Blog – Chief Marketing Technologist

Everything you could want to know about AI, martech stacks, and the 2025 marketing technology landscape

March 31, 2025 / Marketing Management / By Scott Brinker / Leave a Comment

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 with the 2025 marketing technology landscape. And the 2025 Stackie Awards. And a series of zero-fluff interviews with six industry leaders who are sponsoring our event this year. We’ll unveil it all in a big, free virtual event that you’re invited to. Trust …

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Meet the new martech stack: systems of context and systems of truth

February 18, 2025 / Marketing Software / By Scott Brinker / Leave a Comment

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. DAM for brand assets. ERP for inventory data. (I know, there’s a ton of acronyms in this piece, almost to the point of parody. Click on the image above for a larger-scale version to read the Acronymn Decoder Ring on the right.) Systems …

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What’s in your stack? The 2025 Stackie Awards are open for entries, and we’re donating $100 for each one

February 10, 2025 / Marketing Software / By Scott Brinker / Leave a Comment

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, martech stacks — and the marketing ops heroes who manage them — are experiencing a Renaissance of new ideas and new technologies. The 2025 Stackie Awards are your opportunity to contribute to that Renaissance. “What are the Stackie Awards?” you say. They’re a fun …

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Despite financial pressure — or because of it? — tech stacks are actually expanding again

January 16, 2025 / Marketing Software / By Scott Brinker / Leave a Comment

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 in companies’ stacks shrank in both 2022 and 2023, albeit by only a modest amount, less than 10% on average. But economic times were tight last year, and CFOs were on the warpath to cut SaaS waste. And, of course, there’s the ongoing …

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SaaS Tech Stacks Grew in 2024, Both in Number of Apps and Spend

AI agents are the new iPaaS and the next frontier of intense competition in digital ops orchestration

January 2, 2025 / Marketing Software / By Scott Brinker / Leave a Comment

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 in a company’s tech stack, there’s been jockeying to determine who was boss. If the tech stack were an orchestra, which product would be the conductor? Whichever one directed the flow of data among apps and determined which function in which app was …

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Martech AI Agent Battle for Digital Ops Orchestration

Martech for 2025: A brand-new, 108-page report on AI use cases, stack foundations, and market structure

December 3, 2024 / Marketing Management / By Scott Brinker / Leave a Comment

Happy holiday season, ye merry marketing maestros! Here’s a marvelous way to get prepped and psyched for the New Year that’s right around the corner. Frans Riemersma and I just released our latest report, Martech for 2025. It’s 108 pages of our latest research and analysis of what’s actually happening with marketing technology in the maelstrom of AI madness. No heaps of hype. Just hard data and a hopefully helpful framing of the facts. You …

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The state of marketing operations professionals is OK, but it’s going to get much, much better

November 10, 2024 / Marketing Management / By Scott Brinker / Leave a Comment

Last week, Mike Rizzo and team at MarketingOps.com hosted their annual MOps-Apalooza event with 400+ marketing ops people. I was honored to be one of their keynote speakers, and I’ll share the core theme of my talk with you in a moment. But first… They also released their annual State of the Marketing Operations Professionals, an epic 87-page report that surveyed more than 600 marketing ops pros on almost every facet of their careers. It’s …

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The one presentation about martech for 2025 — and the AI madness around it — you won’t want to miss

November 3, 2024 / Marketing Management / By Scott Brinker / Leave a Comment

Sorry that it’s been a while since I last posted. But I have a good excuse. Frans Riemersma and I have been deep in research on what’s happening in martech for the year ahead — a big part of which has been sorting through much fact vs. fiction with generative AI. What’s the deal with existing martech platforms vs. new, AI-native products popping up like wildflowers? Will AI agents actually impact marketing in 2025? How? …

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Companies are replacing more martech, focused on integrations and APIs, and still expanding their stacks

September 26, 2024 / Marketing Software / By Scott Brinker / Leave a Comment

I have two surveys for you that I think you’ll love. The first is one that I’m asking you to take: a cut-through-the-BS survey on the real ways in which you’re seeing gen AI used in your organization — or not. This data will contribute to the “Martech for 2025” report and virtual event Frans Riemersma and I will be sharing on December 3. More details to follow. Both of us and thousands of your …

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Martech Replacement Factors: Integrations and APIs are #2

Buying martech: what you love, what you hate, and who you trust (or not)

September 14, 2024 / Marketing Software / By Scott Brinker / Leave a Comment

If you’re reading this blog, it’s a safe bet that you’ve been involved in buying — or selling — martech software. Probably quite a bit of martech software. So I greatly appreciate that a number of you responded to my survey over LinkedIn asking what you loved and hated about that experience and which resources you found helpful and trustworthy (or not!) in that process. Here’s what you, at least the collective “you,” had to …

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