Exploring the MarTech & CX Landscape
The non-retired Gen X cohort (ages 45-60) faces a unique set of retirement planning challenges characterized by delayed urgency, significant financial anxieties, and increasing external pressures. Data from the Nationwide Advisor Authority Study, conducted in December 2025 by the Nationwide Retirement Institute® and The Harris Poll, reveals critical insights into this segment’s mindset and behaviors.
The “Signals From The Stage” report from the 2025 ANA Masters of Marketing Conference provides a critical roadmap for senior marketing and CX leaders. As 2026 approaches, the path to sustained brand growth requires a balanced approach: prioritizing authentic, real-world engagement, responsibly integrating AI into discovery and purchase, and strategically investing in the stability and development of marketing talent.
By 2026, market research won’t be defined by tools, methodologies, or new data streams. It will be defined by something far simpler: the choices researchers make about how to work with artificial intelligence.
Consumers are both inspired by new possibilities and fatigued by ongoing uncertainty. This dynamic, termed the “Age of Dissonance” by The Harris Poll, highlights a fundamental shift: a world where traditional notions of reality and trust are being reshaped.
