GDPR didn’t kill personalisation – it just made it harder to fake

For years, customer data platforms (CDPs) were sold as the fix for modern marketing: pull data into one place, build a single customer view and personalise everything.

 

Then GDPR happened – and suddenly “personalisation at scale” came with a very real question: can you prove you’re doing it properly?

 

Consent. Deletion requests. Audit trails. Purpose limitation. These aren’t legal footnotes anymore. They’re part of the day-to-day reality for anyone working with customer data in the UK and across Europe.

 

At the same time, the market hasn’t slowed down. Industry estimates suggest Europe’s CDP software market was worth around $2.5 billion in 2023 and could grow at a 17-20 per cent CAGR, reaching roughly $8 billion by 2030. That growth isn’t just about shiny new tools, it’s about pressure. Teams need to make first-party data work harder, prove ROI and stay on the right side of regulation.

 

The real problem isn’t a lack of data

 

Most enterprises already have what they need. The issue is where that data lives.

 

It’s spread across CRM, web and app behaviour, product usage, support platforms and the data warehouse. Getting it into a shape marketing teams can actually use often takes weeks, multiple handoffs and a fair amount of guesswork.

 

And in the middle of all that, the stack keeps growing.

 

That’s why many organisations are moving away from “everything in one platform” and leaning toward composable approaches – systems that work with what’s already in place. The appeal is simple: less lock-in, less data copying and fewer painful rebuilds.

 

AI copilots are everywhere – but they don’t fix the basics

 

There’s also no shortage of AI promises right now. Almost every vendor has launched a copilot or assistant.

 

Some are genuinely helpful. But a lot of them are still sitting on top of the same messy foundations: fragmented data, weak governance and unclear ownership. AI might speed up a task, but it won’t magically make the underlying data clean, trusted or compliant.

 

Where Uniphore fits in

 

Uniphore’s CDP Agent is built for the way most enterprises actually operate today.

 

It connects to the systems organisations already use through composable architecture and makes customer data usable for marketing – without forcing migration or duplication. The goal isn’t to add another heavy platform. It’s to help teams build audiences faster, trigger journeys confidently and act on customer signals without waiting on engineering every time.

 

It also helps bring together two types of data that usually sit apart:

• Structured data (profiles, behaviour, transactions)
• Unstructured signals (support conversations, transcripts, feedback)

That combination makes it easier to spot intent, churn risk and adopt next-best action earlier – and respond in time.

 

Uniphore highlights outcomes including 65 per cent faster audience creation and 70 per cent reduced cost-per-click, showing what happens when activation becomes simpler and more immediate.

 

The takeaway

 

GDPR didn’t end personalisation in Europe. It just ended the easy version of it.

 

The next phase belongs to marketing teams that can move fast without cutting corners – using systems that are composable, governed and built for the way customer data actually works now.

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To find out more, book a demo

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By Mohit Mehta, Senior Vice President, Uniphore