CDP World 2025 marked a pivotal moment in the evolution of customer data platforms, bringing together over 500 marketing and data leaders to witness what Treasure Data CEO Kaz Ohta called "the end of legacy marketing clouds and the beginning of AI-native marketing."
The boldest signal? Treasure Data announced that next year's event will be rebranded as Agentic World—a clear statement that the company is no longer just a CDP pioneer but an AI-first marketing cloud.
For Merkle, this shift is both an opportunity and a call to action. We were honored to be named Treasure Data's Most Valuable Partner for 2025, a recognition that reflects our deep collaboration in helping global enterprises unlock the full potential of their customer data. But beyond the award, this event revealed platform innovations that will reshape how our clients activate data, deploy AI, and drive measurable outcomes.
The Big Reveal: AI Marketing Cloud
The marquee announcement at CDP World 2025 was the launch of Treasure Data AI Marketing Cloud, a unified platform that brings together customer data, AI agents, and intelligent activation in a single, natively integrated environment.
Unlike legacy marketing clouds assembled from acquisitions and stitched together with inconsistent data models, AI Marketing Cloud is built from the ground up on Treasure Data's Intelligent CDP. This architecture provides a critical advantage: every AI agent operates on a unified, identity-resolved customer profile known as the Diamond Record, which fuses historical and real-time data into a single trusted view.
The platform unifies five AI Suites, each designed for specific marketing roles:
- Engagement AI Suite – For lifecycle marketers orchestrating email, SMS, and mobile campaigns with AI-driven triggers and next-best-action recommendations
- Personalization AI Suite – For digital marketers delivering real-time web personalization powered by behavioral signals
- Creative AI Suite – For brand teams generating on-brand images, copy, and HTML assets using generative AI
- Service AI Suite – For field service and B2B sales teams delivering personalized, high-value experiences
- Paid Media AI Suite – For growth marketers optimizing ad targeting, budget allocation, and ROAS
Each suite is powered by agents built in Treasure Data's AI Agent Foundry, a harmonization layer that allows enterprises to create, refine, and scale AI workflows with governance, privacy, and brand compliance built in.
The Diamond Record: More Than a Golden Record
One of the most significant technical innovations is the Diamond Record, Treasure Data's next-generation identity resolution framework. While traditional CDPs rely on a "golden record" that unifies customer identities in batch processes, the Diamond Record combines historical and real-time data streams into a single, continuously updated profile.
This matters because modern customer engagement requires instant context. Whether a customer just abandoned a cart, clicked an email, or walked into a store, the Diamond Record ensures that every AI agent, every activation channel, and every decisioning engine has access to the same complete, up-to-date view.
For Merkle clients, this means faster time-to-value, more accurate personalization, and the ability to orchestrate truly omnichannel experiences without the fragmentation that plagues multi-vendor stacks.
Engage Studio: Email Meets the CDP
A standout feature within the Engagement AI Suite is Engage Studio, Treasure Data's drag-and-drop orchestration tool for email, SMS, and mobile campaigns. What makes it notable is the tight integration with the CDP. Marketers can build audiences, design journeys, and activate campaigns without leaving the platform or relying on IT to export segments.
Early adopters like TSI Inc. (a Japanese fashion conglomerate) reported that Engage Studio reduced email creation time by two-thirds while enabling more sophisticated segmentation and personalization. This is a direct response to enterprise frustration with legacy email service providers (ESPs) that operate in silos, forcing marketers to constantly move data between systems.
For clients evaluating their email stack, this raises an important question: Should email execution live inside the CDP, or should it remain a best-of-breed component? Treasure Data is betting on convergence, offering up to 24 months free for enterprises willing to replace their ESP or customer engagement platform with the Engagement AI Suite. It's an aggressive play to move down market and capture orchestration spend.
Composability vs. Consolidation: The Tension Remains
While Treasure Data's product expansion is impressive, it also raises strategic questions. During a session with Forrester VP Joe Stanhope, CPO Rafa Flores framed Treasure Data's approach as "warehouse-first," emphasizing that data centralization is the foundation, but activation can happen through Treasure Data-native tools or third-party systems.
This is the right positioning. Composability should coexist with convenience. For some clients, Treasure Data's Engagement AI Suite will be the right choice, especially if they're looking to consolidate vendors, reduce integration complexity, and simplify pricing. For others, best-of-breed tools like Braze, Iterable, Salesforce Marketing Cloud, or Adobe Journey Optimizer will still be the better fit.
The key is ensuring that Treasure Data doesn't inadvertently create lock-in by prioritizing native products over interoperability. So far, the signals are positive: Treasure Data continues to support robust API connectivity, partner integrations, and data warehouse sync. But we'll be watching closely as the platform evolves.
What This Means for Merkle Clients
So what should enterprise marketers take away from CDP World 2025?
- AI Velocity Is Real
Kaz Ohta revealed that Treasure Data is now shipping up to 600 features per month, powered by AI-assisted development (specifically, Claude Code). This is a 10x increase in release velocity. For clients, this means the platform is evolving rapidly. New capabilities will arrive faster, but so will the need to stay current and navigate complexity. - Platform Consolidation Is Coming
Treasure Data's move into email, decisioning, and creative generation signals a broader industry trend: CDPs are becoming marketing clouds. This creates opportunity (fewer vendors, unified data) but also risk (vendor lock-in, loss of specialization). Clients should evaluate where consolidation makes sense and where best-of-breed still wins. - AI Agents Require Data Discipline
AI agents are only as good as the data they're built on. If your identity resolution is weak, your segmentation is inconsistent, or your governance is unclear, AI will amplify those problems, not solve them. Merkle's role is to ensure clients have the data foundation to make AI agents work. - Composability Still Matters
Treasure Data's "warehouse-first" positioning is smart, but enterprises should insist on architectural flexibility. The best CDP strategy is one that supports both Treasure Data-native and third-party activation, allowing you to choose the right tool for each use case.
Looking Ahead
Treasure Data's evolution from CDP to AI Marketing Cloud is a bold bet that aligns with where the market is headed. For Merkle, it reinforces our value as the architect who helps clients design the right data and activation strategy, not just the fastest one.
As we continue our collaboration with Treasure Data as their Most Valuable Partner, our focus remains clear: build the data foundation, design for composability, and ensure every AI agent, every campaign, and every customer interaction is grounded in trusted, unified data.
The future isn't just about having a CDP. It's about what you do with it. And that's where Merkle comes in.
