Emerging Technologies in Digital Marketing

What kind of software are CMOs going to spend more money on in 2025? New data shows clear trends, and confirms the hype: "We're prioritizing AI in all our future purchases as well as renewals - vendors have to show us their roadmap for AI" I used Wynter to survey 100 CMOs ($50M+ companies) about their investment into marketing tech. 4 major themes emerged from our research: 1. AI & Automation (65%) Marketing teams are going for AI-driven efficiency. They wanna use AI agents for predictive analytics, campaign orchestration, and customer journey mapping. But there's skepticism about AI-generated content. "AI and ML are the big buzzwords today and for a reason. A lot of old marketing problems - from creative bandwidth to analysis, segmentation, targeting, ad optimization, are all being addressed by emerging AI tools." "Tools that drive efficiency and 'employee-multiples'. Having led marketing teams in the past with 20+ people for a scale-up, that will not happen again. I expect we can get 80% of the same effort with a team of 5-7 people." 2. Data-driven insights (21%) Static dashboards are dead. Teams demand real-time insights that connect marketing efforts to revenue. They want tools that prescribe actions, not just report numbers. "Show me marketing's contribution to revenue, not vanity metrics. A vendor couldn't give me real-time ad results. I fired them." "Data visualization is increasingly key and often lacking. Software often struggles to answer the ‘so what’ unless we do a whole load of digging and connecting of data from system to system". 3. Integration & interoperability (23%) The era of bloated martech stacks is over. CMOs want lightweight, modular tools that plug into existing systems. No one's rebuilding their stack in 2025. "I want to consolidate to fewer platforms that are well integrated with one another." 4. Personalization at scale (12%) Account-based marketing is shifting from niche to mainstream. The focus is on combining intent data with AI to deliver hyper-targeted campaigns that feel 1:1, even at scale. "Combining intent data with AI, that's the magic. ABM isn't a strategy—it's what happens when AI meets intent data." "Upcoming tool purchases all HAVE to enable an AI-driven GTM motion" For CMOs, 2025 is about efficiency (AI), clarity (data), flexibility (integration), and relevance (ABM).

There is a very powerful consumer behavior simulation tool emerging that will replace traditional A/B and multi-variate testing. Ever heard of a "digital twin?" A digital twin is a virtual replica of your customer that mirrors real-world conditions. Major enterprises create these digital twins to test into new pricing strategies, products, processes, or even marketing campaigns to see how they will affect real-world conditions. By creating these virtual environments, you can simulate different pricing models, merchandising strategies, and marketing tactics without the risk of negatively impacting revenue or customer trust in the real world. Here are a few-ways that leading consumer-facing businesses are using digital twins today: - Test pricing strategies by simulating how different customer segments would react to various price points. - When merchandising, digital twins make it possible to optimize product assortments and see which combinations drive the most engagement across different personas, all before implementing changes across an entire customer base. - Marketers can test various campaigns in these virtual environments, identifying the messaging that resonates best without the delays and costs associated with traditional A/B testing. According to a recent study by Gartner, organizations that invest in digital twins can improve decision-making processes by up to 30%. In a market where the margin for error is small, this kind of precision is a significant competitive advantage. Right now, for most consumer-facing brands, access to creating your own digital twin is cost-prohibitive, but I suspect this will change in the next 1-2 years as existing solutions which enable creation/adoption of a digital twin (such as IBM's Maximo) continue to become more powerful and accessible beyond the enterprise. Definitely worth keeping an eye on this concept as it will become readily available to the mid-market and SMB audience sooner than you might think.