Next Best Decisioning: AJO’s Code-Based Experience & Decisioning Module

On the lookout for a smart, intelligent decisioning capability that eliminates the   need to explicitly configure the next best personalized experience; based on a bunch of rules or rigid logic?

With Adobe’s new Journey Optimizer’s (AJO) feature - Experience Decisioning is here!

AJO shifts from “instruction” to “intent” – instead of instructing to show “Experience A” for “Segment X”, it shows whatever Experience gets selected based on a centralized catalog of decision items, along with rules, goals or policies (e.g., "Maximize Lift" or "Prioritize Engagement"), and AI-driven ranking powered by Adobe Experience Platform data, to determine the next best content for the selected segment.

This identifies as an agentic feature, since AI autonomously decides the best action to achieve the goal at runtime.

Understanding Code-Based Experience:

While Experience Decisioning acts like a 'brain', the 'hand' is a Code-Based Experience feature of AJO.

If users are undecided about the channel to build the Next-Best Offer (NBO) or personalize experiences, going 'headless' is suggested.

This is where the Code-Based Experience channel stands out.

Code-Based experiences (CBE) in Adobe Journey Optimizer allow real-time, targeted personalization across web, mobile, and connected devices using APIs or SDKs.

Developers and marketers can tailor content by user behavior and context, moving beyond traditional channel-based methods. A non-visual editor enables precise element changes without affecting entire pages or apps, facilitating flexible implementation and testing.

CBE supports client-side, server-side, or hybrid rendering.

A quick cheat-sheet may help to decide:

Below are the components involved which deliver these cross-channel Next best offers/ experiences:

1. Universal "Surfaces" (Cross-Platform Targeting)

Code-Based experience surfaces define precise, addressable interaction points within an application where experiences, content, or logic can be delivered. Each surface is uniquely identified by a Surface URI (Uniform Resource Identifier), allowing applications to target anything from an entire web page or mobile app to a specific UI component (e.g., a div tag, banner) or even non-visual entities like JSON payloads. These surfaces are defined in application code and mapped to configurations to ensure consistent and accurate delivery.

Benefits

1. 1. Precision Targeting around where experiences appear
   2. Consistent logical surface can be addressed across all channels
   3. Supports hierarchical and wildcard surfaces, reducing duplication and simplifying large-scale implementations.
   4. Allows tailored experiences for specific touchpoints.
   5. Clear URI-based identification aligns well with code, making integrations easier for Developers.

2. Integrated Decisioning & Offer Management

AJO enables real-time, personalized customer experiences by combining code-based experience delivery with integrated decisioning and offer management; all powered by Adobe Experience Platform (AEP).

Below are the key components involved.

1. 1. Centralized offer library manages offers (decision items)
   2. Selection strategy helps group offers into collections and apply ranking methods.
   3. Decision policy combines multiple strategies with a fallback offer for ineligible users.
   4. CBE integration is achieved by selecting the decision policy in the AJO Code Editor, which injects Handlebars code.
   5. Edge delivery where the SDK/API calls the surface, and AEP Edge selects and injects the best offer in real time.

Benefits

1. 1. Write Once, Decide Everywhere: This can manage one set of offers (e.g., "10% Discount") in a central library and use them across different channels.
   2. Business Guardrails (Capping & Constraints): Integrated Decisioning allows us to set Frequency Capping. This ensures a user doesn't see the same "Credit Card" offer more than three times a week, regardless of whether they see it in the mobile app (via CBE) or an email.
   3. Developer Agility with Marketer Control: The Developer defines the  the JSON/HTML structure once. The Marketer can swap out offers, change eligibility dates, or adjust ranking models in the Offer Library without the developer ever needing to push new code to production.

3. Experience Decisioning

Adobe Journey Optimizer Decisioning, combined with Code-Based Experiences (CBE), enables scalable, real-time personalization by selecting and delivering the most relevant offers at specific cross-channel touchpoints.

AJO Decisioning follows a structured, end-to-end flow to select and deliver the best offer to everyone:

1. 1. Configure item catalogue by defining custom attributes aligned to business and personalization needs.
   2. Create decision items as offers or content units for targeted audiences.
   3. Organize items into collections using attribute-based rules to control eligibility.
   4. Define decision rules to specify when and to whom items or collections are shown.
   5. Apply ranking methods (AI-driven or rule-based) to prioritize eligible decision items.
   6. Build selection strategies by combining collections, rules, and ranking per profile.
   7. Create and activate a decision policy by embedding selection strategies into code-based experiences or campaigns for real-time delivery.

Benefits:

1. 1. Precise, real-time personalization by delivering relevant offers using real-time signals and profile data.
   2. Centralized offer management through a single catalog for consistency, reuse, and governance.
   3. Scalable decision logic using rules and strategies without hardcoding in applications.
   4. Seamless developer–marketer collaboration with developers defining surfaces and marketers controlling decisions.
   5. Faster activation and experimentation by instantly updating and activating offers and logic.
   6. Data-driven experiences using AEP data to improve relevance, engagement, and conversion

Infogain can assist in enabling these features for maximum benefits. Here’s how:

Our teams have achieved this for several customers by partnering with Adobe.

Deliver positive results for your organization. Partner with us, today!

Conclusion

While Adobe’s Code-Based Experience provides the 'headless' agility to personalize everything from ATMs to Smart TVs, the complexity lies in the execution.

Success depends on bridging the gap between developer velocity and marketer control—balancing 'flicker-free' performance with an 'infinite' content supply chain.

With its experience and expertise, Infogain engineers the 'Universal Surfaces' and decisioning frameworks that turn this technology into a scalable, revenue-generating engine.

Connect with our experts for a demo or write to us at info@infogain.com.

References:

Decisioning | Adobe Journey Optimizer

Code-based experience | Adobe Journey Optimizer

Deliver the right offer at the right time with decision management

Create & manage offers | Adobe Journey Optimizer