Sitecore Sharpens AI Focus with Strategic Partnership and New Leadership Appointments

Sitecore’s annual SKO landed squarely in the summer heat of Orlando, Florida, this week – a fitting backdrop for a tempest of hot announcements. Under the hypnotic sway of palm trees and the predictable torrid of July showers, the digital experience leader continues to turn up the heat on AI innovation.

To that end, the company just announced a strategic partnership with Gradial, an AI agent platform designed to accelerate the content supply chain for enterprises. The collaboration aims to speed up and simplify how marketers deliver personalized campaigns at scale while monetizing engagement – all at a fraction of the current cost. 

Armed with Gradial’s capabilities, Sitecore aims to evolve agents beyond baseline recommendations and suggestions, enabling them to act autonomously on the marketer’s behalf to achieve new levels of productivity. 

According to Sitecore, the Gradial partnership is another milestone in its innovation horizon for agentic AI, which is explored in detail at the new Sitecore.ai (we covered the launch at the end of June). More than a website, this center of excellence illustrates how content, data, and intelligence can be synthesized to power the next era of digital engagement, and agentic AI is at the center of it.

“Gradial brings a unique blend of engineering precision and marketing empathy,” said Eric Stine, CEO of Sitecore. “Their AI-powered orchestration capabilities enhance Sitecore’s composable digital experience platform by automating the execution layer marketers need most to deliver the kinds of personal, predictive experiences that drive leads and revenue growth, but which historically have been costly and laborious. Together, we’re helping marketers move faster and smarter, using AI to transform delivery and stay anchored in creativity and brand purpose.”

Empowering marketers with AI

It goes without saying that today’s marketing teams are overwhelmed. Data is fragmented and siloed, and tools are often disconnected – making the rigors of campaign management difficult under the best of circumstances. 

To cope with these challenges, marketers resort to extraneous apps and complicated workflows to help design, launch, deliver, and optimize campaigns. The whole rigmarole slows everything down and diverts attention from strategic initiatives and compromises time to market.

According to Sitecore, the partnership with Gradial is effectively “reinventing” marketing operations. Gradial’s AI-powered orchestration platform integrates with Sitecore’s DXP to automate the execution layer, turning marketing briefs into live campaigns without the handoffs, tickets, or delays.

“At Gradial, we see content operations as a systems challenge – complex, dynamic, and in need of intelligent automation,” said Doug Tallmadge, CEO of Gradial. “Sitecore’s vision for agentic AI aligns perfectly with our mission: to build adaptive systems that do the heavy lifting, so marketers can lead with insight, not infrastructure. Together, we’re enabling a new era of marketing execution that is precise, scalable, and deeply human.”

Gradial has already achieved a strong reputation as an agentic platform for the enterprise. As marketing teams struggle to deliver on-point omnichannel experiences, Gradial’s unique model automates content operations, from authoring to production – enabling organizations to leverage agents to govern site health, brand compliance, and even QA and accessibility concerns. 

Gradial’s agents are also being positioned as activators for enabling CX optimization and automating a host of functions that have traditionally created friction within content operations. 

New chapter, new leadership

Since assuming command in May, I’ve spoken with Sitecore CEO Eric Stine a few times. In our calls, he’s been exceedingly clear about the company’s focus on AI, and much of that vision has been crystallized in the new Sitecore.ai website.  

To match the pace of change in an AI marketplace, Stine is tapping a newly appointed executive team with deep expertise in AI, cloud, and CX – all with the goal of empowering marketers to deliver the future of digital experiences.

Michael Bannon – President and Chief Administrative Officer

Bannon has been with Sitecore for less than a year, moving swiftly from CFO to the President’s chair to lead strategy, people, finance, legal, and enterprise technology. Bannon’s career spans high-growth technology companies, private equity, and investment banking with firms like Accel Starter. Previously, Bannon ran Typeform as President and CFO. With his leadership experience within high-growth environments and innovation-led organizations, he will support Sitecore’s next phase of growth.

Michelle Boockoff-Bajdek – Chief Marketing Officer

Boockoff-Bajdek is a transformational CMO, digital storyteller, and undisputed trailblazer in AI-powered marketing. As CMO of IBM Watson, she oversaw the Watson brand, helping to translate the value of AI. As CMO at IDC, she reimagined marketing as a “strategic growth engine,” launching a new brand identity, leading the firm’s first GenAI initiatives, and aligning brand, demand, and strategy to drive global impact. A frequent speaker on marketing leadership and purpose-led growth, Michelle will advance how Sitecore communicates the transformative power of AI in marketing.

Dave Tilbury – Chief Operating Officer

Tilbury brings more than 20 years of global business experience and a proven track record of driving growth, transforming commercial outcomes, and elevating customer impact. Most recently, as EVP and Chief Sales Officer at Capgemini, he led the sales, marketing, and product teams. At Sitecore, he will oversee all customer-facing functions, including sales, pre-sales, revenue operations, unified customer support, and customer value realization.

Why it matters

The Gradial partnership will undoubtedly provide a more robust content marketing experience for Sitecore’s customers, giving teams more power and automation to execute campaigns faster and with more precision and insight. It’s a clear win – and a force multiplier that will enable Sitecore to compete more effectively with similar offerings. Seeing how users engage with the features will be telling, but it’s a step in the right direction.

The new leadership team is a cabal of heavy hitters, each bringing a solid background of experience and forward-thinking potential. We always anticipate change when new leadership enters the top of the C-Suite, but it’s clear that Stine has been thoughtful in his selections – particularly with AI talent that will help shape the next steps in the agentic race. 

More will likely be revealed at Sitecore Symposium – the company’s showcase of innovation and insight – taking place this November in Orlando. Stay tuned.

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