Jema Birkmeyer, VP of Strategic Accounts at Attentive, discusses the future of
lifecycle marketing in this MarTech Series interview:
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Hi Jema, what is changing most about lifecycle marketing as AI takes on
more campaign decisions?
Lifecycle marketing is shifting from setting the rules to setting the direction. Think
of agentic AI as a marketing team that never clocks out. As marketers focus on
strategy and creative, AI can work in the background, making millions of
decisions about who to reach, what to say, when to say it and which channel to
use. That intelligence is starting earlier in the customer relationship. With
something as simple as a website sign-up that treats every visitor the same, AI
can now analyze website visitor behavior in real time to identify the optimal
moment to present email and SMS sign-up invitations, helping brands convert
more visitors into high-quality subscribers.
Think of it as the difference between setting an alarm and having a personal
assistant who knows your schedule, anticipates what you need, and handles
things before you even have to ask. Marketers still set the strategy and
guardrails, while AI can continuously make and optimize the individual decisions
needed to bring that strategy to life. AI can handle more of the efficiency, but
brands still have to earn the connection.
Where do short-term optimization and long-term customer value most often
come into conflict?
The conflict usually arises when marketers optimize for the next conversion
rather than the relationship. You can always send another message, offer a
bigger discount, or push harder for a sale, and those tactics may move a short-
term metric, but if every interaction becomes “buy now,” customers will eventually
tune you out.
The better question is not just, “Will this get someone to convert today?” but, “Is
this making the customer more likely to engage with us tomorrow?” From
our research, 65% of shoppers are open to receiving more messages from
brands if they’re relevant, but 80% will ignore brands that send irrelevant
messages. AI allows marketers to understand when someone is ready to engage,
what will be useful to them, and when it may be better not to send anything at all.
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What role should segmentation continue to play as personalization
becomes more granular?
Segmentation isn’t going away, but its job is changing because customers are
moving faster than static segments can keep up with. It’s no longer just about
organizing customers into categories. It’s about understanding signals and using
that context to deliver experiences that reflect what customers care about in the
moment.
AI can help make segmentation more adaptive by identifying behavioral patterns
and responding as new information comes in. As brands connect more of their
customer and product data, signals like recent browsing behavior, inventory
changes, or pricing updates can help determine not only who should receive a
message, but when that message will be most useful because even great
personalization can miss the mark if it arrives too late. Segmentation still provides
important context, but AI can help marketers act on that context at the moment it
matters most.
Which areas of campaign optimization still require deliberate testing by
marketers?
Testing will always matter, but who has to do the heavy lifting is changing. We’re
already seeing this among our customers across both subscriber growth and
triggered messaging. For sign-ups, AI can learn from shopper behavior to
determine when and how to present an experience, while incremental cohort-
level A/B testing against a brand’s existing setup helps marketers better
understand subscribers and the revenue generated. Once someone becomes a
subscriber, AI can also optimize elements of triggered journeys, such as timing,
frequency and content, based on how that individual browses, clicks and
purchases.
There’s still an important role for deliberate testing around things like creative,
offers, trigger timing and the overall journey strategy, but AI can take on more of
the individual optimization within those experiences, giving marketers more time
to focus on what they want to test, why they’re testing it and what success looks
like. AI can optimize more of the journey, but marketers still need to decide what
winning actually looks like.
Where are brands most at risk of losing relevance when customer
interactions become more automated?
Brands are most at risk of losing relevance when automation becomes a reason
to send more rather than a way to better engage and understand customers. AI
makes it easier than ever to create and send messages at scale, but customers
don’t want to feel like an algorithm is targeting them. They want to feel
understood, from what they’re interested in to how often they want to hear from a
brand.
The brands navigating this best are using AI to listen better and send smarter.
They’re learning when to show up, when to stay quiet, and what will actually add
value for each customer, with the right strategy and guardrails in place. As more
interactions become automated, that intentionality becomes even more important.
What’s one conventional piece of wisdom about lifecycle marketing that
you think is now outdated?
Automation, and more recently AI automation, does not remove the need for
marketers. The reality is that automation just shifts the work and adjusts the type
of attention needed from marketers, but it doesn’t eliminate the need for human
insight and creativity. AI automation enables millions of small, real-time decisions,
but it’s the brand marketer’s judgment and creativity that make the impact of
those decisions stand apart from other brands. The beauty of improved lifecycle
marketing automation is that it frees up marketers to continue to elevate the most
meaningful work: deciding what a brand stands for, what you want your
customers to experience, how you want to communicate with them, and,
ultimately, building a long-term relationship.
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Attentive is the omnichannel marketing platform redefining how brands and
people connect. Trusted by global retail, ecommerce, sports, and entertainment
brands, Attentive’s mobile foundation gives marketers a stronger signal for
recognizing customers, personalizing messaging, and delivering performance
across SMS, email, RCS, and push. Its intelligence layer and agentic AI unify
customer profiles and act on real-time data, giving marketers what they need to
turn messages into moments that drive action, revenue, and loyalty.
About Jema
Jema Birkmeyer is VP of Strategic Accounts at Attentive, where she leads the
company’s most important partnerships and helps leading brands use Attentive’s
AI-powered platform to turn customer relationships into lasting growth across
email, SMS and app push. With nearly two decades in marketing technology and
media, including senior roles at Zeta Global, Treasure Data, and InMarket, she
brings a deep understanding of how personalization and data drive real,
sustainable results for retail and ecommerce brands.
