Yum Brands: AI-Powered Marketing Campaigns Boost Customer Engagement

In early, limited pilots of artificial intelligence (AI)-powered marketing campaigns, quick-service restaurant (QSR) company Yum Brands reportedly is seeing double-digit increases in customer engagement compared to traditional digital marketing campaigns.

“I think it’s just the early start of what it could do,” Joe Park, chief digital and technology officer at Yum Brands,told The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) in an interview posted Friday (Nov. 15).

Yum Brands, which owns Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, KFC and Habit Burger & Grill, has begun using AI to personalize its marketing campaigns, Park said. For example, when delivering emails, the technology customizes the time of day, day of the week, subject line and content for each recipient.

“With AI-driven marketing, instead of sending the same offer to everyone as a one-size-fits-all, we can engage each of them with the relevant offers at the right time,” Park said in the interview.

The company is also using AI to select from pre-written messages, decide when and how to deliver them, and provide marketers with real-time results from the campaigns, Park said.

In the future, Yum Brands plans to increase the use of AI in its mobile apps and its drive-throughs. For example, the technology could personalize the menu board the customer sees, based on their purchase history, Park said.

The company is pursuing a two-phase digital strategy that includes AI, PYMNTS reported Nov. 5. Yum Brands Chief Financial Officer Chris Turner said during an earnings call that the first phase focuses on acquiring, building and scaling proprietary platforms to gain control over their data, streamline innovation and leverage cost efficiencies through scale, while the second phase aims to maximize the value of those platforms by using AI and the company’s extensive data assets.

“We believe we are still only scratching the surface of the full value of our digital capabilities,” Turner said during the call.

Generative AI is set to revolutionize retail by deepening customer engagement, personalizing shopping and optimizing supply chains, according to the PYMNTS Intelligence and AI-ID collaboration, “What Generative AI Has in Store for the Retail Industry.”

The report also found that 70% of consumers and executives said retail marketing and sales are areas likely to see further AI disruption.