The Martech for 2026 report, authored by Scott Brinker and Frans Riemersma and sponsored by GrowthLoop, Hightouch, Intuit Mailchimp, MetaRouter, Progress, SAS, and Treasure Data, captures the most consequential shifts happening across marketing, technology, and buyer behavior. What follows are the core themes most relevant as businesses prepare for 2026, but it’s important to note that these represent only a fraction of the depth found in the full report.
The document spans agentic AI, stack architecture, buyer-side disruption, organizational design, and the future role of marketers; it is rich with data, examples, and guidance rather than predictions or platitudes. And because the team has chosen not to place it behind any firewall, every leader can access it freely and put the insights into practice immediately.
The Agentic Era Has Arrived—But Most Teams Are Still Early
One of the significant revelations is how quickly AI agents have moved from novelty to operational reality.
90.3% of marketing organizations now use AI agents in some capacity, yet only 23.3% have put them into full production.
Most are still piloting, experimenting, or running them in constrained workflows. That gap between experimentation and operationalization represents tremendous competitive opportunity for teams willing to push forward.
AI agents are proving most valuable in backstage functions: content production, segmentation, competitive analysis, and data enrichment. Content agents alone are used by 68.9% of teams, reflecting how early and aggressively marketers have leaned on generative tools for production and optimization. These internal-facing agents are creating meaningful efficiency gains while freeing marketers to focus on strategy.
Context Engineering Is the New Competitive Advantage
The report makes an unmistakable point: AI success now depends far less on models and far more on data quality and the flow of context.
56.3% of marketers cite poor data quality as their biggest challenge,
The authors argue that the industry is entering a new era—systems of context. Rather than merely storing data or executing workflows, leading organizations are designing their stacks to deliver the correct information, at the right moment, into the right agent. This discipline, termed context engineering, spans integration, governance, orchestration, and real-time signal activation. It demands cross-functional alignment and forces teams to rethink their architecture from the ground up.
This is where CDPs, data warehouses, iPaaS platforms, and analytics tools converge with agentic AI. The report’s treatment of this subject is extensive, showing marketers how these capabilities work together to form a cohesive, adaptive, and AI-ready ecosystem.
Hybrid Martech Stacks Will Define 2026
Despite widespread speculation that AI might displace SaaS, the report counters this narrative with clear data and careful analysis. SaaS is not dying—in fact, it remains essential. The future is hybrid: AI agents augmenting and enhancing deterministic SaaS systems rather than replacing them.
85.4% of respondents said AI 1 it. Only 30.1% reported any replacement of capabilities.
SaaS platforms remain critical for governance, stability, and operational consistency, while agents introduce adaptability, insight, and creativity.
The authors do an excellent job of mapping this landscape, explaining why hybrid models outperform pure-AI or pure-SaaS approaches and illustrating how organizations should structure these combinations across their stacks.
Buyer-Side Agents Will Reshape the Funnel
The greatest disruption highlighted in the report isn’t happening inside marketing teams—it’s happening in the hands of buyers. Consumers and businesses are increasingly relying on AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Perplexity to research, evaluate, and even purchase products without ever visiting a brand’s website. This shift challenges 25 years of SEO-driven acquisition and dramatically reduces visibility into the early funnel.
The report includes striking statistics from McKinsey:
- 50% of consumers already use AI-powered search
- 20–50% of traditional search traffic is at risk
- $750 billion in consumer spend will flow through AI-powered search by 2028
This transition catalyzes the rise of AEO (AI Engine Optimization)—the next evolution of SEO. The report not only explains this shift clearly but also provides practical strategies, emerging tools, and examples of how marketers can influence off-site and off-domain AI-generated experiences.
Personalization and Real-Time Relevance Reach New Expectations
The report underscores that customer expectations are escalating faster than ever. Personalization has moved beyond names and segments; customers now expect every interaction—onsite, via email, over chat, and even through AI intermediaries—to be contextually relevant and responsive in the moment.
This pushes marketers toward real-time infrastructure, adaptive journey orchestration, and AI-driven offer selection. Buyers expect brands to know them without crossing boundaries, and AI makes this possible only when systems are tightly integrated and governed.
The authors also show how this differs for B2B and B2C organizations, analyzing adoption rates and underlying operational obstacles.
AI Efficiency Must Be Balanced With Customer Experience (CX)
The report is candid about a looming risk: AI makes it extremely easy to overwhelm customers if used solely for efficiency. Automated outbound agents, AI SDRs, and high-volume sequences can rapidly exhaust customer attention and trust.
To address this, the report outlines specific operational safeguards:
- Ensure customers can always reach a human
- Conduct regular secret shopper and journey tests
- Audit every customer-facing agent for drift, accuracy, and appropriateness
- In B2B, notify reps when agents communicate in their name to protect authenticity
This section is particularly actionable and offers a grounded framework for preventing AI overuse from degrading experiences or damaging brand equity.
Marketers Need a New Kind of Leadership
The authors stress that tomorrow’s most valuable marketers are not those who can code—they are those who can direct AI with strategy, empathy, and creative clarity. AI literacy, not engineering skill, becomes the essential capability.
The report frames this shift as a career-defining moment for CMOs and marketing operators. Instead of fearing automation, leaders must position AI as a multiplier for human creativity, judgment, and innovation.
Why the Full Report Is Worth Reading
These key takeaways capture only the surface. The full report contains far more:
- Detailed breakdowns of 20+ categories of AI agents
- Architecture models for hybrid SaaS–AI stacks
- Deep interviews with leaders across GrowthLoop, Hightouch, Intuit Mailchimp, MetaRouter, Progress, SAS, and Treasure Data
- Practical examples of workflows, decisioning, and orchestration
- A vendor-neutral analysis of emerging standards like MCP and A2A
- Strategic guidance for personalization, data governance, and agentic design
What makes this report particularly valuable is its clarity. Rather than drowning readers in hype, it offers grounded insights, data-backed direction, and practical frameworks for leaders evaluating where to invest next. And because the team chose not to gate it, anyone can download it instantly and start applying the insights.
For businesses planning 2026 roadmaps—whether data leaders, CMOs, ops directors, or founders—the report is one of the clearest, most actionable guides available on how AI is reshaping marketing from the ground up.
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