Close encounters with zombie martech automations and AI agents — just in time for Halloween
The lights are on but nobody's home. The engine's running but no one's driving. The wheel is spinning but the hamster is dead. Pick your preferred idiom for unattended automations run amok. ("The Wi-Fi's on, but there's no Internet.") Over the past weeks, I encountered AI agents and automation at two separate martech companies — as a customer of one and a pseudo-prospect for the other — that leaned toward the "annoyingly efficient" upper-left quadrant of […]
The first generation of gen AI use cases in marketing are streaking through the Hype Cycle
Ah, the Hype Cycle. No other curve is both so revered and reviled. When it comes to generative AI's Hype Cycle, especially its application in marketing, there are three things we need […]
1967 was the Summer of Love; we will remember 2025 as the Summer of Vibes
Are you feeling the vibes yet? "Vibe" has become the latest AI buzzword. Even more than "agentic," which is saying a lot. While both terms are widely open to interpretation — and […]
2025 Marketing Technology Landscape Supergraphic: 100X growth since 2011, but now with AI…
tl;dr The martech landscape grew again since last year, up 9% to 15,384 solutions. While new AI natives continue to blossom, the previous generation is consolidating more. There's also an exploding "hypertail" […]
Beyond AI assistants: how AI is being more deeply embedded in marketing and martech stacks
This is a short excerpt of data from The State of Martech 2025 report that will be released on May 6, 2025. You can get the complete 100+ page report and access […]
Complicated to Complex: AI Agents and Managing a Dynamic Martech Stack
The following is a short excerpt from The State of Martech 2025 report that will be published on May 6, 2025 — #MartechDay. Sign up for free to attend our keynote presentation, […]
Everything you could want to know about AI, martech stacks, and the 2025 marketing technology landscape
Sorry I've been a bit quiet this past month. I've been heads down on research for our State of Martech 2025 report that we'll be releasing on #MartechDay — May 6 — along […]
Meet the new martech stack: systems of context and systems of truth
For years, martech was divided into systems of record and systems of engagement. Systems of record stored the "master" versions of data. CRMs and CDPs for customer data. PIM for product data. […]
What’s in your stack? The 2025 Stackie Awards are open for entries, and we’re donating $100 for each one
It's 2025, and martech stacks are going through all kinds of changes. From unified data to agentic workflows, from consolidating vendors to proliferating gen AI, and from commercially-packaged platforms to custom-developed apps, […]
Despite financial pressure — or because of it? — tech stacks are actually expanding again
If you predicted that tech stacks would shrink in 2024, it was probably a good bet. After all, the trend line had been headed in that direction. The average number of apps […]
AI agents are the new iPaaS and the next frontier of intense competition in digital ops orchestration
Welcome to 2025! It'll be the Year of AI Agents in martech, in word and deed. Here's what I think that means… From the moment there was more than one software product […]
Check Out Hacking Marketing on Amazon
A brilliant road map on how to evolve the capability and culture of marketing practices using parallels from the most disruptive industry in the world, the software industry.
Ram Krishnan, SVP & CMO, PepsiCo
Interviews
Start 2017 with the world’s most famous chief marketing technologist
Happy New Year, dear readers! What better way to launch into 2017 than revisiting our […]
Digital transformation at the AARP, from old to new
Had your fill of millennial marketing articles lately? Even the millennials themselves are like, "Don't […]
Insights from the chief marketing technologist of an $18B firm
Duane Schulz, chief marketing technologist at Xerox, is a marketing technologist's marketing technologist. One of […]
How utilized is marketing automation today? An expert weighs in
I recently had the chance to talk with Jeff Pedowitz, the founder and president of […]
Marketing
Close encounters with zombie martech automations and AI agents — just in time for Halloween
The lights are on but nobody's home. The engine's running but no one's driving. The […]
The first generation of gen AI use cases in marketing are streaking through the Hype Cycle
Ah, the Hype Cycle. No other curve is both so revered and reviled. When it […]
1967 was the Summer of Love; we will remember 2025 as the Summer of Vibes
Are you feeling the vibes yet? "Vibe" has become the latest AI buzzword. Even more […]
2025 Marketing Technology Landscape Supergraphic: 100X growth since 2011, but now with AI…
tl;dr The martech landscape grew again since last year, up 9% to 15,384 solutions. While […]
Media Content
The Martech Show Episode #11: The Great Unbundling with Benedict Evans
The Martech Show is back! Our latest episode is an interview with Benedict Evans, tech […]
The Martech Show Episode #10: Lessons from a Fortune 50 CMO on Agile Marketing, Martech & More
Season #1 of The Martech Show concludes in Episode #10 with a terrific conversation with […]
The Martech Show Episode #9: The Tech-Savvy CMO — Unicorn or Universal?
For this 9th episode of The Martech Show, I was delighted to have Rishi Dave, […]
The Martech Show Episode #8: The Martech Suite Strikes Back?
Ben Bloom, a senior research director at Gartner who specializes in marketing technology management, joined […]