65% of retailers are personalizing content for each segment
Instead of a single message aimed at the masses, a majority of retail leaders say they are finally delivering on the promise of tailored marketing to consumers, according to research from Typeface.
Based in Atlanta, Ga., where it provides generative artificial intelligence (AI) solutions, Typeface surveyed more than 200 marketing professionals to produce its study, dubbed The Typeface Signal Report: Retail Edition.
Typeface found that while all retailers said the demand for content is increasing, only 58 per cent believe they have enough resources to keep up.
Generative AI’s capabilities include quickly producing copy and imagery for ads and social media posts, but 72 per cent said AI usage is at the individual level rather than a team-wide deployment.
Meanwhile, 72 per cent also said it can take their brand about a month to launch a new campaign, even though 86 per cent would like to cut that timeline to two weeks or less.
As for agentic AI — where the technology can act autonomously on a user’s behalf to take on marketing tasks — more than three quarters of retailers admitted they are still in the pilot phase of adoption.
“The path forward lies in orchestration, not expansion — connecting people, systems, and workflows so AI can deliver measurable speed, scale, and creativity,” the report’s authors wrote. “The challenge isn’t AI capability — (it’s) organizational readiness to deploy it systematically.”
360 Magazine Insight
Typeface obviously wants to see AI adoption become the standard within retail, and some of the research in this report skews a little too heavily towards boosterism.
For example, the study found 51 per cent have cut their agency spend on content creation thanks to AI, and 70 per cent said “full automation” would eliminate most of it. This suggests there is little to no value from the expertise and experience third party creatives bring to the table, and that a shift to in-housing is inevitable. It’s not.
The research also found 96 per cent struggle to justify their marketing spend. This doesn’t necessarily mean that content creation is an area of wasted budget dollars, however. There is just as money thrown away on poor media planning and programmatic buys that isn’t taken into account here.
Using generative AI to create content doesn’t necessarily mean campaigns will launch any sooner. There are still significant steps in establishing core themes, securing buy-in from internal stakeholders and prolonged review processes that also add days or even weeks to the process.
One important and worthy piece of advice comes near the end of this ungated seven-page report, which is to build internal capabilities and systems to support changes such as deploying AI at scale. Marketers in retail (and other segments) might do well to begin with a self-assessment on this front before putting AI agents to work.
