Joe Cicman, Principal Analyst at Forrester, argues that AI is making software creation abundant, and that the scarce resource in the enterprise is no longer the ability to build but the discipline to decide what deserves to exist. He and Greg Kihlström get into what that means for the marketing technology stack.
The core and the edge of your stack need to change at different speeds. Cicman lays out a practical way to separate the systems the business depends on from the experiences, workflows, and agents that can evolve quickly, and what happens when something built at the edge starts behaving like core.
The cost of building is falling, but the cost of owning is not. Every generated workflow still has to be secured, maintained, funded, and eventually retired, and Cicman explains how that shifts the way marketing leaders should budget for and evaluate technology.
Stewardship becomes the operating model for marketing operations. Cicman describes who owns and retires the micro-applications that AI makes possible, which customer experiences are allowed to be disposable, and how leaders can keep their organizations adaptable without fragmenting.
About Joe Cicman
Joe helps technology executives, application leaders, software development leaders, and digital business executives modernize enterprise software portfolios and prepare their organizations for an AI-driven future. Joe helps these leaders decide what to build, buy, compose, generate, modernize, or retire. His research examines how AI is reshaping enterprise software; how organizations should manage the boundary between core and edge applications; and how governance, architecture, and technology stewardship must evolve as software development, automation, and business execution become increasingly AI enabled. He also provides guidance on digital business models, software operating models, digital experience platforms, marketplaces, business ecosystems, and the technologies that power customer, partner, and employee experiences.
Joe Cicman on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joe-cicman
———- Resources ———-
Forrester: https://www.forrester.com
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