AI-driven personalisation is not just the future — it’s the present. And it’s redefining the way businesses interact with their customers. Customer expectations are evolving at lightning speed and AI-powered personalisation is what businesses need to redefine the customer experience and drive business outcomes.
As we move further into this new AI era, we see potential for a remarkable transformation — one that not only amplifies human skills but also ignites creativity across the board. This technological revolution promises real-time, unified experiences, bridging the gap between organisational bets and actual ROI. At its core, successful AI-driven interactions hinge on the pillars of trust, security and transparency. These interactions must be executed with precision and guided by measurable strategies. Our latest research underscores the urgency of this directive, highlighting the critical balance between innovation and organisational integrity.
In partnership with Econsultancy, Adobe presents the 2025 AI and Digital Trends report. Now in its 15th year, our annual global research remains a cornerstone in the customer experience (CX) landscape. Drawing on global insights from over 8,000 consumers and 3,400 executives and practitioners across diverse industries and functions, this report demonstrates the shifting priorities and technologies organisations are focused on to meet the demands of AI-driven personalisation.
While this personalisation remains top of mind for organisations, they struggle to meet the rising expectations of customers. The research shows that although customers want to be surprised and delighted, only 15% of organisations today meet that expectation. Consumers seek relationships, not transactions, but brands often lack the precision to meet these demands. Real-time personalisation is a major challenge for 75% of practitioners. Fragmented content, data and journeys prevent organisations from unifying around their customers.
The bright spot is that generative AI offers solutions for efficiency and productivity, improved decision-making and scaled content. While organisations are challenged with proving ROI on their generative AI implementations -- just 12% could -- they are making progress, with perceived benefits already being realised.
Misaligned teams hinder progress. And for many in the research, there’s confusion on who owns the customer journey outright. Marketers predominantly see ownership as shared between CX teams (42%) and marketing (32%). While technology teams (55%) believe the responsibility lies primarily with them. Unclear responsibilities among CX specialists, technologists and marketers leads to friction and fragmented efforts that get in the way of execution and measurable ROI.
AI and predictive analytics are the key growth initiatives for boosting customer retention, loyalty and engagement this year. Moving from merely understanding to anticipating customer needs will become even more vital to delivering unified experiences. Additionally, as AI adoption grows, managing the complexities that come with those expansions requires more focus and resources. The research shows that organisations who adopted generative AI last year set clear objectives and metrics from the start and as advanced users, they prioritise cultural alignment and workflow optimisation.
When it comes to AI, the tide has already begun to turn: Nearly half of respondents in the consumer survey said they’d prefer turning to an AI-powered assistant over a static web experience. Agentic AI promises to enhance not just experiences but workflows, offering efficiency gains and smarter support for marketers, while providing consumers with personalised, convenient experiences. As it matures, agentic AI will reshape marketing efforts, boost conversions, scale creative output and empower team productivity.
As this new era unfolds, continuing to prioritise the customer is crucial for creating meaningful moments of connection. By thoughtfully integrating generative AI into their culture, workflows and tech stacks, organisations can deliver exceptional experiences. The benefits are becoming clearer every day, unlocking the expansive power of creativity and modern marketing technology to drive relevance and business growth.
Rachel Thorton is the chief marketing officer for Adobe’s enterprise business. She is committed to helping businesses create amazing customer experiences at the intersection of marketing, creativity and AI. Rachel develops marketing, messaging, positioning strategies and activations that expand awareness of Adobe as the world’s best marketing and AI platform for delivering brand-changing customer experiences. Her team amplifies Adobe’s unique enterprise story in ways that energise, celebrate and empower CMOs and experience makers worldwide.
Rachel has more than 25 years of experience in B2B technology marketing, having held leadership roles at Amazon/AWS, Salesforce, Cisco Systems and Microsoft. She has deep experience building and scaling enterprise marketing, customer acquisition and self-service revenue contributions. Rachel has also driven go-to-market strategy with field marketing, advertising, sports marketing and events teams, including several years running marquee customer events like re:Invent and Dreamforce.
