Published: 1/07/2025
Steven Millman
Global Head of Research & Data Science, Dynata
As the market research landscape continues to evolve and change, one thing is clear: fully permissioned first-party data will take center stage in 2025. Two seismic shifts in the industry which have been fundamentally altering how businesses engage with and understand their consumers will drive this transformation.
The first is the deprecation of individual-level signals, including the long-anticipated decline of third-party cookies. Starting next year, Google Chrome will begin prompting users to decide whether to enable third-party cookies—a move expected to reduce their presence in the ecosystem by as much as 80%. This marks the end of the era where tracking behaviors across the web at a census level was the norm. Businesses will need to pivot to data collection methods that build direct, trust-based relationships with consumers. First-party data, gathered transparently and with explicit consent, will emerge as the cornerstone of effective measurement, targeting, and personalization strategies.
The second shift is the rapid rise of large language models (LLMs), which have become a transformative force across industries. The quality of these AI-driven tools, however, is only as good as the data that fuels them. LLMs require high-fidelity, representative, and bias-free consumer data to in order to deliver insights that can be used for making effective decisions. First-party data, enriched with contextual details and obtained through permissioned methods, provides the reliable foundation these models need to avoid skewed or inaccurate predictions.
Together, these trends continue an ongoing trend for brands, researchers, and marketers becoming more reliant on first party data. The path forward demands a commitment to ethical data practices, prioritizing consumer trust, and transparency. Organizations that lean into first-party data strategies will not only find themselves better able to navigate these disruptions but also to be positioned as leaders in the next chapter of data-driven innovation.
In 2025, first-party data won’t just be critical assets — they will be a competitive necessity.