Personalization at Scale: Building Always-On, AI-Enabled Customer Journeys

In today’s digital-first world, customers expect brands to know them, anticipate their needs, and deliver seamless, personalized experiences across every channel. Yet, for many organizations, personalization remains fragmented—hampered by siloed data, disconnected technology, and a lack of cohesive strategy. The result? Missed opportunities, wasted investments, and customer journeys that fall short of expectations.

At Publicis Sapient, we help organizations move beyond fragmented efforts to deliver always-on, AI-enabled personalization at scale. Our approach is grounded in a comprehensive seven-pillar framework, robust operating models, and proven technology solutions—empowering brands to unlock the full value of their data and technology investments.

The Imperative for Personalization at Scale

Customers are demanding more: 66% expect companies to understand their unique needs, and 76% expect consistent interactions across departments. Despite significant investments in personalization technology, many organizations struggle to operationalize these capabilities. Common pitfalls include:

Ignoring personalization is no longer an option. Brands that succeed in delivering seamless, AI-driven personalization see measurable gains in revenue, customer loyalty, and marketing efficiency.

The Seven-Pillar Framework for Personalization

To help organizations realize the promise of personalization at scale, Publicis Sapient applies a comprehensive seven-pillar framework:

  1. Personalization Strategy: Define the vision, operating model, business case, and roadmap for personalization. This ensures alignment across the organization and prioritizes investments that drive value.
  2. Customer Data & Analytics: Build a unified data foundation, including data collection, governance, privacy, identity resolution, predictive modeling, and actionable insights.
  3. Marketing Decision Engine: Orchestrate journeys and deliver the next best action using AI-driven business rules and real-time data.
  4. Personalized Experiences: Design and deliver tailored experiences across channels, informed by deep customer segmentation and behavioral intelligence.
  5. Value Realization: Continuously measure ROI and customer feedback to ensure business value and optimize investments.
  6. MarTech and AdTech: Deploy the right technology stack—Customer Data Platforms (CDP), orchestration engines, and analytics tools—to enable and scale personalization use cases.
  7. Organizational Enablement and Execution: Establish governance, change management, and agile operating models to drive cross-functional collaboration and sustained execution.

Operating Model and Technology Requirements

Delivering always-on, AI-enabled personalization requires more than technology. It demands a customer-centric operating model that breaks down silos and fosters agile, cross-functional collaboration. Key elements include:

Our approach leverages leading platforms such as Salesforce Data Cloud, Marketing Cloud, and proprietary AI solutions to enable seamless orchestration and activation.

Real-World Outcomes Across Industries

Retail:

A global retailer faced siloed teams and fragmented customer experiences. By implementing our seven-pillar framework and agile marketing pods, they achieved a $2B value capture opportunity over five years, $135M+ incremental revenue in six months, and a 5% lift in average order value.

Pharma:

A global pharmaceutical company struggled with slow processes and limited personalization. Through integrated, data-driven marketing and AI-powered targeting, they realized an estimated $700M impact over three years, improved compliance, and accelerated go-to-market for new products.

Beauty:

A leading beauty care brand lacked a single customer view and cohesive personalization. By deploying a CDP and executing prioritized use cases, they saw a 57% increase in post-purchase sales, a 52% conversion rate increase in replenishment, and 32% incremental sales for at-risk customers.

Avoiding Common Pitfalls

Many organizations falter by focusing solely on technology or isolated use cases. Success requires:

Accelerating Value with Publicis Sapient’s Agile, Test-and-Learn Approach

Our agile, test-and-learn methodology accelerates value realization by:

This approach enables organizations to prove value quickly, unlock incremental revenue, and build the foundation for sustained, always-on personalization.

Why Publicis Sapient?

With deep expertise across strategy, product, experience, engineering, and data & AI, Publicis Sapient is uniquely positioned to help organizations operationalize personalization at scale. Our proven frameworks, accelerators, and industry partnerships empower clients to:

Ready to move beyond fragmented personalization and realize the full potential of your data and technology investments? Connect with Publicis Sapient to start your journey toward always-on, AI-enabled customer experiences.