Matt & Matt, Episode 4: PLAY BALL! Adobe Summit at Bat, Optimizely, HubSpot, and AI Agents on Deck

Watch the full episode of the Matt & Matt Show  >

Ah… spring is in the air! The bats are cracking, the bases are loading, and on Episode 4 of the now “world‑famous” Matt & Matt Show, everything feels a bit like digital spring training.

One Matt is literally broadcasting from his car outside a minor league ballpark, but hey, there’s no pinch-hitting in this game. Over the past few weeks, the Matts have been maintaining a packed schedule, with a lineup that includes Adobe, Optimizely, HubSpot, and an expanding team of AI agents all “limbering up” in the on‑deck circle.

It’s a season of reps, experiments, and new plays for the CMS and DXP world, and this episode leans all the way into that energy.

From the Bullpen to the Boardroom

As you might have guessed, this episode has a signature pitch: baseball. It’s become a global pastime, and a signal of summer in the Northern Hemisphere. It gets personal: we open with Matt McQueeny at the Sussex Miners’ stadium in New Jersey, fresh from youth pitching training with his son, musing about those deceptively long Garden State drives. 

Matt Garrepy offers a few memories of his own, traveling to Florida as a kid from spring training hubs to the long, two‑lane slog into the Keys. Between them, you get a reminder that digital is happening all around us, and we’re often working between innings – from parking lots, airports, and minivans – while still trying to ship strategy, content, and campaigns on time. 

Modern tools make it all possible. 

That every day, on‑the-road reality becomes the backdrop for a broader conversation. In 2026, everyone’s in some version of spring training with AI, GEO, DXP, and composable stacks. Heck, we “train” LLMs, so it’s a more relevant concept than we realize. We’re all trying to read the curveballs, test new grips, and figure out what belongs in the playbook. Our job is to watch the field and help you swing for the fences.

Optimizely’s Agentic Lineup

The Matts move into the first big topic of the episode: Optimizely’s evolving story. Matt M. recaps the Optimizely Roadshow in New York City, where he reports on how the company is driving home runs across AI-powered experimentation and personalization.

Opal – Optimizely’s agentic AI platform – gets special attention as the new utility player in the lineup. More than a shiny AI tool, it’s part of a serious attempt to bring agent orchestration to fruition, reduce the cognitive load for marketers, and give agencies more control to design, extend, and develop their own “plays” inside the Optimizely ecosystem. 

You can read more about it in our interview with Kevin Li, Opti’s SVP of Product.

Matt G. connects that with what he’s hearing from agency partners and recent analyst coverage in the latest Gartner Magic Quadrant for CMPs (Content Marketing Platforms). Optimizely is still firmly in the top tier, with Storyteq, Adobe, Aprimo, HubSpot, and other players on the map. 

Source: Gartner

What’s changing the CMP game? AI‑driven features for managing content lifecycles and agentic AI workflows. As content supply chains become a central point of gravity (listen to our podcast with Mark Demeny on this), the real difference often comes down to how well a vendor steps into the batter’s box with its ability to execute and a completeness of vision around a CMP’s tools.

For a picture of how CMPs have evolved over the last few years to include DXPs with expanded capabilities, read this. 

Adobe Summit Steps Up to the Plate

Next in the rotation: Adobe. As we recorded this episode, Matt M. was packing his bags for Las Vegas, where Adobe Summit 2026 and the CIOarts Conference are running a bit like a doubleheader. MM gave us a Day 1 review of the event, which you can read here. It was packed with announcements, and a keen focus on the “Agentic Enterprise.”

iMedia (Matt M.’s home base and a top-notch digital agency) has a deep portfolio of performing arts customers, making CIOarts a natural fit. Matt will be speaking on GEO and AI visibility at the event. We’ll hear more in his Adobe postseason wrap on the next episode.

Matt G. zooms out on Adobe’s expansive team roster: Adobe Creative Suite, Magento (now Adobe Commerce), Adobe Experience Manager, and experiments like the Franklin project – now called Edge Delivery Service that serves to decouple authoring. 

AEM is still the big‑ticket, enterprise‑scale slugger with a reputation for power and complexity, but Adobe’s broader move toward composability, author‑anywhere workflows, and multi‑channel publishing suggests a shift in how they want teams to work. 

The question, as always, is whether the licensing models and total cost can keep winning over organizations that are now more comfortable shopping the whole league and assembling best-of-breed stacks. What keeps them coming back to enterprise? Compliance, governance, trust, and intangibles that give large brands confidence.

AI Agents, ‘Serendipity,’ and Community Clubhouses

Mid‑episode, the conversation shifts into something that feels like a locker room pep rally after a long day of drills: how people are actually using AI to field ground balls.

Matt M. shares stories from a recent Boye & Company gathering at PayPal’s San Jose headquarters, where practitioners from Contentful, Adobe, and several other participants opened their laptops and showed how AI is woven into their daily workflows. 

Matt McQueeny with attendees at the CMS Experts/Digital Leaders meeting at PayPal in San Jose, California

Claude Code was the heavy hitter, with several people demonstrating how they can build, migrate, accelerate go‑to‑market motions, even handle sales flows. The room riffed with each demo, building new ideas pitch by pitch.

In the Midwest of the U.S., Matt G. had a parallel experience at a Contentstack‑hosted meetup in Austin. There, the discussion ranged from digital transformation’s growing “baggage” as a term, to city‑scale projects on Acquia, to how AI is being onboarded within organizations that are still juggling legacy stacks and new composable approaches.

Matt Garrepy with attendees at the CMS Experts/Digital Leaders meeting at Contentstack in Austin, Texas

In both rooms, AI was the extra arm in the bullpen, a powerful reliever that still needs human catchers, coaches, and fielders to make the play work. In that vein, the Matts also talk about Scott Liewehr’s recent article about writing for the wrong audience, and how “H2A→A2H” is emerging as the real pattern. It underscores why humans need to stay in control of the game plan, the data, and the outcomes.

There are lighter moments too, including a JSON‑LD / Jason Aldean joke that spirals into a story about Sitecore events, Nashville, and how only real‑world meetups can produce that kind of perfectly weird, shared lore. It’s a reminder that AI can simulate conversation, but it can’t yet recreate the oddly specific, human connections that form in a room full of practitioners trading stories over coffee and code.

What’s up on CMS Critic?

Before the episode wraps, Matt G. runs through some of the latest scouting reports from around the CMS and DXP league. Cloudflare’s new EmDash is being framed in some quarters as an open source “WordPress killer,” or at least a provocative doppelgänger entering the market at an interesting moment. We have a great piece by Guest Critic Bastian Sirvend on his experience with the CMS newcomer.

HubSpot is making assertive moves into the AEO and AI‑powered context space, staking out a clearer position in the battle for semantic visibility and conquering the answer engines (well, at least trying to).

Griddo also provided an eye on higher education and the “upgrade trap” so many universities face – stuck in long, painful rebuild cycles on monolithic platforms while more composable, open, and AI‑aware alternatives emerge. Open source players like TYPO3, Umbraco, and others are squarely part of this conversation, and the Matts hint at more coverage coming soon.

That’s the bottom of the ninth. See you in two weeks. Until then, PLAY BALL!

Check out our latest stories

• Adobe Summit 2026, Day 1: The Rise of the 'Agentic Enterprise'
• Life after FAIR? Don’t despair. The pivot to TYPO3 could unlock the future of open source CMS
• The Last Migration: Why Universities Keep Paying for Platforms That Don't Evolve
• HubSpot Puts Context on the Spot, Enhancing AEO and Agents to Help Marketers Win AI Search
• After EmDash — what am I actually buying when I choose a CMS?
• You’re Writing for the Wrong Audience

Matt & Matt meetups

The Matts are on the road! Check out where they’re at – and drop us a line if you’re able to join some of our Boye & Company meetings for CMS Experts and Digital Leaders. 

• April 29 – May 2 – Del Ray Beach, Florida
  JDayUsa – Joomla’s North American gathering 
• May 5 – 6 – New York City
  CMS Experts meeting 
• May 13 – 14 – Frankfurt
  CMS Summit 26
• June 10 – 12 – Copenhagen
  Umbraco Codegarden 2026
• June 23 – Orlando
  Digital Leaders meetup

Enjoying the Matt & Matt Show? Stay connected!

• Subscribe today on YouTube: @MattMattShow
• Follow Matt McQueeny on LinkedIn
• Follow Matt Garrepy on LinkedIn

Have an idea for a topic? Wanna be on the show? 

We love our audience, and we want your input. Send us your ideas for future episodes! And if you’re willing, maybe we’ll have you on to talk CMS, DXP, AI, and more! Contact us.

Upcoming Events

JoomlaDay USA 2026

April 29 - May 2, 2026 – Delray Beach, Florida

Be part of the Joomla community in one of the most iconic cities in the world! JoomlaDay USA 2026 is coming to Delray Beach, and you can join us for a dynamic event packed with insights, workshops, and networking opportunities. Learn from top Joomla experts and developers offering valuable insights and real-world solutions. Participate in interactive workshops and sessions and enhance your skills in Joomla management, development, design, and more. And connect with fellow Joomla enthusiasts, developers, and professionals from across the world. Book your seats today.

CMS Summit 26

May 12-13, 2026 – Frankfurt, Germany

The best conferences create space for honest, experience-based conversations. Not sales pitches. Not hype. Just thoughtful exchanges between people who spend their days designing, building, running, and evolving digital experiences. CMS Summit brings together people who share real stories from their work and platforms and who are interested in learning from each other on how to make things better. Over two days in Frankfurt, you can expect practitioner-led talks grounded in experience, conversations about trade-offs, constraints, and decisions, and time to compare notes with peers facing similar challenges. Space is limited for this exclusive event, so book your seats today.

RAISE Amsterdam

May 20, 2026 – Amsterdam, Netherlands

Sponsored by Kontent.ai, RAISE Amsterdam brings together bold marketing and technology leaders to explore how agentic AI is reshaping the way ambitious brands create and deliver content and what it takes to use it safely, responsibly, and with proper governance. Experience the ideas that are shaping the future and dive into big thinking, innovative strategies, and expert insights. Held at the Klein Canvas, Volkshotel, you'll hear from world-class speakers in dynamic sessions that will reveal how AI-powered content operations are accelerating production, improving governance, and driving creative impact. Limited spots are available, so book yours today.

Umbraco Codegarden 2026

June 10–11, 2026 – Copenhagen, DK

Join us in Copenhagen (or online) for the biggest Umbraco conference in the world – two full days of learning, genuine conversations, and the kind of inspiration that brings business leaders, developers, and digital creators together. Codegarden 2026 is packed with both business and tech content, from deep-dive workshops and advanced sessions to real-world case studies and strategy talks. You’ll leave with ideas, strategies, and knowledge you can put into practice immediately. Book your tickets today.

Open Source CMS 26

October 20–21, 2026 – Utrecht, Netherlands

Join us for the first annual edition of our prestigious international conference dedicated to making open source CMS better. This event is already being called the “missing gathering place” for the open source CMS community – an international conference with confirmed participants from Europe and North America. Be part of a friendly mix of digital leaders from notable open source CMS projects, agencies, even a few industry analysts who get together to learn, network, and talk about what really matters when it comes to creating better open source CMS projects right now and for the foreseeable future. Book your tickets today.