Verndale joins Sitecore's Velocity Program to accelerate enterprise AI adoption across marketing stacks

Verndale joined Sitecore's Velocity Program on June 16, giving the Boston-based digital experience agency priority access to SitecoreAI builder licenses and early entry into beta capabilities as it scales AI-driven modernization work for enterprise clients. The announcement, distributed via PR Newswire, marks a formal deepening of what has been a Platinum-level partnership across more than 350 Sitecore projects.

What the Velocity Program means for enterprise marketing teams

For marketing operations and IT leaders still running on legacy Sitecore XP environments, the Velocity Program is Sitecore's mechanism for getting its most capable partners closer to the product roadmap before capabilities reach general availability. Verndale gains SitecoreAI builder licenses and earlier visibility into upcoming features, which in practice means its clients can begin planning and piloting capabilities that haven't yet shipped broadly.

SitecoreAI consolidates content management, customer data, personalization, and AI-enabled workflows into a single platform, according to PR Newswire. The pitch to enterprise operators is simpler: fewer point solutions to integrate, and a single governance layer for brand consistency across channels. That framing matters for procurement and IT teams evaluating composable versus monolithic DXP architectures, where integration overhead and compliance exposure are live concerns.

Verndale's migration toolkit: ForgeAI, TIDAL, and guided pilots

Verndale brings three proprietary tools to the table. ForgeAI is an AI-driven migration accelerator built specifically for moving organizations off Sitecore XP and legacy DXP environments. TIDAL functions as an enterprise-grade, industry-focused accelerator. Guided SitecoreAI pilots are structured proof-of-concepts designed to validate real business use cases before a client commits to full-scale deployment, according to the PR Newswire release.

The pilot model is notable for risk-averse procurement teams. Rather than a long-cycle implementation with value recognized only at go-live, the pilot structure is intended to surface ROI signals earlier and let operators course-correct before sunk costs accumulate. Verndale's 44-plus integrations connecting SitecoreAI with existing enterprise systems further reduce the lift for organizations that need their DXP to talk to CRMs, ERPs, and data platforms already in place.

Across its Sitecore practice, Verndale counts 12 Sitecore MVPs, a designation that reflects deep platform expertise recognized by the vendor itself. Its vertical programs cover healthcare, financial services, law firms, manufacturing, and higher education, sectors where content governance, compliance, and personalization at scale carry distinct requirements.

Sitecore's Scrunch acquisition adds AI search visibility to the platform

Sitecore's recent acquisition of Scrunch adds a layer to SitecoreAI that goes beyond content delivery. Scrunch is focused on helping brands understand and improve how they appear in AI-generated search answers, an increasingly critical surface as enterprise buyers research products through AI assistants rather than traditional search engines, according to the PR Newswire release. For marketing and brand teams, this closes a gap between content creation and discovery: a brand can now manage its content in SitecoreAI and track whether that content surfaces correctly when a prospect asks an AI system a relevant question.

That capability is operationally significant for demand-generation and digital marketing leaders whose pipeline depends on organic discovery. AI-generated answers increasingly bypass traditional indexed search results, and brands without visibility into those surfaces are flying blind on a growing share of their discovery funnel.

What this means for your team

• If your organization is running Sitecore XP and has deferred migration, ask Verndale or your current SI about structured pilots that can validate SitecoreAI use cases before committing to full implementation.
• Evaluate whether your current DXP contract includes AI-enabled workflow and personalization capabilities, or whether those require a separate platform layer with additional integration cost.
• Factor AI search visibility (how your brand surfaces in AI-generated answers) into your 2026 digital strategy review; Sitecore's Scrunch acquisition signals this is becoming a first-class platform feature, not a bolt-on.
• When assessing migration partners, benchmark their credential depth: Sitecore MVP count, completed enterprise projects, and pre-built integrations are concrete proxies for implementation risk reduction.