Driving Digital Transformation in 2025: The Critical Role of Consent and Preference Management

Modern enterprises face intense pressure to adapt to new technologies, meet rising consumer expectations, and navigate technically complex data protection regulations.

To stay competitive, savvy organizations must pursue new ways to digitally transform their operations, but this transformation requires more than just adopting new tools. It demands a shift in how data is utilized—moving away from basic data management and taking action to unlock consumer data’s full potential.

With troves of data from multichannel, multibrand environments, the opportunity presented by first-party consumer data (i.e. data provided directly by the consumer) is immense. The challenge lies in making all this data actionable—ensuring it's not only compliant, but also insightful and scalable. This is where a modern approach to consent and preference management, one that synthesizes user data across systems, sub-brands, and tools, becomes key.

By collecting clean, consented consumer data that accurately reflects user preferences and intent, enterprises can gain valuable insights to build engaged audiences, refine segmentation, personalize content, and drive innovation across AI and other technologies. No longer just a compliance checkbox, modern consent and preference management is now an essential driver of enterprise digital transformation.

1. Maximizing compliant first-party data to drive strategic outcomes

Access to clean and compliant first-party data is invaluable for any business, but especially for those operating at scale across disparate markets and geographies.

At scale, compliant first-party data allows businesses to create more refined audience segments, deliver highly personalized experiences across numerous touchpoints, and continuously optimize their marketing strategies. The more data is accurately captured and aligned with user preferences, the more effectively enterprises can predict behaviors, anticipate needs, and enhance customer interactions—leading to greater customer acquisition, retention, and overall growth.

According to a 2024 Forrester report, leveraging first-party data can improve:

• Customer acquisition costs by 83%
• Customer satisfaction by 78%
• Brand awareness by 75%
• Conversions by 73%, and
• ROI by 72%

By effectively managing consumer consent and preferences, enterprises are better equipped to implement data-backed marketing strategies that drive real revenue growth.

These statistics underscore the power of first-party data in driving measurable business outcomes, as they allow enterprises to optimize product development and tailor offerings to customer needs.

2. Personalizing user experiences at scale to drive revenue growth

Personalization is no longer a nice-to-have—it’s a necessity. Customers now expect tailored experiences across every interaction with a brand, whether they’re shopping, consuming content, or engaging with a service. Seamless personalization has a direct impact on business performance.

Enterprises that prioritize personalization see real results. According to research from McKinsey, companies that grow faster than their counterparts generate 40% more of their revenue from personalized experiences. Not only that, but:

To meet these expectations at scale, enterprises need a solid foundation of compliant user data.

Modern consent and preference management tools enable businesses to capture and manage user preferences in a way that’s both transparent and compliant with privacy regulations. By respecting and applying these preferences consistently across all digital touchpoints, enterprises can deliver more relevant and personalized experiences that drive higher engagement, improved conversions, and greater customer satisfaction.

3. Enabling AI innovation with ethical, compliant data

Artificial intelligence (AI) has emerged as a key driver of enterprise innovation. From enhancing customer experiences to optimizing operations, AI offers endless possibilities for growth. However, this growth depends on the quality and compliant sourcing of the data powering AI models and tools.

AI systems, particularly large-language models (LLM), rely on vast amounts of data to train and evolve. Clean, compliant data, i.e. data that’s obtained with user consent and compliant with privacy regulations, is vital not just for ethical reasons but also for the long-term scalability of AI systems. Without this data, AI innovation stalls.

By investing in modern consent and preference management systems, enterprises ensure that the data fueling their AI systems is clean, ethically sourced, and aligned with user preferences. This supports more accurate, fair, and scalable AI solutions that drive true innovation while maintaining trust and regulatory compliance.

4. Building trust and transparency to drive customer growth and retention

As consumer privacy concerns increase, trust has become a key marketplace differentiator. Consumers are selective about the brands they engage with—gravitating towards businesses that respect their privacy and give them control over their data.

Businesses that offer clear and transparent consent and preference mechanisms—giving users granular control over when and how their data is used—can build stronger relationships based on trust, improve customer satisfaction, and drive long-term retention.

5. Improving operational efficiency

As enterprises scale, they collect data across various platforms, channels, and systems, leading to fragmented or siloed consent and preference management.

Across these channels, consumer consent and preferences are often managed manually—relying on cumbersome processes such as uploading lists, performing custom engineering work, or applying consent settings through multiple disconnected systems.

According to a 2022 Deloitte report, 50% of organizations identified "challenges with technology infrastructure" as the primary internal barrier to cost control, highlighting the critical need for streamlined, efficient systems that can scale with business growth.

Modern consent and preference management solutions address these challenges by automating many of these manual operations. With an integrated platform, businesses can streamline how consent is captured, stored, and enforced across all digital touchpoints. These solutions ensure that any changes to user preferences or consent are synchronized in real-time across systems, reducing the need for manual updates and minimizing the risk of human error.

Empowering digital transformation through next-generation consent and preference management

For enterprises, digital transformation is not just about adopting the latest technology—it’s about creating value for customers and staying competitive in a rapidly evolving market.

A nuanced, real-time approach to consent and preference management plays a critical role in enabling this transformation by ensuring compliance, driving personalization, and building trust with customers.

Are you ready to unlock the full potential of your data while building lasting customer trust? Discover how next-generation consent and preference management can be the catalyst your enterprise needs to drive true digital transformation. Reach out today.