Marketing Innovators Pinpoint Pivotal Trends Foreseen for 2025
Marketing Innovators Pinpoint Pivotal Trends Foreseen for 2025
As we edge closer to 2025, I've gathered insights from marketing leaders regarding predicted shifts in consumer behavior and anticipated changes in marketing strategies. Below are their insights on personalization, AI, data, and budgets.
Consumers, once fearful of personalization, now demand it from marketers.
Casey Gannon, VP of Marketing and Technology Partnerships at Bold Commerce
"Personalization has evolved from an optional extra to a necessity in marketing initiatives over the past few years. Today, consumers expect customized experiences at every interaction, and their attention spans are dwindling for anything less. As we move into the new year, these expectations are set to escalate, compelling marketers to explore innovative methods to deliver enhanced personalization at scale. Enter AI—the most efficient and cost-effective solution to meet these escalating demands.
We're just starting to tap into the potential of data-driven insights from AI. Although several brands have started with task automation, we'll witness a transition towards more advanced machine learning applications in 2025 and beyond. This transformation will offer marketers a fresh perspective on consumer behavior, preferences, and sentiments, making personalization more intuitive than ever.
AI adoption will enhance efficiency and create new opportunities throughout the entire customer journey. From precisely tailored digital ads, real-time optimization, personalized content, offers, and recommendations on your website—AI will make it all possible. Plus, it will streamline the checkout experience by tailoring payment options to individual preferences, ensuring a seamless, personalized shopping experience."
Marketers will seek ways to do more with less as they operate within tight budgets.
Katherine Lee, Head of Marketing, USA at GFT
"There's been significant hype around how AI can drive efficiency in marketing, especially in content creation. However, intelligent marketers recognize that they must strike a balance between efficiency and thoughtful, human-generated content. Despite the fact that generative AI can swiftly produce concepts like social media captions, email copy, and blog content, it often lacks the brand sentiment, tone of voice, and unique perspectives that differentiate companies from their competitors.
I anticipate that in the coming year, marketers will prioritize using AI to automate administrative tasks like reporting and data analyses, rather than focusing on content creation. As they search for ways to maximize their budgets, they'll seek to leverage AI in its most efficient form."
Consumers will yearn for genuine human experiences as technology becomes more prevalent.
Gretel Going, President at Channel V Media
"Across numerous marketing practices, AI and other technologies are assuming control of functions ranging from fundamental research, data analysis, and ad targeting to directly engaging with customers and even developing entire creative campaign concepts.
Both consumer and business audiences have become accustomed to being more efficiently targeted online. However, they aren't particular about the intricate workings of marketing campaigns. On a gut level, they perceive the contrast between perfection that is devoid of human feeling, like the content, stories, and conversations generated by technology—and the flawed, yet soulful, versions that are born of real people.
In this year, we'll see marketers take a step back to determine the optimal balance between introducing efficiency and scale, and haphazardly replacing human ingenuity that resonates with other humans—with technology.
As for their target audiences, the more their lives are tailored to perfection by algorithms, the more they'll crave authentic human experiences from the brands and businesses they interact with."
Marketers will rely on AI to address the genuine challenges faced by customers.
Jason Grunberg, CMO at Bluecore
"Marketers know that generative AI can help solve issues, but several haven't yet identified the specific problems they need to tackle.
In the coming year, we'll observe more marketers using AI beyond driving efficiencies and automating content to address larger problems that pester their customers. By recognizing where their customers' problems intersect with company challenges—and solving for both with AI—marketers will foster business growth. For example, Amazon introduced its AI shopping assistant Rufus to make it easier for shoppers to locate products and get their questions answered, while also increasing conversion and revenue.
Organizations from different industries like retail, travel, insurance, and healthcare can address numerous customer issues with AI—2025 will mark their practical application."
Marketers will make data the foundation of everything they do.
Holly Fee, VP of Marketing at Infragistics
"Marketing teams have accumulated vast repositories of data on customer behaviors, content engagement, and campaign performance, but most have struggled to fully utilize it. This has often resulted in a lack of involvement of AI, with 45% of companies claiming that their data isn't yet ready to support AI. In 2025, we'll witness more companies invest in breaking down data silos, fostering data-driven cultures, and ultimately, preparing their data for AI tools.
This will empower marketers to globally analyze data, quickly identify trends, and make data an integral part of their daily tasks and strategic decisions. Companies that prioritize data and prepare it for AI usage will remain competitive, while those who disregard this trend will lag behind."
- In 2025, as marketers continue to explore the potential of AI, they will leverage data-driven insights from machine learning applications to better understand consumer behavior, preferences, and sentiments, making personalization more intuitive than ever.
- Realizing the limitations of AI in content creation, intelligent marketers will prioritize using AI to automate administrative tasks like reporting and data analyses, freeing up resources for more nuanced human-generated content.
- With the increasing use of technology in marketing, marketers will recognize the importance of maintaining a balance between efficiency and human-driven ingenuity, as consumers continue to yearn for authentic, genuine human experiences.