Customer Data Platform Market Predictions for 2025
December 4, 2024The customer data platform market is likely to change in the coming year. We asked CDP industry leaders for their CDP market predictions for 2025. Here are their responses.
AI and Customer Data Platform Expansion
Artificial intelligence and CDPs will continue to be intertwined. Customer data platforms will deliver new value by connecting AI models and data sources.
“AI-driven personalization within CDPs is transforming customer engagement. By leveraging first-party data, AI enables real-time insights, predictive capabilities, and hyper-personalized experiences. Features like segmentation, lifetime value forecasting, and next-best-action recommendations boost engagement and retention, meeting rising demands for 1:1 interactions and ROI from marketing tech,” says Janet Jaiswal, Global VP of Marketing, Blueshift.
“Marketing workflows will be transformed by AI, and so too must the way CDPs deliver value: by balancing the human and the automation, the privacy and the possibility, and the creativity and the control. CDPs have a critical role to play in managing these potentially competing priorities so that marketers can harness the AI in a way that supports their core jobs to be done in new ways,” predicts Cory Munchbach, CEO, BlueConic.
“[2025 will see a]n increase in realization that CDPs are a key part of any Enterprise’s AI strategy. Because CDPs are connected both to an Enterprise’s main data sources and its main activation platforms they are in the position to both feed AI models with the data they require and to take the output of those models and use them to power customer experiences,” says Damian Williams, CTO, n3 Hub Ltd.
“With the bloom off the rose in AI, companies are beginning to really think about AI trust, knowing that AI performance depends greatly on the underlying data. Thus, there is more pressure on CDPs to deliver the right data for AI. Not only the best data for training, but the fastest, most relevant data for predictions and calculations where either modeling or prediction is a point of failure,” says Steve Zisk, Product Marketing Principal, Redpoint Global.
“By 2025, CDPs will integrate advanced AI to predict customer needs before they arise, driving autonomous, context-aware customer interactions. Seamless integration with IoT devices and edge computing will enable hyper-localized, real-time engagement. This evolution will redefine personalization, making it predictive, adaptive, and always-on across all touchpoints,” predicts Megha Singh, Senior Content Marketing Manager, Algonomy.
“CDPs will empower non-technical users with generative AI and ML tools via low-code/no-code interfaces. Users can create dynamic content, hyper-personalized interactions, and predictive models. These tools enable ML-driven insights, simulating customer behaviors, forecasting trends, optimizing strategies, and making advanced AI/data insights accessible for innovation in engagement,” says Guus Rutten, Managing Director, GX.
“Marketers will move beyond basic AI tools that handle small workflow tasks. AI Decisioning will take center stage, using reinforcement learning and AI agents to automate experimentation and optimize cross-channel personalization. This allows marketers to step away from manual execution and focus on strategy—defining objectives and refining creative and guardrails while AI does the heavy lifting,” predicts Tejas Manohar, Co-Founder and Co-CEO, Hightouch.
“The CDPs that will be most successful are the ones that prioritize integration with a wide range of model providers and that are seen as AI enablers rather than those that try to develop their own models and attempt to compete directly with dedicated model developers,” says Damian Williams, CTO, n3 Hub Ltd.
“Most of the CDP vendors will be AI and ML driven, integrating modules to handle internally algorithms and output of different generative AI use cases. Another trend would be the transition from CDP to Data Cloud Platform, with a combination of upgraded data visualization capabilities and enhanced data cleaning and distribution offering,” says Andrea Belletti, Head of Customer Data & Activation, BitBang S.r.l.
Customer Data Platform Market Consolidation and Growth
The CDP market is predicted to consolidate while the definition of a customer data platform expands. The hybrid customer data platform and composable customer data platform will rise in prominence, as will CDPs working with data warehouses.
“2025 will see a massive consolidation of the CDP market as M&A fully opens up. Independent CDPs that remain will leverage AI from first principles to transform identity resolution, segmentation and orchestration,” predicts Subra Krishnan, CEO, Lemnisk.
“The vision of a CDP as strictly a marketing solution will expand to a CDP becoming widely adopted across the enterprise, partly because all functional units are vested in creating a superior customer experience. The classic packaged SaaS offering will transition to data-in-place and hybrid CDPs as companies realize that a CDP will need to work in their chosen architecture and infrastructure,” says Steve Zisk, Product Marketing Principal, Redpoint Global.
“Hybrid CDPs that support composable and a standalone packaged offering will become the norm, as buyers confront the different use cases that the business requires to drive growth, not just manage data or generate insights. The “final mile” of segmentation and activation that happens in CDPs is a critical bridge that is often under-valued when technical-only teams are making the CDP decision,” predicts Cory Munchbach, CEO, BlueConic.
“CDPs are shifting to composable solutions to meet the demand for flexibility and scalability in modern data strategies, offering modular components like identity resolution, analytics, or activation for flexibility and scalability. This trend supports industry-specific customization—e.g., healthcare compliance or retail analytics—while reducing inefficiencies like data duplication,” says Guus Rutten, Managing Director, GX.
“The data warehouse is here to stay as a center of data gravity. CDPs that succeed will fully embrace this shift. We’ve seen rising demand for Composable CDPs as companies replace older solutions that fail to deliver complete, accurate data. While many CDPs now claim “Composability,” true warehouse-native solutions are winning as businesses prioritize unbundled, warehouse-first architectures,” predicts Tejas Manohar, Co-Founder and Co-CEO, Hightouch.
Customer Data Platforms Will Drive Customer Loyalty, Real-Time Experiences, and More
CDPs will help with customer loyalty, retention, and CS. Support of customer data privacy and real-time experiences will also be important.
“Retention is key as customers grow less loyal, and centralizing data in a CDP is vital. Retaining customers costs five times less than acquiring new ones, making a strong retention strategy crucial for profitability. By understanding loyalty drivers, marketers can efficiently allocate resources to high-value customers, boosting engagement and ensuring long-term growth,” says Ben Tepfer, Director of Product Marketing, Optimove.
“Demand for privacy-first CDPs is rising with stricter regulations like GDPR and CCPA and growing consumer concerns. CDPs will integrate robust consent management, encryption, and compliance tools. Features like granular consent tracking, secure data sharing, and anonymization will become standard, positioning CDPs as trusted, customer-centric solutions for data privacy and compliance,” predicts Janet Jaiswal, Global VP of Marketing, Blueshift.
“By 2025, CDPs will evolve from data aggregation tools to orchestrators of real-time, predictive experiences. AI-driven automation will enable hyper-personalization at scale. Privacy regulations will amplify demand for CDPs as enablers of compliant first-party data strategies. Businesses leveraging CDPs will gain a decisive competitive advantage,” says Megha Singh, Senior Content Marketing Manager, Algonomy.
“Personalization starts with a CDP. Optimove’s 2024 Holiday Shopping Report reveals 88% of consumers expect personalized recommendations. AI and machine learning on top of centralized data enable hyper-personalization, analyzing data for real-time, tailored experiences. Predictive analytics and dynamic content adapt offers and communications to meet customer needs seamlessly,” says Ben Tepfer, Director of Product Marketing, Optimove.
We hope you enjoyed reading about CDP market predictions for the coming year. Thank you to our participants! You can also read our series of blog posts on CDP Best Practices, including:
