The Era of Hyper-Personalisation: Can AI Make Marketing More Human?
In a world flooded with ads, audiences scroll past generic content without hesitation. Today’s consumers expect brands to understand them as individuals, not just categories. Paradoxically, as technology becomes more automated, people demand interactions that feel both relevant and genuinely human. This shift has paved the way for hyper-personalisation: using AI to create deeply individualised customer experiences at scale.
Personalisation has evolved far beyond simple segmentation. While marketers once relied on broad demographics like age or gender, brands now craft experiences based on behaviour, context, and personal preferences. To meet these expectations, hyper-personalisation has emerged as a practice that uses real-time data, AI, and machine learning to create highly tailored products, services, and communications. By drawing on continuous behavioural insights, it enables meaningful, customised interactions that reflect each customer’s distinctive habits, moments, and needs with precision and relevance.
The power of hyper-personalisation lies in its use of granular data: browsing behaviour, past purchases, device usage, channel engagement, location, and time-based interactions. AI systems analyse these signals continuously, creating feedback loops that refine personalisation strategies based on outcomes. This allows brands to anticipate needs before customers actively express them, delivering proactive rather than reactive personalisation.
According to McKinsey reports, 71% of consumers expect personalised interactions, and 76% feel frustrated when they don’t receive them. This shows that in a competitive digital landscape, relevance is no longer optional but rather expected. AI empowers brands to build highly relevant, data-driven experiences that resonate with customers, boost satisfaction, and drive business growth. Brands embracing hyper-personalisation see higher engagement, stronger loyalty, increased conversions, and longer customer lifetime value.
While hyper-personalisation offers enormous opportunities, it also carries risks, including data security concerns and over-personalisation that can make customers feel like their privacy is being invaded. However, these risks don’t suggest abandoning hyper-personalisation altogether, but implementing it with caution and human oversight.
Empathy remains central to human relationships, and AI allows brands to extend it in ways previously impossible. Advanced algorithms can analyse moods and social cues, helping marketers build trust at scale. Despite AI’s capabilities, human judgment remains important because messaging must feel authentic, nuanced, and creative. These are qualities that AI cannot fully replicate.
Originality and individuality are crucial for marketing to truly engage, as even the best personalised, AI-driven content cannot sense emotional tone or provide unique perspectives for thought leadership. Instead, AI acts as an emotional intelligence amplifier, freeing marketers from repetitive data tasks and enabling them to focus on instinctual thinking and creativity. Thus, brands that succeed use AI not to operate mechanically but to engage consumers as complex humans rather than mere data points.
To conclude, hyper-personalisation is becoming the new standard for brands that want to stay relevant, trusted, and truly connected. What was once a competitive advantage is now a digital necessity, allowing brands to create experiences where every customer feels seen, understood, and valued. While AI can scale individualised interactions, human marketers shape the tone and ensure authenticity. Together, they drive meaningful growth and create connections with customers that feel genuinely human.
Written by Assem Mukhit, Client Partner
References:
https://www.salesforce.com/marketing/personalization/hyper-personalization/
https://eric-sandosham.medium.com/the-problem-with-hyper-personalisation-167bbd90c4da
