AI in marketing is no longer a choice, “it’s a necessity,” says Neil Patel, one of the world’s most influential marketing leaders, urging brands at DMA Singapore to move beyond buzzwords and embrace personalisation at scale.
The NP Digital co-founder told a packed room on day two of the conference that hyper-personalisation is now the benchmark and brands that fail to activate it will be left behind.
“Personalisation is what creates a better experience,” Patel said. “With AI, you can scale conversations to the individual. Not just five or 10 different journeys, but millions, all happening in real time.”
He contrasted AI-driven personalisation with traditional demographic segmentation, which he said too often relied on broad assumptions about customer groups. With AI, every interaction can be treated as unique, adjusting content, offers and even pricing based on context and behaviour.
“Personalisation is no longer a choice,” he said. “It’s a necessity. Every customer feels seen in the moment when you personalise. That’s the beauty of AI.”
Data without silos
But as AI workflows begin to transform marketing organisations, Patel was clear about the precondition for this future: data must be consolidated into what he called a “unified data foundation.”
“If your raw data is scattered across platforms, you won’t get the insights you’re looking for,” he said. “AI is only as strong as the data it draws from. Put in bad data, you’ll get bad output. Put in good data, you’ll see ROI.”
That consolidation underpins everything from automated ad targeting and personalised content to omnichannel campaigns that feel seamless across apps, websites and social platforms. Patel urged marketers to move quickly on this, warning that siloed data is the biggest barrier to execution.
Automation as the ROI driver
While generative tools and creative applications capture headlines, Patel argued that automation is where AI delivers its greatest value.
“Automation is where you’re going to get the ROI,” he said. “It’s about automating repetitive, boring, simple tasks and freeing your people to focus on impact.”
He pointed to agentic AI workflows that can catch SEO errors, optimise campaigns, and communicate across systems at a scale humans cannot match. “AI found 259 errors where humans found 83. The ideal solution is both – AI to scale the grunt work, humans to double-check and refine.”
Patel warned marketers against treating each platform as a silo in itself, particularly in APAC where regional approaches can differ.
“The journey should feel frictionless and consistent across platforms,” he said. “Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, your app, your website – the tone and content need to align. If they don’t, customers will see your AI effort as just buzzwords and vanity metrics.”
For businesses early in their AI adoption, Patel’s advice was to start small, with low-risk but high-impact tasks. And when it comes to marketing channels, he said focus is critical.
“Pick one channel where you already have traction. Do it really well, test agentic workflows, then expand.”
