AI enhanced Loyalty Treatment - Hype or Reality?

Sep 2, 2024

Almost daily we see posts, announcements and claims that AI will dramatically improve the performance of loyalty programmes. Fact or Fiction?

We have yet to see any hard evidence that supports any claim that AI will deliver more loyal customers but perhaps this idea misses the point.

Going back to basics, loyalty programmes help us learn about customers that help us to make better marketing decisions and as such AI will play a role in helping us to better understand the data. But this has been the case since the advent of sophisticated segmentation techniques and 'in-flight data analysis, so what has changed?

Simply put, AI will allow marketers the luxury of automated decision making based on real data points, taking more of the guess work out of planning promotions and campaigns. This sounds like a panacea when in reality the results will always depend on the scope, depth and validity of the data that the AI algorithms are based on.

So, for now, at least, we are in the early days of AI and as marketing professionals we all still have an important role to play as strategists and moderators, ensuring that common sense prevails and that we deploy our knowledge, skills and expertise with empathy, sensitivity and creativity. AI is a very useful tool and as yet, not a substitute for human supervision.