Stance
Most CRM programmes are better served by well executed basics than poorly executed sophistication. The binding constraint is almost always the basics, clean data, a defined goal, frequency discipline, not a shortfall in AI sophistication, and no vendor compensates for neglecting them. Crawl, then walk, then run.
In practice
Crawl, walk, run is a concrete progression, not a slogan. Crawl is a working welcome journey, clean suppression and consent, and a sender setup that providers trust, authentication that passes in email, registered sender IDs and approved templates in SMS. Walk is lifecycle triggers and simple RFM segmentation on the data you already hold, read against a holdout. Run is the decisioning and per-user uplift modelling that only earns its keep once the crawl and walk layers are solid and measured.
AI personalisation is where neglecting the basics costs most. For most brands the limiting factor is not that the bought machine learning lags the platforms; it is that the basics, clean data, a defined goal, and disciplined frequency, are not yet in place, and no vendor AI compensates for that. Skipping to run on shaky basics is the common and expensive mistake. See decisioning and personalisation and customer data and identity.