Insights
The New Frontier of Personalisation
How Data and AI are Coming Together to Transform Customer Engagement
- Article
- 3 MIN READ
- Jun, 10 2025
-
Dennis ClausStrategy Consultant
Summary
It’s no secret that personalisation is one of the leading priorities for businesses today. As digital capabilities have evolved, so too have consumer expectations. Research by McKinsey identified that over three in four consumers become frustrated when companies fail to provide personalised interactions.
The rise of AI-powered tools has made achieving personalisation easier — at least, on paper. However, unlocking its true potential requires businesses to adopt an integrated, data-first strategy. The question is: what does this look like in practice?
Our recent breakfast event, The New Frontier of Personalisation: How Data and AI are Coming Together to Transform Customer Engagement, tackled this question head-on. Apply Digital, BigCommerce and Adyen organized the event, which brought together leaders from across the industry spectrum.
The personalisation imperative — pressure from all sides
In today’s marketplace, personalisation is no longer an optional extra; it’s a baseline expectation.
Customers’ demands for more relevant, human-centric, real-time experiences are continuing to grow louder — and they’re becoming increasingly willing to partake in a value exchange to achieve this. Our 2025 Leadership Priorities in Personalization report identified that 61% of consumers are willing to share personal information to enjoy personalised experiences.
At first glance, it appears that senior leaders are responding appropriately in a bid to respond to this new strategic mandate. Our research found that 82% of executives are committed to increasing AI investment in 2025.
Unfortunately, the situation isn’t quite as clear-cut as it may seem. There are a myriad of behind-the-scenes complexities to deal with, not least the continued proliferation of AI-first competitors. Lean and agile, these organisations are the first to respond to emerging trends.
The struggles don’t end there. From rising expectations to tighter budgets — attempts to operationalise personalisation at scale are far from straightforward. More importantly, these barriers are preventing businesses from accessing valuable strategic opportunities.
Approaching personalisation as a balancing act
Beneath the excitement around AI lies a more sobering reality: the majority of organisations lack the readiness to fully leverage it. Disconnected systems, an insufficient data strategy and costly manual processes create friction at every turn.
Bottom line, internal structures aren’t fit for purpose. Our research found that 43% of leaders believe their current tech stack is holding them back. This sentiment was at the event via a poll, with 31% citing outdated and legacy systems as the main barrier preventing AI-led personalisation. Fragmented and siloed data not being AI-ready (27%) and privacy, compliance and trust challenges (19%) were also notable factors.
The key to unlocking future-proofed operations rests on overcoming historical points of friction. Although AI is tempting organisations to concentrate their efforts on all things shiny and new, the same-old problems still exist and are yet to be solved — for example, fragmented data silos.
So, what’s the solution? The key is a shift in mindset. Personalisation is more than just a ‘tech-tical’ problem. Similarly, the theory that there’s a standardised formula to follow (i.e. run data through a segmentation of your choice, and then use this to personalise comms quickly) is wrong.
This is a strategic challenge. As such, businesses must stop looking at data, intelligence, experience and scale as separate pieces of the puzzle. Rather, this is a strategic balancing act. For example, while AI has flooded the market with a wealth of insights, much of it feels duplicated. To succeed, the focus should shift towards data that’s both interesting and actionable.
In a similar vein, AI has been touted as the answer to the age-old problem of content creation. Approximately a third of global marketing and media leaders cite creating high-quality content as one of their biggest challenges. In theory, greater automation should spell the end to this issue, enabling businesses to act rapidly while simultaneously improving their margins.
However, this should not be at the expense of consistently delivering authentic comms. While conversion metrics remain important, prioritising them over genuine customer interactions will ultimately harm your business.
Above all, businesses should embrace the contradiction to win. AI should feel more like a sprinkle of magic, as opposed to sorcery and witchcraft. Or, to translate more simply, use AI to create the most human experiences possible.
From 8 weeks to 8 hours: Kraft Heinz TasteMaker case study
The possibilities are endless for the businesses that modernise infrastructure, build transparency-led trust and unlock scalable efficiency using Gen AI. Acting with clarity, agility and alignment will empower these organisations to become the personalisation leaders of tomorrow.
This was the case for Kraft Heinz. One of the world’s leading food and beverage companies spanning more than 100 brands, its leaders recognised the need to keep up with growing consumer demand for personalisation at scale and faster product innovation. Success meant reducing time-to-market and production costs, all while maintaining brand consistency and data security.
Enter ‘TasteMaker’. Together, we developed this secure, AI-powered platform designed to spark innovation and scale content, fast. With a customized suite of applications for Kraft Heinz’s business needs, TasteMaker has reduced the time for Research and Development (R&D) teams to launch product concept ideas from 8 weeks to 8 hours, and empowers marketers to deliver high-volume, on-brand content in record time.
This is the perfect example of how AI-powered platforms can transform product innovation workflows and marketing content creation in a secure, effective way.
Want to learn more about how TasteMaker, the Apply Digital solution, is driving efficiency and cost savings — and how Gen AI can drive real business impact? Reach out to us at hello@applydigital.co — we’d love to answer any questions you have about the role that AI plays in improving efficiency and increasing engagement.
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