Market Trends

Gartner’s $6.37T IT spend forecast is pulling marketing AI agents into enterprise buying cycles faster

Gartner expects IT spending to hit $6.37T in 2026. That infrastructure surge is changing how marketing AI agents get funded, secured, and procured.

Gartner’s 2026 digital marketing Hype Cycle frames AI spend as a governance problem, not a tooling race

Gartner’s 2026 Hype Cycle says CMOs face flat budgets, “answer engines,” and a shift toward autonomous marketing. Operators should treat AI as governed spend.

Forrester’s Q3 2026 Wave puts Optimizely’s agentic experimentation on procurement shortlists

Optimizely’s Forrester Wave placement shifts experience optimization buying toward governed, warehouse-native agentic experimentation.

B2B demand gen leaders are ditching MQL volume for sourced revenue and influenced pipeline in 2026

Demand Gen Report's 2026 benchmark survey shows B2B marketing teams replacing vanity metrics with revenue attribution, AI workflows, and shared sales goals.

Global ecommerce is on track to surpass $6 trillion, and enterprise operators are still leaving money on the table

Global ecommerce is closing in on $6 trillion, yet cart abandonment, mobile friction, and slow AI adoption mean most enterprise operators are underperforming th

Companies are still shunning internal candidates for CMO roles, and the July data shows it

External CMO hires continue to dominate in 2026, with nearly half of June's appointments going to first-timers, per Ad Age's monthly tracking data.

Creator-executives are rewriting what a CMO looks like in 2026

Nadya Okamoto's appointment as CMO of Pie signals a broader shift: brands are trading boardroom experience for built-in audience fluency.

CMO tenure hits a 4.1-year floor at S&P 500 companies as marketing chiefs trade titles for broader mandates

Spencer Stuart data shows CMO tenure at S&P 500 firms now averages just 4.1 years, the shortest among core C-suite roles, as top marketers increasingly exit the

Albertsons, Tractor Supply, and Bero show how retailers are rebuilding digital operations for scale in 2026

Three retailers are restructuring merchandising, AI-powered B2B portals, and omnichannel tools as ecommerce resets toward operational discipline.

Vereigen Media bets on buying-committee ABM as 56% of B2B teams shift focus to new account acquisition

Vereigen Media expands its ABM services to target entire buying groups, as new benchmark data shows ABM has become a core B2B growth engine.

B2B marketing's top performers share three traits: buying groups, full-funnel attribution, and AI-visible brands

New research and a fresh GTM intelligence partnership reveal what separates high-performing B2B marketing teams from the rest in 2026.

B2B marketing teams face their hardest budget-allocation test yet as AI, ABM, and intent data all compete for the same dollar

Demand Gen Report's 2026 benchmark survey is open now, asking where B2B marketing budgets are really flowing across ABM, content, intent data, and AI.

Marketing budgets hit 7.8% of revenue in 2026, but AI visibility is redirecting where the money actually flows

Marketing budgets are at their lowest share of company revenue since 2020, yet AI visibility and creator spend are quietly absorbing dollars once earmarked for

Marketing budgets are flat at 7.7% of revenue, but AI-mature companies are spending 11%

Gartner's 2026 CMO Spend Survey finds marketing budgets holding steady at 7.7% of revenue overall, while organizations with fully optimized AI processes average

AI is splitting enterprise marketing automation into two tiers, and the valuation gap is widening

14 marketing automation companies have crossed $1B in valuation, while the top 10 capture 74.5% of total sector value, and AI is accelerating the divide.

95% of B2B marketers use AI in 2026, but fewer than 4 in 10 say it's actually working

CMI's 2026 B2B research exposes the gap between AI adoption and real performance gains, while buying committees hit 11.2 members on average.

Webinars hold the edge in B2B thought leadership, new benchmark data shows

Future B2B's 2026 Webinar Benchmark, drawn from 517 webinars and 151,902 registrations, confirms webinars remain a top-funnel workhorse for enterprise marketers

B2B influencer marketing hits 85% adoption as brands shift budget toward industry experts

B2B influencer adoption jumped 34% since 2020, with new data on ROI, lead quality, and AI-driven campaign tools reshaping how enterprise marketers allocate budg

Brand trust, short-term pressure, and the ROI of creativity: what's reshaping the B2B CMO mandate in 2026

New research reveals B2B CMOs are trading long-term brand investment for internal credibility, even as data shows creativity drives measurable commercial growth

Philippines CDP market set to hit $127M by 2031, driven by omnichannel retail and first-party data shift

A new Mordor Intelligence report projects the Philippines customer data platform market will grow at a 36.12% CAGR through 2031, fueled by retail, telecom, and

Marketing automation is no longer optional for manufacturers chasing B2B leads

With 80% of users reporting lead gains and 77% seeing higher conversion rates, manufacturing marketers without automation are falling behind.

Three martech moves reshaping how enterprise teams buy, automate, and engage in 2026

Outreach, Tenon, and Sprinklr each dropped significant product news on July 16, here's what it means for revenue ops, IT, and CX teams.

B2B content marketing in 2026: AI adoption is near-universal, but performance gains are not

95% of B2B marketers now use AI tools, yet fewer than 4 in 10 report a real performance lift, and buying committees keep growing.