The retail industry depends on major sales events, and no event shapes the year
more than Black Friday and Cyber Monday. However 2025 presents a new opportunity.
This year’s holiday surge arrives at the exact moment AI adoption is accelerating and consumer confidence is wavering. It’s a season defined by experimentation, tighter budgets, and an urgent need to understand customers on a deeper level.
According to Amperity research, nearly half of retailers now use AI weekly, yet many still struggle with fragmented or incomplete customer data. It results in a widening gap between retailers who can act on real-time insights during the holiday rush and those who can't.
The retailers that will pull ahead this year won’t just be the ones with the loudest promotions. They’ll be the ones with the clearest, most connected understanding of their customers.
Black Friday: Shifting from a sales moment to a signal moment
What happens during that intense, high-traffic weekend will have ripple effects far beyond November. The patterns that emerge in how shoppers browse, what they buy, where they engage become early indicators of how the rest of the season will unfold.
Instead of treating Black Friday and Cyber Monday as isolated events, they’re viewing them as the first major test of their AI systems, identity resolution pipelines, and real-time profiling. When those systems work, retailers head into December with confidence. When they don’t, the entire season becomes harder to navigate.
AI will only be as strong as the customer data beneath it
This is the year when many retailers will feel the difference between “AI experimentation” and “AI impact.” And the difference almost always comes down to the strength of their customer data foundation.
Retailers using unified customer profiles that capture real-time and historical context are already seeing the advantage:
Faster insights
Sharper audience understanding
Ability to pivot as soon as new behaviors emerge
Others are discovering the limits of siloed or outdated data when high-volume moments hit. The message is clear. AI doesn’t replace customer data; it amplifies it.
The holiday season is now the launchpad for 2026
What retailers learn in the coming weeks won’t just influence December performance. It will shape Q1 priorities, loyalty strategies, and next year’s investments. Retailers need to ask themselves questions like:
Did AI-driven experiments lift engagement?
Did identity stitching hold up under peak pressure?
Did segments behave the way you expected, or differently than planned?
These answers become the foundation for 2026 strategies. And they start forming during the holiday rush.
Download the full 2025 Holiday Guide
Get a deeper look at what’s changing this holiday season with our brand new 2025 Retail Holiday Guide to AI & Customer Data. The guide breaks down the trends shaping retail’s most important moment of the year and how brands can turn holiday insights into a year-round advantage.