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Maximizing ROI from capital investments in AI for brands worldwide.
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CX & martech personalization in the age of AI – the new model: AICX
The Institute is a vendor neutral global research symposium specializing in the AI-driven personalization automation sector for omnichannel marketing, sales and service. The world’s leading brands rely on us 1) to help them select strategic partners, 2) devise their overall customer-facing AI ecosystem and 3) create competitive advantage in today’s AI-driven brand wars.
In 2024, our partner McKinsey and other think tanks have validated an alarming statistic: only 20% of brands have relevant AI initiatives in flight, and many of these are pilots. The reason? Vendor technology that has been proven at Enterprise scale is difficult to find. The AICX Institute was founded as a service to help global brands navigate the dangerous rapids of these formative years of AI personalization technologies. Getting “out of the lab and into production” is proving to be more challenging than ever imagined.
Membership in The Institute is FREE to individuals – see the link below to sign up now. As a member you’ll receive unlimited access to articles, whitepapers, presentations, our CEO Coffee Hour thought briefs, links to special events, podcasts, webinars, training ideas and complementary free passes to industry conventions and seminars all over the world. Membership keeps you in tune and ahead of the pack.
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🏛️CEO’s Perspective
From the CEO: Today in the sharktAInk™ we interview Henrik Kjaer, Director of Data at WPP/OgilvyOne. Henrik is a thought leader on the topic of data management strategy and architecture in support of AI-driven martech & CX automation. Henrik has joined the AICX Institute as a contributor in the areas of data, analytics and AI.
Dennis DeGregor: “Good morning Henrik, can you provide an overview that describes your approach to integrating data & AI to provide competitive advantage?” How has the arrival of AI changed the “traditional” approach to MDM and CDPs?
Henrik Kjaer: “AI output—whether it’s model-generated insights, content, or predictions—doesn’t neatly fit into traditional master data. AI outputs don’t replace traditional master data but it can act as a new layer of enriched intelligence on top of it This shift blurs the lines between structured master data and AI-driven insights, requiring businesses to rethink how they govern, store, and leverage AI-generated data.
Dennis DeGregor: “As you know, The AICX Institute™ is pioneering the new model of AI-generated data as an entirely new data layer in CDPs and MDM. We are calling this new layer APD, or AI Party Data. What is your approach to leveraging APD at Ogilvy?”
Henrik Kjaer: “AI output as a new layer refers to the idea that AI-generated insights, predictions, and even synthetic data can be persisted, governed, and used as a referenceable extension of traditional master data.
Because AI-generated data evolves dynamically, it requires governance to prevent bias, model drift, and decision-making risks. Organizations need to:
– Define which AI outputs should be persisted as master data vs. treated as ephemeral insights.
– Implement confidence scores and explainability frameworks for AI-derived attributes.
– Establish feedback loops where AI outputs refine traditional master data rather than overriding it.
Here’s how the APD concept plays out across different business applications, I see it as five main areas:
1. AI-Generated Customer Segments & Personas
Instead of relying solely on manually defined customer segments (e.g., “High-Value Shoppers”), AI dynamically clusters customers based on behavior, preferences, and inferred attributes. These AI-generated segments become a new layer of master data, used for targeting, personalization, and customer experience optimization.
Example: A retailer trains an AI model on transaction and browsing history to generate evolving “micro-segments” like “Weekend Deal Hunters” or “Luxury Brand Loyalists”. These segments are stored and referenced in CRM and marketing platforms.
2. Predictive & Prescriptive Attributes
AI models can generate new master data attributes by predicting key business values. Unlike traditional attributes (e.g., “Customer Age” or “Product Category”), these AI-generated fields are probabilistic and continuously updated.
Example:
* Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV) → AI predicts a customer’s future revenue potential. This field is stored as a dynamic master data attribute in CRM and financial planning systems.
* Next Best Offer (NBO) → AI determines the most relevant offer for each customer and stores it alongside traditional master data, allowing real-time personalization.
3. AI-Generated Content & Product Descriptions
AI can enrich master data with automated, contextual content to enhance searchability and discovery.
Example:
* An AI model generates SEO-optimized product descriptions based on customer reviews and technical specs. These descriptions are stored as a master data field for e-commerce platforms.
* AI synthesizes personalized email subject lines for each customer segment, treating them as metadata stored in a campaign management system.
4. AI-Enhanced Entity Resolution & Relationship Mapping
Graph-based AI models can identify hidden relationships between master data entities, creating a new interconnected layer for better decision-making.
Example:
* AI-powered entity resolution consolidates duplicate records across CRM, ERP, and support systems, ensuring a single customer view.
* AI builds relationship graphs to uncover cross-product affinities or influence networks within B2B accounts, enriching customer and supplier master data.
5. Synthetic Data as a Master Data Layer
AI can generate synthetic master data where real-world data is incomplete, biased, or privacy-sensitive.
Example:
* A healthcare company generates synthetic patient data to train AI models without exposing real PHI (Protected Health Information).
* A financial institution creates synthetic customer profiles to simulate credit risk scenarios, integrating them into decision-making processes.
Dennis DeGregor: It’s an interesting time in the data & AI sector to be sure. As The AICX Institute continues its work with brands worldwide, we look forward to getting your evolving perspective on AI Party Data and its impact on revenue & brand competitiveness. Thanks of your insights on AICX Institute’s new APD model. Let’s consider this brief interview today to be Part I of a continuing series.
Henrik Kjaer: For sure and we look forward to working with The Institute to bring APD to life for our clients across the globe.
Henry Kjaer Bio:
Henrik is an experienced data strategist and helps business leaders with the strategies and roadmaps to achieve success with data and AI solutions in complex, distributed environments. At WPP he works on the world’s largest, most innovative brands. He can be contacted on linkedin here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hekjaer/
The AICX Institute Trends Monitor™ for 2025
🏛️2025 Trends! Here is the much-awaited AICX Institute™ Trends Monitor Preview
AICX9000™ Certification
Dear Members,
One of the Top 3 questions we receive from CEOs/CXOs is, “…how can we insure that our AI partners can do what they say?”
Additionally, our 2024 AICX Survey™ indicated that maximizing ROI of capital investments is the CEO’s top priority for 2025-forward. The honeymoon is over – boards are demanding returns from AI and there’s no turning back. Getting “AI out of the lab and into production at Enterprise scale” has been the mission of The Institute since its inception. The AICX Institute’s mission is to guide global companies in the continuous challenge of optimizing performance of their end-to-end ecosystem – AI technologies, consultants & digital agencies.
AICX9000™ Certification ensures clients that their partners can do the job in the specific niche that they fill. Certification provides vendor partners with the credibility they need to get a seat at the table. The 21 attributes of an AICX9000 Certified partner are outlined below. Partners, within their area of expertise, need the ability to:
1) Support 10 Key AI Business Use Cases: technology or services meet the AICX Institute MET-A™ benchmark. MET-A insures that AI solutions are business-driven vs. IT-driven. Scroll down on this site for the MET-A Quadrant vendor scoring system or visit https://aicxinstitute.com/#meta.
2) Deliver an “AI Product”/Integration: ensure vendor AI tech integrates with existing marketing tools, data science, platforms. View solution from an “AI Product” viewpoint – strategy, data sources, AI algorithms, analytics and content are integrated to the appropriate degree given vendor scope.
3) Customer Focus: ensure AI tech prioritizes customer needs and preferences.
4) Leadership: establish clear leadership roles for overseeing AI marketing initiatives.
5) Engagement of People: involve all relevant stakeholders in the development and implementation of AI technologies & services.
6) Process Approach: define and manage processes to ensure consistent and predictable outcomes.
7) Improvement: continuously improve AI algorithms & personalization strategies, drive core client KPIs.
8) Evidence-Based Decision Making: use data and analytics to drive decisions.
9) Relationship Management: foster strong relationships with customers and partners.
10) Ethical AI Use: ensure AI is used ethically, respecting privacy and avoiding biases.
11) Transparency: maintain transparency in how AI systems make decisions and use data.
12) Data Security: implement robust data security measures to protect customer information.
13) Compliance: adhere to relevant laws and regulations regarding data use and AI across geographies.
14) Scalability: ensure AI engines and APIs can scale to handle increasing amounts of data and users.
15) Personalization Accuracy: continuously refine algorithms to improve the accuracy of personalization.
16) User Experience: focus on creating a seamless and engaging user experience.
17) Performance Metrics: define and monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) for AI marketing efforts.
18) Training and Development: provide ongoing training for staff on AI technologies and best practices.
19) Customer Feedback: regularly collect and act on customer feedback to improve AI systems.
20) Innovation: encourage innovation in AI marketing strategies and technologies.
21) Sustainability: consider the environmental impact of AI technologies, strive for sustainable practices.
If you are a vendor seeking to establish credibility and differentiation for your brand, or a client needing to sleep well at night with vendor selection, contact us today.
Dennis DeGregor
https://www.linkedin.com/in/degregor/ (Direct Message)
or email: CEO@aicxinstitute.com
About the AICX Institute
In 2011, I was recruited by Meg Whitman, CEO of HP and past CEO at PayPal, to develop the next generation of AI-driven CX & marketing Demand Center platforms. At the time, for customer-facing marketing, sales & service, AI was new and bleeding edge technology that was viewed with skepticism by the majority of the C-suite. By 2016, we had conceived, developed and launched the first AI-embedded omnichannel Demand Center platform for orchestrating the next generation digital customer experience. This effort gave rise to a whole portfolio of commercialized AI solutions currently in the global marketplace under the HPE brand – HPE Greenlake™ (https://www.hpe.com/us/en/greenlake.html).
At HP HQ in Silicon Valley, 3000 Hanover in Palo Alto, we developed what we affectionately called “the sharktank.” Partnering with Stanford University, The Sharktank became a recognized accelerator/incubator environment for the development of AI and data technologies – it would set the industry standard for how new AI technologies and startups would be evaluated both as partners and as candidates for venture capital funding. We knew that it was important to evaluate more than just functionality, as the management team, strategy, vision and funding are better predictors of staying power for AI vendors than software functionality. Our global clients at The Institute, the world’s biggest brands, have validated our approach. In the emerging art & science of AI, our clients want to be sure that the vendors they select as part of their AI ecosystem will stand the test of time, becoming leaders in their respective areas of competency.
In 2019, the work we did in the HP Lab led me to publish “HAILOs: Competing on AI in the Post-Google Era (Amazon),” a futuristic look at how the “AI-driven Brand” leaders of the future will use AI in brand management, segmentation, offer targeting and content generation in the decades to come.
The AICX Institute™ was founded to develop the art & science of strategic AI ecosystems to the next level.
Our Advisory Board are Silicon Valley thought leaders, corporate execs, and notable pioneers and innovators in AI personalization tech.
In 2024 The Institute is taking AI “out of the lab and into production at Enterprise scale.”
The world’s biggest brands are counting on us.
Below are some selected thought papers that I have authored as potential thought starters for your AI personalization strategy…enjoy!
Dennis DeGregor
2024: The Breakthrough Year for the AI-Driven Brand
Contrary to the current AI hype cycle, AI isn’t actually new. AI is a decades-old technology with a long history of promises and setbacks for early adopter companies…
Drive Your Revenue & Customer Loyalty Metrics to Bold New Heights in 2024
Over the last three decades, brands have invested billions of dollars in the customer experience (CX) in the quest to gain competitive advantage in revenue…
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this is
We are the inventors of MET-A, the world’s first and only proprietary AI algorithm for quantitatively scoring the strategic relevance of AI personalization vendors in the global CX market place.
Learn More
Management Team
Experience
Technology
Algorithm
Welcome to next-level AI personalization for vendors in the global CX market place.
MET-A™ stands for Management Team, Experience and Technology Algorithm. MET-A evaluates thousands of AI personalization martech companies worldwide on multiple attributes. MET-A then assigns a weighted score based on the above three dimensions plus the ability to support 9 key personalization Use Cases as shown in the graphic below.
MET-A evaluates multiple variables including, but not limited to, targeting capabilities, generative AI, content management, measurement systems and other vendor capabilities. The score is weighted using our deep experience in evaluating the strategic depth of an AI company’s business model, predicting their effectiveness as a vendor/partner and likelihood of long-term success/staying power in the markets that they serve. The score is a proprietary combination of AI machine learning science and applied human insights and creativity, giving the algorithm its uniquely powerful predictive capabilities.
A high MET-A Score indicates that a vendor is qualified as an AI ecosystem partner for our global clients. We developed MET-A from decades of personal experience as executive leaders in Silicon Valley at companies like HPE, Google, Meta and Amazon. We learned that two-dimensional magic grids developed by non-practitioners cannot adequately assess the complexity of today’s AI personalization technologies. The MET-A Algorithm is the output of 10 years of intense laboratory experience evaluating both AI startups and publicly funded companies through a strategy, technology and management team lens. Our CEO at AICX Institute served as the Worldwide Managing Director of Of HPE’s $1.4B business unit that developed the first fully integrated omni-channel AI-driven Demand Center Platform. This platform became the foundation of multiple AI technology platforms marketed today under the HPE brand.
Industry-First Algorithm For Evaluation of Al Vendors as CX Strategy Partners
Ranked on: 1) Management Team & Strength of Vision, 2) Experience/ Customer Impact, and 3) Technology Innovation & Velocity.
Potential Areas of Vendor Focus
PERSONALIZATION CATEGORIES
- Mega-tech/Integrated Platform
- Generative Al
- Content
- Ecomm
- Email automation
- Demand Center
- Inbound customer call routing
- Lead routing
- Predictive sales lead scoring in CRM
- Chatbots
- CRM-linked martech automation
MET-A TRACKER
- Insider Growth Management Platform
- Braze
- Optimizely Experimentation
- Clever Tap
- Blooomreach
- Iterable
- MoEngage
- Adobe Target
- Salesforce Einstein AI (in Beta, under evaluation by The Institute)
- Netcore
- Monetate Personalization Platform
- Sitecore CDP
- Reflektion Customer Engagement Platform
MET-A RADAR
- Adobe Target
- Salesforce Einstein AI (In Beta, under evaluation)
- Epsilon People Cloud Messaging
- Algonomy (retail niche)
- Maya.ai by Crayon Data
- WebEngage
- IBM iX Experience Orchestrator (XO) (Legacy)
- IBM Watson Personalization (Legacy)
- Salesforce Mktg Cloud Personalization (Interaction Studio, limited AI)
- Oracle Infinity Behavioral Intelligence
- Oracle Maxymizer
- Glean
- Amplitude Audiences
- Emarsys
- ZETA
- Coveo
- Dynamic Yield
- Cordial
- emBlue
- Doxee Interactive Experience
- Evolv AI
- Garderobo.ai
- Klevu Product Discovery Platform
- Luigi’s Box
- MyPreferences
- Neocom
- Ve Global Digital Assistant (Legacy)
- Acquia
- Autobound
- HCL Software
- Open Text
- Yieldify
- TrenDemon
- ConvertCart
- Webtrends Optimize
- Crossing Minds
- Intellimize
- Wrench.ai
- Optimizely One
- Campaign Monitor by Marigold
- Emma by Marigold
- VWO Testing
- Nosto
- Contentstack
- Contentful
- Liferay
- Crownpeak
- Amplience
- Magnolia
- ArcXP
- SAP
- Capillary Engage+
- Openprise
- Core Media
- Progress
- Kentico
- Squiz
- Dotdigital
- Relay Network
- Vue.ai
- Xtremepush
- Acquia CDP
- VWO Insights – Web
- Addshoppers
- Marigold Live Content
- BrightInfo
- Colabo
- Fresh Relevance
- Optimizely Web Experimentation (A/B)
- SiteSpect
- Session AI
- Zobrist Software Smart Merchandiser
- SiteSpect Platform
- MobiLytix Real Time Marketing
- Recombee
- Fanplayr
- AB Tasty
- Barilliance
- Appier AIDEAL
- ContactPigeon
MET-A™ Membership
Streamline your CX operations with AI.
Email CEO@aicxinstitute.com with questions regarding membership.
VENDOR MEMBERSHIP
Silver Level Participation
The Institute does not charge for membership but we conduct an assessment that includes an Evaluation Fee. SILVER membership includes:
- The Institute initiates coverage on your company, placing your company on the MET-A Monitor matrix, providing informational access about your company to thousands of major brands worldwide. The institute publishes your approved collateral to our site and to social media such as LinkedIn. We let the world know that your company is part of the MET-A Monitor group of AI personalization companies that meet the AICX Institute Standard.
- email: CEO@aicxinstitute.com with questions.
Gold Level Participation
GOLD Level participation provides all the benefits of SILVER above, and provides additional coverage items:
- Inclusion in both the MET-A matrix and inclusion in the CEO Insider section of the AICX Institute.
- Annual podcast – the CEO of AI Institute interviews your company and publishes it on our site and in LinkedIn, making the podcast continuously available in our site for major brands to view.
- Annual CEO meeting – annual meetings with the Institute CEO to get the insider view on competitor technology and functionality advances – keep ahead of the AI personalization sector with this in-depth session.
- email: CEO@aicxinstitute.com with questions.
Corporate Sponsorship
Unlock value and make an impact.
Email Membership@aicxinstitute.com to register your company today.
CORPORATE CUSTOMER SPONSORSHIP
Silver Level
Receive the MET-A Monitor matrix updated quarterly for one year. Stay current with advances in AI-driven personalization technologies for your planning requirements. Use MET-A to plan your optimized AI ecosystem of vendors according to their areas of focus:
Mega-tech/Integrated Platform, Generative AI, Content, Ecomm, Email automation, Demand Center – inbound customer call routing, lead routing, predictive sales lead scoring in CRM, Chatbots, CRM-linked martech automation.
Gold Level
Receive Silver benefits outlined above plus:
- The MET-A Maturity Model – allows you to conduct a self-assessment of your AI capabilities across 9 business Use Case capabilities on a maturity scale of I through V (see MET-A Model above). Use Cases include: 1) Data, 2) Personalization, 3) Marketing Analytics, 4) CX + Human/AI Interface, 5) Channel, 6) Content/Generative AI, 7) Media, 8) Process and 9) Technology – LLM @ Scale.
AICX Institute Inner Circle
Digital Agency Coverage
Corporate Benchmarks
AI Data Ecosystem – CDPs & Data Product Management
Customer Data Platform White Paper
Organizations are unable to deliver seamless and consistent customer experiences because of siloed, fragmented customer data. Yet leaders in data-driven marketing are six times more…
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At The Institute, we cut through the clutter – many of our friends & partners at mega-research firms do fantastic work (as a client, I have purchased a lot of research), but their observations are frequently too high level to be actionable on the front lines of marketing, sales, & service. So, given this, here are the Top 3 Trends for 2025-forward, straight from the CEO suite:
TREND 1) AI PERFORMANCE – CEOs and their teams are under intense pressure to deliver ROI from capital investments in AI. Let’s not sugarcoat it, jobs and careers are on the line. Several leaders at a top 3 global ad agency have confided in recent weeks that many marketers have either asked them “to pause or completely stop using AI in any creative or media services on their brand’s account” (direct quote). As one real life example, in 2023 Mark Read of WPP said he would invest approx. $300M in AI, but clients are not seeing the promise of increased capital investments in AI (see Reuters article below), so investing this significant capital becomes a bit of a quagmire. This begs the question:
Q: Despite all the hype about AI, why is demand for AI solutions faltering at clients?
A: The tech, processes & platforms are not in place to measure lift from AI – this is a widespread problem across all industry sectors. The MAKO™ platform, suddenly a hot product, was developed to solve this performance management problem – link is here:
https://lnkd.in/guYRAQJS
TREND 2) AI-driven Organic Revenue Growth: AI MUST drive measurable organic revenue lift (beyond the baseline control) in 2025 and be SCALABLE across enough products, channels, customers and geographies to receive continued funding. Again, wasted capital investments in AI PoCs that can’t scale are becoming career-altering events across sectors.
TREND 3) AI M&A – as predicted by The Institute in 2023, AI M&A will achieve stratospheric levels in 2025-forward as companies realize that, in today’s compressed AI development cycles, that it’s just easier to acquire AI niche players. The AICX Institute™ advises global hedge funds, institutional investors, VCs and major consulting companies on M&A, and keeping up with the identification, evaluation & recommendation of targets is a daunting task. The Institute’s MET-A™ Quadrant uses AI to assign a score to AI vendors and is being used by corporate strategy and finance teams teams to identify and act on M&A targets. Link is here:
https://lnkd.in/gGYcGAM2
Given the above fireworks in 2024, it’s an exciting time in AI to be sure! We are ready for 2025 and solving the problem of deploying AI at Enterprise scale.
DM me for a fast, no-obligation discussion on your AI project portfolio strategy. Cheers and Happy Holidays to all.