The XDO advantage: How HCL Unica+ redefines customer experience in the intelligence economy

Khaleej Times

18-06-2025

We are living in a time when customer experience (CX) does not stand still. In fact, each day, with the rise of new technologies, customer expectations are soaring, and the bar is set to go only higher.
Across industries and in the B2B and B2C segment alike, investments are being made to map customer journeys, identify moments of truth, and create innovative ways to close the gaps between performance and customer expectations.
Yet, a critical gap persists understanding customer intent and building trust that can redefine how brands connect with customers. To achieve this holy grail of CX, marketers need platforms and tools that can capture intent, turn relevant data into useful insights and make marketing workflows manageable through intelligent orchestration.
In the UAE market – a nation where reportedly 99 per cent of residents own a smartphone and same-day delivery is the norm – the CX landscape has become exceptionally crowded. Brands are racing to deliver sophisticated experiences such as multilingual support, tailored customer journeys, and culturally inclusive marketing strategies. 'Close enough' no longer counts, and differentiation is increasingly difficult to come by. Customer loyalty in the UAE no longer hinges on price or proximity; it revolves around relevance in the moment.
Forward-thinking marketers need technology that speaks the language and understands customer intent without cutting corners on trust.
From attention economy to intelligence economy
The marketing playbook is fundamentally changing. For years, marketers chased clicks and eyeballs in what we now recognise as the 'Attention Economy'. With consumers drowning in an unending stream of marketing messages – engagement plummets and trust erodes, a new paradigm emerges: the intelligence economy.
In this new era of MarTech, value flows from insight, intent, and experience rather than volume and reach. The focus has shifted from inside-out marketing to outside-in with data and intelligence at the core.
HCL Software's newly unveiled Unica+ platform embodies this pivot perfectly. With AI woven into its very fabric, Unica+ is purpose-built for the Intelligence Economy – delivering AI-first, data-driven, and hyper-personalised experiences at unprecedented scale.
The platform's capabilities are proven - powering one of the world's largest MarTech implementations at a major bank serving 500 million customer accounts, underscoring its ability to scale like no other platform in the industry while delivering intelligent, contextual experiences that define success in today's market.
AI-first MarTech platform redefining customer intelligence
Built on three foundational elements, the MarTech platform delivers hyper-personalised customer experiences at scale with privacy guardrails built into it. At its core, the platform has Customer One-View CDP with Digital Body Language capabilities that capture 12 unique customer buying signals - from the way users hover on a webpage to the path taken to navigate a mobile app - creating a composite, high-definition customer profile enriched with real-time intent data.
One of the key applications, MaxAI Assistant, serves as a conversational interface for campaign management, creative optimisation, and platform navigation.
Working with data isn't just for business analysts or data scientists anymore. MaxAI Workbench democratises data science for marketers, providing them a low-code environment to slice and dice data to create targeted segments, analyse and deploy segments in action and based on models, predict the propensity score or determine the right time to roll out an offer.
Agentic layer: Ushering in autonomous marketing intelligence
The MarTech platform elevates marketing automation through its agentic layer - a network of specialised AI agents that operate semi-autonomously to optimise campaign performance. The Insights Agent continuously monitors marketing effectiveness, analysing campaign lead quality, helping marketers plan and optimise campaigns. Building on these insights, the Segmentation Agent automatically creates customer segments and executes them semi-autonomously.
The Content Optimiser Agent completes the marketing cycle by generating dynamic, personalised content - from subject lines to full messages - while conducting real-time A/B testing. This agent leverages the rich customer intelligence from Customer OneView and Digital Body Language signals, enhanced by MaxAI analysis, to deliver optimised content within millisecond response times.
Experience, data, operations - The XDO Blueprint in action
Unica+ exemplifies HCL Software's Xperience, Data & Operations (XDO) Blueprint in action, with an architecture that seamlessly integrates the three XDO pillars. It transforms the MarTech platform into a unified system where customer experiences are powered by intelligent data insights and supported by self-optimising operations.
Delivering hyper-personalised experiences through MaxAI Assistant and real-time personalisation engine that create meaningful customer moments.
Trusted data intelligence at scale via Customer OneView CDP and Digital Body Language intelligence that ensures trusted, governed data insights.
Driving secure, scalable, and autonomous enterprise through an intelligent infrastructure that combines AI-powered monitoring and observability, reducing risk, improving uptime, and driving IT-business alignment.
Why It matters to the UAE marketers
For organisations in the UAE navigating complex regulatory environments, Unica+ delivers the three critical requirements: complete data transparency and ownership, governed by robust governance frameworks that enforce compliance standards, and unprecedented scale - whether handling routine campaigns or managing high-traffic scenarios like flash sales or seasonal promotions.
Moreover, local marketers contend with data-residency rules that favour in-country hosting. Unica+ offers cloud, on-premises or hybrid deployment, letting brands anchor workloads in their choice of deployment.
Now officially available on the UAE and KSA Regional Cloud, Unica+ empowers enterprises across the Middle East with flexible deployment options across cloud, on-premises, or hybrid - ensuring data residency compliance. So, organisations, across banking, retail, telecom, hospitality or government sectors can now keep data local and compliant while leveraging AI-driven insights and real-time personalisation capabilities, making Unica+ the definitive solution for data-driven, AI-powered marketing in the intelligence economy.