#514: Leaders in Customer Loyalty: Supplier Voices | Inside Hightouch’s Perspective on the Data, AI, and Lifecycle Shifts Reshaping Loyalty in 2026

Send us Fan MailAs brands enter 2026, loyalty is being reshaped by a blunt reality: customer acquisition costs keep climbing, and retention is now a core growth lever. Loyalty programs are no longer viewed as optional perks or promotional add-ons. They’re becoming strategic moats, powered by first-party data, lifecycle marketing, and increasingly, AI-enabled decisioning. We recently spoke with Luke Kline, Founding Marketer at Hightouch and author of the Lifecycle Leaders newsletter, about how loyalty strategies are evolving in response to rising costs, changing consumer expectations, and the accelerating pace of marketing technology.