AI-Driven Marketing 2025: What Email Marketers Can Learn from Taco Bell and KFC

Let’s start our marketing automation case study with a question: “What if AI could double your email engagement?”

Sounds like a catch. People have been talking about artificial intelligence for years. In the meantime, it has become an iconic feature, but those representing business have struggled to make it useful for practical purposes, such as customer engagement, sales growth, and business development.

It now seems that we are experiencing an AI revolution in the real-life economy, with its dry and, sometimes, dull financial targets. Well, that’s not sci-fi — email marketing with AI is happening right now!

Yum! Brands, the operator of American fast-food stars Taco Bell, KFC, and Pizza Hut, rolled out their AI-powered email campaigns that achieved whopping double-digit increases in consumer engagement in 2024. It also drove more sales compared to traditional email blasts. The company’s shares rose 9.4% immediately after the release of the positive news. 

In its riding the AI rainbow, according to Chief Executive David Gibbs as quoted on MarketWatch, the operator of the fast food chains announced that this cutting-edge email marketing technology is expected to boost the company’s ability to grow sales for the years ahead.

The first conclusion is clear: AI-driven marketing campaigns are already here, and they are taking shape. Period. 

This case study is based on Joe Park’s interview, Chief Digital and Technology Officer at Yum, with The Wall Street Journal about the artificial intelligence marketing trials. In this case study, we’ll explore their strategy, results, and what you, as an email marketer, can adapt in 2025 and beyond… without even needing a PhD in machine learning! So, let’s find out what marketers can learn from Taco Bell AI marketing and how KFC uses AI in digital campaigns. 

Yum! Brands’ AI-Driven Marketing Campaign

Let’s get into more detail to check out this exciting case study.

What Yum! Brands did:

👉 First, they combined locally developed and third-party AI tools to manage each stage of the advertising process, offering a range of options, from delivering email messages to customers to creating content.
👉 Then, Yum customized their email communication at the individual level based on the final consumer’s profile:

Task #1: Optimized send timing, based on time of day and day of the week. This allowed Yum to effectively target different parts of the KFC and Taco Bell consumer base.

Task #2: The subject line and content in the email were selected dynamically. Again, this solution led to a very effective differentiation, ensuring the right message was delivered to the right consumer.

👉 Finally, Yum used reinforcement learning. This is a next level in AI, meaning that it adjusts in real time based on recipient behavior. 

Well, this may look very simple now, but Yum! Brands became the pioneers. Nobody at this level has ever dared to go that far, which is to build a full-scale email marketing campaign driven by AI. Park was previously Walmart’s vice president of associate digital experience and enterprise architecture.

Before starting the AI revolution at Yum! Brands, he gained experience consolidating data between Yum’s four brands, allowing information on Pizza Hut customers to be combined with data on Taco Bell, KFC, and Habit Burger Grill customers. This has been a great deal of help for him to go further, making all the AI processes work seamlessly. 

Results & business impact:

Again, according to the Wall Street Journal interview, Yum! Brands achieved the following:

💎 A whopping double-digit increase in customer engagement. Like Joe Park put it: “Compared to traditional digital marketing campaigns, AI campaigns generate double-digit increases for us in consumer engagement, leading to more purchases.”

💎 Yum! Brands also boosted purchases and lowered—which was essential for a business with plans to grow—customer churn. Here’s how it works. Imagine you are a Taco Bell customer using its mobile app. You can check into the drive-through with a unique four-digit code, which connects you to Yum systems to know who you are and to know all your purchase history. After that, you will get meal offers based on your customer experience. This AI solution was very much appreciated by customers.

💎 Finally, Yum! Brands prompted the expansion of AI reach into apps, drive-through kiosks, and menu boards, expanding omnichannel communication. This is exactly what Joe Park said in his interview: “It was within a limited channel. We see so much opportunity as this could go into other areas for customers, whether the app or the drive-through kiosk, and so on.”

What Can Marketers Learn from Yum’s AI Campaigns?

Let’s now think, “What can marketers learn from Taco Bell AI marketing (and other Yum! Brands portfolios)?” We’ve prepared the table below with the most basic digital marketing outcomes:

Pitfalls & сonsiderations

⚠️ Data quality matters: AI is only as good as your data. It won’t make magic, so to speak, on paper. Clean up duplicates, correct opt-ins, and ensure behavioral tracking is accurate.

⚠️ Privacy & consent: Please note that personalized sends require strong GDPR/CCPA compliance, according to the law.

⚠️ Infrastructure readiness: Like Byte by Yum, you need a unified CRM/data platform before AI can be effective.

Future Outlook

🔹 Voice and drive-thru AI: AI-powered voice ordering and dynamic menu boards are already being tested. According to the company, the ultimate goal is to move all orders through digital channels, rather than relying on human order-takers. This is an effort, the company says, that will boost sales. Yum will also utilize AI to enhance several of the company’s internal operations.

🔹 Omnichannel personalization: Extend AI tactics to push notifications, SMS, loyalty apps, in-store signage, and beyond. Joe Park sees plenty of opportunities here: “We love everything about digital sales. The more we can create channels, whether it’s voice-ordering, whether it’s going to be tied to our kiosks, whether it’s going to be tied to investments in AI to help encourage customers to go to our mobile app. I think all of these things add up to helping in these economic environments.”

🔹 Main partner in all the future plans—NVIDIA: According to this Wall Street Journal article released in February 2025, Yum! Brands plans to use NVIDIA tools to build in-house rather than rely on third-party vendors offering prepackaged apps. Joe Park said that such a decision was pivotal in the strategy for the fast-food giant, which operates over 61,000 restaurants across the world. The road to success is absolute self-dependence.

To Sum Up

Well, we’re on the finish line, and it is time to draw some conclusions from this exciting Yum! Brands case study. So, what is the Taco Bell marketing strategy, and what does the KFC marketing case study launched by Yum! Brands tell us?

First, we found that, in a real-world scenario, AI can double email engagement by optimizing send times, subject lines, and content on a one-to-one basis. Wow! Before that, it was all theory. Now, it came to life.

Second, reinforcement learning AI outperforms static A/B testing in terms of speed. This could be a warning sign to A/B marketers, but, in fact, it is a glimpse of hope. To win, you must adapt to ever-changing conditions. It is the right time to do it!

Third, a hybrid AI stack and strong data foundation are essential. Yes, big data professionals can enjoy this moment.

Finally, get ready—AI is already here! It is headed to voice, apps, kiosks, and more. Now, AI is not some freaky development to create fancy, out-of-this-world pictures. It had already taken its place in real-life digital marketing plans and scenarios. AI-driven email marketing has finally arrived, and it has shown remarkable results that marketers can now measure very tangibly in terms of cash inflow. It is time to grow up for those who, up to this moment, didn’t believe in it.

P.S. Are you intrigued? Then, to properly learn how to use AI for email personalization, you can start small with AI-powered subject line testing. Then, add in adaptive timing and dynamic content to expand and enrich your experience. Finally, over time, you’ll build toward a comprehensive, entirely personalized, omnichannel customer journey—just like Yum! Brands have done it!

The future starts here, with AI right by your side.