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Advertising Under Pressure: Your guide into Golden Quarter 2026 and beyond
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For years, marketers have been told that data is the new oil. Collect more signals - every click, search, browse and purchase – and build richer profiles. The more data you had, the better your ability to personalise experiences and drive growth.
But what happens when those signals start to disappear?
As AI transforms how consumers discover, evaluate and purchase products, we're entering a new era of commerce. One where decisions are increasingly influenced, and in some cases made, by intelligent agents acting on behalf of consumers.
During our recent Love of Play webinar, Microsoft's Richard Potter described a future where many of the behavioural signals brands have traditionally relied upon become hidden behind a customer's own AI agent.
The question is no longer how much data you can collect. It's whether consumers trust you enough to share it.
Welcome to the Permission Economy.
Want to explore how AI, loyalty and gamification are converging? Watch our on-demand webinar, Love of Play: Loyalty, Gamification and the Future of Customer Trust.
Traditional personalisation has largely been built on observation. Brands track behaviours, analyse patterns and infer intent. A customer searches for a product, abandons a basket or clicks on an offer, and the system responds with a tailored experience.
But as AI agents increasingly mediate interactions between consumers and brands, much of this behavioural telemetry becomes less visible. At the same time, personalisation becomes more important than ever.
In an increasingly crowded marketplace, relevance is what earns attention. If a brand cannot demonstrate a meaningful understanding of a customer's preferences, motivations and context, it risks becoming invisible.
As Richard Potter explained, in an agentic future, propositions won't simply be discovered by humans browsing websites. They will increasingly be surfaced by AI agents negotiating on behalf of customers. If a brand isn't relevant enough to make the shortlist, it may never even enter the conversation.
The brands that thrive in this environment will be those that build direct, trusted relationships with customers. That means moving beyond passive data collection towards active value exchange.
Every time a customer chooses to share information, complete a challenge, engage with content, express a preference or participate in a loyalty experience, they are doing more than generating data. They are granting permission.
When consumers willingly share information in exchange for a better experience, they create a foundation for more meaningful personalisation. The interaction feels collaborative rather than extractive.
This distinction is becoming increasingly important as consumers become more conscious of how their data is collected and used.
For many years, loyalty programmes have been viewed primarily as retention tools; a way to reward behaviour, encourage repeat purchases and increase customer lifetime value.
Those objectives remain important, but loyalty's role is expanding. In the future, loyalty programmes will play a critical role in helping brands earn the trust, consent and first-party data needed to power meaningful customer relationships.
The most successful programmes will go beyond simply rewarding transactions to instead create ongoing dialogues. They'll encourage customers to share preferences, participate in experiences, explore new products and engage with brands in ways that feel valuable and rewarding.
In other words, loyalty becomes the mechanism through which permission is earned, and that permission becomes one of a brand's most valuable assets. Rather than viewing loyalty as a marketing programme, brands should begin viewing it as the infrastructure that supports trusted customer relationships.
This is where gamification becomes particularly powerful. Too often, gamification is reduced to points, badges or prize draws. But at its best, gamification is about creating participation. It gives customers reasons to engage beyond the transaction.
During the webinar, Epsilon and PlayFab explored how game mechanics such as missions, progression, challenges and personalised experiences can create sustained engagement while helping brands better understand their customers.
The four key principles:
Customers aren't filling out forms because a brand wants more data, they're participating because the experience itself delivers value. The result is richer insight, stronger engagement and a deeper emotional connection.
As AI continues to reshape commerce, many aspects of purchasing will become increasingly rationalised. Algorithms will compare prices faster than humans and agents will evaluate features more efficiently. Product discovery will become more automated.
In this environment, emotional loyalty becomes even more important.
During the webinar, Mrinalini Chowdhary described this as the "human override" - the emotional connection that helps brands remain relevant when decisions are increasingly driven by logic and algorithms.
The brands that succeed will be the brands customers trust, choose to engage with and those that have built relationships strong enough to survive when decisions become increasingly automated.
Trust, emotional connection and relevance become the human advantages that machines cannot easily replicate.
Forward-thinking brands are recognising that the future of loyalty isn't about collecting more data, it's about earning more permission.
In the Permission Economy, the most valuable customer data isn't the data you collect, it's the data customers choose to share, and that starts with giving them a reason to say yes.
That requires a different mindset; one that prioritises trust over transactions. The brands that embrace this shift will be better positioned to navigate an increasingly AI-driven future.
The future of loyalty will be defined by more than points, discounts and transactions alone. It will be defined by trust, permission and the quality of the relationships brands build with their customers.
In Love of Play: Loyalty, Gamification and the Future of Customer Trust, experts from Microsoft, Epsilon, PlayFab and leading loyalty practitioners explore:
