{"id":118802,"date":"2024-10-28T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-10-28T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/industry\/blog\/?p=118802"},"modified":"2024-12-31T12:51:40","modified_gmt":"2024-12-31T20:51:40","slug":"harnessing-ai-to-supercharge-personalized-marketing-at-scale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/industry\/blog\/retail\/2024\/10\/28\/harnessing-ai-to-supercharge-personalized-marketing-at-scale\/","title":{"rendered":"Harnessing AI to supercharge personalized marketing at scale"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
The generative AI hype cycle is at a peak, promising unprecedented benefits at warp speed across industries. Marketers from small to global organizations are on the forefront, leveraging generative AI to create campaigns that deliver hyper-personalized experiences for their customers. One example of a successful implementation was featured at the Oct 16, 2024 Sitecore Symposium. “As part of our long-standing, strategic relationship with Sitecore, we’ve collaborated closely with Nestl\u00e9 and other enterprise customers to deliver entirely new AI capabilities to marketers,” said Shelley Bransten, Corporate Vice President, Global Industry Solutions at Microsoft.1<\/sup> The rewards are clear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But what if your organization is currently still in pilot mode? The challenge with pilots is that they don\u2019t drive consequential change in the bottom line, and it\u2019s a struggle to democratize learnings. With three in five chief marketing officers (CMOs) driving funding behind investment for generative AI,2<\/sup> there\u2019s pressure to prove return on investment (ROI) and value from AI investment amidst numerous pilots.<\/p>\n\n\n Connect your customers, your people, and your data<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t As we transition from hype to reality, brands are shifting from basic generative AI applications like content and tagline generation and to evaluating comprehensive business processes that leverage generative AI to accelerate timelines, unlock more value, and drive increased growth. Marketers are leading the way in leveraging AI as a powerful co-creator at scale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let\u2019s evaluate age-old challenges and lengthy processes for marketers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n First, identify key areas where AI creates significant impact in a 6 to 18 month period:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Common \u201cpersonalization\u201d mishaps that decrease loyalty:<\/strong> A customer browses running shoes online but buys a pair in-store, later they receive a generic email offering discounts on the shoes they just purchased and unrelated accessories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The future process of personalization accelerated with AI: <\/strong>The customers\u2019 needs are anticipated before they even ask. A customer now browses for running shoes online, purchases them in-store, and receives a personalized upsell promotion to \u201ccomplete the look\u201d with complimentary products. The brand then sends a promotion the following year to upgrade the shoes to a new pair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But, how?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Collaboration between IT and the CMO:<\/strong> Preparing the data estate to accelerate personalization at scale, stakeholders can leverage Microsoft Fabric<\/a><\/strong>, a unified data platform with compatibility across multiple cloud platforms, allows marketers to access and analyze up-to-date data directly within the governance boundary. Fabric offers intelligent data analytics as a service, allowing brands to build custom reports in Power BI<\/a> without having to export data, ensuring greater security. Marketers can spend less time consolidating reports from multiple groups, partners, and internal resources and instead simply ask questions of their data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Create a comprehensive view of the customer and their journey with a customer data platform like Dynamics 365 Customer Insights<\/a><\/strong>, connected to Fabric, offering better segmentation, insight generation, and campaign activation tools for data-driven optimization driving ROAS, growth, and elevated customer experiences. With both Fabric and Dynamics 365 Customer insights, marketers leverage advanced analytics and AI capabilities to gain deeper insights. <\/p>\n\n\n\nMicrosoft Cloud for Retail<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t
\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n
Powerful personalization at scale with AI<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
How can AI create more personalized touchpoints across a shopper journey?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Making AI-powered personalization \u201creal\u201d<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n