A conversation on the personalization capabilities of AI with Attentive’s CMO, Keri McGhee, and AI champion Jenna Posner at NRF 2025

In the early 2000s, digital marketing evolved at a rapid pace. New email capabilities and the rise of SMS marketing created never-been-done-before personalization opportunities and targeted messaging. Basic name insertion gave way to sophisticated segmentation, and marketers pivoted to adapt. 

Fast forward to today, and another disruptor has entered the marketing chat—one that will bring personalization to a whole new phase of maturity: AI.

Attentive’s CMO, Keri McGhee, spoke with Jenna Posner, Co-Founder and Vice Chair of the Retail AI Council, AI champion, and Attentive advisor, about how e-commerce marketers and retailers can leverage the role of AI to fuel hyper-personalized customer conversations. Using existing aggregate customer data, marketers can create a customer experience that feels more 1:1 and human than ever before.

Posner set the stage for the discussion, noting the significance of the time we’re in. “It's been so long since we had anything this groundbreaking,” she said. 

The consensus? AI is no longer a want-to-have. It’s a must-have. With limitless actionable use cases, AI is positively impacting the daily work of marketers far beyond just generating copy and images. AI is transforming the customer experience, creating a more person-based approach to marketing, thanks in part to machines. Here are the highlights from the conversation with McGhee and Posner.

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On knowing your audience with AI

Posner and McGhee agree that failure to innovate and adapt to new marketing opportunities comes at a big cost to e-commerce and retail brands, and has a negative impact on brand perception. As McGhee pointed out, 75% of shoppers will forego brand loyalty in favor of a more personalized experience elsewhere. How do you create a more engaging, person-based approach? AI. 

As marketing leaders in the room noted, consumers want to feel like they’re talking to someone, and receiving recommendations with a human touch. Take David’s Bridal, for example. What if email and SMS provided brides with custom-tailored accessory suggestions (think veils, hair clips and combs, belts, or handbags) based on the dress they said “yes" to in the store? 

AI can power hyper-personalized marketing messages and product offerings to individual consumer preferences, using aggregated customer data. Tailored recommendations would save customers hours of researching and provide a friction-free experience that seamlessly moves them toward the checkout. 

This is just one example of how AI can revolutionize the customer experience. And marketers are taking note. According to a 2024 survey from eMarketer, 46% of marketers plan to use AI to personalize their content this year. There's also a clear opportunity to connect enhanced customer engagement with the bottom line with tools like agentic AI. 

In contrast to generative AI (gen AI), helpful for day-to-day tasks like copywriting or image creation, agentic AI can compile customer data and make decisions or suggestions on your behalf.

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Putting your data to work

Posner explains that a top marketing use case for AI is making sense of aggregate data and putting it to work. AI tools can parse through fragmented data across multiple marketing

channels and across your tech stack. This helps marketers understand information about their customers holistically, including their preferences, behaviors, and when they're most likely to engage. 

With agentic AI solutions, marketers can then action the data at scale and with a more human-like approach. Rather than one-to-many messaging, it’s a 1:1, unique experience.

Posner says, imagine a world where AI can tell you, “I know customer 1234, and I’ve been aggregating data on them over the course of their lifecycle with the brand.” This is the future of marketing, where AI steps in to provide recommendations for that customer, which feel like they're coming from a trusted human who knows their likes and dislikes.

McGhee agrees, pointing out that this is the buyer experience customers crave—it feels exclusive and high-quality as opposed to generic “batch-and-blast” communications that fall flat.

If you put the customer first, if at the core you understand what your customer cares about, what motivates them, what they make decisions based on—you typically come out on the right side.
- Keri McGhee, CMO at Attentive

Personalized shopping experiences powered by AI are something McGhee says marketers should start testing now, leveraging the technology to build a more premium customer journey at scale. Imagine you’re walking through a store, and a salesperson is helping you find the style, size, and color you need. As they get to know you, they suggest new items based on your style and preferences.

AI is ready to deliver that experience, based on the data you already have. To conceptualize this, Posner frames it as “Putting your data to work through the lens of AI.”

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On adopting AI for the right reasons

In 2023 and 2024, many marketers tested AI tools that perform one standout job, like generating copy or images. As Posner sees it, this isn't the AI that moves the needle for marketing teams. If you’ve been approaching tasks with gen AI, you know firsthand that its time-saving capabilities have a limit. Don't be afraid to expand your AI horizons and seek tools that go beyond copy support.

In the future, there’s not going to be a browser. There’s not going to be a search engine. AI is going to fundamentally change how we shop.
- Jenna Posner, Co-Founder and Vice Chair at Retail AI Council

Surprisingly, Posner predicts that AI adoption rates won’t change thanks to tech teams, but rather thanks to marketers. Marketers are in a unique position to get AI buy-in from different teams in their organization, all the way up to the executive board. By using AI to transform consumer engagement on a small scale, you can then champion org-wide buy-in and have a transformational impact on every part of the consumer journey. In short, there’s an AI use case for every department at your company. 

As an AI champion, Posner is no stranger to AI chatbots, AI image generators, AI for sales, and on and on. But this discussion begged the question: Which technology will move the needle for retailers and marketers? “Anything that’s not one-dimensional,” she says. The AI tools that will change the game for marketers must be custom-fit to a marketer’s world.”

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The importance of early adoption 

Posner and McGhee believe 2025 is every marketer’s invitation to become an AI champion and see their marketing efforts go further, reaching the right audiences at the right time and with the right messaging. 

The ones who are first, are the ones who are going to win.
- Jenna Posner, Co-Founder and Vice Chair at Retail AI Council

The key to unlocking the revenue-driving power of AI for retail and e-commerce marketers is, and will continue to be, aggregate customer data. With the ability to action data at scale, the opportunity to improve the customer journey with AI is bigger than ever before. And the best part, according to Posner and McGhee? It will feel human every step of the way.

2025 represents a crucial moment for marketers. Those who embrace AI-driven personalization now will be positioned to deliver the experiences consumers increasingly demand. The technology is ready, the data is waiting, and the opportunity is clear.

Want to learn more about implementing AI in your marketing strategy? Request a demo here.

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