The race that (almost) no one is winning. Martech Futurist | June 7, 2026

The race that (almost) no one is winning. Martech Futurist | June 7, 2026

Jun 7, 2026

The dominant story in recent enterprise marketing research is a widening execution gap in agentic AI. Investment keeps climbing. Scaling doesn’t. Across the new reports, the same picture keeps surfacing — most organizations are spending on AI without operationalizing it.

AI investment keeps climbing. Performance lags. Martech Futurist | May 27, 2026

AI investment keeps climbing. Performance lags. Martech Futurist | May 27, 2026

May 27, 2026

Three years into the enterprise AI cycle, productivity gains are no longer enough to satisfy boards. The gap separating the firms building durable advantage from the firms still chasing tool adoption keeps widening, and the McKinsey, Forrester, and HBR research from this week makes the structural reasons for that…

CMOs won’t be running campaigns, they’ll be orchestrating networks. Martech Futurist | May 9, 2026

CMOs won’t be running campaigns, they’ll be orchestrating networks. Martech Futurist | May 9, 2026

May 11, 2026

The CMO role is being rewritten by the marketing technology (and related) architecture that is running the enterprise. Forrester’s new research makes it explicit: the next-generation CMO isn’t running campaigns, they’re orchestrating networks of AI agents, data pipelines, and human specialists. The question isn’t whether this is coming, or…

The tools are ahead of the strategy. The strategy is ahead of the operations. Martech Futurist | April 26, 2026

The tools are ahead of the strategy. The strategy is ahead of the operations. Martech Futurist | April 26, 2026

Apr 28, 2026

AI in marketing is moving faster than the organizations deploying it. Agentic AI is already making autonomous decisions in campaign optimization, personalization, and media buying, but most marketing teams don’t yet have the governance structures, accountability frameworks, or operating models to manage that reality. The tools are ahead of…

MarTech Futurist by Greg Kihlström

The infrastructure gap is now the competitive gap. | MarTech Futurist March 12, 2026

Mar 12, 2026

Whether the topic is AI agent readiness, personalization at scale, or brand presence in LLMs, the organizations pulling ahead are those that have invested in data foundations, governance, and operational workflows — not just the latest AI tools.

MarTech Futurist by Greg Kihlström

AI agents are becoming the primary interface between consumers and brands. | MarTech Futurist | 3/9/2026

Mar 9, 2026

Recent intelligence points to a single strategic imperative for CMOs: the marketing function must be rebuilt for an AI-mediated world, not just augmented with AI tools. The shift from human-driven to agent-mediated discovery, purchase, and loyalty is not a future scenario — it is an active transition. McKinsey’s $3-5…