Holiday planning is a massive effort, not just for traditional retailers but for anyone doing business with consumers and, nowadays, even for B2B. Very few product or service businesses escape the kind of seasonality that forces active engagement with the market through promotions, offers or specials. Right now, we’re all bombarded with deals on everything, …
ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity are giving users quick, direct answers without sending them to publisher sites. And if people stop clicking through, what happens to the ads, affiliate links and sponsorships that keep the web running? With Google and others doubling down on AI-driven results, the way people discover and engage with content is shifting …
The future of marketing isn’t just personalized — it’s participatory. As AI advances, leading brands are discovering that its real power isn’t in replacing human creativity but in amplifying it. Today’s most innovative companies are leveraging AI to transform passive consumers into active collaborators, empowering each person to play a role in shaping their own …
Read more “AI is turning personalization into a two-way conversation”
In MarTech’s “MarTechBot explains it all” feature, we pose a question about marketing to our very own MarTechBot, which is trained on the MarTech website archives and has access to the broader internet. Question: What would a truly customer-centric B2B buyer’s journey look like — and how is it different from the traditional funnel? The …
Read more “How a customer-centric B2B journey breaks the funnel model”
Digital marketing has, in many ways, come full circle to the pre-internet era when brand awareness and revenue defined success. Traffic and clicks still matter, but they’re only part of the picture now. In a recent interview, Rand Fishkin said the cure for traffic loss driven by search, AI and other zero-click levers is stronger …
Read more “Why content-driven branding is the real fix for zero-click traffic loss”
AI is rapidly becoming a default advisor in everyday decision-making, often delivering answers that sound authoritative even when the underlying analysis is shaky. As more teams rely on these systems, the gap between what AI appears to know and what it can responsibly recommend is becoming a real risk — especially when decisions carry social …
Read more “How to stop AI decisions from repeating human biases”
Consumers didn’t wait for Black Friday or Cyber Monday to open their wallets this year. U.S. shoppers have already spent $79.7 billion online from Nov. 1 to Nov. 23—a 7.5% jump over last year’s pace, according to new Adobe Analytics data. What’s fueling the early spend? A potent mix of strategic early discounts, mobile convenience, …
Read more “Holiday ecommerce spending hits $79.7 billion before Cyber Week even begins”
Every vendor right now is selling a version of the same dream: AI agents that automate campaign execution, write content, optimize performance and orchestrate entire workflows while you sleep. Marketing leaders are buying in fast, but there’s a problem. According to Gartner’s 2025 survey of martech leaders, 81% are piloting or actively using AI agents. …
Read more “Most AI agents fail without data and governance maturity”
Marketers in 2026 face two priorities: bring back real-world brand experiences and get ready for AI-led discovery, according to the “Signals from the Stage” report from the ANA Masters of Marketing Conference. These strategic tensions reflect a rapidly shifting consumer landscape shaped by digital fatigue, rising expectations for personalization and growing reliance on AI agents …
Read more “Consumers want less digital, more real world from brands in 2026”
Your martech vendor evaluation process doesn’t work anymore—not because it lacks rigor, but because it’s rooted in outdated assumptions about the market, the tools and your needs. The martech landscape has exploded beyond what anyone can reasonably evaluate, and every tool in it claims AI capabilities. Your email platform promises AI-powered subject line optimization. Your …
Read more “Is your martech evaluation process still stuck in a pre-AI world?”