HCL Unica+ unveiled as AI-first platform for trust-based marketing
HCLSoftware has launched HCL Unica+, an AI-first MarTech platform designed to support marketing in what the company terms the Intelligence Economy.
The platform seeks to address challenges marketers face in an environment characterised by an overload of digital messages, rising customer expectations, and the increasing use of AI-generated content. HCL Unica+ is presented as a software solution that prioritises building trust and customer loyalty over simply acquiring attention through clicks and views.
Explaining the thinking behind the platform, Raj Iyer, Executive Vice President and Portfolio Manager at HCLSoftware, said, "The bridge to trust is the intelligence economy which we believe is the future of marketing and the philosophy by which HCL Unica+ was created."
"Whereas digital experiences are often generic and irrelevant, brands can use the power of intent to deliver memorable experiences that build trust and strengthen relationships."
The company positions the platform as a response to what it describes as the shortcomings of the "attention economy", in which the proliferation of channels and technology has led to "attention fatigue" and declining engagement among customers. HCL Unica+ aims to use data-driven context and insights to improve marketing outcomes by delivering what it calls "memorable experiences" that enhance relationships with customers.
Raj Iyer added that HCL Unica+ was developed for the future of marketing: "Historically, marketing has been all about the attention economy and seeking ways to accumulate clicks and eyeballs. However, the subsequent proliferation of channels, digital technologies and social media has overloaded people with messages, resulting in attention fatigue and lower engagement — and made even worse as AI-based content has entered the fray. As marketers, the challenge in this environment is to build trust with customers and earn loyalty by delivering value—in short, a trust economy."
The platform is equipped with what HCLSoftware describes as agentic AI capabilities. It promises deep customer understanding through analysis of "digital body language" and intends to provide customer experiences tailored to an individual, often referred to as a "segment of one".
One of its features, the Segmentation Agent, enables hyper-personalised marketing offers in real time, aiming to move beyond traditional customer segmentation.
The platform's Content Optimizer Agent automates the creation of content tailored to contextual engagement, while the Insights Agent delivers analytics on campaign performance with the intention of providing actionable intelligence. These tools are designed to allow marketers more precision and autonomy in campaign management, with the aim of increasing the relevance of messaging and the efficiency of marketing initiatives.
The MaxAI Workbench is a component of the platform that enables marketing teams to build custom AI models for campaign hyper-targeting and audience scoring.
The MaxAI Always-on Assistant offers a resource to help design, refine, and execute marketing strategies with the intention of improving efficiency.
Additional features highlighted include real-time personalisation, unifying customer data into single profile views, and what the company describes as inherent privacy and responsible AI guardrails. The platform's technology is intended to continuously learn from customer interactions and augment marketing teams' performance, while maintaining compliance and data privacy standards.
Liz Miller, Vice President and Principal Analyst at Constellation Research, shared her view on the shift occurring in the marketing sector, stating, "The age of random applications of AI, automation and data is over as customers and marketers alike have heightened expectations for engagement rich with intentionality and notable outcomes."
"CMOs and their teams deserve marketing technologies that meet this new era of intelligence head on with platforms that deliver context and understanding of both the customer and the business, drawing from data and insights from across the organization and across the digital and physical reality of the customer."
According to HCLSoftware, a key attribute of Unica+ is its ability to unify customer data into a high-definition profile, which it says supports real-time identification, segmentation, and personalised engagement.
On the subject of the platform's user experience, Thomas Ricoux, Head of Marketing, Digital, and Customer Relationships at Macif, commented, "With HCL Unica+, we're entering a new era, one that enhances marketers' capabilities thanks to AI, all at the service of our customers' satisfaction. The change in UX/UI enables marketing teams to focus on the performance of their campaigns, with a global and efficient vision."
Privacy and responsible use of artificial intelligence are also highlighted. The company has stated that its software operates with "inherent guardrails," designed to allow organisations using the software to remain compliant with regulations and maintain customer trust when deploying AI in their campaigns.
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