UK retailers say loyalty systems lack AI readiness

HyperFinity has published research showing that most UK retailers do not believe their loyalty systems are ready for agentic AI. The study found that 72% said their existing loyalty infrastructure was not yet fully prepared.

The findings highlight a gap between retailers' interest in using AI in customer loyalty and the systems they currently have in place. According to the company's Agentic Advantage Report, only 29% said their loyalty platforms were fully prepared for agentic AI deployment.

Retailers nevertheless expect AI to play a bigger role in managing customer relationships. More than half of those surveyed, 54%, said the biggest impact on customer loyalty over the next two to three years would come from faster customer insight and decision-making through intelligent agents.

Another 44% said AI would make it possible to deliver one-to-one personalised engagement at scale. A further 40% said it would reduce the need for human analysts, shifting staff from producing reports to commercial decision-making.

Early use cases

Loyalty and customer relationship management were identified as among the earliest retail functions likely to adopt agentic AI. One-third of respondents, 33%, placed loyalty and CRM near the front of the queue.

This suggests retailers see customer engagement as a practical starting point for more autonomous AI tools, even as many acknowledge their underlying systems may not yet support them. The research also indicates that businesses are looking beyond broad customer segmentation towards more individualised offers and interactions.

Thomas Hill, Co-Founder of HyperFinity, linked this shift to a broader change in how retailers use AI in commercial decisions.

"The real opportunity isn't simply automating retail processes, it's optimising retail decisions. AI will increasingly handle routine operational choices, while humans focus on complex commercial judgement supported by AI-driven recommendations.

"What's also becoming clear is that personalised offers - not dynamic pricing - are the next battleground for loyalty. Dynamic pricing risks the kind of trust erosion that alienates customers; personalisation does the opposite, making customers feel understood rather than exploited. Agentic AI is what finally makes that possible at scale.

"We're moving beyond a world where loyalty teams spend weeks producing reports to explain what happened. Agentic AI will allow retailers to understand what's happening in real time, identify opportunities and activate personalised experiences at a scale that simply wasn't possible before," said Hill.

Systems gap

The figures highlight a tension in retail technology planning. Many companies believe AI can change how loyalty programmes operate, but most also accept that current platforms are not ready to support that shift.

That matters because loyalty systems sit close to customer data, offers, rewards and communications. If they cannot support faster analysis and action, retailers may struggle to turn AI-driven recommendations into live campaigns and customer interactions.

The report suggests the competitive issue may lie less in gathering data than in acting on it quickly. In practice, that means shortening the gap between identifying customer behaviour and responding with a tailored offer, reward or message.

For retailers, the challenge is likely to be both technical and organisational. Existing loyalty platforms were often built for scheduled campaigns, periodic reporting and broad audience groups, rather than constant adjustment based on individual behaviour.

By contrast, agentic AI implies systems that can identify opportunities, recommend actions and support rapid execution. The research suggests many retailers want to move in that direction, but their current infrastructure may still reflect an earlier model of loyalty management.

The findings form part of HyperFinity's research into AI use in retail, indicating that loyalty is emerging as an early test case for agentic systems even before many retailers have rebuilt the foundations needed to support them.

One-third of retailers identify loyalty and CRM among the first retail functions likely to adopt agentic AI, while nearly three-quarters say their loyalty systems are not yet fully ready.