The Future of Loyalty Programs, as Seen on Comarch User Group 2026

If you couldn’t make it to Kraków this year, you missed a global mastermind completely redefining how the world’s top brands connect. Comarch User Group 2026 was a high-octane look into the future. Across 22 loyalty-focused sessions, one massive revelation kept echoing: the global loyalty scene is shifting away from generic discounts and turning massively toward behavioral psychology and deep tech.

The Pulse of CUG 2026: Setting the New Loyalty Agenda

To say Comarch User Group 2026 was a success is a massive understatement—it was officially our biggest, most attended flagship event in history! The energy in Kraków was absolutely electric as our Loyalty Stream alone brought together 107 brilliant brand strategists from 33 countries. Through 22 game-changing presentations, a powerful collective truth emerged: the future belongs to behavioral psychology. Forget superficial gimmicks. The next generation of loyalty is a masterful blend of human habits, advanced AI, and strict financial math.

Trend 1: Translating Loyalty into Hard ROI for the CFO

For years, loyalty marketers and CFOs haven’t exactly spoken the same language. Marketers talk about engagement and retention; finance sees a massive cost center. But it is time to stop playing defense and start proving loyalty’s hard financial yield!

“If we want to prove the worth of these programs, we have to start speaking the CFO's language. That means moving away from just presenting percentages and instead showing specific monetary numbers and actual changes in income. We need to clearly connect customer behavior directly to financial value.”

Llen Laguno, Founder and Managing Partner at Kyros

By shifting the conversation to Customer Lifetime Value models, you can suddenly show the finance team exactly how long-term retention compounds into pure profit over time.

The strategists at McKinsey & Company backed this up beautifully, reframing what a loyalty engine can actually do for a business:

“Loyalty programs can be incredibly powerful for targeted demand stimulation. When you do it right, loyalty actually operates as a high-yield alternative sales channel, driving massive volume without cannibalizing your core business.”

Jose Carluccio, Global Co-leader of Loyalty service line, focused on B2C industries at McKinsey & Company 

Think about that—an alternative sales channel! It’s a total game-changer. However, getting there means walking away from the old, lazy ways of measuring success. Forrester Research shared frameworks designed to aggressively separate profitable, habit-building programs from the ones that simply burn corporate cash. This evolution comes with real responsibility.

“As brands make the shift from traditional programs to modern, experiential loyalty, there are definite trade-offs to navigate. Right now, the number one challenge we see is accurately measuring their ROI, closely followed by the challenge of maintaining data quality.”

John Pedini, Principal Analyst at Forrester Research 

Trend 2: Invisible Loyalty Through Unified Ecosystems

Friction is the ultimate loyalty killer, and standalone, siloed programs are out. Instead, the future belongs to frictionless, unified ecosystems where the loyalty mechanics become completely invisible to the user.

Nowhere is this more obvious than in the fuel and energy sectors, where top brands are completely reinventing the fueling experience. During CUG26, Petron shared how they turned a routine chore into a flawless, zero-friction interaction:

“Our key principle is seamlessness. If a customer has to go through multiple steps, the loyalty program itself becomes friction and slows down turnover. By integrating identification, payment, and subsidies into one single flow, we make the loyalty mechanics completely invisible. Now, customers don’t even have to leave their cars anymore.”

Raymond Wye Lok Chow, Operations & Services Manager (Retail Program & Network Automation) at Petron 

Imagine that—a program so perfectly designed that it runs itself in the background! This vision of a unified lifestyle experience was echoed by HELLENiQ ENERGY (collaborating alongside innovators like ENOC). They realized that consumers are experiencing massive app fatigue, and the only way forward is to consolidate value.

“Every customer has multiple apps on their phones right now, so our goal was to combine everything into one single solution for the stations and the customers. We're actually seeing people change their habits, coming to our stations specifically to get points they can convert into airline miles.”

Athanasios Sbonias, Head Of Customer Experience & Loyalty for Domestic Retail at HELLENiQ ENERGY

But energy companies aren’t the only ones tearing down traditional boundaries. Banco de Crédito BCP is pivoting a traditional banking brand into a massive coalition powerhouse boasting over 200 partner brands. They proved that loyalty should enhance a customer's life:

“We wanted to move past basic points for transactions and build a world-class program that holistically helps our customers. We launched a multi-phased plan to shift away from singular transactions and create an ecosystem that is genuinely better for all of our clients.”

Alana Visconti, Head of Loyalty at Banco de Crédito del Perú 

Trend 3: Behavioral Science Over Superficial Gamification

In 2026, consumers are experiencing major gimmick fatigue. The future of customer retention has officially moved past cheap tricks and is diving deep into genuine behavioral science and lasting habit formation. Younger audiences especially see right through old-school marketing tactics. 

“When it comes to Gen Z, they are incredibly suspicious of standard mechanics. To them, things like 'spin the wheel' are just noise. True gamification is a strategy that actually has to change human behavior or give the customer a narrative reason to return.”

James Cooper, Commercial Director at Bright Insights Consulting 

So, what does real, impactful gamification look like if it’s not an in-app mini-game? Intriguingly, it might mean encouraging your audience to look away from their screens entirely. As James went on to explain:

“We are actually seeing a shift towards the gamification of putting your phone down. The future is about building genuine communities in the real world, whether that's through running clubs or a morning coffee rave. Look at the Nike Run Club, for example—their entire goal is to build a community and help members be better, and they achieve that with absolutely no points or discounts.”

This masterclass in human psychology was backed up powerfully by Virgin Active. They took the stage and dropped a brilliant truth bomb: their wildly successful initiative succeeds precisely because it rejects traditional industry definitions:

“Virgin Active is not a loyalty program. Our true challenge is to help people build healthy habits. We try to bridge the gap between the anticipation of an action and the reward itself, using short-term weekly goals to motivate our members to move.”

Ros Netto, Global Head of Rewards at Virgin Active 

Trend 4: AI Empathy and Precise Micro-Segmentation

You can’t slap a customer’s name at the top of an email and call it personalization anymore. The next massive frontier in data strategy is emotionally intelligent adaptation, powered by deep tech and precise micro-segmentation. Empathy decisioning will become more and more prevalent with the growth of AI usage.

“Traditional AI doesn't understand drastic life changes and can be insensitive, like pushing expensive Gold Tier offers to someone in financial distress. Empathy decisioning looks for those silent behavioral changes, allowing the program to naturally adapt its tone, recommendations, and offers to what the customer actually needs in that moment.”

Philip Shelper, CEO at Loyalty & Reward Co

And how does that look when applied to luxury and premium experiences? Azul Brazilian Airlines showed us how they weaponize granular data to elevate their top-tier members.

“Loyalty means different things to different people. With our top-tier, Azul One, we realized that while customers choose a program, the program also has to actively choose its customers to make them feel uniquely special. By using precise segmentation, we've become hyper-aware of our members, ensuring they feel safe and looked after.”

Giulia Allevato, Loyalty Product Manager at Azul Brazilian Airlines

But this micro-targeted approach isn't just for airlines. It’s radically changing retail and fuel distribution on the ground, too. By leaning into localized demand signals, Ipiranga gave power back to the people who know the consumers best.

“Centralization limits potential, but true personalization drives relevance. Our independent retailers know their specific micro-regions better than anyone, so we empower them to read local demand signals and act immediately. Through our 'Oferta e Sua' platform, retailers can make local decisions and actually apply completely different discounts for different customers.”

Débora Amado, Head of Product at Ipiranga

Trend 5: Loyalty Driving Real-World Wellbeing and Sustainability

One of the biggest changes we noticed in the industry is a massive elevation in purpose. Tomorrow’s leading programs are creating profound, positive impacts on customers' lives, health, and the very planet we live on.

Take Virgin Active’s experts, who reminded us that when you connect with people on an emotional level, traditional corporate jargon completely goes out the window.

The concept of shared impact and emotional connection is also completely revolutionizing modern sustainability efforts. More often than not, a green loyalty program has to meet the customers where they are if it wants to succeed.

“People generally want to act more sustainably, but usually only when it’s convenient for them. With BahnBonus, we reward the greenest journeys possible, proving that you can prioritize a great feeling for the customer while combating climate change. It’s about creating a perfect balance between real business growth and protecting the planet.”

Sven Neweling, Head of CRM Strategy and Loyalty Programs at Deutsche Bahn 

With the right approach, you can even turn the abstract concept of the circular economy into a highly engaging, sticky customer journey. Gamify the recycling process and prove that a brand can be both a savior and a commercial powerhouse.

“For us, the customer journey might actually start with a broken appliance. We offer to repair it, and if we can't, customers can trade their waste for discounts while we turn the parts into reusable materials. It's a gamified engagement model that creates a true marriage between commercial success and the circular economy.”

Sudapa Chamod, CIO at Home Product Center Pcl. 

Together Towards Tomorrow: The Next Chapter of Loyalty

What an absolute whirlwind of innovation! If Comarch User Group 2026 proved anything, it’s that “Innovation Without Boundaries” is the definitive battle cry for the next generation of marketing. The future belongs to brands that can seamlessly balance rigorous financial math with deep AI empathy, real-world community building, and planet-first sustainability.

Our report on sustainable loyalty is a perfect asset to dive deeper into those themes. Get your copy now to navigate the AI energy paradox and build traceable, audit-ready data frameworks that protect your brand.