• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, April 4, 2024

It needn’t be argued that personalization is essential for today’s marketers. But how good are they at it, and where does AI fit in?

They're not bad, and AI can play a great role, judging by The Use Of AI To Advance Personalization In 2024, a study by Ascend2. 

Of the marketers surveyed, 24% say their personalization is best in class, and 71% feel they are somewhat successful. Only 5% feel their personalization is unsuccessful.  

That said, 23% expect that AI will have a significant impact on their personalization in the next year, and 46% foresee a moderate one. But 22% feel there will be little or no effect, and 9% are not sure.  

In general, marketers see great benefits resulting from the use of AI in personalization: 

• Improving predictive analytics for customer behavior — 55%
• Enhancing dynamic content creation and optimization — 54% 
• Enabling real-time adjustments based on customer interactions — 49%
• Refining segmentation and targeting strategies — 38%
• Streamlining A/B testing — 23% 

• Lack of skilled personnel to implement AI solutions — 48%
• Concerns about data privacy and security — 46%
• Complexity of AI algorithms and technologies — 42% 
• Data quality and accessibility issues — 36%
• Integration challenges with existing systems — 33%

Where is personalization most effective? Marketers say:

• Website — 53% 
• Email — 48%
• Organic social — 25% 
• Mobile apps — 24% 
• Paid social — 23%
• Landing pages — 23%
• Live chat — 19%
• Organic search — 18% 
• Paid search — 17%
• SMS — 17% 

However, the primary benefits of a successful personalization strategy have changed slightly. 

The top three benefits are increased revenue (55%,, up from 50% in 2023), increased customer retention (48%, down from 50% last year) and improved customer experience (45%, down from 51% last time).  

Ascend2 surveyed 355 marketing decision makers during the wee of March 17, 2024.