Editor’s note: This article was co-authored by Bart Willemsen and Penny Gillespie, VP Analysts at Gartner
The Gist
- Personalization becomes a growth engine. Marketing budgets for personalization surged 30% in 2025, signaling a strategic shift toward experiences that differentiate and drive measurable results.
- Relevance meets resistance. While customers are 1.8x more likely to pay a premium for personalized interactions, privacy concerns are reshaping what “personal” can responsibly mean.
- Compliance as competitive advantage. CMOs are reframing compliance from a regulatory burden to a foundation for trust, transparency, and long-term market access.
- Customer intelligence grows up. Next-gen models like the Digital Twin of the Customer (DToC) replace guesswork with dynamic, intent-driven insight rooted in minimized, ethical data use.
- AI orchestrates the journey. Personalization is shifting from static campaigns to real-time, AI-generated journeys that adapt autonomously to customer context and behavior.
- Operating models must evolve. Scaling ethical personalization demands integrated human-AI teams, centralized governance, and adaptive frameworks built for compliance and agility.
Personalization has become a top priority for organizations seeking to deliver differentiated customer experiences and drive commercial results. In 2025, the marketing budget allocated to personalization increased by 30% over the previous year, reflecting a growing commitment to tailoring interactions across channels. Yet, while some organizations are just beginning their personalization journey, many struggle to scale their efforts, and only a select few have achieved true maturity.
The 2025 Gartner Marketing Personalization Survey underscores the commercial benefits of personalization: customers are 1.8 times more likely to pay a premium when their experience is personalized. However, consumers are increasingly wary of how their data is used, and the majority by far is seriously concerned about their legally granted privacy rights.
As AI becomes more integral to customer experience, organizations must prioritize transparent data practices and empower customers with meaningful choices about how their information is collected and processed.
For CMOs, the path forward requires a clear value exchange: customers must feel confident that sharing their data will result in valuable, ethical and non-intrusive personalization. This trust is built by consistently obeying the customer’s wishes, delivering on promises, shaping personalization around customer intent and expectations, and embedding compliance at the core of strategy and execution.
Table of Contents
- FAQ on Personalization
- Establishing Compliance as a Prerequisite
- Expanding Customer Intelligence
- Automating Personalized Customer Journeys
- Evolving the Operating Model
- Conclusion: Defining the Next Era
FAQ on Personalization
Expand each question to discover key insights from CMSWire on personalization over the past year.
Yes. Over-personalization can limit discovery, create content fatigue or even feel creepy to customers. Brands should strike a balance by rotating content and leaving space for organic exploration (Over-personalization risks).
Track metrics like customer satisfaction, conversion rates, repeat purchases and engagement. Continuous experimentation and feedback are key to refining personalization efforts (Measuring personalization success).
Invite customers to co-create their experience by asking for input and feedback. This can be done through surveys, interactive tools or real-time AI assistants that learn preferences directly from customers (Engaging customers in personalization).
Successful personalization relies on collecting and analyzing customer data across channels. AI and machine learning can help automate this process, enabling real-time, relevant recommendations and experiences (Generative AI in DXP).
Personalization can boost customer satisfaction, increase conversion rates and drive revenue growth. Studies show that nearly 75% of consumers are more likely to buy from brands that personalize, and they spend about 37% more with those brands (Deloitte report).
Personalization means tailoring experiences, content or offers to individual customers based on their preferences, behaviors and data. The goal is to make every interaction feel relevant, helping customers achieve their goals faster and more efficiently.
AI enables businesses to analyze large volumes of data quickly and deliver personalized experiences at scale. It can automate recommendations, predict needs and continuously refine personalization strategies (AI and personalization).
Personalization helps brands build stronger relationships with customers, increases satisfaction and drives loyalty. When customers feel understood, they are more likely to return and spend more with the brand.
Establishing Compliance as a Prerequisite
Compliance is no longer a box to check; it is a foundational imperative for personalization. The risks of noncompliance, from hefty fines to reputational damage, are amplified in a landscape where privacy failures spread rapidly on social media. Mature privacy laws mean rigorous compliance is now essential for market access and customer trust.
CMOs must reframe compliance as a growth enabler, not just a risk mitigator. This means forming cross-functional committees to oversee personalization strategy, developing scenarios for AI-driven personalization and embedding compliance expectations into every role that touches customer data. The hierarchy of intent — moving from mere compliance to following organizational values — should guide ethical decision-making and ensure personalization efforts align with customer expectations.
Related Article: The Hidden Dangers of Over-Personalization in Marketing
Expanding Customer Intelligence
Despite access to vast amounts of data, many organizations miss the mark, with nearly half of personalized experiences rated as irrelevant, creepy or a combination of both. CMOs must move beyond legacy assumptions and confirmation bias, using only the appropriate, minimized dataset to understand the full spectrum of customer intent. The future lies in technologies like the Digital Twin of the Customer (DToC), which create dynamic, one-to-one models that simulate and anticipate customer preferences and behaviors.
By leveraging DToC, marketers can shift from assumptions to actionable insights, delivering one-to-one personalized, context-aware experiences. This requires transparent data practices, ongoing audits and a roadmap for evolving customer intelligence capabilities. Only organizations that empower customers with control over their data will earn the trust needed to scale personalization.
Related Article: Personalization Nation: How CX Leaders in the US Define Success
Automating Personalized Customer Journeys
Personalization is evolving from channel-based campaigns to real-time, AI-enabled customer journeys. AI and machine learning already help analyze outcomes and recommend actions, but the future will see greater autonomy as agentic AI generates, executes and optimizes journeys at scale. CMOs must digitize customer journey maps, leverage AI for simulation, and adopt orchestration technologies to personalize every touchpoint.
As AI matures, the operating model must evolve. Organizations must move from siloed teams to centralized personalization squads, ultimately embedding humans and AI agents in collaborative teams that orchestrate personalized experiences across all customer journey stages.
Evolving the Operating Model
Successful personalization demands an adaptable operating model, with governance frameworks that oversee people, processes, technology and data. CMOs should assess their current stage and develop roadmaps for maturity. Investing in AI capabilities, rationalizing technology stacks and driving change management are critical steps to achieving scalable, ethical personalization.
Conclusion: Defining the Next Era
The future of personalization belongs to organizations that make customer centricity and compliance their foundation, harness AI to generate real-time journeys and empower customers with control. CMOs must act decisively to break down silos, invest in advanced capabilities and lead the way toward ethical, adaptive and commercially successful personalization. Those who do will set the standard for the next era of marketing.
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