New TEI study and Cowry report reveal a widening gap between brands that drive measurable outcomes and those falling behind in the AI era

Braze (NASDAQ:BRZE), the leading customer engagement platform that empowers brands to Be Absolutely Engaging™, today released two new research studies from Forrester Consulting and Cowry that highlight fundamental shifts in how brands must approach customer engagement in the age of AI.

Together, the findings show that while AI adoption is nearly universal, most organizations are still struggling to translate that investment into meaningful business impact. The research points to a growing divide between brands that are operationalizing AI to drive outcomes and those still producing disconnected, low-impact experiences at scale.

The reports are being released at Braze's City x City London event, where global brands and marketing leaders will gather to explore how AI, real-time data, and creativity are reshaping customer engagement.

AI adoption is high. Impact is not.

The April 2026 Forrester Total Economic Impact ™ study* found that organizations using the Braze platform achieved a 457% return on investment over three years, with a net present value of $23.5 million and payback in less than six months. The study examined the combined business impact of the Braze platform and BrazeAI Decisioning Studio™ on a composite organization representative of interviewed customers.

At the same time, broader industry data shows a stark contrast. While the vast majority of brands are investing in AI, only a small percentage are realizing measurable returns. This gap underscores a core challenge facing marketing leaders today: moving from experimentation to execution.

Context is the competitive advantage in modern engagement

The joint report with Cowry highlights the scale of the challenge. Consumers are now exposed to as many as 10,000 commercial messages per day, creating an environment where volume alone no longer drives engagement.

Instead, effectiveness depends on relevance, timing, and the ability to respond to real-time customer signals.

This shift requires a move away from static campaigns toward systems that can interpret data, make decisions, and deliver experiences that adapt in the moment.

A new operating model for customer engagement

According to Astha Malik, Chief Business Officer of Braze, the role of marketing technology is evolving rapidly.

"While AI-generated content is potentially infinite, customer attention is finite and loyalty is fragile. Every piece of 'AI slop' that reaches a customer simply trains them to tune out," said Malik. "The research we're releasing today highlights a widening gap between brands using AI just to increase output and those focused on driving outcomes like conversion, retention, and revenue. At Braze, we are shifting the conversation from productivity to performance. Our community of ambitious marketers chooses a premium platform not just to build faster, but to deliver outsized business impact."

What separates high-performing brands

Across both studies, several consistent themes emerge among organizations that are successfully driving results:

Real-time data activation: High-performing brands unify and act on first-party data without delay, enabling more relevant engagement
Embedded decisioning: AI is applied within live customer journeys, not as a separate layer or experiment
Operational simplicity: Reducing fragmentation across tools allows teams to move faster and execute more consistently
Continuous optimization: Campaigns are treated as dynamic systems that learn and improve over time

These capabilities are increasingly critical as marketing teams face pressure to do more with less while proving ROI.

Turning insight into action

The research provides a clear framework for how brands can improve customer engagement:

Move from batch campaigns to real-time, signal-based engagement
Prioritize decisioning and orchestration, not just content creation
Consolidate tools to reduce friction and improve speed to market
Focus on measurable outcomes, including conversion, retention, and revenue impact

Organizations that align their technology and processes around these principles are better positioned to deliver experiences that resonate and scale.

Timing the moment

The release of these reports comes as brands reassess their approach to AI and customer engagement. With City x City London serving as a focal point for industry discussion, the findings offer both a benchmark and a roadmap for organizations looking to close the gap between investment and impact.

*The Total Economic Impact™ Of Braze, a commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Braze, April 2026.

About Braze

Braze is the leading customer engagement platform that empowers brands to Be Absolutely Engaging™. Braze helps brands deliver great customer experiences that drive value both for consumers and for their businesses. Built on a foundation of composable intelligence, BrazeAI™ allows marketers to combine and activate AI agents, models, and features at every touchpoint throughout the Braze Customer Engagement Platform for smarter, faster, and more meaningful customer engagement. From cross-channel messaging and journey orchestration to Al-powered decisioning and optimization, Braze enables companies to turn action into interaction through autonomous, 1:1 personalized experiences. The company has repeatedly been recognized as a Leader in marketing technology by industry analysts, and was voted a G2 "Best of Marketing and Digital Advertising Software Product" in 2025. Braze was also named a 2025 Best Companies To Work For by U.S. News & World Report, a 2025 America's Greatest Companies by Newsweek, and a 2025 Fortune Best Workplace in Technology™ by Great Place To Work®. The company is headquartered in New York with 15 offices across the Americas, EMEA, and APAC. Learn more at braze.com.

Forward-looking Statements

This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including but not limited to, statements regarding the anticipated economic and customer benefits from Braze. These forward-looking statements are based on the current assumptions, expectations and beliefs of Braze, and are subject to substantial risks, uncertainties and changes in circumstances that may cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Further, the information in this press release concerning Braze's industry, including industry statistics and forecasts, customer value, anticipated ROI and the markets in which Braze operates is based on information from independent industry and research organizations, other third-party sources and management estimates. These projections, forecasts, assumptions and estimates are necessarily subject to uncertainty and risk due to a variety of factors. Further information on potential factors that could affect these potential results or achievement of any forward-looking statements are included in Braze's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2026, filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on March 25, 2026, and the other public filings of Braze with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The statements included in this press release represent the views of Braze only as of the date of this press release, and Braze assumes no obligation, and does not intend to update these statements, except as required by law.

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Media:

Steve Ballerini

Press@braze.com

Braze Unveils New Research Showing How AI, Data, and Decisioning Are Redefining Customer Engagement