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<hr /> Feedback is the lifeblood of product optimization. Without it, we’re trapped in an echo chamber, tossing ideas at the wall and hoping the right stuff sticks.Of course, there are many ways now to collect feedback in 2025. Too many? Maybe. I’ll let you decide. The more important measure is just how much customer data we’re collecting across a myriad of channels – and it’s in tonnage territory. One might think that more is better, but it’s the firehose dilemma. Try drinking before you drown. Along with the sheer amount of it, brands are having to stitch together fragmented feedback components from siloed or disconnected tools – and there hasn’t been a unified way to analyze everything and extract meaningful insights. There’s a lot at stake. Without good feedback to optimize on, your products and customer experiences will suffer. In fact, according to <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.pwc.com/us/en/services/consulting/library/consumer-intelligence-series/future-of-customer-experience.html">PwC</a>, 32% of customers stop doing business with a brand after just one bad experience.<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/amplitude">Amplitude</a> has its own feedback to the feedback conundrum, and – you guessed it – it’s relying on AI to cut through the noise. Last week, the digital analytics leader unveiled its new <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://amplitude.com/ai-feedback">AI Feedback</a> service. They’re billing it as the industry’s first customer feedback engine with a proprietary LLM process that automatically turns raw input into prioritized, actionable insights.AI Feedback is the culmination of <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://amplitude.com/press/amplitude-acquires-kraftful">Amplitude’s July acquisition of Kraftful</a>, a rapidly growing AI platform that delivered insights from reviews, surveys, support tickets, and more – all analyzed in minutes. Kraftful boasted patent-pending, hallucination-free output, transforming feedback into a trusted resource for Google, Kayak, Netflix, and other global brands.Given Amplitude’s focus on product analytics, this was a sage move. Now, this added AI muscle could give Amplitude customers a more robust picture that’s augmented by the other features in its broader ecosystem.It's worth noting that Kraftful’s founder and CEO, <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/ywelinder/">Yana Welinder</a>, is now Head of AI at Amplitude, bringing an astute Harvard legal background and a stint at Y Combinator to the mix. Her impressive run put Kraftful on the map, and made it an attractive target as part of Amplitude’s push to deliver a native Voice of Customer feature set with automated insights and personalization (fitting snugly with its breadth of existing tools). Yana has a great feed on what customers are looking for and how AI unlocks it, so adding her leadership skills to the innovation engine within Amplitude is also a solid win. Kraftful’s proprietary LLM technology was purpose-built for product teams, so it complements Amplitude’s own AI roadmap and target user focus. “The hardest part of building great products isn’t writing code,” Yana said. “It’s hearing what customers are saying across thousands of sales calls, reviews, and support tickets. AI Feedback provides clarity into what customers really want – all in one place.”Here she is, talking about AI Feedback: <figure class="media"><div data-oembed-url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_nPbObb_Vo"><div style="position:relative;padding-bottom:100%;height:0;padding-bottom:56.2493%"><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/x_nPbObb_Vo" style="position:absolute;width:100%;height:100%;top:0;left:0" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe></div></div></figure><h3 id="enhancing-feedback-with-amplitude">Enhancing feedback with Amplitude</h3>As I mentioned, the secret sauce to AI Feedback could be its pairing with Amplitude’s <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://amplitude.com/web-analytics">Analytics</a>, <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://amplitude.com/session-replay">Session Replay</a>, and <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://amplitude.com/guides-and-surveys">Guides &amp; Surveys</a>. As part of a cohesive, unified platform, the scope of these capabilities will now enable brands to instantly access customer input, cut through to what matters most, and make it all actionable. By integrating Kraftful’s capabilities, Amplitude is combining the power of quantitative user behavioral data with qualitative user feedback. For example, you won’t just see users dropping off at checkout – you’ll be able to watch session replays, hear their own words describing problems or frustrations, run experiments to apply fixes, and send targeted surveys to see if the problem is resolved – all in a single platform. That last point is key. As we've been saying with other tools and platforms, marketers are experiencing a fair bout of cognitive overload as they struggle with the “swivel chair” balancing act of jumping between tools. With AI Feedback, everything lives in one central location, so you don't lose context (or your mind).With Amplitude’s AI Feedback, organizations will be able to surface and quantify the most requested features from customers, enabling them to develop a product roadmap that delivers maximum impact. They’ll also be able to better position their products by gaining insight into how customers actually talk about their needs. As with any listening technologies, being able to gauge and analyze customer complaints is key. Now, with AI Feedback, brands will be able to proactively target the biggest customer pain points, so they can mitigate problems before they become cancellations and automatically identify bugs and frustrations that turn customers off. Churn is another key factor, and AI Feedback meets it head-on by monitoring the most at-risk signals. You can map dissatisfaction to key accounts and reveal which issues need immediate attention. You can also generate product requirement documents (PRDs) quickly and easily, turning customer insights into user stories with a simple prompt.<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://replit.com/">Replit</a>, a cloud-based platform for writing, running, and collaborating on code, has been using AI Feedback. The company was a customer of Kraftful before the acquisition, and has used the tool as one of several agentic AI capabilities. “I think the aha moment was truly when I first connected all the sources to AI Feedback, and it did its magic and analyzed all of our user feedback,” said <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jainamol/">Amol Jain,</a> Head of Product Engineering at Replit. “In the past it was so much work to pull data, look through each source, and manually combine them – the fact that AI Feedback just did it with a few clicks? That was fairly magical.”<h3 id="pricing-and-availability">Pricing and availability</h3>According to Amplitude, AI Feedback is now fully integrated and available across all its plans, with the option to purchase larger volumes of feedback analysis as an add-on to its Growth and Enterprise plans.Amplitude does offer a free tier, as well as a Plus plan for $49/month. Growth and Enterprise are custom plays, and pricing is based (in part) on MTU volume. You’ll need to contact sales for an estimate, but you can explore the <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://amplitude.com/pricing?siteLocation=nav">full packages here.</a> <h3 id="the-verdict">The verdict</h3>I’ve been watching Amplitude for several years with a keen eye, and it continues to push innovation to enrich its bench of analytics tools. Adding Voice of Customer and AI-powered features to sift through the tidal wave of customer data is smart – and should augment what brands and enterprises are looking for from a unified platform. The Kraftful acquisition was another brilliant move, allowing Amplitude to catapult ahead with its roadmap with a performant, respected, and highly impactful platform in growth mode. What intrigues me most is Kraftful’s patent-pending solution to prevent hallucinations, which could effectively be a game-changer when it comes to trusted insights. All of that said, this was a quick integration. That might smell like a bolt-on in some product ecosystems, but Amplitude has a reputation for delivering quality products, so we expect good things from AI Feedback and its interoperability across Amplitude’s products.We’re looking forward to some deeper dives into performance, but our feedback is simple: Try it. <hr /><h4 style="text-align:center" id="looking-for-more-guidance-on-amplitude?-talk-to-an-expert.">Looking for more guidance on Amplitude? <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/contact">Talk to an expert.</a></h4><hr /> <h3 id="upcoming-events">Upcoming Events</h3> <img style="width:29.67%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2025/10/image-1761136749603.png" /><h4 id="live-webinar:-can-we-ever-get-composable-without-complexity?"><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://umbraco.com/webinar-cmscritic">Live Webinar: Can We Ever Get Composable Without Complexity?</a></h4>November 20, 2025 – 6 PM (CET) / 5 PM (GMT) / 12 PM (EST)Composable architecture promised to simplify digital experience creation by giving organizations the flexibility to combine the technologies that met their needs. But for many enterprises, it’s done the opposite, which has led to complex integrations, spiraling costs, and what some are now referring to as composable regret. In this live conversation, Umbraco CEO Mats Persson joins Matt Garrepy, Chief Content Officer at CMS Critic, for a candid exploration of what went wrong in the first wave of composable and what needs to change. <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://umbraco.com/webinar-cmscritic">Register for the webinar.</a> <img style="width:29.08%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2025/10/image-1761594434824.png" /><h4 id="typo3-conference-2025"><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://t3con.typo3.com/">TYPO3 Conference 2025</a></h4>November 25–27, 2025 – Düsseldorf, GermanyT3CON is the premier annual event for web professionals, developers, marketers, and decision-makers. Much more than just a TYPO3-focused conference, T3CON spotlights the latest trends, innovations, and leaders shaping the future of content management, covering everything from grassroots initiatives to new technologies, strategies, and success stories. The event is designed to empower businesses and organizations with the knowledge and tools they need to thrive in the evolving digital landscape. The conference culminates in an awards ceremony celebrating the best TYPO3 projects across various industries. <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://t3con.typo3.com/">Get your ticket.</a> <img style="width:31.44%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2025/08/cms-kickoff-2026-logo.png" alt="" /><h4 id="cms-kickoff-2026"><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmskickoff26">CMS Kickoff 2026</a></h4>January 13-14, 2026 – St. Petersburg, FLMeet industry leaders at our fourth annual CMS Kickoff – the industry's premier global CMS event. Similar to a traditional kickoff, we reflect on recent trends and share stories from the frontlines. Additionally, we will delve into the current happenings and shed light on the future. Prepare for an unparalleled in-person CMS conference experience that will equip you to move things forward. This is an exclusive event – space is limited, <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmskickoff26">so secure your tickets today.</a>

Read the Feed: Amplitude’s Next-Gen AI Transforms Customer Feedback into Actionable Product Insights

matt-garrepy

<hr /> <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://modelcontextprotocol.io/docs/getting-started/intro">MCP</a> (that’s “Model Context Protocol” if you have an aversion to acronyms) is becoming a posh objective for technology vendors up and down the stack – and digital analytics platforms are no exception. In the past few weeks, <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/umbraco-accelerates-ai-transformation-by-appointing-senior-software-engineer-to-focus-on-mcp">I’ve already covered MCP</a> in multiple places. But my proximity goes back to late last year, when the noise around agentic AI and agentic commerce was steadily increasing. In a matter of months, we went from a handful of early-stage MCP servers (based on the standards created by <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.anthropic.com/">Anthropic</a>) to tens of thousands. And there’s no slowdown in sight.The hype is well-founded. Along with the engineers I’ve connected with across CMS, DXP, CDP, and other platform categories, I personally competed in an AWS hackathon in July that required harnessing MCP for enterprise agent applications – so I know firsthand what the potential represents.This week, <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/amplitude">Amplitude</a> joined the growing chorus of Model Context Protocol believers with the release of its <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://2b78cec6.streaklinks.com/Cn_nauWNjVaTJuhqDwH11l85/https%3A%2F%2Famplitude.com%2Fdocs%2Fanalytics%2Famplitude-mcp">Amplitude MCP Server</a> – and it sounds spot on. By leveraging MCP, the analytics leader is making its real-time behavioral insights available directly inside AI environments like <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://claude.ai/">Claude</a>, the ever-popular <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cursor.com/">Cursor</a>, or any MCP client. The benefits here are almost self-explanatory, but here’s a great use case: A marketer queries in natural language something like “What features drove the most retention this month?” or “What caused the drop in sign-ups last week?” Based just on that, you can get instant answers via live Amplitude data. As Amplitude's Co-Founder and CEO <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/spenserskates/">Spenser Skates</a> said, MCP was made for data analytics. You can ask a vague question and have an AI model iteratively query Amplitude to find insights. Amplitude's MCP exposes all of its functionality so an agent can interact with it directly, allowing you to use Amplitude without having to know anything about its user interface or your data taxonomy.By having everything consolidated in one place, users can also reduce that dreaded “swivel chair” effect and the immense cognitive overload of switching between dashboards. With this heightened consolidation and control, teams can focus their time and energy on drilling into what customers like, where the bottlenecks are, and what actions might streamline the experience.“Behavioral context is one of the most critical inputs behind every great product and digital experience. The problem is, AI tools are only as good as the context they leverage,” explained <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/wadechambers/">Wade Chambers</a>, Chief Engineering Officer at Amplitude. “Amplitude already captures and organizes behavioral data across the full user journey. So by extending this into MCP-enabled environments like Claude, we’re giving AI direct, governed access to that data. This makes the context instantly available and marks a major step toward the insights-to-actions loop becoming automatic.”According to Amplitude, one of its customers, <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://zip.co/us">Zip,</a> is already seeing results – scaling expertise, accelerating analysis, and uncovering opportunities that were previously hidden.“Amplitude’s MCP is a real game-changer,” said <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/mpauly/">Moss Pauly,</a> Technical Product Manager, Data &amp; AI at Zip. “We’ve been able to embed our internal domain knowledge – how certain events are used to drive complex analysis – directly into an LLM’s context and have it interact seamlessly with Amplitude. It’s opening up access to cross-domain insights that previously only a few specialists could uncover. It’s a genuine step change in democratizing data across the organization.”<h3 id="building-an-agentic-strategy-to-power-analytics">Building an agentic strategy to power analytics</h3>Amplitude has been on an innovation tear as of late, adding <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/amplitudes-new-web-experimentation-upgrade-gives-marketers-3x-faster-testing-and-more-control">new web experimentation</a> capabilities with low-code, drag-and-drop editing, group cohort targeting, and self-service control.Earlier this summer, the company teased its forthcoming AI agents, which complement its MCP trajectory. This included a limited beta for its first series of AI Agents – intelligent assistants that continuously monitor product data, detect anomalies, and surface insights before teams even ask. With agents, teams can move faster, scale decision-making, and transform analytics into an ever-present system that drives growth proactively.Back in August, I connected with Amplitude’s <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/nithya-r-2a72794/">Nithya Rajendran,</a> a project manager working on the Web Experimentation and AI initiatives, about the frontier of Amplitude’s agentic investment. She provided some insight as to what kinds of functionality we can expect and the benefits. “Our Agents work in parallel with teams to tackle essential but tedious activities like monitoring data, spotting patterns and changes, watching user sessions, forming hypotheses, running experiments, shipping changes, and monitoring impact,” Rajendran said. “Our AI Agents are built directly into the platform to help automate these tasks, meaning work that used to take weeks can now take minutes."<h3 id="new-ai-agents-are-now-available-to-all-customers-">New AI agents are now available to all customers </h3>Last week, Amplitude’s AI agent beta program was opened to all Amplitude customers, with two AI Agents available at launch. The first is its Dashboard Agent, which analyzes dashboards and summarizes meaningful changes in trends, metrics, and issues proactively. With it, you can surface trends that require immediate attention and detect key week-over-week or month-over-month shifts.Amplitude’s Dashboard Agent also performs high-utility actions like root-cause analysis to identify segments or behaviors driving metric changes, giving marketers even more granular insight. It also enables follow-up analysis using natural language, generating new charts and answers automatically. You can also push these insights to Slack, email, or directly within Amplitude – so you have multiple channels to access the results.  <figure class="image image-style-align-center image_resized" style="width:82.77%"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2025/10/image-1761595961580.png" /></figure>Amplitude's new agents will provide automated actions and insights. Source: Amplitude website The other agent that’s now available is targeted at Amplitude’s popular <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/replay-it-again-sam-amplitudes-session-replay-everywhere-rocks-with-analytics-visualizations">Session Replay</a> capabilities, a handy resource that I’ve written about previously. The new Session Replay Agent automatically analyzes session replays across funnels or event paths at scale. It also surfaces behavioral patterns, drop-offs, and friction indicators like rage clicks, dead clicks, and user errors.The Session Replay Agent provides end-to-end qualitative analysis, backing insights with a curated playlist of relevant replays for faster investigation. And like its Dashboard Agent companion, it shares insights proactively via Slack, email, or directly within Amplitude.<h3 id="availability">Availability</h3>According to the company’s press release, its MCP is now available to all Amplitude customers. One thing we can watch for as its AI Agents roll out is the introduction of deeper MCP integrations, which the company says we can expect over the coming months. You can <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://amplitude.com/ai">learn more on their website.</a> <h3 id="the-verdict">The verdict</h3>Observability and insight are becoming paramount in the tidal wave of data and connected systems. AI is amplifying the volume of everything, and brands need more insight than ever – not only to assess and optimize their product performance, but to understand customer behavior as it responds to changes and market pressures. As buyers move to different channels like answer engines, marketers need to make sense of these seismic shifts.Amplitude continues to reinforce its position as a leading voice in the digital analytics space, providing self-service visibility throughout the customer journey. This is precisely the space where agentic automation and MCP are right at home, and can potentially impact productivity and improve outcomes in profound ways.I like the dimensions of these initial agents. Marketers need to be closer to their data than ever, so they can make meaningful decisions; there's just so much of it, and it's impacting their strategic agility. As such, these tools are focused on key challenges that marketing teams face – and if they deliver as promised, could provide significant value. We’ll be watching to see how the roadmap unfolds for other agents within the ecosystem, and how a deeper integration with MCP brings additional capabilities to the table.  <hr /><h3 id="upcoming-events">Upcoming Events</h3> <img style="width:31.61%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2025/08/storyblok-joyconf-2025-logo.jpg" /><h4 id="storyblok-joyconf-2025"><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://joyconf.storyblok.com/">Storyblok JoyConf 2025</a></h4>November 4, 2025 – New York, NY November 6, 2025 – Los Angeles, CAJoin us at JoyConf 2025, where the future of content meets the people shaping it. Built for developers, marketers, and digital innovators, this free conference goes way beyond product updates or yet another strategy playbook. It’s where you’ll get inspired, get real, and get connected – to ideas, to the community, and to what’s possible when you build joyfully. Whether you're building lightning-fast frontends or launching cross-channel campaigns, this is where content becomes connection and collaboration becomes second nature. Come for the talks. Stay for the community. Leave with joy. <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://joyconf.storyblok.com/">Save your spot.</a> <img style="width:28.9%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2025/08/sitecore-symposium-2025.jpg" /><h4 id="sitecore-symposium-2025"><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://symposium.sitecore.com/">Sitecore Symposium 2025</a></h4>November 3-5, 2025 – Orlando, FLAt Sitecore Symposium, you’ll learn how to meet your customers where they are – across channels, moments, and touchpoints that didn’t exist a year ago. You’ll hear how the boldest brands in the world are transforming content into outcomes and creating experiences that are fast, relevant, and human. Join 1,500 marketers, digital leaders, and technologists in Orlando to see what’s possible when personalization scales, AI accelerates creativity, and trust becomes your competitive edge. This is the Third Wave of the Internet. And this is your moment to lead in it. <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://symposium.sitecore.com/">Get your tickets today.</a> <figure class="image image-style-block-align-left image_resized" style="width:28.08%"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2025/10/image-1759840698475.png" /></figure><h4 id="raise:-lifting-content-into-the-future-with-agentic-cms"><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://kontent.ai/events-and-webinars/raise/">RAISE: Lifting Content into the Future with Agentic CMS</a></h4>November 11, 2025 – London, UKJoin Kontent.ai at RAISE: Lifting Content into the Future with Agentic CMS, a premier free event for forward-thinking marketing and technology leaders shaping the way today’s most ambitious brands create and deliver content. Expect bold ideas, discover innovative strategies, engage with industry leaders, and gain insights that will lift your content strategy to new heights. At RAISE, you'll learn how to deliver faster, more engaging content experiences while AI does the busywork of audits, compliance, and localization with Agentic CMS, built to give you and your teams more time on creativity that matters. <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://kontent.ai/events-and-webinars/raise/">Reserve your seat today.</a> <img style="width:29.67%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2025/10/image-1761136749603.png" /><h4 id="live-webinar:-can-we-ever-get-composable-without-complexity?"><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://umbraco.com/webinar-cmscritic">Live Webinar: Can We Ever Get Composable Without Complexity?</a></h4>November 20, 2025 – 6 PM (CET) / 5 PM (GMT) / 12 PM (EST)Composable architecture promised to simplify digital experience creation by giving organizations the flexibility to combine the technologies that met their needs. But for many enterprises, it’s done the opposite, which has led to complex integrations, spiraling costs, and what some are now referring to as composable regret. In this live conversation, Umbraco CEO Mats Persson joins Matt Garrepy, Chief Content Officer at CMS Critic, for a candid exploration of what went wrong in the first wave of composable and what needs to change. <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://umbraco.com/webinar-cmscritic">Register for the webinar.</a> <img style="width:29.08%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2025/10/image-1761594434824.png" /><h4 id="typo3-conference-2025"><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://t3con.typo3.com/">TYPO3 Conference 2025</a></h4>November 25–27, 2025 – Düsseldorf, GermanyT3CON is the premier annual event for web professionals, developers, marketers, and decision-makers. Much more than just a TYPO3-focused conference, T3CON spotlights the latest trends, innovations, and leaders shaping the future of content management, covering everything from grassroots initiatives to new technologies, strategies, and success stories. The event is designed to empower businesses and organizations with the knowledge and tools they need to thrive in the evolving digital landscape. The conference culminates in an awards ceremony celebrating the best TYPO3 projects across various industries. <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://t3con.typo3.com/">Get your ticket.</a> <img style="width:31.44%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2025/08/cms-kickoff-2026-logo.png" alt="" /><h4 id="cms-kickoff-2026"><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmskickoff26">CMS Kickoff 2026</a></h4>January 13-14, 2026 – St. Petersburg, FLMeet industry leaders at our fourth annual CMS Kickoff – the industry's premier global CMS event. Similar to a traditional kickoff, we reflect on recent trends and share stories from the frontlines. Additionally, we will delve into the current happenings and shed light on the future. Prepare for an unparalleled in-person CMS conference experience that will equip you to move things forward. This is an exclusive event – space is limited, <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmskickoff26">so secure your tickets today.</a>

Amplitude’s New MCP Server and Open Beta for AI Agents Bring Behavioral Data into AI Tools

<hr /> I’ve been following <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/amplitude">Amplitude</a> for several years, specifically throughout this promising (if not tumultuous) period of AI disruption. The company has continuously pedaled the innovation wheels, exploring new ways to improve insights for marketers and brands as the digital world furiously changes around us. For example, we covered the introduction of its <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/replay-it-again-sam-amplitudes-session-replay-everywhere-rocks-with-analytics-visualizations">Session Replay Everywhere</a> earlier this year, which expands on the company’s initial launch <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/amplitude-expands-platform-capabilities-with-session-replay-and-simplified-pricing">in 2023</a>. This new approach incorporates the replay feature into every workflow to capture broader user engagement, minus the labor-intensive setup and rigid event taxonomies.Bridging this gap between qualitative and quantitative understanding is a powerful salve to what I call The Analytics Blues. It enables marketers to diagnose product issues, improve conversions, identify UX behaviors, innovate faster, and generally build better digital experiences.Experimentation is critical for marketers, and time is always the enemy. They simply can’t afford to wait weeks (or longer) to test an idea. Experimentation is the lifeblood of optimization, and when you run fewer tests, you get fewer learnings – and, ultimately, fewer conversions.In most cases, the holdup rests with the tooling. Many legacy experimentation platforms struggle with visual editors that break when used on modern sites, and marketers can’t address the fixes themselves. That means filing a ticket, waiting for engineering, and praying that the page doesn’t break once their changes go live. All these delays can impact a campaign’s effectiveness. And even when a test is finally running properly, the resulting metrics aren’t always useful.Tests need to work. And they need to be simple. Last year, Amplitude endeavored to solve these problems with its novel <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://amplitude.com/web-experimentation">Web Experimentation</a> solution, and the company says that marketing and growth teams using the service have realized strong gains in testing velocity and conversion optimization. I’ve seen it in action, and there’s real value for marketers.That said, Amplitude has been listening to its customers and evolving the platform’s capabilities. This week, they announced a major update of Web Experimentation, including four new features designed to help marketers and growth teams do more. These features – drag-and-drop visual editing, control variant editing, group cohort targeting, and out-of-the-box widgets – show great promise. And according to Amplitude, users could test three times faster and build with greater autonomy via these enhancements.As part of this announcement, Amplitude is also teasing the launch of its own <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://amplitude.com/ai">AI Agents,</a> which will give marketers and web PMs some slick capabilities like auto-generating experiment ideas based on conversion trends or drop-off points, or draft variant copy and layouts based on behavioral data.  <figure class="image image-style-align-center image_resized" style="width:30.19%"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2025/08/image-1756482273106.png" alt="A person smiling at the camera

AI-generated content may be incorrect." /></figure>Nithya Rajendran, Principal Product Manager, Amplitude I connected with Amplitude’s <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/nithya-r-2a72794/">Nithya Rajendran,</a> a project manager working on the Web Experimentation and AI initiatives, about the frontier of Amplitude’s agentic investment. She provided some insight on what kinds of functionality we can expect and the benefits. “Our Agents work in parallel with teams to tackle essential but tedious activities like monitoring data, spotting patterns and changes, watching user sessions, forming hypotheses, running experiments, shipping changes, and monitoring impact,” Rajendran said. “Our AI Agents are built directly into the platform to help automate these tasks, meaning work that used to take weeks can now take minutes."<h3 id="giving-marketers-more-control-for-expanded-use-cases-">Giving marketers more control for expanded use cases </h3>Marketers are dealing with a lot these days. With dozens of tools to balance in their expanding toolkit – not to mention the diminishing realities of search traffic and the advent of GEO – they need enhanced observability and better analytics to manage the chaos. And when it comes to testing, they need to reduce the friction to make the juice worth the squeeze.Amplitude Web Experimentation has always been geared towards helping marketers run faster, easier, and more impactful tests, so they can optimize and improve their outcomes. With this major update and new features, it promises to deliver marketing and growth teams with more power for building and running experiments in a truly self-service motion – giving them the control they need to be successful. As the company stated in its press release, there are four new features in Web Experimentation. The first is the ability to rearrange elements with true drag-and-drop editing, where you can shift a headline from below a form to above it in seconds. We take these things for granted in CMS and DXP ecosystems, but having an easy-to-use visual editor at the testing level has been elusive. Now, with Web Experimentation, you can move page components around visually instead of relying on an engineering team to do the heavy lifting. With its new out-of-the-box widgets, Web Experimentation now supports more test types. This means simplifying the time and complexity involved with adding banners, CTAs, or pop-ups without custom code.With freshly added group cohorting capabilities, you can target by account, allowing B2B teams to personalize experiments for specific companies or account lists. You can also edit control variants directly, allowing you to update your “default” experience without waiting for developers to push changes.<h3 id="a-seamless-add-on-for-cms-and-dxp-platforms">A seamless add-on for CMS and DXP platforms</h3>Web Experimentation’s new features are designed to give marketing and web PMs a much faster and streamlined pathway to testing. It’s also CMS agnostic, making it much more extensible and easier for organizations to onboard. “It works anywhere you can add a simple script tag, whether that is a traditional CMS or a headless CMS,” Rajendran said. “Once the script is installed, marketers can use a no-code, drag-and-drop Visual Editor to launch experiments directly on their site without developer support.”Amplitude also offers official plugins for <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://c67dcd9a.streaklinks.com/CjlzcGqbWy6jkUcbTQdlL3tq/https%3A%2F%2Famplitude.com%2Fdocs%2Fdata%2Famplitude-wordpress-plugin">WordPress</a><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://c67dcd9a.streaklinks.com/CjlzcGuKCuDX0DOR4QDezJ9N/https%3A%2F%2Famplitude.com%2Fdocs%2Fdata%2Famplitude-shopify-plugin"> and Shopify</a> that make it easy to install Web Experimentation – along with other solutions like Analytics and Session Replay – with minimal setup.Amplitude has also cozied up with the customer data layers across stacks, all the way down to the warehouse layer, where it offers self-service analytics capabilities. As Nithya explained, this connection to CDPs also enhances the overall flow. “Because Amplitude also integrates with CDPs like <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/twilio-acquires-segment-for-3-2b-adds-market-leading-cdp-for-building-data-driven-apps">Segment</a> and <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://tealium.com/">Tealium</a>, experiments are tied to consistent customer data that already flows through the rest of the stack,” she said.From a feedback perspective, Amplitude is touting its success with <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://crometrics.com/">Cro Metrics</a>, where its drag-and-drop editor is having a notable impact. According to Co-CEO <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/gwen-hammes/">Gwen Hammes</a>, it’s giving Cro Metrics a new level of agility for its clients, allowing them to spin up high-impact experiments like banners and modals within their marketing and product teams – so they can move from concept to customer faster than ever.“That’s the sweet spot,” Hammes said. “Empowering our clients to iterate quickly to see measurable lift, while freeing up their valuable time for us to collaborate on larger strategic initiatives and integrate test learnings cross-functionally for even greater impact.”<h3 id="amplitude-ai-agents-are-entering-the-stack-">Amplitude AI Agents are entering the stack </h3>As I mentioned, this update also framed Amplitude’s foray onto the agentic AI scene, where we’re likely to see a great deal of automation surrounding various use cases. Analytics is one area where AI is already demonstrating its immense value to glean meaningful insights from large data sets and provide more actionable intelligence. I suspect we’ll see that value translated here. I’ve been watching a lot of demos from vendors in different categories, and the use cases for agentic AI and the harnessing of MCP are yielding some spectacular results. According to Amplitude, we’ll see their applications come to life this fall, with the foundation being laid through these Web Experimentation updates. When put to work, <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://amplitude.com/blog/ai-agents?siteLocation=ai-agents-spotlight-cards">Amplitude’s AI Agents </a>will take testing velocity to new levels, simplifying tasks and reducing workloads that used to take weeks into hours. While it’s still early days, Amplitude said its agents will have a huge impact on a myriad of functions, like autonomously prioritizing tests that are most likely to drive lift or interpreting results and automatically recommending actions. AI agents can also assist with some of the more “nefarious” challenges that exist in a flow, like creating better checkout experiences to reduce abandoned carts or improving products by driving users toward their preferred behaviors (think signups or upsells). <figure class="image image-style-align-center image_resized" style="width:85.66%"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2025/08/image-1756482272869.png" alt="A screenshot of a computer

AI-generated content may be incorrect." /></figure>Source: Amplitude website Here’s where the connection to Web Experimentation comes in: Because these AI agents are built into the broader Amplitude platform, AI Agents won’t just analyze experiments in isolation – they’ll learn from the same analytics, session replays, and surveys you do, and act on them instantly. And the new drag-and-drop editor, widgets, and control features represent three critical channels that Amplitude's AI Agents will use on your behalf.Amplitude has also worked to make these agents as accessible as possible to marketing teams across all skill levels by harnessing a natural language interface. “While marketers will benefit from huge time-savings, they still stay in control,” Rajendran said. “They decide the level of autonomy their Agents have, and as they build trust, they can adjust these guardrails. So that means you can rely on an Agent to recommend content variants, but a marketer approves them before an experiment is rolled out. After the experiment runs, an Agent will analyze the results and recommend next steps, but a marketer makes the final call."<h3 id="pricing">Pricing</h3>Amplitude <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/amplitude-expands-platform-capabilities-with-session-replay-and-simplified-pricing">introduced simplified pricing</a> early last year as part of its Sesson Replay launch, and there’s some decent guidance on their website. I like the inclusion of a free tier as a “jumping off” point, and the Plus plan starts at $49/month for 300K MTUs.Those dreaded MTUs. This is where the challenges exist, and hence why Amplitude offers a Growth tier with custom volumes. But all of its plans feature Web Experimentation, and hence, a gateway for experiencing these new features at any level. You can explore the full breadth of the packages on their <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://amplitude.com/pricing">pricing page. </a>According to Rajendran, there aren’t any pricing details for the Amplitude AI Agents as of yet. In her words, the company is focused on enhancing the overall experience for customers and not monetizing the capabilities.<h3 id="the-verdict">The verdict</h3>Amplitude continues to establish its leadership through innovation, and these new features are aimed at giving marketers even greater control over their experimentation and testing, and that’s a win. Doing it faster – and with stable tools – is the name of the game, and Amplitude is delivering on that front with its easy drag-and-drop capabilities and out-of-the-box widgets.Based on preliminary positioning, the roadmap for Amplitude’s AI Agents looks exciting. Data and analytics are prime real estate for converting value around agentic investments, and the gains in automation could be significant. We’ll have to monitor feedback once we see them in play and assess how these capabilities measure up to other competitive AI enhancements across the stack. There are already AI agents farming analytics from platforms like <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://beam.ai/integrations/mixpanel">Mixpanel</a> to enhance operations efficiency and strategic growth. It’s worth a few demos and some homework on the AI roadmaps as you evaluate options, but Amplitude has a clear vision – and they’re executing for success.  <hr /><h3 id="upcoming-events">Upcoming Events</h3> <img style="width:31.61%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2025/08/storyblok-joyconf-2025-logo.jpg" /><h4 id="storyblok-joyconf-2025"><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://joyconf.storyblok.com/">Storyblok JoyConf 2025</a></h4>October 14-15, 2025 – Amsterdam, Netherlands November 4, 2025 – New York, NY November 6, 2025 – Los Angeles, CAJoin us at JoyConf 2025, where the future of content meets the people shaping it. Built for developers, marketers, and digital innovators, this free conference goes way beyond product updates or yet another strategy playbook. It’s where you’ll get inspired, get real, and get connected – to ideas, to the community, and to what’s possible when you build joyfully. Whether you're building lightning-fast frontends or launching cross-channel campaigns, this is where content becomes connection and collaboration becomes second nature. Come for the talks. Stay for the community. Leave with joy. <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://joyconf.storyblok.com/">Save your spot.</a> <img style="width:28.9%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2025/08/sitecore-symposium-2025.jpg" /><h4 id="sitecore-symposium-2025"><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://symposium.sitecore.com/">Sitecore Symposium 2025</a></h4>November 3-5, 2025 – Orlando, FLAt Sitecore Symposium, you’ll learn how to meet your customers where they are – across channels, moments, and touchpoints that didn’t exist a year ago. You’ll hear how the boldest brands in the world are transforming content into outcomes and creating experiences that are fast, relevant, and human. Join 1,500 marketers, digital leaders, and technologists in Orlando to see what’s possible when personalization scales, AI accelerates creativity, and trust becomes your competitive edge. This is the Third Wave of the Internet. And this is your moment to lead in it. <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://symposium.sitecore.com/">Get your tickets today.</a> <img style="width:31.44%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2025/08/cms-kickoff-2026-logo.png" alt="" /><h4 id="cms-kickoff-2026"><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmskickoff26">CMS Kickoff 2026</a></h4>January 13-14, 2026 – St. Petersburg, FLMeet industry leaders at our fourth annual CMS Kickoff – the industry's premier global CMS event. Similar to a traditional kickoff, we reflect on recent trends and share stories from the frontlines. Additionally, we will delve into the current happenings and shed light on the future. Prepare for an unparalleled in-person CMS conference experience that will equip you to move things forward. This is an exclusive event – space is limited, <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmskickoff26">so secure your tickets today.</a>

Amplitude’s New Web Experimentation Upgrade Gives Marketers 3x Faster Testing and More Control

<hr /> I’ve written about CDPs quite a bit. The category is rapidly evolving, particularly as data and context become more critical to the CMS and broader DXP ecosystem. There's also been the periodic acquisition of a CDP by an enterprise digital experience platform – think <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/optimizely-acquires-customer-data-platform-zaius">Optimizely buying Zaius,</a> <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/sitecore-acquires-boxever-and-four51">Sitecore absorbing Boxever</a>, and <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/contentstack-just-acquired-lytics-a-real-time-customer-data-platform-heres-why-it-matters">Contentstack adding Lytics</a> to its menu. These purchases were separated by time, but they speak to the critical need for data within their integrated offerings, especially when powering the “Holy Grail” of personalization. And as we know, that last piece is taking on a whole new urgency in the age of AI.On a more architectural level, I’ve personally been crawling through the underbelly of CDPs for years now, connecting all kinds of apps and sources, inspecting JSON packages, and worrying incessantly about MTUs – those monthly tracked users that we care so much about. Most recently, when I was working on a big cloud-based SaaS product, it was breathtaking to watch the real-time events passing into our customer data platform. But it was also alarming as you considered the scale of users and the associated price tag. Ouch.In every stack, there are multiple cost dimensions to consider, and CDPs bring their own unique challenges to the mix. Some platforms are focusing less on MTUs and zeroing in on active users, while others are embracing event-based pricing. There are also the processing resources that come in the form of compute. This is where overruns are a persistent and pesky concern. But <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/treasure-data">Treasure Data</a> is trying to change that. The intelligent customer data platform, which is built for enterprise scale and super-charged by AI, just unveiled a groundbreaking “No Compute” pricing model that completely decouples cost from processing resources. This could be the unearthing of buried treasure for users in a hunt for more efficient data solutions. This “No Compute” model is made possible by Treasure Data’s <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.treasuredata.com/product/hybrid-cdp/">Hybrid CDP</a> architecture. It primarily charges for the number of unified customer profiles stored and the behavioral events associated with them. This enables brands to run unlimited queries, segmentations, and activations – all without fear of runaway bills.I caught up with Treasure Data’s co-founder and CEO, <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/kazukiohta/">Kaz Ohta,</a> who provided a bit more context. In his mind, predictable costs in a CDP should be a right, not a luxury.“Our ‘No Compute’ pricing removes the biggest barrier to full CDP adoption – cost anxiety – so every team can activate data and AI agents with confidence.”Here’s some of Ohta’s vision from 2023, which is worth a listen. He lays out the challenge surrounding loyalty during periods of economic uncertainty (which takes on a more pressing urgency today), and where a CDP can unlock potential around personalization and customer experience: <figure class="media"><div data-oembed-url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88nTuVXSJ6o"><div style="position:relative;padding-bottom:100%;height:0;padding-bottom:56.2493%"><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/88nTuVXSJ6o" style="position:absolute;width:100%;height:100%;top:0;left:0" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe></div></div></figure> A lot has changed in two years, but it provides a foundation for how Ohta is steering Treasure Data towards success in an increasingly competitive market. He’s a compelling figure in the customer data landscape, and this disruptive new approach to pricing could be another element that elevates the company’s preference.<h3 id="solving-the-cdp-industry’s-cost-dilemma">Solving the CDP industry’s cost dilemma</h3>When it comes to selecting a CDP, it’s fair to say that enterprises have been in a pricing pickle. On one side, DXPs have been consuming CDP players into their pre-ordained stacks with integrated capabilities. Meanwhile, pure play solutions have been energizing their feature sets to enhance their independent relevance. Composed solutions with built-in customer data layers have some obvious advantages. But do they deliver as intended? I asked Ohta about the nuances between the DXP strategy and pure-play solutions like Treasure Data and where his company might have the upper hand. “DXPs such as <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/adobe-experience-manager">Adobe</a>, <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/acquia">Acquia</a>, and <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/optimizely">Optimizely</a> take a different approach,” Ohta said. “They want to provide the complete stack. They bundle CDPs in their stack. However, we see many failed implementations of their CDP, just because leading DXPs mostly acquired their CDPs as a bolt-on solution. They are not really integrated. While I see the vision of DXPs, the execution of DXPs are poor: they, in reality, are Frankenstein stacks and a collection of different businesses – and that’s why buyers are not happy with them.”Within these shifting business dynamics, pricing is a key consideration and fraught with challenges. Buyers are faced with a choice between packaged CDPs that focus on metering the number of profiles and compute, or composable-only CDPs that primarily meter the number of profiles and shift the processing burden to a cloud data warehouse, creating potentially unpredictable query charges.Treasure Data’s new pricing model attempts to end this trade-off by separating economics from compute location. Customers get transparent pricing based primarily on the number of real-time, resolved customer profiles managed and the volume of associated behavioral events – think website visits, mobile app usage, email activities, and the like. “The true value is no longer just in data storage and movement, but in the intelligence you apply to it,” said Ohta. “Treasure Data is infused with AI everywhere, and now our customers pay for the value they get from AI-driven outcomes like better personalization, predictive insights, and campaign optimization – not for the underlying compute cycles.”In an age where CDPs and data warehouses need to align in all the right ways, Treasure Data is providing an optimal solution. Whether workloads are running in its high-performance database engine or inside a customer’s CDW environments, enterprise teams get the same consistent experience without having to consider infrastructure or cost complexities. In this way, it’s a bit of a godsend.I asked Ohta how this new approach to Treasure Data’s pricing model came about and how users are receiving it thus far. “Our largest customers have trillions of records and hundreds of millions of profiles managed with Treasure Data,” he said. “We pioneered this pricing model with them in the last few years and renewed their contracts under these terms. It’s worked well and now we’re rolling it out to other customers.”<h3 id="powered-by-hybrid-cdp-architecture">Powered by Hybrid CDP architecture</h3>Flexibility is a keystone attribute for any software solution. Composability can deliver on this promise, but there are instances where customers might want a hybrid approach over purely composable architectures based on specific use cases. Treasure Data conducted some research around the preference for a hybrid CDP architecture, where IT teams can choose the optimal processing environment to meet their needs. Based on its global survey of CDP buyers, 65% wanted a hybrid approach (edging up to 69% in the US). In the same report, a much smaller portion opted for packaged or composable architectures.I asked Ohta how this reinforces Treasure Data’s position.“While people talk a lot about the composable stack, the majority of buyers want choice and flexibility,” he said. “An enterprise has multiple brands, businesses, regions, and departments where they have different levels of martech and data maturity. Customers are asking to have choice over their architecture, anchored in a CDP or in a data warehouse, per brand, region, etc. Composability on its own requires the right engineering resources around, but hybrid lets you have the best of both worlds.”How does Treasure Data’s unique Hybrid CDP architecture empower IT teams with choice? In two ways: First, they can leverage its Complete Mode, where Treasure Data provides the complete CDP solution – journey orchestration, segmentation and activation, ID unification, batch and real-time connectors, storage and compute – so you can implement it as a single source of truth.There’s also a Composable Mode. Designed for more mature data engineering organizations, where a cloud data warehouse already exists as a single source of truth, Treasure Data builds a real-time cache of the customer 360 view from the CDW for instant customer data activations.One of Treasure Data's key advantages is implementing the optimal processing environment based on preferences and use case suitability. This dual-mode approach helps preserve governance, maximize CDW ROI, and guarantee sub-second performance for time-sensitive engagement. All solid benefits.<h3 id="availability-and-pricing">Availability and pricing</h3>According to Treasure Data, the new “No Compute” pricing model is generally available today for new customers and existing ones who want to make the move. It’s worth noting that there are multiple options for deploying Treasure Data, including <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://aws.amazon.com/marketplace/pp/prodview-jrcyyln5ecfgi">through the AWS Marketplace.</a> How do the pricing benefits translate in the real world? That’s the real question. The mechanics of the model make sense, and as Ohta said, they’ve seen success with existing users. Those metrics could be part of an upcoming webinar on <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.brighttalk.com/webcast/15379/650390">The Power of a Hybrid CDP: Connected Experiences with Predictable Costs</a>, which is being held on September 8th.Obviously, a CDP’s total cost is a product of its usage, and this new model presents a big shift in how that functions. As far as assessing just how impactful this might be in your own stack, you’ll need to contact Treasure Data for a personalized cost analysis. There are different features composed into various packages across the CDP product landscape, so be sure to specify your goals when engaging with their pricing team – and do your homework on available integrations and warehouse options.From a security and compliance perspective, Treasure Data has a <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://trust.treasuredata.com/">trust and security center</a> that includes all of its artifacts. It’s robust, but it’s always worth a look to ensure that you’re meeting the proper data privacy and regulatory requirements. There’s also an option to conduct a security review.<h3 id="why-it-matters">Why it matters</h3>The CDP space is heating up as the market evolves and data warehouses take on an elevated role. Organizations are struggling to turn these resources into action, and leverage CDPs to power their personalization and customer 360 efforts. Despite the consolidation within the DXP category, pure play solutions are finding value with new features – and now, new pricing models that are strengthening their posture within the composable stack.  With Treasure Data’s new “No Compute” pricing, customers are more empowered to utilize their CDP. It allows them to explore and assemble multiple segments, run various queries, and leverage its on-board AI agents – all without compute costs weighing them down. That means they’re free to align around outcomes that really matter to them, like the number of unified profiles and the behavioral events resulting from their marketing efforts.On that topic, marketers using Treasure Data will also have more latitude to keep their existing CMS or DXP and their data warehouse – and still get real-time, AI-powered engagement at a predictable cost with a CDP that integrates with all these tools. This core flexibility is a key competitive advantage for Treasure Data within the pantheon of customer data platforms. As Ohta said, AI is a big part of the feature set for marketers and enterprises. But cost anxiety is a major pain point – and they’re helping to overcome that challenge.“Our hybrid architecture blends historical depth with live behavioral data for sub-second personalization, all in a no-code, self-service environment for marketing teams,” he explained. “It’s about giving marketers the speed, insight, and freedom to act on every moment of opportunity without budget surprises.” <hr /> <h3 id="upcoming-events">Upcoming Events</h3> <img style="width:31.44%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2025/08/cms-kickoff-2026-logo.png" alt="" /><h4 id="cms-kickoff-2026"><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmskickoff26">CMS Kickoff 2026</a></h4>January 13-14, 2026 – St. Petersburg, FloridaMeet industry leaders at our fourth annual CMS Kickoff – the industry's premier global CMS event. Similar to a traditional kickoff, we reflect on recent trends and share stories from the frontlines. Additionally, we will delve into the current happenings and shed light on the future. Prepare for an unparalleled in-person CMS conference experience that will equip you to move things forward. This is an exclusive event – space is limited, <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmskickoff26">so secure your tickets today.</a>

Treasure Hunt: 'No Compute' Model from Treasure Data Promises More Predictable Pricing with Hybrid CDP 

<hr /> <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/contentsquare">Contentsquare</a> has never fit into a round hole. The leading digital experience analytics vendor has been innovating along a very clear horizon, building a robust ecosystem around meaningful insights across the customer journey. This includes the <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.crunchbase.com/acquisition/content-square-acquires-hotjar--df2a8f88">acquisition of HotJar</a> in 2021, an analytics tool that gives website owners greater clarity around user behavior via heatmaps and session recordings. I’ve long been a fan of this product, and I thought this was a shrewd move at the time.<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.cooley.com/news/coverage/2023/2023-09-28-contentsquare-agrees-to-acquire-heap">Heap followed two years later</a>, representing Contentsquare’s largest acquisition to date. This tool really injected the customer journey layer to the overall analytics composition, giving Contentsquare a complete vision – and stronger market position against competitors like <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/replay-it-again-sam-amplitudes-session-replay-everywhere-rocks-with-analytics-visualizations">Amplitude</a>, which we’ve followed extensively over the years. Now, Contentsquare has signed a definitive agreement to acquire <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://loris.ai/">Loris AI</a>, a leading conversation intelligence platform. This acquisition brings together two innovative companies with one shared goal: to give business leaders a deeper, more accurate view of the full customer journey, from click to conversation. “Customer experience is shifting fast, and conversations are becoming an essential part of how people interact with businesses,” said <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathancherki/">Jonathan Cherki</a>, CEO &amp; Founder of Contentsquare. “With Loris, we’re giving our customers the capabilities they need to lead this transformation – to understand and optimize conversations, and connect them to the broader digital journey. It’s not just about improving support: it’s about giving brands the competitive edge in a world where conversations are the next frontier of customer experience.”<h3 id="ai-powered-insight-at-the-conversational-layer">AI-powered insight at the conversational layer</h3>The Loris acquisition comes at a time when AI-powered interactions are becoming essential to the customer journey. According to <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2025-02-10-traditional-customer-service-channels-are-losing-ground-to-mobile-and-ai-innovations#:~:text=As%20GenAI%20becomes%20further%20embedded,built%20into%20their%20mobile%20devices.">Gartner</a>, by 2028, 70% of customer interactions will begin and end within conversational, third-party assistants. It’s abundantly clear that conversations are fast becoming the new interface of brand engagement. That said, most companies still lack visibility into these critical exchanges. Loris fills that gap by analyzing 100% of interactions to help improve both AI and human agent performance, reduce friction, and deliver more seamless, personalized experiences at scale. “That’s the most exciting aspect about combining Loris and Contentsquare, the ability to connect digital interactions, AI responses, and customer conversations seamlessly with real business outcomes like satisfaction, retention, and lifetime value," said Etie Hertz, CEO of Loris AI. This predictive intelligence can transform how businesses understand and optimize their customer experience.” <figure class="image image_resized" style="width:27.42%"><img src="https://images.ctfassets.net/gwbpo1m641r7/581Hcwj5BmBYmgohc5xGk2/0c182bde334595fc1539fc3edb794886/1706497479673.jpeg?w=1920&amp;q=100&amp;fit=fill&amp;fm=avif" alt="Etie Hertz - CEO - Loris.ai" srcset="//images.ctfassets.net/gwbpo1m641r7/581Hcwj5BmBYmgohc5xGk2/0c182bde334595fc1539fc3edb794886/1706497479673.jpeg?w=828&amp;q=100&amp;fit=fill&amp;fm=avif 1x, //images.ctfassets.net/gwbpo1m641r7/581Hcwj5BmBYmgohc5xGk2/0c182bde334595fc1539fc3edb794886/1706497479673.jpeg?w=1920&amp;q=100&amp;fit=fill&amp;fm=avif 2x" width="800" /></figure>Etie Hertz, CEO, Loris.ai Loris combines proprietary AI models and large language models to surface sentiment, intent, and quality signals that generic tools miss. It was designed specifically for analyzing customer engagement across conversation-based interactions, giving CX, product, tech, and support teams a deeper view into every conversation. Armed with this visibility and automation, Loris enables users to more easily spot performance patterns, catch emerging issues early, predict trends, and make smarter decisions across the customer journey. <h3 id="why-it-matters">Why it matters</h3>AI is driving almost every technology decision across the stack. While Contentsquare has been steadily investing in AI innovation to drive insights for over 1.3 million websites and 3,700 customers, the addition of Loris brings an added dimension of functionality that reflects the consumer’s behavioral shift to conversational engagements.Customer feedback and support interactions are gold. By capturing insights from these rich sources – fueled by the power and scale of AI – Loris adds a critical new intelligence layer to Contentsquare’s digital analytics suite, bridging traditional web journeys and human and AI-powered conversations.Contentsquare already enjoys a top spot in the analytics landscape, serving large-scale global customers like Toyota, Visa, and Bose. Its experience analytics, voice of the customer, and product analytics panels are all dynamite and rich with features. From a usability perspective, it sports an intuitive UX and easy-to-harness capabilities that can juice any team at almost any stage in their lifecycle. It's hard to predict how Loris' features might be integrated or if it will maintain its own sub-brand identity (like HotJar and Heap). We'll also be looking for guidance on pricing. It’s worth noting that Contentsquare offers a free starter plan, all the way up to an enterprise package for large-scale organizations, and its other products provide independent pricing. <hr /><h4 style="text-align:center" id="looking-for-guidance-on-contentsquare?-talk-to-an-expert.">Looking for guidance on Contentsquare? <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/contact">Talk to an expert.</a></h4><hr /> <h3 id="upcoming-events">Upcoming Events</h3> <img style="width:31.83%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2025/01/cms-connect-2025-logo.png" alt="" /><h4 id="cms-connect-25"><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmsconnect25">CMS Connect 25</a></h4>August 5-6, 2025 – Montreal, CanadaSee Agility CMS at the second annual summer edition of our signature global conference dedicated to the content management community! CMS Connect will be held again in beautiful Montreal, Canada, and feature a unique blend of masterclasses, insightful talks, interactive discussions, impactful learning sessions, and authentic networking opportunities. Join vendors, agencies, and customers from across our industry as we engage and collaborate around the future of content management – and hear from the top thought leaders at the only vendor-neutral, in-person conference exclusively focused on CMS. Space is limited for this event, <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmsconnect25">so book your seats today.</a>

Contentsquare ‘Squares Up’ to Acquire Loris AI, Expanding AI Agent Analytics and Conversational Intelligence 

<hr /> If you’ve ever watched the TV game show Family Feud (I’m dating myself with this reference, but it’s been through multiple reinventions over the years), then you know how heated the competition can get. Sure, it’s all in good fun. But I think a few members of the losing teams have been unceremoniously “left out” of their family wills – all for missing one stubborn survey question.Some of those questions were strange, to be sure. But surveys have long been a key tool for unlocking the hidden gems of our cultural sentiment. And in these hallowed halls of CX, relevant feedback is the prize every brand is after, giving them essential customer insight to enhance products and drive growth.But let’s be honest: A lot of traditional customer feedback methods are broken. Brands pump out survey after survey, soliciting responses that rarely show up. And when they do, the substance can be shallow at best. In an era where customers interact across countless digital touchpoints, why are we still relying on old-school tactics to understand them? Isn’t this something to feud about?This is where CX tools like <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/callminer">CallMiner</a> have carved out a niche with AI-powered conversation intelligence. The company’s <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://callminer.com/products/eureka">Eureka Platform</a> helps connect the dots between interactions, insights, and action – providing deeper, more holistic customer intelligence to deliver better experiences. Eureka analyzes a wide range of omnichannel interactions (think phone, email, social, and more) with its advanced AI, and turns it all into organization-wide insights that power contact center experiences. This includes everything from real-time guidance to brand sentiment. It also covers features like call center speech analytics, where CallMiner has shown up as a <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://learning.callminer.com/us/col/lc/forrester-wave-23">Leader on the Gartner MQ</a> for that category.Now, the company is adding another layer of “smart” to its family of tools. <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://callminer.com/products/outreach">CallMiner Outreach</a> is a new feature built on advanced analytics and AI that enables businesses to connect with customers in more meaningful ways. That extra punch of power can help strengthen relationships, tap the voice of the customer, and uncover actionable insights that drive enterprise-wide benefits.CallMiner Outreach leverages its AI capabilities to deliver personalized, contextual surveys and customer engagement campaigns. With it, users can gain a deeper understanding of each interaction through CallMiner’s conversation intelligence – providing impactful CX insights to improve customer journeys, strengthen loyalty, and increase customer satisfaction. “Today’s survey vendors are stuck in the past, only thinking about the traditional way to execute surveys,” said <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/brucekmcmahon/">Bruce McMahon</a>, CallMiner’s Chief Product Officer. “They are not considering whether those surveys are valuable to and personalized for customers, and if responses are providing meaningful business insights. CallMiner Outreach goes beyond simple surveys and traditional feedback methods by leveraging AI-driven insights from customer interactions to improve the quality, relevance, and efficiency of feedback collection and analysis.”<h3 id="is-there-a-customer-feedback-crisis?">Is there a customer feedback crisis?</h3>Maybe. The answer to that question hinges on how brands weigh the value of their solicited and unsolicited feedback and whether the juice is worth the squeeze. CallMiner has been studying this question with deep interest for quite some time, distilling and publishing their research annually.According to the company’s <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://learning.callminer.com/us/c/whitepaper-us-cx-landscape-24?pflpid=45098&amp;pfsid=TCP_QZd1YS&amp;pfsfc=false">2024 CX Landscape Report</a>, 64% of global organizations said that all – or in some cases, the majority – of the customer feedback they collect is solicited. They also uncovered that organizations are collecting an equal amount of unsolicited and solicited feedback: About 25% in 2024 versus 20% in 2023. How are they doing this? Survey says: Surveys. That’s right – CX leaders are still relying primarily on traditional survey tools to solicit feedback from customers. On one hand, that makes total sense, as many organizations have invested significantly in their survey infrastructure. However, according to CallMiner, the persistent reality of low response rates and a lack of meaningful insights isn’t translating into a worthwhile ROI.<h3 id="reaching-out-with-outreach">Reaching out with Outreach</h3>As part of CallMiner’s robust Eureka Platform, Outreach is the industry’s first AI-powered customer feedback tool that triggers outreach based on specific interaction characteristics. This is a novel approach, as it does not rely on general interaction alone. Rather, it combines insights from unsolicited interactions – like those in a contact center – with solicited feedback for more intelligent, targeted surveys and customer engagement initiatives.How does it work? Just as you might expect, given the scope of CallMiner’s other products. Outreach analyzes phone calls, social media, online reviews, emails, and other interactions, empowering CX and contact center leaders to personalize the outreach mechanisms. This can be expressed in the form of surveys, quick-response forms, marketing offers, and more – all aimed at addressing and resolving exact customer issues. Outreach’s real potential lies in its AI-powered insights, which provide unmatched customer connections. Its AI-powered surveys and campaigns can be tailored based on specific customer interactions and triggered by specific events. Closed-loop feedback also enables more personalized, insight-driven experiences that build trust and loyalty – as well as improve issue resolution and reduce churn.By unifying CX measurement across multiple channels, CallMiner Outreach gives you a complete, holistic view of your customer. This allows you to tap into sentiment from all your touchpoints and take action. You can also more fluidly connect what’s happening in your contact center with your broader CX initiatives.Along with the benefits of automating your outreach initiatives and analysis, it also activates your ability to make faster decisions with AI fueling your efficiency. Taken together, Outreach ensures relevance, timeliness, and improved customer outcomes.CallMiner’s CPO McMahon calls this “The future of CX.” “CallMiner has always enabled organizations to combine unsolicited and solicited feedback in a single platform to gain a comprehensive view of the customer,” McMahon said. “With CallMiner Outreach, we’re delivering the native capabilities needed to execute faster, more intelligent feedback campaigns directly within the CallMiner platform.”<h3 id="availability-and-pricing">Availability and pricing</h3>CallMiner Outreach is in early availability for both new and existing customers. You can register to watch a new <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://callminer.com/c/callminer-outreach">product overview video</a> or request a demo from their website.In terms of pricing, CallMiner plays it close to the chest. This is enterprise contact center and CX analytics software, so it’s going to be calculated on a number of variables. According to its G2 page, there’s some flexibility based on a volume or seat-based paradigm. For more information or to contact a representative, <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://callminer.com/">visit their website.</a> <h3 id="why-it-matters">Why it matters</h3>With the evolution of Outreach, both CX and contact center leaders can now seamlessly integrate customer feedback with an industry-leading conversation intelligence platform.On the customer experience side of the ledger, Outreach delivers a holistic understanding of the customer’s behaviors – something we’re paying close attention to across other analytics and CDP platforms as well. It effectively streamlines feedback loops and improves key engagement metrics to impact retention and loyalty. This includes things like your net promoter score (NPS) and customer satisfaction (CSAT) rating.For contact centers, there are a multitude of benefits. Outreach enhances the connection between operational efficiency and customer satisfaction, improving key metrics such as average handle time and first contact resolution, as well as agent performance and productivity.Viewed through our CMS lens, customer feedback is an essential component in the omnichannel landscape. Contact centers are critical touchpoints, and facilitating feedback to maximize value is key – particularly if it might influence content and digital experiences on any level. CallMiner is right at home with CRM platforms like <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/salesforce">Salesforce</a> and experience management tools that are essential layers in the digital stack. The company's leadership with AI-powered conversation intelligence could be a key evaluation point if you’re integrating contact center services as part of your overall strategy. It also plays nicely with other call tracking and analytics platforms like <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/ringcentral">RingCentral</a> and <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/callrail">CallRail</a>. One more point: I like how CallMiner is driving thought leadership and innovation around <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/its-an-ai-agent-world-is-agent-experience-the-secret-weapon-for-controlling-the-chaos">agentic AI</a> in the call center, trailblazing solutions to streamline analytical tasks. Call centers are an area where AX is having a profound impact, and CallMiner is shaping <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://learning.callminer.com/us/col/lc/whitepaper-us-agenticai">a strong position</a> with its thinking in this area. Definitely something to consider in your evaluation process. Surveys are still a relevant part of the customer feedback family. But with tools like CallMiner Outreach, there might be a little less to feud about. <hr /><h3 id="upcoming-events">Upcoming Events</h3>  <img style="width:24.53%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2025/03/image-1742910054704.png" /><h4 id="the-composable-conference-2025"><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://machalliance.org/events/composable-conference-25">The Composable Conference 2025</a></h4>April 22-24 – Chicago, USAExperience the future of composable and MACH principles in “The Windy City” and dive even deeper into the innovative world of MACH architecture and its benefits for your business. Building on the momentum of MACH THREE, this conference will provide your teams with the expert, impartial guidance needed to craft a winning transformation strategy and leverage the latest advancements in automation and Al to maximize efficiency and drive your organization forward. This event is ideal for executives, business leaders, technologists, and everyone in between who is looking to harness the power of composable. <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://machalliance.org/events/composable-conference-25">Secure your spot today.</a> <img style="width:30.46%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/11/cms-summit-25.png" alt="" /><h4 id="cms-summit-25"><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmssummit25">CMS Summit 25</a></h4>May 13-14, 2025 – Frankfurt, GermanyDon't miss the first European edition of our prestigious international conference dedicated to the global content management community! CMS Summit 25 will bring together top-notch speakers, our renowned learning format, and engaging social events. Hear from leading practitioners like Deutsche Bahn, Dr. Oetker, and more – and join customers, agencies, and CMS vendors as we discuss current trends and what's ahead for the content and digital experience fields. Connect and network at the only vendor-neutral, in-person conference focused on CMS. Space is limited for this exclusive event, <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmssummit25">so book your seats today.</a> <img style="width:31.83%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2025/01/cms-connect-2025-logo.png" alt="" /><h4 id="cms-connect-25"><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmsconnect25">CMS Connect 25</a></h4>August 5-6, 2025 – Montreal, CanadaWe are delighted to present the second annual summer edition of our signature global conference dedicated to the content management community! CMS Connect will be held again in beautiful Montreal, Canada, and feature a unique blend of masterclasses, insightful talks, interactive discussions, impactful learning sessions, and authentic networking opportunities. Join vendors, agencies, and customers from across our industry as we engage and collaborate around the future of content management – and hear from the top thought leaders at the only vendor-neutral, in-person conference exclusively focused on CMS. Space is limited for this event, <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmsconnect25">so book your seats today.</a>

Survey Says? CallMiner Rings the CX Bell with New AI-Powered Customer Feedback

Replay it again, Sam: Amplitude’s ‘Session Replay Everywhere’ rocks with analytics visualizations

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<hr /> Ah… personalization. Like it or not, it’s still the Holy Grail. And we’re still in search of its full potential. While the promise of scalable personalization remains a bit elusive for many companies (there are a bevy of reasons for this), CMS and DXP platforms have discovered some finely cut diamonds in the rough – making it much more attainable. Some of that success can be credited to the force-multiplying effects of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/mckinsey-explainers/what-is-generative-ai">generative AI</a> on things like variant testing. But it’s also due to having more of the right tooling, analytics, and best practices in place to shepherd the journey. The impact of AI can't be understated. At some point, it seems entirely feasible that we'll arrive at completely autonomous hyper-personalization, so every customer has a fully curated experience without batting an eyelash. For now, we’ll settle for the incremental gains – and how a new breed of innovative tools is helping marketers achieve success with their personalization efforts. Case in point: <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/umbraco">Umbraco</a>, an open-source .NET <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/what-is-a-content-management-system-cms">content management system</a> provider, recently announced the general availability of <a target="_blank" href="https://umbraco.com/products/add-ons/engage/">Umbraco Engage</a>. Born three months after the company’s acquisition of the Dutch-based <a target="_blank" href="https://www.umarketingsuite.com/">uMarketingSuite</a>, Engage is a new add-on for Umbraco CMS that instantly provides organizations with meaningful analytics around visitor interactions with web content.At its core, Umbraco Engage enables marketers to take a “learn, adapt, convert” approach to personalizing their digital experiences and optimizing content to boost conversion rates and improve ROI across their digital platforms. It has the potential to help businesses create dynamic digital content that’s continuously informed by real customer interactions. Engage is packed with power in all the right channels. It provides server-side analytics and customer 360° profiling to surface deep insights, stats, and heatmaps on critical metrics like pageviews. It also provides real-time A/B testing, enabling teams to adapt content to the needs of diverse audience segments. Having this layer of intelligence right at your fingertips will undoubtedly give marketers quick and relevant data around content engagement, allowing them to optimize more fluidly.“Engage provides businesses with intuitive tools, all within their familiar CMS platform, and we’re thrilled to now offer this powerful set of content optimization tools as a first-party solution,” said <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/mats-persson-296a66/">Mats Persson</a>, CEO at Umbraco. “This launch brings immediate value for our partners and end-clients, empowering them to meet the growing demand for tailored digital experiences. Personalization and content optimization, that work in practice, are now essential for driving conversion rates and ROI – a trend we’re excited to support with Umbraco Engage.”<h3 id="powering-personalization-for-marketing-teams">Powering personalization for marketing teams</h3>The benefits of personalization – and its impact on customer experience – are ubiquitously evident, and there's ample research to support a brand's investment in personalization technologies and strategies. A <a target="_blank" href="https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/growth-marketing-and-sales/our-insights/the-value-of-getting-personalization-right-or-wrong-is-multiplying">McKinsey &amp; Company study</a> found that 76% of consumers were more likely to purchase from brands that personalize their experiences, and 78% were more likely to refer friends and family to those brands. Beyond the tangible effects on purchase conversion, personalization can also improve other business and financial dimensions for brands. In fact, the same study found that personalization can reduce customer acquisition costs by up to 50%, lift revenues from 5% to 15%, and increase marketing ROI by 10% to 30%. McKinsey also reported that digitally native direct-to-consumer brands – ones that own the customer transaction and put first-party data at the heart of their marketing decision-making – derived approximately 25% of their revenue from personalization. Not too shabby. Umbraco is clearly driving more focus and attention around personalization based on the company’s innovation roadmap. As noted, the launch follows the announcement of Umbraco’s acquisition of uMarketingSuite, a content personalization tool that has become popular in key industries like financial services, healthcare, and the public sector, where privacy regulations restrict the use of third-party data. Existing uMarketingSuite customers will continue to benefit from the product's A/B testing, 360° profiling, analytics, and content personalization. Because Engage is now part of Umbraco, organizations also have the confidence and reassurance that ongoing product development and support will be delivered by a larger team at Umbraco HQ.According to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/hemraker/">Rune Strand</a>, Umbraco’s Product Communications Manager, marketing teams can immediately gain value from these new content personalization and optimization tools within its CMS.“As soon as Engage is installed on existing or new sites, marketing teams can instantly see how well web content is performing,” he said. “Pageview analytics and statistics are all at their fingertips within the Umbraco CMS interface. Being able to see heat maps that show precisely how users interact with your site can be game-changing for identifying which content is working well and which needs to be retired, refreshed, or personalized.”<h3 id="out-of-the-box-insights">Out-of-the-box insights</h3>Umbraco has scored a win by making this level of data more accessible to marketing professionals, content editors, and CRO specialists. With the add-on, users can gain actionable insights based on interactions with existing content and more effectively personalize and optimize information for new and returning website visitors and customers.Additionally, teams will be able to make data-informed decisions and take swift marketing actions within the Umbraco editing environment. They can proactively improve content performance using the tool’s real-time A/B content variant testing to improve digital experiences and boost conversion with more relevant, custom-tailored content. <figure class="image image-style-align-center image_resized" style="width:85.09%"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/11/umbraco-engage-screenshots.png" alt="" /></figure>Umbraco Engage provides clear analytics and performance metrics “People who create web content should be able to see how well it performs and make necessary tweaks, all within the CMS,” said <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/leondewildt/">Leon de Wildt</a>, the Commercial Product Manager for Umbraco Engage and the founder of uMarketingSuite. “Umbraco Engage is designed to help organizations tailor digital experiences in response to their own interaction data. Using the in-app reports, marketing teams can make changes that measurably improve engagement. Businesses can use Umbraco Engage to continuously improve the digital experience and boost conversion rates, whether that means more people filling out a form, buying a product, engaging with content or signing up for a webinar.”Umbraco is also addressing regulatory and data privacy considerations – something the company has long been a fierce proponent of. With Engage, marketers will be able to use server-side analytics and first-party data to satisfy compliance with data and privacy laws while accessing the platform's benefits.Umbraco Engage works out-of-the-box with other platform add-ons like <a target="_blank" href="https://umbraco.com/products/add-ons/forms/">Umbraco Forms</a> and <a target="_blank" href="https://umbraco.com/products/add-ons/commerce/">Umbraco Commerce</a>. For example, integrating Umbraco Commerce and Umbraco Engage enables digital marketers to view order history on the visitor profile level. This can help power eCommerce sites that recognize returning customers, serve personalized product information, and interact immediately with abandoned shopping carts to help boost sales. Umbraco Engage is available now, and Umbraco digital agency partners can access discounts, exclusive webinars, and free demo licenses based on their partnership agreements. If you’re a uMarketingSuite customer, there’s also a path for upgrading to Engage by February 24th, 2025. <a target="_blank" href="https://umbraco.com/products/add-ons/engage/">You can learn more about Umbraco Engage here</a>. <h3 id="why-it-matters">Why it matters</h3>Umbraco continues to drive a unique position as an open-source .NET content management system. With a fervent community of over 220,000 active members worldwide, they’re benefitting from a wide bench of innovation as more contributors participate in advancing the CMS and its capabilities.Personalization remains a challenge for all parties, from vendors to customers. It’s no longer the “undiscovered country,” but it needs to be defined around a brand’s specific goals. Further, there are many challenges associated with executing and maintaining a successful strategy. Having access to the right tooling – specifically around analytics and insights – can help provide a solid foundation for marketers and deliver better outcomes. AI will further disrupt the landscape, but Umbraco has a distinct advantage with a proven and “friendly” brand that will be key to cementing loyalty. By all accounts, the uMarketingSuite acquisition was a smart move as it looks to expand features, remain in competitive parity, and drive greater agility for marketing teams. UX is also pivotal. Having meaningful data closer to the CMS – and integrated within the editing workflow – will enable users with more control and faster decision-making, which could ultimately improve conversions and grow the bottom line.And that’s the real Holy Grail. <hr /><h4 style="text-align:center" id="looking-for-guidance-on-umbraco?--talk-to-us.-">Looking for guidance on Umbraco?  <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/contact">Talk to us. </a></h4><hr /><h3 id="upcoming-events">Upcoming Events</h3> <img style="width:29.58%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/01/cms-kickoff-2025-logo.png" /><h4 id="cms-kickoff-2025"><a href=" https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmskickoff25">CMS Kickoff 2025</a></h4>January 14-15, 2025 – Tampa Bay Area, FloridaJoin us next January in the Tampa Bay area of Florida for the third annual CMS Kickoff – the industry's premier global event. Similar to a traditional kickoff, we reflect on recent trends and share stories from the frontlines. Additionally, we will delve into the current happenings and shed light on the future. Prepare for an unparalleled in-person CMS conference experience that will equip you to move things forward. This is an exclusive event – space is limited, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmskickoff25/tickets">so secure your tickets today.</a> <img style="width:30.46%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/11/cms-summit-25.png" alt="" /><h4 id="cms-summit-25"><a target="_blank" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmssummit25">CMS Summit 25</a></h4>May 13-14, 2025 – Frankfurt, GermanyDon't miss the first European edition of our prestigious international conference dedicated to the global content management community! CMS Summit 25 will bring together top-notch speakers, our renowned learning format, and engaging social events. Hear from leading practitioners like Deutsche Bahn, Dr. Oetker, and more – and join customers, agencies, and CMS vendors as we discuss current trends and what's ahead for the content and digital experience fields. Connect and network at the only vendor-neutral, in-person conference focused on CMS. Space is limited for this exclusive event, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmssummit25">so book your seats today.</a>

Umbraco Engage Enhances Digital Personalization to Drive Higher Conversion Rates

<hr /> Data is, without question, the most valuable currency to any business. That said, digital analytics have taken on a pronounced role in making data actionable and impactful to an enterprise – particularly when it comes to its products and experiences.<a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/amplitude">Amplitude</a> has long established itself as a leading platform in the digital analytics space, due in no small part to its scope and range. It enables organizations to build better products by tracking and translating user behavior, allowing stakeholders to gain deeper insights into critical facets like engagement, retention, and revenue. One thing that sets Amplitude apart is its elegant, event-based analytics capabilities, which transmit in-product interactions and behaviors in real time. This is especially valuable for organizations mapping the user journey across digital experiences powered by CMS or marketing automation tools. To that end, Amplitude recently launched a set of new and expanded integrations that will make it easier for businesses to understand customer activity and leverage analytics to maximize the potential and performance of their experiences. Among the new tools is a <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/contentful">Contentful</a> plug-in for marketers that provides no-code testing features, as well as an enhanced <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/hubspot">HubSpot</a> integration designed to improve email campaign results and analysis. There’s also a new <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/wordpress">WordPress</a> plug-in that ingests website data into Amplitude with just one click – powering faster, data-driven website decisions. The company also announced the availability of a new <a target="_blank" href="https://amplitude.com/docs/partners/integration-portal">Integration Portal</a>, designed to speed up and simplify integration development. Now, technology partners will have access to a range of tools and resources – including documentation, code samples, and best practices – to enable their teams throughout the integration process.“We want to provide our customers with the most flexible platform on the market. This means meeting them where they are so they can get the most out of their existing investments,” said <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/francoisajenstat/">Francois Ajenstat</a>, Chief Product Officer at Amplitude. “Our expanded partner ecosystem gives customers even more choice to integrate and extend Amplitude to meet their unique needs. Our new integration portal provides the resources teams need to easily and seamlessly build on top of our platform.”<h3 id="enhancing-data-based-decisions-with-contentful">Enhancing data-based decisions with Contentful</h3>With personalization becoming a key objective for marketing teams, having nimble tools that allow for rapid, iterative testing and analysis is paramount. The new <a target="_blank" href="https://amplitude.com/blog/experiment-contentful-integration">Contentful integration</a> is a great example of how a headless CMS and content platform can leverage Amplitude’s analytics to enhance the personalization of digital content – and ultimately improve customer experiences. One major benefit of a composable platform like Contentful is the capacity to build world-class omnichannel strategies. Juicing this with customer data gives marketing and growth teams access to all their content so they can easily build variants for their A/B tests. This also makes it simple to organize and reuse content, which means they have a nearly inexhaustible supply of options for each test variant. <figure class="image image-style-align-center image_resized" style="width:83.25%"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/06/amplitude-contentful-1.png" alt="" /></figure>Creating a new experiment in Amplitude for a homepage hero banner in Contentful Using Amplitude, a company’s web, growth, and marketing teams can run no-code tests using <a target="_blank" href="https://streaklinks.com/B__ewgkSEs1pVgGBMAmfaPnh/https%3A%2F%2Famplitude.com%2Famplitude-experiment">Amplitude Experiment</a> and Contentful. With Amplitude Experiment, teams get the guidance they need to set up tests accurately. Meanwhile, Contentful can build out new messaging and page layouts with just a few simple clicks.  <figure class="image image-style-align-center image_resized" style="width:81.96%"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/06/amplitude-contentful-2.png" alt="" /></figure>Analytics results from a new Contentful hero banner test in Amplitude Amplitude's rich analytics provide a much deeper review of an experiment's performance. Unlocking no-code experimentation also empowers teams can drive growth and ROI faster by executing more tests – and directly impacting their acquisition, monetization, and retention results."A growing number of our customers want to build personalized experiences. But to pull this off, they need to be able to quickly A/B test different headlines, CTAs, page layouts, and more,” said <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/krrau/">Karthik Rau</a>, CEO at Contentful. “Our integration with Amplitude makes this process so much easier. Without any help from engineering, our customers can set up an experiment in Amplitude using content they already have in Contentful. Once the test is complete, they can roll out the right experience to the right group of users. It not only helps teams move faster, it empowers them to make more informed, data-based decisions." <h3 id="an-expanding-ecosystem-of-integrations">An expanding ecosystem of integrations</h3>Amplitude has been doubling down on its integration strategy and enriching its breadth of offerings. With more than 130 integrations currently available, including the recently announced <a target="_blank" href="https://streaklinks.com/B__ewhR3t-oOryrAPwbtjQ1x/https%3A%2F%2Famplitude.com%2Fpress%2Fsnowflake-native-amplitude-GA">warehouse-native offering with Snowflake</a>, Amplitude provides customers with a wide range of choices for getting data into – and insights out of – its platform. Along with the Contentful features, Amplitude also launched an enhanced, two-way integration for HubSpot. The plug-in allows companies to bring user cohort data from Amplitude into HubSpot to easily tailor email campaigns or bring HubSpot data into Amplitude for deeper analysis of campaign performance.  From an open source perspective, Amplitude now offers a <a target="_blank" href="https://streaklinks.com/B__ewgsiYg3R8Qy_owjA9zC9/http%3A%2F%2Famplitude.com%2Fblog%2Fwordpress-plugin">new free plug-in</a> for WordPress – the world’s most popular <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/what-is-a-content-management-system-cms">content management system</a> that powers over 400 million websites. With the new integration, customers can bring website data from any WordPress page into Amplitude in just one click, allowing marketing teams to quickly gain insights into user behavior to boost engagement and increase conversion rates.Additionally, Amplitude now offers integrations for:<ul><li><a target="_blank" href="https://movableink.com/">Movable Ink</a>: Using artificial intelligence, Movable Ink develops creative content for every customer touchpoint. With the new integration, users can send data from Amplitude to Moveable Ink and automatically generate custom marketing content tailored to each user's preferences.</li><li><a target="_blank" href="https://www.humanic.ai/">Humanic.ai</a>: A marketing automation platform that utilizes AI to unlock growth for product-led companies, Humanic.ai leverages data from Amplitude to give teams the ability to deliver hyper-personalized content that drives higher activation and adoption.</li><li><a target="_blank" href="https://www.unitq.com/">unitQ</a>: Using the AI solutions in unitQ, companies can better understand and take action on user feedback, enabling teams to uncover behavioral insights alongside customer feedback channels to improve onboarding, A/B testing, feature road mapping, and more.</li></ul><h3 id="why-it-matters">Why it matters</h3>Data's true potential is realized when it's made actionable. Deeper insights are essential to every modern data strategy, and leveraging a secure, trusted resource for meaningful and relevant analytics is a mandate for any modern enterprise.Amplitude continues to prove itself a leader and an innovator in the analytics space. Expanding its scope of available integrations and its capabilities for building custom integrations via its new portal makes it more extensible than ever. Given the other analytics tools on the market, few deliver this kind of control, flexibility, and customization.From a CMS perspective, Amplitude’s new plug-ins for Contentful and WordPress provide an indispensable asset for delivering more personalized content at scale. It further supports the enterprise charter to optimize processes, improve conversions, and enhance the value of one-to-one experiences.Also, by providing both Contentful and WordPress options (and presumably more in the future), Amplitude is delivering greater choice for organizations leveraging best-of-breed enterprise or open source CMS platforms.The more you know, the more you grow. It might sound cliché, but that's the promise of good analytics. <hr /><h3 id="upcoming-conferences">Upcoming conferences</h3> <img style="width:29.67%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/01/cms-connect-2024-logo.png" alt="CMS Connect 24 logo" /><h4 id="cms-connect-24"><a target="_blank" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmsconnect24">CMS Connect 24</a></h4>August 6-7, 2024 – Montreal, CanadaWe are delighted to present our first annual summer edition of our prestigious international conference dedicated to the global content management community. Join us this August in Montreal, Canada, for a vendor-neutral conference focused on CMS. Tired of impersonal and overwhelming gatherings? Picture this event as a unique blend of masterclasses, insightful talks, interactive discussions, impactful learning sessions, and authentic networking opportunities. <img style="width:29.58%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/01/cms-kickoff-2025-logo.png" /><h4 id="cms-kickoff-25"><a target="_blank" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmskickoff25/tickets">CMS Kickoff 25</a></h4>January 14-15, 2025 – Tampa Bay Area, FloridaJoin us next January in the Tampa Bay area of Florida for the third annual CMS Kickoff – the industry's premier global event. Similar to a traditional kickoff, we reflect on recent trends and share stories from the frontlines. Additionally, we will delve into the current happenings and shed light on the future. Prepare for an unparalleled in-person CMS conference experience that will equip you to move things forward. This is an exclusive event – space is limited, so secure your tickets today.

Amplitude Launches New Analytics Integrations for Contentful, HubSpot, WordPress and More

<hr /> <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/amplitude-expands-platform-capabilities-with-session-replay-and-simplified-pricing">Amplitude</a> continues to prove its value as a go-to product analytics platform, especially around its <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/amplitude-introduces-snowflake-native-amplitude-app-with-new-snowpark-container-services">Snowflake</a> applications. To that end, the company just announced the general availability of its <a target="_blank" href="https://amplitude.com/warehouse-native">Snowflake native offering</a>, which allows organizations to leverage Amplitude’s product analytics capabilities without their data ever leaving Snowflake. The result: accelerated and streamlined insights around what customers are doing – allowing teams to build better products and drive growth. The new offering really features the best of both platforms, enabling companies to leverage Amplitude’s product analytics capabilities to understand user journeys across every touchpoint. With centralized data storage, there are fewer security concerns, making the investment more valuable for businesses. Amplitude’s direct connection also means that all queries are run within Snowflake, removing the need to store or copy data to multiple places – which reinforces privacy, security, and compliance best practices.One of the biggest benefits is getting valuable data insights into the hands of more customers for free. As early-stage and enterprise organizations look to adopt warehouse-native analytics, Amplitude is including up to five free seats of Warehouse-native Amplitude in every plan. “We want to provide our customers with the most choice and flexibility to leverage their data their way,” said <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/francoisajenstat/">Francois Ajenstat</a>, chief product officer at Amplitude. “Now, customers can harness the power of Snowflake in Amplitude without their data ever leaving Snowflake. With the best of Amplitude and Snowflake together, teams can now focus on what matters most: creating amazing customer experiences that drive business growth.”The announcement was made at <a target="_blank" href="https://www.snowflake.com/summit/">Snowflake Data Cloud Summit 2024</a>, where Amplitude is an attendee with a booth in tow.<h3 id="bringing-the-power-of-product-analytics-to-snowflake">Bringing the power of product analytics to Snowflake</h3>Amplitude helps businesses capitalize on their investments by centralizing data in Snowflake. By leveraging Amplitude’s direct connection, all queries are run within Snowflake, removing the need to store or copy data to multiple places.The combined power of Amplitude and Snowflake also makes it easier and faster than ever for companies to integrate product and customer insights. With data that's trusted, secure, and always up-to-date, teams can make smarter product decisions while maintaining privacy, security, and compliance requirements. As more companies look to adopt Snowflake native analytics, Amplitude is sweetening the deal by including its new offering for free in every plan. Regardless of an organization's size, every team can get started with up to five seats for free. When it comes to their data, Amplitude is committed to meeting customers wherever they are. With integrations to over 130 data sources, Amplitude provides the most choice and flexibility for leveraging data anywhere in their digital ecosystem. While other solutions on the market force customers to choose between native and non-native connections, Amplitude provides a hybrid option to help businesses optimize data access and performance according to their unique needs.“We want to help every user quickly and easily build in the AI Data Cloud so they can deliver immediate business impact. Our continued investments with Amplitude allow us to do that at a greater scale,” said <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrischild/">Chris Child</a>, VP and head of worldwide sales engineering at Snowflake. “Amplitude is well known for providing self-serve product analytics. With this new application, customers can better understand user behavior and gain critical behavioral insights without their data ever leaving Snowflake.”By building on Snowflake, product and engineering teams can develop, scale, and manage their apps without operational burden, delivering differentiated products to their customers. This also gives organizations access to resources that help them design, market, and operate their applications in the Data Cloud. <h3 id="why-it-matters">Why it matters</h3>We've been following the innovation track between Amplitude and Snowflake, and this realization of native functionality is a critical achievement. The unified approach empowers users to personalize experiences, optimize marketing campaigns, and ultimately drive growth – all with the security and governance you expect from Snowflake. With Snowflake Native Amplitude, teams can similarly bring their financial and enterprise data alongside rich behavioral data to truly correlate digital product engagement with business growth.As Francois Ajenstat suggested in a recent blog, you can have your cake and eat it too.The extent of the native capabilities is certainly evolutionary. If you consider the traditional model for analyzing behavioral and financial data, the entire process has been disjointed, with enterprise data residing in Snowflake and behavioral data in Amplitude. But Snowflake Native Amplitude effectively breaks down these silos, allowing teams to easily combine both data sets within Snowflake to better understand the business impact of user behavior. “Picture a user abandoning their cart,” Ajenstat said. “Previously, you might only see this as a missed sale. But with Snowflake Native Amplitude, you can combine behavioral data with the user's purchase history, demographics, or other information stored in Snowflake.”From a trust perspective, Snowflake Native Amplitude makes security and privacy easy for organizations. This is a big one for enterprises, particularly as data becomes more vulnerable across so many applications. The answer here is that the data itself never leaves the Snowflake Data Cloud, mitigating the risks associated with data movement, drift, and duplication to strengthen your compliance posture. You can also leverage your existing Snowflake security and privacy policies to reinforce data protection and simplify compliance management to all of your specific industry regulations.As product analytics take a more pronounced role for brands and enterprises, having reliable integration across the analytics plane and where it lives is key. Amplitude and Snowflake have now achieved the highest order of alignment with their capabilities, giving the market a critical asset for improving customer insights.   <hr /><h3 id="upcoming-conferences">Upcoming conferences</h3> <img style="width:29.67%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/01/cms-connect-2024-logo.png" alt="CMS Connect 24 logo" /><h4 id="cms-connect-24"><a target="_blank" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmsconnect24">CMS Connect 24</a></h4>August 6-7, 2024 – Montreal, CanadaWe are delighted to present our first annual summer edition of our prestigious international conference dedicated to the global content management community. Join us this August in Montreal, Canada, for a vendor-neutral conference focused on CMS. Tired of impersonal and overwhelming gatherings? Picture this event as a unique blend of masterclasses, insightful talks, interactive discussions, impactful learning sessions, and authentic networking opportunities. <img style="width:29.58%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/01/cms-kickoff-2025-logo.png" /><h4 id="cms-kickoff-25"><a target="_blank" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmskickoff25/tickets">CMS Kickoff 25</a></h4>January 14-15, 2025 – Tampa Bay Area, FloridaJoin us next January in the Tampa Bay area of Florida for the third annual CMS Kickoff – the industry's premier global event. Similar to a traditional kickoff, we reflect on recent trends and share stories from the frontlines. Additionally, we will delve into the current happenings and shed light on the future. Prepare for an unparalleled in-person CMS conference experience that will equip you to move things forward. This is an exclusive event – space is limited, so secure your tickets today.

Amplitude Amps Up Snowflake AI Data Cloud with Product Analytics

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<hr /> As 2024 begins to take shape, digital optimization is becoming paramount for organizations as they focus on the ever-elusive goal of growth. With increasing competition across digital properties, brands seek new ways to understand customer behavior and create personalized experiences that allow them to attract, engage, and retain customers.The tools are getting better – and <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/amplitude-introduces-snowflake-native-amplitude-app-with-new-snowpark-container-services">Amplitude</a> continues to lead with innovation. The company recently announced the expansion of its Digital Analytics Platform to include Session Replay, new experimentation capabilities, and simplified event tagging. With Session Replay, Amplitude now combines qualitative and quantitative data to help companies understand the “why” behind user behavior. The platform will also offer new Experiment capabilities to help teams build personalized websites and campaigns. Additionally, a visual tag editor will effectively lower the barrier to entry for companies getting started with data collection and instrumentation. “Understanding customer behavior is the key to building successful products and enabling businesses to thrive," said <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/francoisajenstat/">Francois Ajenstat</a>, Amplitude’s Chief Product Officer. "With these new capabilities, we’re bringing the next generation of digital analytics to market, combining qualitative and quantitative insights and simplifying how companies get started with Amplitude. With a single platform that is easy to use and easy to scale, every company can deliver better customer experiences that drive growth.”Alongside redesigned pricing options to meet the needs of organizations of all sizes, these new capabilities will help companies see everything their customers do, understand what drives growth, and build better products – all in one place.<h3 id="multiple-platform-enhancements">Multiple platform enhancements</h3>The new features of Amplitude’s platform include:<h4 id="session-replay">Session Replay</h4>With Session Replay, companies can visualize the user journey through the product, showing what customers like and where they get stuck. Integrated with Amplitude Analytics, organizations can access qualitative and quantitative insights to fix issues, drive greater conversion, and, ultimately, improve the customer experience. Session Replay is generally available today.<h4 id="experiment-for-web">Experiment for web</h4>Deliver personalized experiences with Amplitude's new web experimentation capabilities. Easily test multiple landing pages to optimize web and campaign performance. Paired with Amplitude Analytics, teams can gain a holistic understanding of what impacts customer behavior and how to deliver experiences that drive growth. Experiment for web will be generally available in the first half of 2024.<h4 id="visual-tag-editor">Visual tag editor</h4>Visual tag editor automates the data collection and instrumentation process to help teams intuitively track website or app activity. Visual tag editor will be generally available in the first half of 2024. With plans for organizations of all sizes, companies can get all the tools they need at once or start small and scale as their business grows. Plans include Free, Plus, Growth, and Enterprise, and can be explored on the Amplitude website. <hr /><h3 id="upcoming-conferences">Upcoming conferences</h3> <img style="width:29.67%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/01/cms-connect-2024-logo.png" alt="CMS Connect 24 logo" /><h4 id="cms-connect-24"><a target="_blank" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmsconnect24">CMS Connect 24</a></h4>August 6-7, 2024 – Montreal, CanadaWe are delighted to present our first annual summer edition of our prestigious international conference dedicated to the global content management community. Join us this August in Montreal, Canada, for a vendor-neutral conference focused on CMS. Tired of impersonal and overwhelming gatherings? Picture this event as a unique blend of masterclasses, insightful talks, interactive discussions, impactful learning sessions, and authentic networking opportunities. <img style="width:29.58%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/01/cms-kickoff-2025-logo.png" /><h4 id="cms-kickoff-25"><a target="_blank" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmskickoff25/tickets">CMS Kickoff 25</a></h4>January 14-15, 2025 – Tampa Bay Area, FloridaJoin us next January in the Tampa Bay area of Florida for the third annual CMS Kickoff – the industry's premier global event. Similar to a traditional kickoff, we reflect on recent trends and share stories from the frontlines. Additionally, we will delve into the current happenings and shed light on the future. Prepare for an unparalleled in-person CMS conference experience that will equip you to move things forward. This is an exclusive event – space is limited, so secure your tickets today.

Amplitude Expands Platform Capabilities with Session Replay and Simplified Pricing

There's no doubt that data is gold to every enterprise. But analyzing mountains of it to divine actionable insight is becoming more challenging by the day. This is where innovators like <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cmscritic.com/amplitude-announces-new-testing-and-analytics-tools-for-making-smarter-product-decisions-at-scale/">Amplitude</a> – a leading digital analytics platform – are proving essential to unlocking data-driven decisions.Now, Amplitude has announced another breakthrough with the launch of Snowflake-native Amplitude, a Snowflake Native App that utilizes Snowpark Container Services – currently available in a private preview. Snowflake-native Amplitude allows joint customers to access self-serve behavioral insights directly within their Snowflake instance.The news was announced at Snowflake Summit 2023, the cloud data warehouse provider's annual user conference. Amplitude is one of a select group of partners developing Snowflake Native Apps that utilize Snowpark Container Services, and the new capability builds upon Amplitude and Snowflake’s partnership and data-sharing integration. This application marks Amplitude’s first warehouse-native offering. Warehouse-native Amplitude will help more organizations uncover the behavioral insights they need to make better product decisions without leaving their data platform of choice.Amplitude also announced several new capabilities, including AI-assisted data governance and automated instrumentation and reporting, to help teams access clearer insights faster. <h2>Unlocking the power of the enterprise data cloud</h2>Based on IDC data, only 32% of the data within an enterprise is being used. Additionally, with the deprecation of third-party cookies, marketers are looking to their data teams to drive more value from their first-party data stored in their data warehouse. Snowflake-native Amplitude unlocks the ROI of data in the data cloud. Joint customers can now mine additional value from their data by empowering their entire organization with access to self-serve insights from Amplitude — all without leaving their Snowflake instance. Snowflake-native Amplitude also simplifies data governance by using existing Snowflake security and access controls and eliminating the need to store or duplicate data in multiple places.“Today, siloed data makes it difficult for teams to get the insights they need to drive their business forward,” said Justin Bauer, Chief Product Officer at Amplitude. “We want to make it easier for teams to seamlessly and securely integrate customer and product insights with their Snowflake data. Now every Snowflake customer can unlock the benefits of self-service analytics to better understand each step in the customer journey so they can drive active user growth, increase retention, and improve monetization.”<h2>New features including AI and partner integrations</h2>Snowflake announced the launch of Snowpark Container Services to expand the scope of Snowpark. This was designed to help organizations run third-party software and full-stack applications – all within their account. By accessing and running commercial software and apps directly in Snowflake, customers can seamlessly enhance the value of their data using cutting-edge tools without moving or compromising security.“We continue to invest in our expansive partner ecosystem, accelerating how users build in the Data Cloud by reimagining what they can run within Snowflake, without tradeoffs,” said <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrischild/">Chris Child</a>, Senior Director of Product Management, Snowflake. “With the launch of Snowpark Container Services, we’re making this a reality. Amplitude’s proven track record of helping teams measure and understand customer behavior to improve customer experiences combined with the ease of use, scalability, and unified governance of the Snowflake Data Cloud will help us deliver more value for our joint customers.”This news comes alongside Amplitude’s announcement of several new capabilities to help technical and non-technical teams gain self-serve access to trusted data and clearer insights. With user experience improvements and automated insights, it’s never been easier to get started with Amplitude. New capabilities and integrations include:<ul><li>Automated instrumentation &amp; reporting: Instantly track user activity and baseline metrics like daily active users, average session length, and geolocation with Amplitude’s enhanced SDK so teams can start reporting on day one.</li><li>Industry-specific reporting templates: Customers can quickly discover product insights tailored to their business with new reporting templates that include industry-specific key metrics.</li><li>AI-assisted data governance: Maintain and continually improve data quality with automation and intelligent suggestions.</li><li>Expanded partner integrations: Quickly and easily send data to other parts of your stack with new and expanded integrations with Braze, Hubspot, Intercom, Marketo, and more.</li></ul>“As the amount of customer data within data platforms continues to grow, self-serve access to insights is a must-have,” said <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidmwallace/">David Wallace</a>, research director of customer data and analytics at IDC. “Snowflake-native Amplitude will allow teams to quickly and easily access more of their customer data while maintaining the security and governance benefits within their Snowflake instance.”As previously noted, Snowflake-native Amplitude is available in preview, and users can sign up for an Early Access Program.<h2>Q&amp;A with Justin Bauer</h2>Following the announcement, we had a chance to connect further with Justin Bauer, Chief Product Officer at Amplitude, to ask a few questions about the new service.  <hr />CMS Critic: How big of a deal are the AI capabilities mentioned in the announcement? AI-related features are leading most of the news cycle, and we're curious about how strategic the innovation is, and how it might provide a competitive edge for Amplitude.Justin Bauer: Amplitude has been early to the AI/ML Game. We have one of the most unique and comprehensive datasets on product and customer behavior, which allows us to develop powerful models that will impact how companies develop digital products. We already incorporate a number of ML capabilities to help our customers identify issues early, predict behaviors and personalize campaigns.With new advancements in Generative AI, we're looking to help our customers maintain &amp; improve their data quality more easily, generate analysis faster, and even summarize recommendations from their insights. Our new data governance capabilities are just an early example of that. We are also piloting a new feature in beta that uses conversational AI to dramatically shorten the time it takes for Amplitude users to answer questions. They can simply type “How many active users per day?” or “How many users are new versus returning?” into the analysis search bar and generate suggested analyses that help users analyze, explore, and learn.This is still early days, but we think AI has the potential to accelerate growth in the digital analytics category.<hr />CMS Critic: When will the new service be GA?Justin Bauer: Snowflake-native Amplitude will be GA in Q1 2024, but all of Amplitude's other new features are being rolled out this week. <hr />CMS Critic: Is there a cost advantage or economic optimization that might be a selling point?Justin Bauer: Snowflake-native Amplitude has some big cost benefits for organizations because there’s no need for you to export data to Amplitude or build new data pipelines. We run SQL queries directly on the data in an organization's warehouse and provide insights right from their source of truth. Maintaining and managing all of this data directly in Snowflake drives down costs for our joint customers. This process also eliminates the need to move data between systems, so teams can minimize data drift, which is what we call the divergence of two data sets over time. If data drift isn't prevented, it can create big data quality problems down the line. Another benefit is that we're making it easier for teams to manage data access controls, security, privacy, and governance directly in their warehouse. This means they can lift and shift over to Snowflake more easily, while keeping existing security and privacy controls intact.<hr />CMS Critic: Are the integrations one-click or require additional setup?Justin Bauer: We can't claim one-click, but how about 3-5? We do everything we can to make these integrations easy to get set up. And they're all configuration based, meaning you click instead of code to get them up and running.<hr /><h2>About Amplitude</h2>Amplitude is a leading digital analytics platform that helps companies unlock the power of their products. Almost 2,200 customers, including Atlassian, Jersey Mike’s, NBCUniversal, Shopify, and Under Armour, rely on Amplitude to gain self-service visibility into the entire customer journey. Amplitude guides companies every step of the way as they capture data they can trust, uncover clear insights about customer behavior, and take faster action. When teams understand how people are using their products, they can deliver better product experiences that drive growth. Amplitude is the best-in-class analytics solution for product, data, and marketing teams, ranked #1 in multiple categories in G2’s 2023 Summer Report.

Amplitude Announces Snowflake-native Amplitude App: Q&A with Justin Bauer, Chief Product Officer

Sometimes, the best place to begin is at the end.
Case in point: at the terminus of my conversation with <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/tifenndano/" target="_blank">Tifenn Dano Kwan</a>, she offered an impassioned promulgation.
“We can’t put people in boxes.”
The same could be said of Tifenn. To simply label her as a high-performing CMO in the technology industry would be boxing out the unique qualities that make her a remarkable leader and a compassionate, empathetic human.
Regarding people and how she cultivates both business and personal relationships, she further declared that “we need to be careful and open, always.”
Sage advice to be sure, but not the kind I was expecting from an interview that was primarily focused on analytics. And yet, these words seemed to crystallize our entire discussion, framing Tifenn’s disposition as a person who, at her core, is designed to give. At the same time, she creates a sort of sacred container for receiving, one that guided our conversation from beginning to end.
If there’s one truth that shone through our recent meeting, it’s that Tifenn Dano Kwan is undeniable. A brilliant maverick that exudes confidence, wisdom, and piercing energy. It’s easy to see why <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/winning-the-analytics-game-an-interview-with-adam-greco-product-evangelist-at-amplitude/">Amplitude</a>, a leading digital and product analytics platform, has chosen her to shape the company’s vision and lead it forward.
It won’t be easy. As she settles into her role as Chief Marketing Officer, Amplitude faces an uncertain market. With the specter of economic recession peering through the veil for 2023, technology companies are relying on marketing and sales to become strategic engines for growth despite shrinking budgets.
Even amid these torrid times, Tifenn seems immeasurably cool, calm, and collected. This is how she rolls – and that became evident over the course of our discussion. At the same time, Tifenn is pumped about her plans at Amplitude. We talked about what she sees as the biggest opportunities, and what makes this role different from her previous CMO gigs at <a href="https://www.collibra.com/us/en" target="_blank">Collibra</a> and <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/" target="_blank">DropBox</a>. We also discussed Amplitude’s 2022 Product Report and the nuggets of wisdom she gleaned from the research.
Finally, we got personal, talking about her advocacy for the LGBTQ+ community and her focus on diversity. It’s another example of how she leads with both mind and heart – and refuses to put people in boxes.
<h2>From digital marketer to team builder</h2>
The CMO mantle was an almost predictable zenith for Tifenn, who caught the marketing bug early in her career and never looked back. Her journey began in the early 2000s, bouncing around traditional communications and media before settling into the tech field and cutting her teeth within partner and channel organizations.
“The objectives were always revenue and AR, yet I saw everything through the lens of marketing, from campaign services to vendors,” she said. “But I really found my sweet spot in organizing teams, processes, and programs.”
Maybe that’s why people call her a fixer. As she describes it, her prowess lies with mid-sized companies in a hyper-growth stage that are struggling to scale. She effectively threads the needle and brings it all together, typically managing teams of 50 to 60 people to get there.
She’s done this successfully time and again, most recently as CMO at Collibra – a leading data intelligence platform. During her tenure, she facilitated a data-driven transformation of the company’s marketing functions, helping build a category-leading brand. Prior to this, she held the CMO role at DropBox, the eponymous storage platform, where she drove revenue growth through customer centricity.
When it comes to her unrivaled “people powers,” it’s worth noting that she has a proven track record of minting CMOs. In fact, three of her previous direct reports have become Chief Marketing Officers, two at leading global organizations. This speaks volumes about her capacity to mentor and elevate her peers to the highest levels of performance.
<h2>An inflection point for marketing</h2>
Over the decades, Tifenn has nurtured a deep passion for harnessing the power of technology and DX to help teams reach their potential. In many ways, this has become her guiding mantra. Experience has clearly been a great teacher, informing her perspective on the value of marketing teams and how they directly accelerate growth.
Peering through the Zoom screen wearing a slick blazer, she prognosticated a bit about the future – and what makes this a pivotal moment of change.
“Marketing is going through a fundamental transformation,” she said. “And it’s also a consequential one where product teams and CFOs are working better together.”
This isn’t the first time we’ve heard this. In a recent <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/mach-alliance-roundtable-focuses-on-composability-and-innovation-as-economic-activators-in-2023/">MACH Alliance board meeting</a> I was invited to, several vendors and ISVs within the community spoke about the growing alignment between technology leaders and CFOs as they look to invest in composable strategies.   
She went on to suggest that this enhanced connectivity is an essential part of the growth roadmap, and that leadership – from CFOs to CIOs – must be coordinated actors in achieving digital transformation to bring products to market faster.
“If there’s not GTM [go to market] synchronicity, then we’re missing something,” she added. “The next level of impact is to create more collaboration.”
<h2>Aiming for growth at Amplitude</h2>
While still fresh to the helm, Tifenn’s course is clear: lead Amplitude's marketing strategy to expand its best-in-class digital analytics platform and oversee its corporate, product, and revenue marketing teams.
This comes on the heels of positive customer reviews that appear to reinforce Amplitude’s focus on customer experience. The company was ranked #1 across nine categories in the <a href="https://info.amplitude.com/Digital-Asset-G2-Report_Fall-2022-G2" target="_blank">G2 Fall 2022 Grid Report</a> – including dual achievements as the #1 Product Analytics solution for the ninth quarter in a row and the #1 Mobile App Analytics solution for the fourth quarter in a row. 
Analysts are also tracking the company’s position with favor. In a recent Wave report, <a href="https://amplitude.com/press/customer-analytics-report-q2-22" target="_blank">Forrester</a> said that Amplitude was “born a digital product analytics vendor, but in a world where digital interactions make up the lion's share of customer interactions, the vendor has embraced the pivot into customer analytics." 
Aside from the positive traction from customers and market watchers, I asked Tifenn what made her choose Amplitude as her next act.
“They're at a big stage,” she said. “They want to be a multi-billion-dollar company, and I’m helping to create the integrated marketing strategy to get us there.”
But there’s more to the story, and it came in the form of a personal epiphany: throughout her career, she had been cultivating expertise in digital marketing and executing successfully. That said, she had never been what she described as an “expert” in the products she was promoting. Given her breadth of knowledge and keen focus on data and analytics, Amplitude presented an opportunity for her to breed a deeper authority over a product she believed in – and even demo its value and impact.
“When I heard about Amplitude, I was magically connected to its processes,” she said. “The business world is becoming product-lead, and I wanted to be able to talk about this product as an expert.”
<h2>Letting products guide the customer experience</h2>
I asked Tifenn to expand on Amplitude’s evolving position as a data analytics platform, and how its focus on product and customer data is different from the ubiquitous Google Analytics. Despite being the internet’s de facto standard, Google has <a href="https://searchengineland.com/ga4-isnt-all-its-cracked-up-to-be-what-would-it-look-like-to-switch-385105" target="_blank">faced criticism</a> over its chaotic move from Universal Analytics to GA4, prompting users to search for alternative solutions.
“As marketers, we need to shift to the metrics that matter most,” she explained. “The GA problem is that marketers don’t just care about the return on AR spend – they also care about the product. We retain them as customers in the product.”
I continued probing around this notion of learning about and ultimately retaining customers in the product. Why weren’t more companies going deeper into their product experiences to activate growth?
Tifenn expanded on this, tapping her own evidence-based experience. “The sooner customers interact with a product, the sooner we can convert them,” she said. “This became very clear for me at Collibra when we launched test drives and trials. This became our #1 tactic and asset because everything happens in the product.”
There it was again: in the product. It was like an affirmation echoing across our call. As a marketer, she said people don’t want to read eBooks and reports – they want to experience something meaningful that helps inform their decision in a more tangible way.
“This is where you start understanding the self-service motion and connecting the dots.”
On the topic of product-led growth, she went on to say that it’s not just a sales motion, it’s a mindset. “We need to meet customers where they are in the product and think about the funnel and the journey [from that perspective].”
To get there, it’s clear that the marketers of the future will need to be more connected through the product experience than ever before.  
<h2>Highlights from the Amplitude 2022 Product Report</h2>
I also asked Tifenn about a recent report published by Amplitude Labs, the company’s research and thought leadership arm. Dubbed “<a href="https://amplitude.com/product-report-2022" target="_blank">The Product Report 2022,”</a> it features exclusive data about the trends, industries, strategies, and products dominating the digital landscape – including the 30 “Next Hottest Products" to watch. 
According to Tifenn, the report has garnered significant interest from the market. “Within 48 hours [of publishing the report], we had already hit our quarterly goals for leads,” she said. “There is genuine interest and thirst for this data and insights.”
There were quite a few compelling points that Amplitude uncovered in its research. For example, digital product usage increased by 16% in 2022 – a double-digit gain, but a far cry from the 54% increase the previous year. This marked deceleration is likely a post-Covid phenomenon, following two years of unprecedented digital transformation.
Among the 12 industries that Amplitude analyzed in the report, the most significant growth was in HR/staffing and educational/upskilling categories. This could be the proverbial “canary in the coalmine” – an indicator that the economic downturn may be prompting workers to enhance their skillsets or seek new opportunities.
There’s also some data codifying that the “SaaS crash” many prognosticators feared was overblown. While SaaS growth did slow in the early part of 2022, things picked up later in the year, demonstrating the resilience of many platforms. Meanwhile, the company’s survey placed a spotlight on the complicated landscape of crypto-related products, which saw a meteoric acceleration in 2021. This year reflected modest gains, but the recent <a href="https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2022-219" target="_blank">FTX fallout</a> may have a chilling effect on 2023’s outlook.
The report also featured a survey from product leaders across industries about their plans for driving growth during a recession. There are several nuggets of wisdom here that are well worth the read. 
Tifenn also shared that Amplitude’s ranking of the next hottest companies was of great interest, prompting the report to go viral. The list includes up-and-coming apps in categories like healthtech and fitness, with brands like <a href="https://www.usemotion.com/" target="_blank">Motion</a>, <a href="https://mercdev.com/portfolio/tonal" target="_blank">Tonal</a>, and <a href="https://www.gong.io/blog/mobile-app/" target="_blank">Gong</a> populating the company’s top 10 in North America.
“What the product report validates are the elements in the economy,” Tifenn said. “It shows how technology companies have a voice in what’s going on. When those companies deliver a great product, customers respond. And the ones that really bet on their product make it to the list because it meets the needs of customers.”
<h2>A champion for diversity and advocacy </h2>
As our conversation drew to a close, I asked Tifenn about her open advocacy of the LGBTQ+ community, and her work to expand diversity within the technology sector.
“I’m an advocate by design,” she said, reflecting a bit about her wife and their bi-racial marriage, and how she built her confidence on that rock. Drawing on her personal and leadership strengths, she models advocacy and diversity in the workplace without forcing it, and it's evident that Amplitude's culture is conducive to supporting those bridges. 
Originally from France, Tifenn gave me a passionate account of the social and cultural conservatism that colored her upbringing. She came out while living in Singapore, where LGBTQ+ people have <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_in_Singapore" target="_blank">struggled for equality</a> under a tacitly austere judicial system. In fact, prior to 2022, same-sex activities of any kind were illegal under a British colonial-era law called <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Section_377A_of_the_Penal_Code_(Singapore)" target="_blank">Section 377A</a>, which has now been repealed.
In a moving personal account, Tifenn shared a story about a cousin that was fiercely opposed to gay marriage. This family member ultimately chose not to attend her wedding. Rather than hold a grudge, Tifenn held steadfast to love and compassion over the years, which later lead to a reconciliation.
“When you show people kindness, they come around,” she said.
Indeed. We can all agree the world could use more kindness right now. And more leaders like Tifenn.
While the outlook for 2023 appears increasingly unsettled, Amplitude is focusing on the right people to face the challenges ahead. Maybe that's the right play. As an organization, they seem to understand that it's not just about the technology, but the people behind it – and the people it serves. 
I’ll end where I began by repeating Tifenn’s observation: we can’t put people in boxes. Perhaps by being careful and open, just as she suggests, we can unlock the real power of people to build better products and digital experiences.
And, if we're lucky, a better world.  
 
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<h2>Join CMS Industry Leaders, Digital Agencies, and Users at CMS Kickoff 2023</h2>
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Unlocking the Power of Products and People: A Conversation with Amplitude’s New CMO Tifenn Dano Kwan

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