Future-Proofing Customer Communications: Navigating Data, Personalization, and AI

The marketing and communications landscape has transformed dramatically over the past decade. Today’s consumers – whether at home or on the go – are bombarded with messaging across countless channels. For print providers, the challenge is clear: how do you cut through the noise and stay relevant?

That question took center stage during the recent webinar, “Future-Proofing Customer Communications,” hosted by Printing Impressions and In-plant Impressions – two PRINTING United Alliance brands. Moderator and Alliance editor Bob Neubauer emphasized the importance of seamless omnichannel messaging across both print and digital formats. He also posed a critical question to the audience: “How do you handle ever-changing data privacy and compliance regulations?”

To tackle these and other pressing issues, a panel of industry experts shared their insights:

• Kevin McPherson, senior client executive, Quadient, a PRINTING United Alliance member
• Brian Cox, vice president IT, CCM/CXM software development and BCS architecture, RRD
• Alin Mihalcea, senior director, national programming and development, DCM

From Demographics to Hyper Personalization

McPherson noted that the market is rapidly evolving around personalized communications and data. From marketing to regulatory compliance, the focus has shifted from basic demographics to character-based personas — and now, to hyper personalization.

Referencing the iconic “Cheers” tagline, “where everybody knows your name,” McPherson emphasized that today’s consumers expect brands to recognize and tailor messages specifically to them.
To explore the concept further, McPherson asked Cox and Mihalcea how they define hyper personalization.

Cox explained that it means creating a direct, two-way line of communication. For RRD, it’s not just about delivering information — it’s also about understanding how recipients engage with it, so they can respond, answer questions, or encourage action.

He added there is a fine line between how RRD communicates with its customers and the available technologies such as artificial intelligence.

“We want them to know that we understand them, we understand their needs, but we also don’t want to be too close to the point where it makes them feel a little uneasy,” Cox said, speaking on behalf of RRD’s business communications group.

Mihalcea agreed, adding that hyper personalization is a necessity. “Hyper personalization ensures that each customer receives content that's not only relevant but also compliant with regional laws, customer status, communication preferences,” he said. “It basically reduces risk, builds trust, and reinforces transparency.

In Mihalcea’s words, “attention is currency” — and hyper personalization helps earn it. Personalized messages that reflect a customer’s unique journey, behavior persona, and their needs are more likely to convert if marketers acknowledge those. Hyper personalization meets that customer expectation and shows respect for their time and attention.

But it comes with challenges. McPherson recalled a 2012 story where retail chain Target knew a high school student was pregnant before her parents did. According to Time, it was a fact that Target had obtained after carefully collecting information about her.

Like many companies, Target assigns each shopper a unique Guest ID. Information obtained through retail interactions via credit card, survey, website visit, etc., gets assigned to that ID. As statistician Andrew Pole’s computers crawled through the data, he was able to identify 25 products that, when analyzed together, could be assigned a “pregnancy prediction” score. When the girl’s father intercepted a mailer addressed to his daughter he had complaints, and eventually apologies when he learned the truth.

McPherson argued that they probably should have applied a filter to ensure the individual they were mailing to was 18-plus.

From Hyper Personalization to AI Integration

Halfway through the webinar, the conversation turned toward AI. The technology’s ability to listen is just one major reason behind its mega popularity. McPherson argued that AI creates messages better than humans do because sometimes humans have too much emotion or don’t think about pieces like spellcheck, grammar, or context.

Generative AI helps DCM’s customers ensure the messaging aligns with existing regulations, generating the right legal language, and quickly adapts to regional or policy changes. On the marketing side, it’s about speed, relevance, and personalization.

AI and content generation systems no longer work in silos — which is important because DCM’s customers do, Mihalcea said.

“This collaboration and real-time response, basically, is essential in the world with both risk and an opportunity to move fast,” he said. “[With solutions like] Quadient, DCM is able to offer a foundation of trust, agility, and growth [through] AI.”

Cox noted that AI delivers measurable benefits as an analytical tool to help customers identify cost-saving opportunities when transitioning to a digital platform.

“We've had great success in working with several of our clients to do an analysis that's really helped them save millions of dollars a year by understanding how they're communicating, what the mailbox looks like of their customers, so they can truly understand from all of their different business units, what an individual consumer is receiving when they're receiving it, how many times they're receiving it, whether they acted on it, and be able to really refine their programs, because AI just helps us take huge amounts of data and make sense of it,” Cox said.

Coming from an IT background, Cox told attendees to proceed with caution due to the amount of regulation – pointing to 12 states that have passed regulation regarding AI and another four to five states that are pending. He suggested companies implement guidelines around how to use AI so they can protect their digital assets and content, and make sure they’re not infringing any copyrights.

McPherson said that Quadient has a “bring-your-own-model” approach. “You bring your AI model that plugs into our system, so there’s no going into the public cloud and potentially exposing your customers’ data there,” he said.

Navigating Digital Transformation: Strategy Over Savings

McPherson then asked panelists to talk about digital transformation and experience. According to Cox, RRD offers an optional digital consulting engagement with its customers. The purpose is to help them understand where they stand compared to peers in their industry and help them assess what they’re trying to accomplish.

One of the questions that Cox always starts with is: What is your goal in moving to digital? Cost savings is a common answer, but he tries to help clients see beyond that.

“If you’re just looking to save money, then maybe the right answer is just convert your print to a PDF and send out an email with a link and let people come in and view that, but I think we would all say that’s not the best customer experience,” he said. “… Instead of saying we have a ‘digital strategy,’ we should say we have a ‘communication strategy focused on communicating with our customers in their preferred channel of choice, which has a digital-first focus.’”

Mihalcea said most of his customers and their audiences are digital. They expect real-time personalization and seamless communication on their own terms across their preferred channels. He offered the example of his 65-year-old father-in-law, who, five years ago, wanted a printed statement. But now, as an iPad owner, he no longer looks at paper. This is why agility is important.

“You know, they say, ‘data is power,’ right, but only if you use it,” Mihalcea remarked.

If you missed the event, it’s not too late to learn the insights. Click here to view the webinar on demand.

Bonus Learning

For those interested in learning more about artificial intelligence, attend PRINTING United Expo. The 2025 event will be held Oct. 22-24 in Orlando, Florida, and registration is now open.