Editor’s note: This article is co-authored by Bart Willemsen and Penny Gillespie, VP Analysts at Gartner. **The Gist** Personalization is now a key growth engine, with marketing budgets rising 30% in 2025 to prioritize differentiated, results-driven experiences. Although consumers are 1. 8 times more willing to pay a premium for personalized interactions, privacy concerns are redefining what responsible personalization entails. CMOs are increasingly viewing compliance not as a burden but as a competitive advantage that builds trust, transparency, and secures long-term market access. Next-generation customer intelligence models like the Digital Twin of the Customer (DToC) replace guesswork with dynamic, intent-based insights using minimized, ethical data. AI is transforming personalization from static campaigns to real-time, adaptive journeys tailored to customer behavior. To scale ethically, operating models must evolve to integrate human-AI collaboration, centralized governance, and frameworks that support compliance and agility. **Personalization's Rising Priority** Organizations are prioritizing personalization to enhance customer experiences and drive business outcomes. In 2025, personalization budgets increased by 30% compared to the prior year, reflecting commitment to cross-channel tailored interactions. However, many are early in their journey and face challenges scaling personalization, with only a few reaching true maturity. The 2025 Gartner Marketing Personalization Survey highlights that personalized experiences make customers 1. 8 times more likely to pay a premium. At the same time, consumers are increasingly concerned about data privacy and their rights, emphasizing the need for transparent data practices and giving customers meaningful control over their data. **The CMO’s Path Forward** CMOs must foster a clear value exchange where customers trust that sharing data leads to ethical, valuable, and non-intrusive personalization. Building this trust requires respecting customer preferences, delivering on promises, focusing on customer intent, and embedding compliance at the core of strategy and execution. --- **Table of Contents** - FAQ on Personalization - Establishing Compliance as a Prerequisite - Expanding Customer Intelligence - Automating Personalized Customer Journeys - Evolving the Operating Model - Conclusion: Defining the Next Era --- ### FAQ on Personalization Explore key insights from the past year about personalization trends and challenges, as detailed by CMSWire. ### Establishing Compliance as a Prerequisite Compliance is no longer optional—it’s foundational. Noncompliance risks hefty fines and reputational damage, especially given mature privacy laws and rapid social media scrutiny.

CMOs need to view compliance as a growth enabler by creating cross-functional personalization oversight teams, preparing for AI-driven personalization scenarios, and embedding compliance into all customer-data-related roles. Ethical personalization should be guided by organizational values beyond mere legal compliance. *Related: The Hidden Dangers of Over-Personalization in Marketing* ### Expanding Customer Intelligence Despite massive data availability, many personalized experiences feel irrelevant or intrusive. CMOs must discard outdated assumptions and use minimized, relevant data to fully understand customer intent. Technologies like the Digital Twin of the Customer (DToC) offer real-time, personalized, and context-aware models that anticipate preferences and behaviors. Achieving this requires transparency, continual audits, and empowering customers with data control to build trust and scale personalization effectively. *Related: Personalization Nation: How CX Leaders in the US Define Success* ### Automating Personalized Customer Journeys Personalization is shifting from static channel campaigns to dynamic, AI-driven journeys that adapt in real time. While AI currently supports analysis and recommendations, its future role includes autonomously generating, executing, and optimizing journeys at scale. CMOs must digitize journey maps, simulate scenarios with AI, and adopt orchestration tools to personalize all touchpoints. This evolution necessitates moving from siloed teams to integrated human-AI collaboration. ### Evolving the Operating Model Ethical and scalable personalization demands a flexible operating model with governance covering people, processes, technology, and data. CMOs should evaluate current maturity levels, develop advancement roadmaps, invest in AI capabilities, streamline technology stacks, and manage organizational change to enable seamless personalization. --- ### Conclusion: Defining the Next Era The future of personalization hinges on organizations that embed customer centricity and compliance as foundational principles, leverage AI to deliver real-time adaptive journeys, and empower customers with control over their data. CMOs must break down silos, invest strategically, and lead with ethical, agile personalization approaches. Those who succeed will set the benchmark for the next generation of marketing.