Exploring the MarTech & CX Landscape
Greg Kihlström, a leading authority in marketing technology, digital transformation, and customer experience, has been recognized with three major honors at the outset of 2025, solidifying his position as one of the industry’s foremost thought leaders.
The ability to adapt and respond to changing market conditions is more crucial than ever for organizations. “Staying Agile” has become a mantra for marketers, emphasizing the importance of flexibility, responsiveness, and continuous improvement in their strategies. Let’s explore the principles of agility in marketing, highlighting the significance of a problem-first mindset, the role of data and technology, and the necessity for rapid experimentation.
The expectations of customers continue to evolve, with an increasing demand for immediate and efficient responses to their inquiries. The effectiveness of customer support hinges significantly on the ability to empower customers through self-service solutions. This essay explores the critical role of self-service in enhancing customer satisfaction and operational efficiency, emphasizing the importance of a comprehensive knowledge base.
At AWS re:Invent, Adobe (Nasdaq:ADBE) announced an expanded partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to make Adobe Experience Platform (AEP) available on AWS. This new offering unlocks the ability for brands to strengthen customer relationships through highly personalized experiences, powered by deep insights. By having a single view of customers as real-time interactions take place across online and offline channels, AEP has been the solution of choice for brands to deliver true personalization at scale.
Applications powered by AEP including Adobe Real-Time CDP, Adobe Journey Optimizer and Adobe Customer Journey Analytics will also be available on AWS, enabling brands to easily build audiences, engage customers across channels and iterate experiences through actionable insights. This joint offering provides brands a new level of flexibility and scale, with AEP-driven insights and workflows that can be centralized on AWS.
Leading brands including The Coca-Cola Company, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Major League Baseball, Marriott International, Panera Bread, Prudential Financial, Qualcomm, U.S. Bank and more have relied on AEP to power customer experience management. Teams can pinpoint real-time changes in consumer preferences and uncover impactful moments to engage. With the upcoming availability of AEP on AWS, brands will soon be able to tap into a robust cloud infrastructure that makes it fast and seamless to activate customer insights and deliver meaningful interactions—all through a secure and scalable environment.
“Delivering one-to-one personalization across a myriad of digital channels is quickly becoming table stakes for brands,” said Anjul Bhambhri, senior vice president, Adobe Experience Cloud. “Our collaboration with AWS expands access to Adobe Experience Platform, powering an integrated set of applications that enable timely customer experiences based on deep insights. Brands will have greater flexibility in where they deploy customer data and manage tools and workflows, while leveraging a generative AI assistant to improve productivity and deliver greater ROI for marketing teams.”
“Offering Adobe Experience Platform on AWS builds on our long-standing partnership with Adobe to empower customers across every industry with the tools to deliver highly personalized customer experiences at scale,” said Kathrin Renz, Vice President of AWS Industries. “Together, we’re giving enterprises the ability to build a customer experience management foundation once, and apply it across all current and future applications. This partnership underscores our commitment to helping businesses connect with their audiences by offering them the flexibility and advanced capabilities required to meet evolving customer expectations.”
AEP availability on AWS will enable brands to:
Brands will also be able to take advantage of fully managed AWS native services—such as Amazon S3, DynamoDB and Glue—to reduce operational overhead, streamline data management and accelerate workflows.
Adobe and AWS will jointly work with mutual customers to implement these solutions, which will be available through Adobe and the AWS Marketplace in calendar year 2025. This new offering builds on existing Adobe solutions on AWS, where Adobe Experience Cloud applications have helped teams enhance marketing efforts, reaching key audiences with highly personalized digital experiences that drive deeper engagement and increased conversion.
Adobe is changing the world through personalized digital experiences. For more information, visit www.adobe.com.
AI is the future of retail. In our ever-changing markets, businesses must adapt to new technologies in order to stay competitive and meet the demands of consumers. Artificial intelligence (AI) has emerged as a powerful tool for retailers to enhance their operations, improve customer experiences, and drive growth.
Organizations are continually seeking innovative ways to drive growth and enhance customer experiences. One of the most compelling strategies emerging in recent years is Product-Led Growth (PLG), which prioritizes the product itself as the primary vehicle for acquiring and retaining customers. As companies strive to optimize their PLG strategies, the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become a game-changer, transforming how businesses engage with users, tailor experiences, and ultimately drive growth.
ZeroBounce analyzed levels of trust in AI versus professionals, examining concerns about privacy, quality, and impacts on personal connections. This analysis reveals how trust in AI varies across the country, indicating where people are more receptive to AI involvement and where traditional human decision-making is still preferred.
The notion that success is often born from failure is a theme that resonates deeply within the entrepreneurial landscape. In a recent podcast conversation, this idea is explored through personal anecdotes and reflections on the nature of success and failure. The discussion reveals that the journey to success is rarely straightforward and is frequently punctuated by setbacks, missteps, and lessons learned along the way.
Seismic, the global leader in enablement, today released the findings of its new Generation Enablement Report: Driving Strategic Change with the Power of AI. More than 600 full-time managers and senior leaders in sales, enablement, marketing and customer success roles within the United States were surveyed to understand AI’s role on the rising influence and expectations of enablement teams. The findings reveal both the opportunities and challenges AI presents as Go-to-Market (GTM) leaders are asked to enhance technological capabilities, increase revenue, and future-proof their teams.
Operational agility is critical in the face of uncertainty, such as during an election year or economic downturn, is emphasized. The speaker discusses how businesses can prepare for the unknown by investing in operational efficiency and agility. This strategy involves shoring up operational processes, increasing efficiency, and enhancing flexibility to better respond to changing market conditions.
