AI, emotional loyalty, and unified data are reshaping the marketing landscape.
The takeaway from Salesforce Connections 2025 was clear: relevance is everything, powered by trust, connection, and intelligence. Here’s what emerged as the roadmap for marketing’s future.
AI Enhances, Not Replaces
With 88% of marketers already using AI [Source: AI for Good (Marketing) 6.12.2025], the technology has moved from experimental to essential. But as Sol Rashidi cautioned in the “Supercharge Creativity” session, speed without substance leads to declining standards. Tony Hawk’s keynote reinforced that relevance is earned through authenticity and persistence, not shortcuts.
The future belongs to marketers who use AI to surface insights faster, test, and personalize at scale — all while maintaining the human voice that makes content insight-backed, brand-owned, and shopper-tuned.
Loyalty Becomes Emotional Connection
Loyalty programs are evolving beyond points to timely nudges, meaningful personalization, and recognition. GasBuddy increased app engagement by gamifying gas savings [Source: Loyalty in Every Industry—Trends, Tactics & Tech 6.12.2025], showing how behavioral nudges drive results.
With loyal customers delivering 52% more value [Source: Creating Emotional Loyalty Session 6.11.2025], brands are using loyalty as a bridge across the entire shopper journey, from acquisition to reengagement.
Data Powers Real-Time Personalization
One brand used Data Cloud to unify over 2.2 million profiles, dramatically reducing duplication, and another client identified 18% more high-value segments by blending loyalty and online behavioral data.
The payoff is significant: Brands using Data Cloud personalization boosted engagement by 30% by shifting from static journeys to dynamic, real-time signals. With 76% of shoppers expecting connected journeys, fragmented data leads to fragmented experiences. [Source: Ways Data Cloud Unifies Fragmented Customer Journeys 6.12.2025].
Trust Enables AI Growth
As 83% of IT leaders cite AI as introducing new security challenges [Source: Build Trusted Agentic Experiences with Agentforce 6.12.2025], building trusted AI experiences becomes essential. Salesforce’s Agentforce demonstrates this with multi-level guardrails, evolving from Level 0 (rules-based bots) to Level 4 (multi-agent orchestration).
Even healthcare is leading the charge, with 75% of organizations experimenting with or scaling AI to address labor shortages [Source: Agentforce Impact for Health & Life Sciences 6.12.2025].
The Path Forward
At Connections 2025, the clear message was that the future of marketing belongs to those who can turn data into action, creativity into connection, and AI into amplification.
The brands that will lead aren’t just adopting new technologies—they’re understanding how to weave behavioral insight, emotional relevance, and operational agility into strategies that truly connect with customers. The opportunity lies in using AI to unlock deeper shopper motivations while connecting creative and media to real commerce outcomes.
In a world moving towards AI-powered marketing, what remains timeless is empathy, creativity, and utility. The future belongs to those who understand that marketing is ultimately about human connection—technology amplifies that connection, data informs it, and creativity makes it memorable.
Let’s not just adapt to the new rules of modern marketing. Let’s help write them.
