Artificial intelligence is creating a “culture of experimentation” and empowering marketers to rapidly scale innovative and creative work, Rachel Thornton, chief marketing officer of Adobe’s enterprise business, told CMO Insider in a video interview.
The main advantage is optimized personalization. Thornton said one of his company’s customers, beauty retailer Ulta, uses AI to analyze customer data. AI can She said it can help pinpoint specific customer preferences and markets to “spots” and create a more personal relationship with a brand.
“It’s a one-on-one relationship and you’re building that experience and that journey around that customer,” she said.
Mr. Thornton was interviewed at Business Insider’s studio in New York.
The transcript below has been edited for clarity.
It’s exciting to see how marketing teams are leveraging AI to foster a culture of experimentation.
AI can be very helpful in understanding customer insights. What does the data say? How can I use Adobe Audience Agent and more to find new audiences? How do I use GenStudio Performance Marketing products to grow my paid media efforts?
But it’s really about how we embrace it and how we experiment with AI. We can capture and amplify all the great and innovative work they’re doing while keeping creative marketers at the center of the conversation. AI gives you that power.
AI enables Ulta to personalize customer journeys
Ulta Beauty is also thinking about personalization and building better customer journeys using AI. In the past, customers thought about demographics and what demographic groups their customers fit into. With AI, you can really understand your customer data, their preferences, what they’re buying, how they’re engaging with you, and what they’re giving back across your stores, apps, and online.
Ulta can now see the entire customer journey. They can say, “You don’t have to market based on demographics, you can market based on a segment.” I create a personal profile, understand what they want, and then actually deliver it so they feel like their relationship with that customer and their brand is a personal relationship.
It’s a one-on-one relationship where you actually give the customer exactly what they need and build an experience and journey around that customer.
So whether it’s a creative product or a marketing product; With Adobe GenStudio products, you can leverage segmentation to create assets for great brand campaigns and consider extending them across multiple channels and even multiple languages.
Next, think about your data platform. It’s all about customer data, how you understand what your customers are doing and who you are. Looking at it from a customer insight perspective — it’s about turning that insight into reality and actually driving customer action.
Celebrate creativity through customer events
At Adobe, our motto is “We want to empower everyone to create.” I think that’s very powerful because we believe that and we see that with our customers. Everyone is creative at heart. How can you achieve that creativity?
Whether you’re a creative professional, a marketer, an influencer, or just want to create great videos and content, our history and platform as a whole is filled with tools that our customers use, experience, and love every day.
In October 2025, we held an Adobe Max event in Los Angeles. Thousands of people gathered there to learn and share with each other.
Adobe Summit, a marketing-focused event, will be held in Las Vegas in April. It’s really exciting to have all these customers come together and not only share with each other, but share with Adobe what they love about our products.
Listening to our customers, taking their input and truly understanding what they like is how we develop and innovate great products. Having such loyal customers and fans is completely revolutionary. You wake up every day and think, “How can we make these tools even better for all the customers who use them?”
AI powers exploration at home and beyond
I love AI from an exploratory perspective. So, I travel a lot and bake a lot, and it’s actually great. I do recipe research and iterate on the recipe, what if I tweaked this and so on. It’s really fun. It’s like having a mini chef in your kitchen.
And of course, when traveling, it’s nice to be able to come up with highly customized itineraries, ideas, and even menu plans. That’s why I’ve loved it.
