MarTech Edge Interview with Barry Padgett, CEO, Amperity

Please tell us about your professional journey that led you to becoming the CEO of Amperity.

My journey began with a passion for innovative technology and data-driven decision-making. Before joining Amperity, I held leadership roles in various tech companies like Concur and Stripe, focusing on enhancing product capabilities and expanding global reach. In these positions, I gained a deep appreciation for the importance of data in making informed decisions, reducing risk, identifying trends, improving efficiencies and developing customer-centric strategies, among other things. These experiences paved the way for my role at Amperity, where we set new standards in customer data management.

It all started with my love for solving complex data challenges. Before joining the team at Amperity, I had the privilege of working with some amazing companies like Concur and Stripe. In those roles, I focused on making our products even better and helping the companies grow globally.

Through those experiences, I really came to understand just how critical data is in making smart decisions. I mean, when you have the right data, you can spot trends, reduce risks, boost efficiency, and create strategies that truly put the customer first. But it is only a game-changer if you are making decisions on a solid data foundation.

So, when the opportunity at Amperity came knocking, I knew it was the perfect fit. Here, we're not just unifying, managing and helping activate customer data; we're revolutionizing the way it's done for over 400 brands. It's an exciting time to be part of this team, and I can't wait to see how we continue to set new standards in the industry.

How do you think Customer Experience is changing the game in marketing? What role does data play in it?

Customer experience is transforming marketing by prioritizing personalized engagement at scale. In today’s digital landscape, the quality and accessibility of data are key to achieving this. Amperity ensures marketers have a solid data foundation, enabling them with high-quality data for precise personalization.

Amperity’s platform empowers brands to tailor experiences uniquely to each consumer by using advanced data capabilities and Generative AI. This approach allows for enhanced personalization, adapting to consumer behaviors and preferences in real time. The result is not just personalized marketing but personalization at the enterprise level, ensuring every customer interaction is impactful and relevant. By improving data quality and accessibility, Amperity helps marketers exceed the evolving expectations of their customers.

What trends will stand out in the retail industry? What role do AI and LLM play in the industry?

In the retail industry, trends like hyper-personalization, real-time customer engagement, and paid media activation are becoming increasingly prevalent due to consumers’ growing demand for customized shopping experiences that align closely with individual preferences and behaviors.

AI and large language models (LLM) are crucial for analyzing vast amounts of data and generating insights to predict consumer behavior. For instance, Amperity recently introduced AmpAi, a suite of generative AI capabilities, to add a critical intelligence layer to enable all technical and business users to get the most out of their customer data. The first two capabilities, AmpGPT and AI Assistant set a new benchmark in marketing and advertising technology. AmpGPT empowers marketers to interact with their data using natural language. Ai Assistant removes the barriers to creating SQL queries and fixing potential errors within those queries.

Can you share your perspective on how automation tools revolutionize the industry?

Automation tools are dramatically transforming industries by simplifying complex processes and delivering actionable insights within seconds. At Amperity, our automation capabilities streamline the unification and activation of customer data, freeing up marketing teams to concentrate on strategy and customer engagement rather than tedious data management tasks.

Amperity facilitates a seamless flow of insights across various platforms, such as CRMs and customer service tools. Consequently, these insights can be utilized to deliver precisely targeted messages at the right time, enhancing the effectiveness of communication strategies and improving overall customer experiences. This capability optimizes marketing efforts and scales personalized customer interactions across multiple touchpoints.

What advice would you like to impart regarding building customer relationships?

Building strong customer relationships starts with truly understanding your customers’ needs and preferences. Leveraging data effectively is critical. Ensure your data management tools, like our Lakehouse CDP, can share live data sets between a CDP and a lakehouse without maintaining ETLs or copying data in multiple places. This enables IT teams to optimize how data is stored and processed with any platform that uses a lakehouse’s open table formats to save time and lower costs. This composable, more secure flow of data ensures brands can fuel the data-intensive demands of Generative AI and 1:1 personalization with high-quality data.