More than half (62%) of U.S. retailers have more than 50 systems holding consumer data, according to this Deloitte study. Yikes! Less surprising: just 22% have integrated data privacy plans with business strategy. Not surprising at all: 86% of consumers believe they should be able to opt out of sales of their data while 47% feel they have little to no control over it. Or should we be surprised it’s just 47%?

Marketers hire agencies when they lack in-house skills. Eying the martech talent gap, Interpublic Group spent $2 billion last year to purchase data-driven marketing services company Acxiom. They’ve now launched Kinesso, which will rely on Acxiom to create applications that use data to improve media results. Kinesso will also incorporate Cadreon, Interpublic’s addressable media activation unit.

Automated marketing platform HCL Unica’s V12.1.10 release presents new AI features including AI-based predictive models. These will identify high-value prospects, products to recommend, next-best-channel for the recommendations and optimized send times. AI will also refine customer segmentation based on multiple data sources.