As organisations accelerate their adoption of artificial intelligence (AI), financial services firms are finding it difficult to keep up, with fragmented data emerging as a major obstacle to modernising customer loyalty programmes, according to new AND Digital research.
The findings, published in AND Digital’s “Winning the Intelligent Customer” report, are based on a survey of 250 enterprise-level business leaders. The report highlights growing customer expectations for personalised experiences and the critical role of high-quality data in achieving them.
Fragmented data was identified as the most common challenge, severely limiting the ability of firms to deliver seamless loyalty programme experiences. While larger organisations are leveraging real-time insights to shape more effective loyalty initiatives, smaller players are falling behind.
Kenn van Hauen, Chief AI Officer at AND Digital, said: “AI is reshaping how loyalty works in financial services. Larger organisations are already using real-time data and AI to deliver faster and more personalised experiences, while many firms are still trying to bring fragmented systems together.”
Van Hauen added: “Most organisations understand the value of more personalised customer experiences but delivering them depends on having reliable data and the ability to act on it. The organisations investing in those foundations today will be best placed to retain customers and stay competitive as customer expectations continue to rise.”
Cost remains a significant barrier, with 59% of leaders stating that the technology required to support AI-powered loyalty programmes is too expensive. Additionally, 72% believe effective AI-driven personalisation requires large-scale data operations already in place.
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Customer retention concerns are also rising. 68% of leaders fear losing customers in the next year if they fail to improve the customer experience, while 61% admitted they still struggle to create a single view of each customer , a key requirement for meaningful personalisation.
Despite 85% of respondents agreeing that data is the most important factor in delivering a strong customer experience, 75% said their organisations are prioritising AI investments over fixing underlying data infrastructure issues.
