77% of consumers claim brand love—yet many drift away, while B2B buyers stay out of habit or because switching is too hard. AI turns “dark data” into connected, personalized experiences that win in the Engagement Era.

New York, Jan. 08, 2026 — At NRF 2026, Sara Richter, Chief Marketing Officer at SAP Emarsys, will unveil new insights from the SAP Emarsys Customer Loyalty Index (CLI) and Buyer Loyalty Index (BLI) that quantify a widening difference between stated loyalty and actual behavior.

“Quiet quitting has come to retail, and its B2B counterpart is Default Loyalty,” said Richter. “Both look like loyalty but are fragile. The reason? Internal complexity rather than a lack of intent. Every brand wants to engage better but many are not yet able to do so.”

Enter “dark data”: the signals brands already collect but can’t activate because they’re trapped in disconnected systems across technology, service, marketing and revenue. It’s not lost or ignored, it’s unusable in real time without an intelligence layer. “That’s why AI matters,” Richter added. “AI connects those signals so brands can deliver personalized, connected experiences across every touchpoint, every time.”

The Loyalty Gap in Numbers

B2C (CLI 2025):

  • 77% say they “love and trust” a favourite brand, yet:
    • 57% switch for a better price
    • 52% leave after a poor experience
    • 33% walk following a controversy
    • 24% exit over sustainability concerns
      Customers rarely complain; they quietly disengage—opening fewer messages, purchasing less often, then switching.

B2B (BLI 2025):

  • 71% of buyers claim loyalty—yet 70% of that is Default Loyalty: staying because switching is painful, not because the value is strong. When integration barriers fall or a superior offer appears, inertia evaporates.

Why Now

Budgets are tight, expectations are higher, and journeys are fragmented. Despite oceans of data, over half of brands say their data is too unstructured to use, and a similar amount cannot act in real time. The result: faith‑based loyalty instead of evidence‑based engagement, because the signals that predict churn sit in silos.

“This is the essence of what has become known as the Engagement Era,” said Richter. “Understanding how customers engage beyond transactions and using one intelligence layer to interpret signals across technology, service, marketing and revenue in real time. Traditional marketing platforms weren’t built for that.”

Molton Brown

Molton Brown is already putting connected engagement into practice. By unifying data and upgrading to SAP Commerce Cloud and SAP Emarsys, the brand now delivers seamless, personalized journeys across channels – helping drive a 20% uplift in repeat purchases, 5× more revenue from email, and contributing to a 30% increase in sales with record omnichannel performance.

From Dark Data to Daylight: Four Actions for 2026

  1. Activate Dark Data — Unify signals across technology, service, marketing and revneue to spot early disengagement (price sensitivity, friction, values clashes) before it becomes churn.
  2. Convert Default to Strategic Loyalty — Use predictive analytics and AI‑driven personalization to anticipate needs, scale relevance and turn inertia into intentional commitment.
  3. Deliver Connected Experiences — Eliminate fragmented touchpoints: one customer, one journey, one view.
  4. Build Values‑Based Engagement — Treat ESG and sustainability as procurement criteria; align proof points to the segments that care most.

The AI Advantage

Even as 63% of consumers express data privacy concerns, brands that deploy transparent, ethical AI to power real‑time personalisation gain a measurable edge.

95% of B2B buyers say AI positively influences loyalty.