How AI can significantly enhance predictive modeling outcomes

by Jeremy Meade, VP, Data Operations & Governance 6 min read July 21, 2026

At A Glance

Consumer behavior shifts faster than traditional model inputs can track it, which leaves marketers spending against audiences that are less likely to respond. Experian's AI enhanced modeling applies AI to find and validate stronger predictive signals across our existing data and audience products, producing a 10% average model lift across hundreds of models. For marketers, that means better targeting and less wasted spend, without a new workflow.

Consumer behavior keeps shifting across channels, and the signals that point to your most relevant audience aren’t always obvious. Experian’s AI enhanced modeling applies AI to find and validate stronger predictive signals across our data and modeling technology, so marketers can reach higher-potential consumers with less wasted spend.
 
A consumer may not fit an expected profile exactly, but still show behaviors that suggest strong relevance for a campaign, product, or offer. When audience strategies rely too heavily on static or less predictive signals, marketers can miss valuable opportunities, spend against less relevant consumers, and increase the risk of audience fatigue.
 
Stronger audience strategies start with stronger model inputs. This article looks at why signal quality matters, what better model inputs can mean for audience performance, and how AI can help identify more useful predictive patterns.

Why do traditional attributes alone leave opportunity on the table?

Traditional attributes, like demographic and static data, remain valuable. They help marketers understand who consumers are, how they live, and what they may care about.

Audience relevance is typically influenced by a combination of attributes rather than any single factor. A consumer may not match an obvious buyer profile yet still show signals that suggest they are likely to act. When audience strategies rely too heavily on familiar or less predictive signals, marketers may overlook high-potential consumers and continue spending against audiences that are less likely to respond. That can limit reach, reduce efficiency, and increase audience fatigue.

Personalized audience insights for retail marketers

Advances in AI and modeling are helping marketers move beyond obvious or static signals toward more current, actionable audience intelligence, improving model performance, and strengthening the predictive power that supports better marketer outcomes. By making it easier to test more combinations and compare which inputs are more likely to predict a desired outcome, AI can help turn hidden patterns into useful signals for audience planning and activation.

How does AI find more useful predictive patterns?

AI helps modeling teams identify meaningful combinations and transformations of data signals that can be difficult to find through manual data science work alone. It surfaces correlations, suggests signal combinations, and accelerates the review of possible model inputs. That gives modeling teams a faster way to design, test, and compare more potential predictors for a defined objective.
 
AI also gives modeling teams another way to look at the data. Every data scientist brings valuable experience, context, and judgment to model development, but all people also bring their own perspectives and blind spots. AI can supplement that expertise by suggesting feature combinations or data patterns the team may not have known to explore.

In that way, AI acts less like a replacement for human expertise and more like an added team member. It introduces new possibilities, expands the range of inputs under consideration, and helps modeling teams see relationships that may not be obvious at the start.

Those suggestions still require human review, testing, and validation, but they can help data scientists learn from the data in new ways and produce stronger outcomes for marketers. For marketers, better inputs mean audiences that reflect current behaviors, interests, purchase patterns, and intent more accurately, which supports stronger campaign performance and better outcomes.
 
More data only matters when it leads to better signals. AI helps prioritize validated signals that improve predictive outcomes, rather than expanding inputs without a clear purpose. AI models can help identify nonlinear interactions and subtle patterns that may otherwise go unnoticed. With the right data foundation and validation process, those patterns can become stronger model features that support more relevant audiences.

An AI icon surrounded by a web of lines and circles

Why does data quality determine AI model performance?

AI is only as useful as the data behind it. Predictive modeling depends on accurate, compliant, expansive, and relevant data. Strong signals need to be tested against known seed or deterministic data, which gives models a reliable benchmark for comparison. That validation is what separates useful predictive signals from interesting patterns.

By applying these AI-driven advancements to our modeling approach, Experian has seen a 10% average model lift across hundreds of models, validated against known seed or deterministic data.

For marketers, these improvements can translate into more efficient and effective outcomes across the use cases they rely on. With more predictive models powering audience inputs and decisions across planning, enrichment, modeling, onboarding, and activation, marketers can focus efforts on higher-potential consumers and move more quickly toward their goals.

What do stronger signals mean for marketers?

More useful predictive signals help marketers focus effort and spend on consumers who are more likely to match a desired outcome, such as purchase, response, retention, or upsell.
 
This is where Experian’s AI enhanced modeling comes in. AI enhanced modeling is built into our data foundation and modeling technology that applies AI to identify and test more predictive, current, and actionable signals across our data and audience products.

As part of our data foundation, AI enhanced modeling:

Identifies high-potential consumers who may not fit an obvious profile

Reduces wasted spend tied to outdated or less predictive attributes

Draws from a fresher, more relevant consumer pool

Strengthens existing Experian data and audience use cases without changing workflows

Makes first-party data more useful for audience planning, enrichment, modeling, and activation

For marketers, this means better model outcomes across the use cases and applications you already rely on, including onboarding, modeling, Enrichment, Marketing Attributes, and audience activation, without adopting a new workflow.

How does AI improve model development speed and performance?

Consumer behavior will keep shifting, so audience strategies need model inputs that capture those changes and show marketers which consumers are more likely to act.
 
AI uncovers signal combinations that traditional exploration may miss, analyzes large and diverse data sets, and compares potential predictors faster. When paired with strong data, modeling expertise, and validation, these inputs support better model performance and more relevant audience decisions.
 
Our AI enhanced modeling brings together AI, data, identity, modeling expertise, and validation to identify more predictive, current, and actionable signals across the products and use cases you already rely on. This gives you better audience intelligence, more relevant activation, and stronger marketing performance, with responsible data use built into the process.
 
To see how AI enhanced modeling can strengthen your predictive audiences, talk to our team today.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.


About the author

Smiling adult man with salt-and-pepper beard and short hair, wearing a blue plaid blazer and white button-down shirt, leaning against a stone wall with a blurred outdoor background.

Jeremy Meade

VP, Data Operations & Governance, Experian

Jeremy Meade is VP, Data Operations & Governance, at Experian Marketing Services. With over 15 years of experience in marketing data, Jeremy has consistently led data product, engineering, and analytics functions. He has also played a pivotal role in spearheading the implementation of policies and procedures to ensure compliance with state privacy regulations at two industry-leading companies.


FAQs

Experian AI enhanced modeling is our approach to applying AI within our existing data foundation and modeling technology. It identifies and tests more predictive, current, and actionable signals across our data and audience products, without requiring a new workflow.

Experian AI enhanced modeling has produced a 10% average model lift across hundreds of models, validated against known seed and deterministic data.

Experian AI enhanced modeling doesn’t replace human data scientists. AI surfaces signal combinations and patterns a team might not think to test. Every suggestion still goes through human review, testing, and validation before it becomes part of a model.

Experian AI enhanced modeling strengthens existing use cases across onboarding, modeling, Enrichment, Marketing Attributes, and audience activation, using the workflows marketers already rely on.


Latest posts

Experian talks the future of identity with AdExchanger

Experian Marketing Services and Data Quality President Genevieve Juillard recently sat down with Zach Rodgers, host of the AdExchanger Talks podcast to discuss the future of identity, the importance of data transparency and privacy, and our recent acquisition of Tapad. Genevieve focused on the opportunity for our industry to reimagine an advertising ecosystem that is resilient and adaptable; one that takes advantage of emerging data and prioritizes data transparency and consumer privacy. She also discussed the importance of advertising strategies that put consumers at the heart of every decision and give them more control over their data. Genevieve shared with AdExchanger that Experian’s acquisition of Tapad, a global leader in digital identity resolution, was a natural fit for our company. Tapad’s approach and role in the ecosystem is very much aligned with Experian’s, which is to develop solutions that are resilient to industry and consumer changes. The combination of our capabilities supports interoperability across all types of identifiers, both online and offline, and will position us to help our clients navigate the post-third-party cookie world. To learn more about Experian’s plans to support an effective advertising ecosystem that will evolve with our dynamic industry, listen to the full podcast Embracing ‘Healthy Fragmentation’ In Ad Tech, With Genevieve Juillard. Get in touch

March 11, 2021 by Experian Marketing Services
To authenticate or not to authenticate?

It’s been over a year since Google announced they’d be deprecating the third-party cookie and in that time there’s been a major focus on two types of cookieless identity solutions. Identity vendors and marketers are strategizing which of these two future solutions best fits their needs so they can achieve privacy-safe scale once third-party cookies are no longer available for use on Chrome. Let’s break down these solutions and the considerations marketers need to take into account when deciding what partners to move forward with in the future of identity resolution. Authenticated Traffic Solutions  Authenticated traffic solutions (ATS) are a type of digital identification that asks the end-user to identify themselves via personal information, most commonly email address. Often, you’ll see self-authentication at the point of entry to a website that asks you to create an account or login immediately to access the content you are seeking. E-commerce sites use authentication to keep track of consumer purchases and inform advertising decisions for that customer; and publishers use it to tailor featured content, or, more importantly for this discussion, leverage it within the ad ecosystem for targeting. While authentication can provide very valuable user data for audience segmenting and targeting, it can be limited in scale for a single publisher to leverage and monetize on their own. That’s why some identity vendors have worked to integrate themselves within as many publisher authentication modules as possible, so that they can create an aggregate of scale for the ad ecosystem to tap into. But, even this isn’t going to deliver the reach marketers truly thirst for. Alternatively, Facebook has the scale for authenticated traffic, but they keep their data inside a walled garden, so the utility of those authenticated users is only valuable within the Facebook ecosystem. So how can authenticated traffic solutions increase scale to broaden the scope of identifiers they can collect and leverage? Hint: a few of the biggest players have already figured it out. It’s the single sign-on. Google is probably the largest purveyor of a single-sign on solution that can directly impact advertising capabilities. Can you think of a site you visit that doesn’t offer a sign-in with your existing Google account? It’s a short list. Google has integrated themselves into so many applications and publishers that “Login with Gmail” is just second nature (you pictured the Gmail logo when you read that, didn’t you?). Now, if you’re about to purchase something you found off an Instagram ad, or perhaps a retailer you buy from regularly, you’ve probably noticed options to proceed with your checkout via “Amazon pay” or “Apple pay”. These are also single-sign ons. You’re authenticating yourself through Amazon or Apple to that retailer in exchange for A- the safety and security that Amazon or Apple provide for your financial information and B- skipping the annoying process of manually entering personal information over and over again at point of sale. It’s starting to sound like there’s a lot of authenticated data out there isn’t it? Well, that’s true, but again, Amazon and Apple are walled gardens. Amazon is working diligently to build out their own ecosystem to leverage their content and retail channel data for a holistic offering. And Apple keeps user data very close to the chest, constantly limiting its utility for themselves and advertisers. So what is identity resolution doing about it? The Trade Desk announced their solution; Unified ID 2.0, which promises to leverage email authenticated identity for a truly scaled solution for publishers via Javascript through Prebid. By handing over UID2.0 to an independent unbiased organization like Prebid, The Trade Desk is creating instant scale and trust in their solution. Unauthenticated Traffic Solutions Unlike ATS, unauthenticated traffic solutions do not rely on a log-in to identify a user, but they also don’t rely on third-party cookies. Instead, unauthenticated solutions (UATS) leverage their existing streams of real-time data through Javascript on publisher sites or an SDK (software development kit used by apps). The type of information UATS solutions can collect via Javascript or SDK vary, but it can include IP address, user agent and device level info. But being able to read this information at the point of entry to a website does not make a quality identifier. The best unauthenticated solutions will have the ability to set or ingest this information into a unique ID through an infrastructure with incredibly fast speed that can process trillions of anonymous data signals across multiple channels and devices. And even more so, be able to interpret those signals into a profile using machine learning– all at the moment a user enters a domain. It sounds complicated because it is, but it also has a lot of potential. The identity space cannot rest solely on authenticated traffic solutions, because, as you can see, it could limit ownership and operability to just a few power players/walled gardens. This doesn’t help the larger ecosystem monetize and personalize ad inventory. The right unauthenticated solution, however, can unify cross-device individuals and households at scale, because they’re integrated on the broadest number of publishers/SDKs across platforms, have the best algorithms to build confident connections between identifiers, and are universally transactable across the most common sell and demand side platforms. Think of it as the perfect partner- speaking a common language that everyone in the ecosystem understands and acts on. Today more than twenty cookieless identifiers are available in market for the ad ecosystem, and Google hasn’t even announced a date of deprecation. It’s important to be on the lookout for differentiators like scale and precision. Most importantly, choosing a truly cross-device partner will be key, especially as more digital devices and IDs grow in adoption, like CTV has this past year. Taking advantage of both What we will come to find, once the third-party cookie is obsolete, is that choosing just one of these solution types, or partners, will be a disadvantage. The more the industry comes together to collaborate on solutions, the more apparent it is that both of them have value, and thus employing both solutions will give marketers the best opportunities. Tapad, now part of Experian, recently announced the launch of Switchboard; a module within our identity solution; The Tapad Graph, to create this agnostic interoperability for identifiers of all types, and choice and control for the ad tech vendors and marketers who want them. By instantly creating the ability to partner with multiple solutions, Tapad + Experian is ensuring that all use cases for the third-party cookie live on in our cookieless future. Get in touch

February 24, 2021 by Experian Marketing Services
Tapad launches global privacy-safe solution to provide continuity in the absence of third-party cookies

Tapad launches global privacy-safe solution to provide continuity in the absence of third-party cookies Switchboard, a module within The Tapad Graph, will connect emerging cookieless identifiers to traditional IDs, creating a more holistic view of the consumer and driving value exchange within the advertising ecosystem Tapad, part of Experian, a global leader in cross-device digital identity resolution, and a part of Experian, announced today the launch of Switchboard, a first-of-its-kind solution to help navigate the evolving cookieless landscape. Switchboard, a module within The Tapad Graph, will operate as a global, privacy-safe solution to provide continuity in the absence of third-party cookies by connecting new cookieless identifiers to traditional digital IDs for a comprehensive view of consumers and their digital touchpoints. Switchboard will enable interoperability across the growing number of these digital identifiers and the value exchange between publishers, content creators and consumers. Leading digital identity solutions partnering with Tapad, part of Experian at the launch of Switchboard include Unified ID 2.0, ID5, Lotame Panorama ID, BritePool, Retargetly IDx and Audigent Halo ID. Tapad, part of Experian plans to expand support to additional identity solutions on an ongoing basis. In addition to these identity solutions, early partners across the ecosystem include The Trade Desk, Amobee, Martin, ShareThis, Eyeota and Catalina. “This diverse group of launch partners and testing customers will prove that Switchboard is an important tenet for the future of identity resolution. We’re excited to be proactive in our approach to give marketers time to adapt new solutions and test their function in tandem with the third-party cookie, while continuing to give our customers flexibility and control,” said Mark Connon, General Manager of Tapad, part of Experian. “Facilitating access and usage of 1st party identifiers is crucial to help marketers prepare for the cookieless future. Thanks to Switchboard, ID5’s cookieless IDs will be available to a wider audience of brands and agencies and enable them to run effective, data-driven campaigns beyond the third-party cookie,” said Mathieu Roche Co-founder & CEO of ID5. Switchboard provides value across the marketing and advertising ecosystem as the need for the ability to support multiple cookieless ID’s across ad tech increases throughout 2021. With a decade of expertise creating digital identity resolution products, Tapad, part of Experian is poised to solve this challenge through innovation and quality, privacy-safe data-driven solutions. “Interoperability is paramount for brand marketers, agencies, publishers and platforms if we want to support an open and free Internet and break free of the stranglehold of walled gardens,” said Pierre Diennet, Global Partnerships at Lotame. ”Lotame Panorama ID’s participation in Switchboard reflects our steadfast commitment to collaborating across and within the industry and providing value to all of its players.” “As advertisers continue to contemplate the future of identity, Amobee is proud to partner with Tapad, part of Experian on this next-generation solution to provide a comprehensive view of consumers,” says Bryan Everett, Senior Vice President of Global Business Development at Amobee. “With the imminent loss of cookies, advertisers must think creatively in order to respectfully engage consumers in a privacy-compliant way and Switchboard can play an important role in addressing their respective identity needs.” Tapad, part of Experian is welcoming identity solutions and Tapad Graph customer participation in Switchboard throughout 2021. Stayed tuned for more updates and information on Switchboard in the coming months. Get in touch

February 9, 2021 by Experian Marketing Services

Subscribe to our newsletter

Enter your name and email for the latest updates

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

About Experian Marketing Services

At Experian Marketing Services, we use data and insights to help brands have more meaningful interactions with people. As leaders in the evolution of the advertising landscape, Experian Marketing Services can help you identify your customers and the right potential customers, uncover the most appropriate communication channels, develop messages that resonate, and measure the effectiveness of marketing activities and campaigns.

Visit our website

Subscribe to our newsletter

Stay up to date on the latest industry news and receive expert tips from our marketing experts.
Subscribe now!