Digital customer experiences are the competitive front line, and yet many still feel like relics of a different era. Mismatched messages. Clunky email forms. Campaigns built for clicks, not connection.  

These are the old-school marketing tactics that no longer align with how people actually discover, engage with, and share content today. Customer expectations have changed. Radically. 

70% of customers say experience drives brand choice. And if rubbed the wrong way? Almost 40% of global consumers won’t do business with a company after just one negative interaction. 

In every interaction, today’s customers expect immediacy, relevance, and above all, a personal touch.  

This is where the gap lies for many brands. Tech alone can’t close it. Winning today means creating digital experiences with people at the heart, using AI to scale, and being bold with your ideas. At the end of the day, we’re not just competing for our customers’ attention. We’re fighting to stay relevant to them in every interaction. 

Recognise the person behind the screen 

Personalisation doesn’t mean using a name in an email. It means showing each individual the right content, on the right channel, at the right moment. Personalisation is understanding the person behind the screen: knowing preferences, anticipating needs, and delivering value before they ask for it. 

What does that look like? 

• Suggesting the next step customers might take in their journey. Based on patterns, time since last purchase, or life stage, a beauty brand might suggest a change in skincare routine as seasons shift. A baby gear company could anticipate milestone moments and offer timely suggestions for gear upgrades or parenting content. 

• Cultivating community with human-centred content. 92% of consumers trust word of mouth and user-generated content over traditional brand advertising. Build that trust by recommending user-generated tips, feedback, or testimonials to the customers based on their interests. 

• Adapting loyalty rewards based on customer behaviour and values. Move beyond one-size-fits-all points and perks to personalise rewards based on what a customer actually cares about. For example, a frequent traveller might get geo-personalised offers when landing in a new city.  

There’s a catch: true personalisation requires high-quality data at the heart of your content strategy. That data needs to be actionable, not trapped in a data warehouse or other disconnected systems where it can’t inform your strategy in real time. Otherwise, you risk missing opportunities to meet customers in the moments that matter. 

It’s time to move beyond transactions and recognise the person behind the screen. And, keep in mind, in a world where everything is tailored, only the experiences that feel authentic will stand out. 

AI helps scale personal touch  

When we think about personal touch, we don’t think about AI. But in reality, true personalisation isn’t possible without it. 

Why? Humans alone can’t produce enough content to deliver the right message to the right person at the right time. But AI, when guided by people, can.  

That doesn’t mean turning AI loose without guidance. Marketers — writers, editors, strategists —– need to be involved from the start. They must feed AI brand knowledge and integrate it with the right data and systems to stay closely connected to real-time customer signals, needs, and pain points. AI can power personalisation, but only with humans behind it. 

Here’s another perk of AI: Smart marketers use AI to handle repetitive tasks like building segments or production workflows faster. We use it to make sure we have the right understanding of our ideal customer profile, to identify whether an account is the right target, or to enable prospecting at scale. 

Start small with AI. Use it to free up time. Then, reinvest that time in what really drives performance: empathy, storytelling, and the perspective only a human can bring. 

Creative, bold ideas win attention and loyalty 

Which brings me to my next point: when you truly understand your customers and use AI to scale content that speaks to them, you create time and space for your team to think bigger. 

Bold, creative moves matter and drive outcomes. Marketing is a memory game. That game moves fast. I’ve seen brands win big with the right message at the right time, or lose just as quickly when they go quiet or play it safe.  

Take ASICS’s “Dramatic Transformation” campaign, which subverted norms in a world where fitness marketing is all about physical transformation.  

The campaign, launched across the UK, Germany, Sweden, and the Netherlands, highlighted how movement improves mental health. They featured well-known influencers in “before and after” photos, where the only difference was a genuine smile. It resulted in a 57% jump in mentions tying ASICS to mental health in just the first few weeks. 

It wasn’t just a campaign. It was a smart, bold bet thought up by a marketing team to surprise audiences, spark emotion, and stick with customers long after the campaign ended. 

Customers today need experiences that are both personal and powerful, happening when it matters most. Even in a digital-first world, a human touch will always stand out. 

• Gurdeep Dhillon is the CMO at Contentstack. Follow him on LinkedIn. 

Photo by Corinne Kutz on Unsplash