It’s no surprise that MarTech in 2024 seemed to be dominated by GenAI, GenAI and … more GenAI.
Perhaps this is a bit of an exaggeration, but you can’t deny this topic was a headliner in the MarTech space, along with AI and customer data platforms. Here are my top three predictions for changes you can expect to see in MarTech in 2025.
Prediction No. 1: The GenAI hype balloon will spring a leak
In 2024, the GenAI hype machine was in overdrive. Our global study revealed that 90% of organizations plan to invest in GenAI for marketing in 2025, but 90% of CMOs still do not fully understand GenAI or its potential impact.
As it stands today, the technology is costly and requires a lot of data, power and hardware. It also has limited functionality because it generates an answer probabilistically. So far, we have seen an iterative improvement but not marked leaps forward.
Big Tech has heavily invested in it so they will continue the hype – but they’re burning money to make money as they try to prove it will eventually be profitable. However, there doesn’t seem to be a solid path to making that dream a reality.
With that in mind, I’m by no means saying the technology will be abandoned. But I am saying that we’ll see organizations tempering their interest in GenAI and reconsidering some tried-and-true technologies, which leads me to prediction No. 2.
Prediction No. 2: Traditional AI will continue to advance
As I have predicted over the past several years, we will continue to see advances in traditional AI, particularly for front-end CX applications. I think we’ll see brands abandon the use of GenAI to solve their customer service and support challenges – based on what I’ve outlined in prediction No. 1.
Instead, they will revert to traditional AI technologies such as natural language processing (along with natural language generation and natural language understanding), text analytics, sentiment analytics, speech-to-text AI and good ole predictive analytics (testing, modeling, optimization, etc.). These technologies will serve as the foundation for chatbots, virtual assistants, automated ticketing and support, etc.
Prediction No. 3: The market will move away from ‘customer data platforms’
Since its inception, MarTech has needed the core capabilities of a CDP. Data collection, ingestion, identity management and resolution, segment and audience creation, and channel activation are all key components of any good MarTech solution.
However, the term “customer data platform” will start to dissipate in the industry due to these four things:
- There is no broadly agreed-upon market definition (one vendor says a CDP is one thing, while another says something different).
- The lack of buyer understanding (do you really need a CDP or do you need CRM?)
- The failure rates of CDP implementations (could be due to the technology but might also be due to organizational readiness/acceptance).
- The introduction of new technologies, such as data collaboration platforms and data clouds.
When you take all these factors into consideration, I believe that 2025 will be the year we say goodbye to that term with respect to product names and vendor messaging (unless you are a standalone CDP vendor).
