ANZ customer engagement benchmark 2026: what the Braze data says, and what to do about it

Key takeaways

• 90% of surveyed ANZ marketing leaders expect their budget to grow in the next 12 months, the highest of any region, but only 61% beat their revenue goals last year (67% globally).
• 98% say AI helps them understand customers better than before, yet only 34% assemble content for individual users at the moment of engagement using real-time data.
• ANZ is ahead of global peers on several data foundations: 62% combine sources into a single customer profile (58% globally) and 52% use AI to predict needs (43% globally).
• 68% say AI intermediation (customers reaching brands through LLMs and agents) has weakened their direct relationship, versus 63% globally.
• Only a quarter of ANZ brands sit in Braze's most mature "Ace" group. The biggest share (42%) are in the middle.

About the data

The figures in this article come from the Braze ANZ Customer Engagement Review 2026. Braze commissioned Wakefield Research to survey 2,200 marketing executives (VP level or above, at B2C companies with annual revenue of at least US$10M) across 17 countries between 18 November and 1 December 2025. 200 of them were in Australia and New Zealand. Braze also analysed anonymised, aggregated data from 779 of its customers, covering 6 billion user profiles in 2025.

All statistics below are Braze's. The interpretation and recommendations are ours. If you want the full picture, download the report from Braze.

How mature are ANZ brands at customer engagement?

Braze groups brands into three levels on its Customer Engagement Index. In ANZ:

Braze notes that the index was updated this year to reflect AI use, so these groups aren't directly comparable with earlier reports.

Our read: three in four ANZ brands are not yet operating at the top level. In our experience, the jump from Accelerate to Ace is rarely about buying another tool. It's about whether the data, the platform and the team can act on a signal in minutes instead of weeks.

Trend 1: Are ANZ brands acting on the data they collect?

Braze calls this trend "Data hoarders anonymous". The numbers show a region that has invested in data foundations but isn't converting them into experiences.

Braze's recommendations: treat data as a real-time relationship signal rather than a reporting asset, invest in a flexible platform that unifies and activates data, and make data literacy a basic expectation across teams.

Our read: the 98% versus 34% gap is the headline. Most of the ANZ brands we talk to have a warehouse, a CDP or both. What they're missing is the last mile: identity that resolves in real time, a clean event model the engagement platform can trigger on, and content built in modules so it can be assembled per person. That's an architecture and operating model problem, not an AI problem. The practical fix is to pick two or three journeys where a real-time signal changes the message (abandoned browse, disruption, renewal) and wire them end to end before trying to personalise everything.

Trend 2: Is AI intermediation a threat to ANZ brands?

Braze calls this "Trust or bust". AI intermediation is when a customer deals with a brand through an LLM, AI agent or other autonomous tool instead of directly.

Braze also found ANZ brands are 1.5 times more likely than global peers to use a Trust-by-Design approach to responsible and ethical AI. Its advice: rethink segmentation with AI decisioning, move from campaign-level A/B tests to continuous individual-level optimisation, and use its TRUST framework.

Our read: ANZ brands feel the threat more and are responding more, which is encouraging. Two things matter most. First, own the channels an agent can't easily replace: your app, your logged-in experience, and messaging people have opted into. Second, make your brand legible to the agents themselves. Clear, structured, accurate information about products, prices and policies is now part of customer engagement. The lower ANZ score on feedback loops (51% vs 55%) is an easy gap to close.

Trend 3: Why aren't bigger budgets turning into revenue?

Braze calls this "The revenue rollercoaster".

Braze reports that the most popular use of AI is increasing efficiency through proven tactics, doing more without adding headcount. Its advice: use AI-driven analytics to experiment more boldly, use assistants to speed up production, and invest in training.

Our read: confidence is not the constraint in ANZ. Measurement is. If 90% expect bigger budgets but fewer hit revenue targets, the next 12 months will be judged by the CFO, not the CMO. Every AI and engagement investment should have a holdout group and a revenue metric from day one. Pair lifecycle measurement with marketing mix modelling so you can show what engagement adds on top of media, not just what it touched.

What should ANZ brands do next?

Braze's conclusion is that ANZ is the most AI-confident and budget-optimistic region but lags on turning that into revenue. It points to three shifts: from data collection to real-time activation, from generic messages to trust-building personalisation, and from budget increases to measurable customer lifetime value.

Here's how we'd turn that into a 90-day plan:

1. Audit the last mile. Map how long it takes for a customer action to change what they see next. If the answer is days, start there.
2. Pick three real-time journeys. Choose ones with a clear revenue or retention metric and build them end to end, from event to message to measurement.
3. Fix identity before AI. Agree one external ID, resolve anonymous to known users, and make sure your engagement platform and warehouse agree on who a customer is.
4. Build content in modules. Templates, content blocks and product data that can be assembled per person, so personalisation doesn't depend on writing more emails.
5. Prove it with a holdout. Keep a control group on every AI-driven programme and report incremental revenue, not opens.
6. Make your brand easy for AI to read. Publish clear, accurate, structured information about what you sell, so assistants represent you correctly.

How Stitch can help

Stitch is an Auckland consultancy and Braze Alloys Solutions Partner, Orbit tier, named ANZ Rising Star of the Year at Braze's inaugural ANZ Partner Awards in 2026. We led the Braze build for Serko AI, shipping the lifecycle layer to production in six weeks, with real-time transactional messaging, Liquid personalisation and Data Warehouse to Braze through Cloud Data Ingestion. Most implementations take us 8 to 12 weeks.

Not sure where you sit? Try our Braze readiness scorecard or book a 30-minute call.

FAQ

What is the Braze ANZ Customer Engagement Review 2026? It's Braze's annual regional report on customer engagement, based on a Wakefield Research survey of 200 ANZ marketing leaders (part of 2,200 globally) and anonymised data from 779 Braze customers.

How mature are ANZ brands at customer engagement? According to Braze, 25% of ANZ brands are in the most mature "Ace" group, 42% are in "Accelerate" and 33% are in "Activate".

Are ANZ marketers more confident about AI than the rest of the world? Yes. Only 35% of surveyed ANZ leaders said internal hesitation is slowing AI adoption, compared with 47% globally, and 98% said AI ROI is certain to generate growth.

Why are ANZ brands missing revenue goals? Braze found 61% of ANZ brands beat revenue goals last year, against 67% globally. The report links this to fragmented data and slow activation: only 34% assemble content for individuals in real time.

What is AI intermediation? It's when customers interact with a brand through an LLM, AI agent or other autonomous tool instead of directly. 68% of surveyed ANZ leaders said it has weakened their direct customer relationships.

Sources

• Braze, ANZ Customer Engagement Review 2026 (Wakefield Research survey of 200 ANZ marketing leaders; Braze customer data from 779 customers). Download from braze.com.