Marketing Automation: Trends to Watch in 2025

The Role of Generative AI in Marketing Automation

Having done AI to death in a recent blog, I'm not going to spend hours on this one.  Generative AI is one of the hottest topics in marketing today. With its ability to create content, analyse data, and simulate human-like interactions, AI is rapidly reshaping the way marketers approach content creation and campaign execution.

Take, for example, brands like Coca-Cola and Nike, which have started leveraging AI to craft personalised ads and creative content at scale. Coca-Cola’s “Create Real Magic” campaign allowed fans to generate unique artwork using AI tools, fostering deep engagement and showcasing how automation can fuel creativity.

By 2025, expect AI to not only create content but also help refine it. We’re already seeing this with platforms like Jasper AI and Copy.ai, which assist in generating blog posts, social media content, and email copy. What is the next evolution? Generative AI fine-tuning content based on real-time customer engagement and sentiment data. For marketers, this means an unprecedented level of efficiency and personalisation—imagine your emails adapting on the fly to customer behaviour, or your product descriptions being optimised in real-time based on user preferences.

This type of evolution will empower businesses to deliver highly relevant messaging at every touchpoint, allowing for a seamless and deeply personalised customer journey. 

Real-Time Customer Data Integration

One of the most significant challenges marketers face today is the gap between collecting customer data and using it effectively. We create 1.145 trillion MB per day, which is quite frankly a ridiculous amount of data when you think that a old-skool pen drives would be marvelled at if they could store 8GB. Enter real-time customer data integration, a trend that will transform how businesses understand and interact with their audiences by 2025.

Customer Data Platforms (CDPs), such as Twilio Segment and Hightouch, are already making strides in this area. These platforms aggregate data from multiple sources and deliver it to marketing automation tools like Iterable in real-time (OK, I'm going to have to say Iterable as I work there, but there are others of course), enabling more timely and relevant campaigns. For example, imagine a customer visiting an online clothing store and showing interest in a specific product. With real-time data integration, the marketing team could automatically trigger a personalised email or push notification offering a discount or product suggestion based on that customer’s preferences, all within minutes.

In the B2C space, Amazon is the gold standard for using real-time data to enhance customer experiences. Their recommendation engine, which is powered by real-time customer interactions and purchase history, is a prime example of how personalised automation can drive both engagement and revenue.

I expect even smaller retailers to adopt similar strategies, using real-time data to power personalised offers, content, and recommendations across all channels.

Predictive Analytics... Marketing’s Crystal Ball (I see cheering, new faces and lots of success for you)

While AI and real-time data are essential ("well done Sherlock" I hear you say), predictive analytics will be a huge game-changer in 2025. Predictive analytics uses historical data, machine learning, and AI to forecast future customer behaviour, helping marketers make more informed decisions about where to allocate resources and how to target customers more effectively.

Brands like Spotify have already mastered this technique. With its Discover Weekly feature, Spotify uses predictive algorithms to recommend music based on users' listening habits, providing a highly personalised experience. Similarly, predictive analytics in marketing automation will allow businesses to anticipate customer needs before they even arise, driving more proactive and relevant interactions.

For B2C businesses, this could mean predicting when a customer is likely to churn and automatically deploying a re-engagement campaign, or forecasting which products a customer might be interested in based on their previous behaviour and browsing patterns. As this technology becomes more accessible, even mid-sized businesses will be able to harness its power, creating more sophisticated marketing strategies that drive loyalty and lifetime value. This is where the more modern Marketing Automation platforms have already started to up their game and when coupled with an awesome analytics suite, you (the business that is) will be able to adapt and learn at a pace that was previously impossible.

Hyper-Personalisation at Scale

In the past, personalisation was often limited to basic customer segmentation - grouping customers into broad categories and delivering somewhat tailored content.  It was also something that took ages to achieve as data would not be accessible to the marketer and therefore you had to request it from your data teams, only to find it was out of date when you got it, so you start over again. As we approach 2025, hyper-personalisation, powered by AI and real-time data, is becoming the norm.

Hyper-personalisation involves using behavioural and transactional data to deliver content that is unique to each individual at every stage of their customer journey. Netflix is a perfect example of this trend in action. Their algorithm curates personalised movie recommendations, tailored specifically to the preferences of each user, based on real-time viewing habits and engagement.

For marketers, this shift means moving away from “one-size-fits-all” campaigns and finally towards the wholly grail of creating bespoke experiences for every customer, which we have been talking about for what seems an age now, which I know to be true as one of my white papers on this exact subject was released 15 years ago (before I had a beard as well).

With advancements in automation, businesses will have the tools to dynamically adjust messaging, content, and even product offerings in real time, creating highly relevant experiences that increase engagement and conversion rates.

Automation Meets Customer Experience

2025 marks the time when marketing automation will no longer be solely about efficiency - it will be about creating extraordinary customer experiences, which I've been preaching for a while, and like the coming mobile commerce after the 5th time of asking, I think we are finally there. The future of marketing automation lies in its ability to seamlessly blend with customer experience (CX) initiatives, ensuring that every interaction is as smooth and personalised as possible.

Consider Sephora, a brand that has successfully integrated automation with its CX strategy. Sephora uses AI-powered chatbots to assist customers with product recommendations, order tracking, and beauty advice, delivering a personalised, hands-on experience that mirrors what customers might receive in-store. This automated experience isn’t just efficient, it’s enjoyable and aligned with Sephora’s brand ethos.

Looking forward, automation will play a more prominent role in enhancing the customer journey by providing omni-channel support, including voice, chat, email, and social media. This will enable businesses to offer a unified and frictionless experience, regardless of where or how the customer interacts with the brand.

Marketing Automation and Sustainability

Sustainability has become a crucial focus for consumers, and by 2025, it will be a driving force in marketing automation. Consumers are increasingly demanding that brands take a stand on environmental issues, and marketers are responding by incorporating sustainability into their automation strategies.  But you need to be careful as a brand to not incorrectly stating your credentials here, you will get found out and the negative impact will not be a great return for your business.

Brands like Patagonia are already leading the way here by using marketing automation to promote eco-friendly products and practices. They use their email campaigns to not only promote its products but also raise awareness about environmental causes. Their automated marketing campaigns are deeply aligned with their values, showing that automation can be used to strengthen brand purpose and build trust with customers.

During 2025 I expect we’ll see more brands following suit, using marketing automation to communicate sustainability efforts and foster loyalty among eco-conscious consumers.

Omnichannel Automation

Now we come to my last point, and that is how today’s customers expect seamless experiences across multiple touch points.  Omni-channel has been about for many many years, but now automation will be a critical component of any successful marketing strategy, especially as marketing teams are typically smaller (or agile) and the methods of customer interaction become more vast. This will involve integrating all customer interactions across various channels - such as email, social media, mobile apps, and websites - into a single cohesive experience.

Brands like Starbucks are already trying to master this with their mobile app, which integrates in-store purchases, rewards, and mobile payments into one seamless experience. With marketing automation, businesses can ensure that customers receive consistent, personalised messages across every channel, whether they’re browsing on a website or scrolling through social media.

Businesses in the future will rely on automation not just to coordinate messaging across platforms, but also to predict customer preferences and adjust interactions accordingly, ensuring a more connected and engaging customer journey.

So what does that mean for 2025 and Beyond?