On March 18, Intent HQ took the stage at the CMO New York Summit alongside marketing leaders from across the telecom, media, and finance industries. In a keynote that resonated far beyond the room, Kipp Gearhart, VP of Business Development, issued a wake-up call for brands navigating the post-cookie, privacy-first world.
His message? We’re entering a new iPhone moment, this time, driven by AI. And those who act now will define the future of customer engagement.
Just like the iPhone redefined mobile technology in 2007, AI is now redefining how businesses understand and engage with customers. But instead of competing over devices, today’s battle is about who controls the data.
Tech giants like Apple and Google are locking down access to behavioral signals, under the banner of privacy, while maintaining privileged visibility within their own ecosystems. This shift is fundamentally altering the way brands can interact with their own customers.
Will your brand own this moment, or be owned by it?
At the heart of this shift lies a fundamental contradiction: consumers want hyper-personalized experiences, but they also demand strict privacy. This is what Kipp calls the personalization paradox, a tension marketers must resolve to maintain trust while delivering relevance.
Traditional cloud-based AI systems often require sensitive customer data to leave the device. But regulations are tightening, cookies are disappearing, and Big Tech is creating “walled gardens.” The result? Brands are flying blind.
Kipp introduced Edge AI as the breakthrough technology capable of resolving this paradox.
Unlike cloud AI, which sends data away for processing, Edge AI brings intelligence directly to the device, smartphones, in particular. It allows brands to:
To thrive in this new landscape, the keynote outlined five strategic imperatives:
Customers want true personalization when they interact with brands. That’s a fact backed up by a lot of research and real-world experience. But there’s a fine line between giving people what they need and overreaching to the point where your efforts become invasive or creepy.
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