Passikoff:  The Loyalty Code

In 2025, loyalty isn’t earned once and stored away. C’mon, this isn’t 1983! A little reality check, huh?

Loyalty, which once spoke the language of points and perks, today its code is algorithms and AI. That’s because today loyalty is negotiated daily, shaped by the push and pull between customer expectations and brand performance. A precise dynamic captured in our 17th annual Brand Keys Loyalty Leaders List, a cross-category ranking of the top 100 brands according to their ability to attract, forge, and sustain consumer loyalty.

And this year’s results highlight something new: the role of artificial intelligence as the connective tissue between rising expectations and lasting engagement. Alongside AI, streaming platforms, heritage brands, and digital leaders are carving out loyalty advantages in a marketplace where attention is fleeting and choice is infinite.

Oh, and customer expectations are not static – they’re surging. On average, expectations rose 30% YOY, but brands improved only about 9–11%. That leaves a yawning gap, and it’s in that gap where loyalty either thrives or collapses.

The better a brand meets consumers’ expectations, the more loyal they will be. And exposure to and experience with a brand – whether at retail, through streaming, or via AI – has never been more critical. Loyalty has always been about expectation management, but the velocity of change has accelerated. Where brands once had years to adapt, they now have months. In this climate, loyalty isn’t just a reward for meeting needs; it’s a survival strategy.

AI is emerging as the most powerful lever for closing the expectation gap. Today, it powers recommendations, personalization, and customer support. But the more profound shift lies ahead: AI will redefine the very meaning of loyalty. Generative AI systems are evolving into always-on brand emissaries – extensions of corporate identity that embody a brand’s voice, values, and personality. Rather than static points programs, AI enables dynamic loyalty experiences, tuned to a consumer’s mood, context, or life stage.

In practice, this means an AI assistant could nudge you toward a healthier meal option at your favorite fast-food chain, recommend a streaming series aligned with your current mood, or offer financing advice in language you trust – all without being asked. The implications are profound:

• Transactional loyalty (buying repeatedly) becomes relational loyalty (a sense of belonging).
• Relational loyalty evolves into predictive loyalty, where AI acts on your behalf, making choices for you.
• Ultimately, trust shifts from brands alone to the AI systems representing them.

For brands, the challenge is not simply training AI to be accurate, but to be empathetic, transparent, and aligned with the particular consumer values that govern expectation in the category in which your brand competes. Those that succeed will earn loyalty measured not in months, but in decades.

The Top 10 brands of 2025 reveal how loyalty is being re-written:

1. Amazon (Online Retail)
2. Google (Search)
3. Microsoft (Tech)
4. Apple (Smartphones)
5. Coca-Cola (Beverages)
6. Samsung (Smartphones)
7. Paramount+ (Video Streaming)
8. ChatGPT (AI)
9. TikTok (Social Networking)
10. Levi Strauss (Apparel Retailers)

You can see how the other 90 Loyalty Leaders ranked here.

There’s been big movement this year. Coca-Cola climbed an astonishing 76 places, balancing nostalgia with contemporary relevance – and ubiquitous distribution. Paramount+ surged 67 spots, outperforming Disney+ and Netflix by giving audiences exactly what they demanded. ChatGPT rose 32 places, reflecting how AI has shifted from novelty to necessity. And McDonald’s moved up 19 spots, powered by digital ordering and hyper-personalized CX. Loyalty isn’t just about scale or legacy. It’s about meeting people where they are, emotionally and functionally.

One surprising finding: 2025 saw no new entrants into the Top 100. Instead, consumers doubled down on brands already in play. Which suggests loyalty in the AI era is less about discovery and more about deepening trust with familiar players. Consumers are gravitating toward brands that consistently keep pace with their needs. When expectations are met reliably, loyalty doesn’t just rise – it accelerates.

For laggards, the message is clear: there’s little room left for “good enough.” In an environment where expectations grow double digits each year, failure to evolve means falling off the loyalty map entirely.

The Brand Keys Loyalty Leaders List is not based on sales or awareness – it’s 100% consumer-driven. The 2025 study, conducted in August, included 77,608 assessments from consumers ages 16 to 65, who evaluated 1,485 brands across 145 categories. Unlike satisfaction surveys, this methodology measures the emotional and rational components of decision-making. That’s why the rankings correlate so strongly with actual behavior, sales, and profitability (r = 0.80+). In other words, loyalty here is not a lagging indicator; it’s a predictive one.

The 2025 Loyalty Leaders List offers a glimpse of a future where loyalty is not earned once but continuously maintained. Brands that embrace AI while staying true to their essence will thrive. 

Ultimately, loyalty is shifting from programs to relationships, from transactions to trust, and from brands to the AI systems that represent them. In the end, loyalty isn’t about points or perks. It’s about relationships. And increasingly, those relationships will be mediated by AI that knows you almost as well as you know yourself.

For brands, that’s both the challenge and the opportunity of the decade. Because more and more loyalty isn’t set in stone – it’s set in code!