Collaboration unlocks unprecedented access to AI-powered personalization for enterprises

Yobi and Microsoft technologies propel Wolverine Worldwide Inc.'s (NYSE:WWW) Merrell and Saucony brands to higher ROI and accelerated new customer acquisition across priority audiences

Yobi, the leading behavioral AI company, today announced a strategic partnership with Microsoft to unlock predictive consumer intelligence for U.S. enterprises. Built on the Microsoft Azure cloud computing platform, Yobi has compiled the largest consented consumer database in the U.S., helping organizations ethically access vast behavioral datasets to develop predictive AI models without compromising consumer privacy.

Together with Microsoft, Yobi is leveling the playing field for U.S. enterprises by unlocking access to the scale of behavioral intelligence once reserved for the largest online advertising platforms. Yobi's behavioral foundation model is changing how businesses use customer data to drive growth, placing privacy and consent at the center of its model.

"Understanding and predicting customer intent is a competitive necessity, but enterprises today face a data disadvantage," said Max Snow, CEO and co-founder of Yobi AI. "As the leading cloud provider for AI, Microsoft Azure offers infrastructure and best-in-class tooling that allows Yobi to train proprietary 700B parameter models – unlocking for companies like Wolverine the ability to optimize sales without compromising privacy."

The Yobi Effect on Enterprise Performance Advertising

Today's dominant social and search platforms are optimized for late-stage, lower-funnel shoppers already close to purchase. While effective for conversion, this approach naturally prioritizes known, repeat, or already-in-market buyers, often resulting in spend that sustains demand rather than grows it. Yobi enables brands to reach net-new audiences earlier in the customer journey, converting previously untapped shoppers into high-LTV customers and driving actual incremental growth.

For Wolverine Worldwide, one of the world's largest footwear designers and brand licensors, partnering with Yobi is delivering some of the strongest incremental returns its brands have recorded outside of paid search and social. In 2025, Wolverine's Merrell and Saucony brands used Yobi's AI to reach high-value shoppers at the top of the funnel, driving meaningful net-new customer acquisition and powering revenue that outperformed legacy channels. The results validate a straightforward thesis: personalization at scale can unlock outsized returns by reaching consumers that traditional channels miss.

"Yobi's Behavioral AI enables us to target the right audiences with precision. By supplementing our customer knowledge with enriched data, Yobi helps us personalize at scale — driving stronger engagement and measurable results across Wolverine Worldwide's portfolio of brands," said Chris Hufnagel, President and Chief Executive Officer.

Wolverine has ambitious targets for AI infrastructure, and the company is primed to leverage Yobi's advanced behavioral AI on Microsoft Azure across its portfolio of brands for its largest campaign of the year.

AI is Only as Strong as the Data it is Trained On

Unlike LLMs, which are trained on vast amounts of text and optimized for language generation, Yobi's behavioral foundation model uses real-world data like purchases, store visits, and marketing conversions to understand and predict consumer intent. This enables enterprises to personalize outcome modeling around the business metrics that matter the most to their priorities. For example, creating personalized online and in-store experiences, discovering the best next customer, and transforming shopper loyalty.

"By combining Yobi's consented behavioral data with Microsoft's cloud and AI platform, organizations like Wolverine Worldwide are gaining critical insights that improve customer engagement and drive meaningful business growth," said Judson Althoff, CEO of Microsoft's commercial business. "This partnership reflects our commitment to building AI solutions that are both innovative and responsible, with trust and privacy at the core."

First-party data is the foundation for customer insights, yet only the largest advertising platforms have been able to capture behavioral signals at scale—and often at a prohibitive cost for enterprises. Yobi is an equalizer. By creating privacy-preserving customer representations that surface intent signals without exposing personal details, Yobi grants businesses of all sizes access to predictive insights.

Microsoft customers can purchase Yobi through the Azure Marketplace to securely centralize their permissioned consumer data, enrich it with Yobi's behavioral signals, and activate it in real time to drive measurable outcomes, from revenue growth to improved customer acquisition and higher return on ad spend.

About Yobi AI:

Yobi was founded to advance both commercial innovation and the scientific study of human behavior. Its team includes world-class machine learning experts who have built cutting-edge recommendation systems and AI products at Amazon, Uber, Twitter, Meta, and more.

To learn more about Yobi, visit http://www.yobi.ai/.

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Yobi Partners with Microsoft on Enterprise AI Model for Predictive Behavioral Intelligence