. Whether or not customers will object if personalization seems invasive rather than beneficial is still up in the air.
Authenticity is another problem for brands. Does the interaction feel real when AI produces answers instantly? Or does it run the risk of turning into a refined echo chamber of tastes that only displays what algorithms indicate users would find interesting?
Creative teams within marketing departments are adapting. AI is now in charge of computationally demanding tasks like data stream analysis, draft content creation, and churn risk prediction. Humans direct the brand voice’s emotional arc by concentrating on strategy and storytelling.
It has an almost ironic quality to it. Human judgment becomes increasingly important as automation increases.
Recently, a retailer’s loyalty app started providing personalized rewards based on real-time engagement scores. Redemption rates increased. Clients felt acknowledged. However, behind those offers, data use policies are being examined by privacy officers, marketers are arguing over tone, and SAT engineers are improving models.
Although the dialogue seems natural at first glance, it has been thoughtfully planned.
It is difficult to overlook the fact that marketing, which was formerly dominated by catchphrases and prime-time advertisements, now resembles an ongoing dialogue that is dynamic, responsive, and occasionally unpredictable. Brands can now communicate with consumers instead of just speaking at them thanks to AI.
How responsibly businesses use these tools will determine whether that conversation improves transactions or builds trust.
The spicy wings alert felt useful for the time being. Easy to use. prompt. A brief reminder that marketing is no longer primarily a broadcast. It’s a real-time dialogue that occasionally flows so smoothly that it’s difficult to distinguish between suggestion and comprehension.
