The marketing technology landscape is undergoing a profound transformation driven by artificial intelligence. As we look ahead to 2025, several key patterns are emerging that will reshape how businesses approach their marketing technology stacks. Let’s explore these developments and their implications for marketing leaders.
Understanding the AI Hype Cycle and Real Progress
We’ve all heard of Gartner’s famous Hype Cycle, which tracks the journey of new technologies from initial excitement through disappointment and eventually to productive implementation. But there’s something different happening with AI in marketing technology. While previous technological shifts typically followed a 5-10 year cycle from hype to productivity, AI is moving much faster. ChatGPT reached 200 million weekly users in less than two years.
Moreover, AI isn’t following a single hype cycle. Instead, we’re seeing multiple overlapping cycles as different applications of AI mature at different rates. While some AI applications are still climbing the peak of inflated expectations, others are already delivering real value in production environments. This creates a complex landscape where marketers need to carefully evaluate which AI capabilities are ready for implementation and which need more time to mature.
The Five Segments of the AI-Powered Martech Landscape
The marketing technology ecosystem is evolving into five distinct but interconnected segments:
1. Indie Tools
These are specialized AI-powered tools that focus on doing one thing exceptionally well. Examples include AI copywriting tools, automated note-takers for sales calls, and data visualization assistants. Most aren’t trying to compete with major platforms but instead complement them by automating specific tasks that marketers previously handled manually.
2. Incumbent Platforms
The established martech leaders like Adobe, Salesforce, and HubSpot are rapidly incorporating AI capabilities into their existing products. They have significant advantages: large user bases, deep integration into customer tech stacks, and vast amounts of data for training AI models. However, they face challenges in fundamentally reimagining their products for an AI-first world while maintaining backward compatibility.
3. Challenger Platforms
These are new AI-native platforms built from the ground up without legacy constraints. They’re betting that AI will so fundamentally change how marketing works that existing platforms won’t be able to adapt quickly enough. While they face significant hurdles in displacing incumbents, they have the freedom to reimagine everything from data models to user interfaces for an AI-powered future.
4. Custom Apps
We’re seeing an explosion in custom software development, enabled by AI coding assistants and no-code tools. This includes both traditional IT-built applications and a growing wave of “citizen development” by business users. Perhaps most intriguingly, AI agents themselves are becoming software developers, creating dynamic programs on the fly in response to user requests.
5. Service-as-Software
This represents perhaps the most disruptive shift: AI-powered services that can replace both software tools and the human labor required to use them. Instead of buying tools and hiring people to operate them, companies can purchase outcomes directly from AI-powered service providers. This is opening up a multi-trillion dollar opportunity to reinvent traditional service businesses through automation.
The Rise of the “Hypertail”
Traditional views of the martech landscape described a “long tail” distribution: a small number of major vendors in the head, followed by numerous specialists in the tail. What’s emerging now is what we might call a “hypertail” distribution, where custom-built solutions – whether created by IT teams, citizen developers, or AI agents – extend that tail almost infinitely.
This doesn’t mean commercial platforms will disappear. Rather, we’re likely seeing a peak in the number of commercial applications in typical tech stacks. Future growth will come primarily from custom solutions, with commercial platforms serving as crucial coordination centers for this expanding ecosystem of apps, agents, and automations.
Changing Economics and Business Models
The economics of marketing technology are also evolving. We’re moving from traditional SaaS pricing based on seats or users to more dynamic models based on usage or outcomes. This shift is particularly evident in AI-powered services, where providers might charge based on successful interactions or achieved results rather than access to tools.
This transformation is enabling new approaches to the classic “build vs. buy” decision. With AI reducing the cost and complexity of custom development, organizations have more flexibility to build specialized solutions for their unique needs. However, this doesn’t necessarily mean building everything in-house – instead, we’re seeing a trend toward hybrid approaches that combine commercial platforms, custom solutions, and AI-powered services.
Implications for Marketing Leaders
As we look ahead to 2025, marketing leaders should consider several key actions:
1. Embrace experimentation with AI-powered indie tools. These can provide quick wins and valuable learning experiences without major infrastructure commitments.
2. Keep a close eye on challenger platforms, even if you’re committed to incumbent solutions. They may preview important future capabilities and approaches.
3. Start building internal capabilities for custom development, whether through traditional IT teams or by empowering citizen developers with no-code tools.
4. Evaluate emerging service-as-software options that might provide better outcomes than traditional tool-and-talent approaches.
5. Consider how your tech stack governance might need to evolve to handle an increasingly hybrid environment of commercial, custom, and service solutions.
The Path Forward
The marketing technology landscape of 2025 will be markedly different from what we’ve known before. Success will require embracing this complexity while maintaining coherence in our overall marketing technology strategy. The winners will be those who can effectively orchestrate across all five segments of the new landscape, leveraging each for its unique strengths while maintaining operational efficiency and effectiveness.
The good news is that these changes are creating unprecedented opportunities for marketing innovation and improvement. The challenge – and the opportunity – lies in navigating this transformation thoughtfully and strategically. The future of marketing technology isn’t just about having better tools; it’s about fundamentally reimagining how marketing work gets done in an AI-powered world.
Also published on Medium.