Articles

CDP Article

<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 

matt-garrepy

<hr /> It’s a data swamp out there, and brands are trudging through it. With customer data sprawled across a multitude of devices, platforms, and identities, enterprises are struggling to unify the chaos, glean meaningful insights, and create more personalized experiences.As people engage via a widening channel of digital touchpoints, unifying disjointed customer records has become a huge blocker. While features in CDPs and data warehouses have provided a salve, the use of <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://hightouch.com/blog/identity-resolution-tools">identity resolution tools</a> – software solutions that link customer data points across different systems – has become an essential resource for keeping the mud off your boots.But when the data picture is incomplete, things get fuzzy. This is where <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/hightouch">Hightouch</a> is sharpening the details with precision and giving marketers more reliable insight. The composable CDP and AI decisioning platform just introduced probabilistic Identity Resolution, an adaptive feature of Hightouch’s powerful warehouse-native customer data platform that combines AI with deterministic logic to fill in the gaps of fragmented profiles. This new capability introduces what Hightouch calls “multi-zone” identity resolution, which enables businesses to jump between high-confidence deterministic matching and higher-reach probabilistic matching within a single project setup. In this sense, it combines the best of both worlds in one unified solution within the CDP.“Most identity resolution tools are either rigid or opaque,” said <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/tejasmanohar/">Tejas Manohar</a>, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Hightouch. “We’ve built something entirely new, a multi-zone identity engine that lets customers toggle between high-confidence deterministic graphs and higher-reach probabilistic graphs, without sacrificing transparency or control.”<h3 id="determining-the-probabilities-with-ai">Determining the probabilities with AI</h3>We live in an ever-expanding world of digital touchpoints, and consumers are engaging across a litany of devices and channels. With so much data in so many places, brands are struggling to capture clean and accurate customer data from a disjointed mountain of customer records, which is eroding the effectiveness of marketing and personalization.While identity resolution helps cut through the chaos, it has inherent challenges relative to the use case. Transactional emails, for example, perform best with high-confidence deterministic matching. Meanwhile, things like ad targeting work best with high-reach probabilistic matching. With Hightouch, you can use the right method for the right use case. Toggle to deterministic identity resolution to leverage exact matches with identical email addresses or phone numbers. Jump to probabilistic identity resolution and utilize machine learning models to infer connections between similar (but not identical) records. This can include linking a nickname and personal email to a business identity to help fill a gap.<h3 id="powerful-identity-resolution-features">Powerful identity resolution features</h3>While other platforms offer probabilistic matching, Hightouch is the first to make both probabilistic and deterministic resolution fully configurable, transparent, and warehouse-native. This enables brands to control their identity resolution logic, optimize for different downstream use cases, and preserve data ownership at every step. Features of Hightouch's adaptive Identity Resolution include its noted multi-zone matching, which enables users to adjust confidence levels up for precision or down for reach. Now you can shift your deterministic and probabilistic resolution in parallel depending on your use case. It's also highly configurable and transparent, allowing you to fine-tune your matching logic, inspect machine learning decisions, and customize golden record logic without code.Hightouch's warehouse-native architecture also allows users to perform identity resolution on their complete data, directly in the data warehouse. No need to move data into a separate CDP or black box – it's all handled in one place, and it's all configurable and transparent. With Hightouch's real-time activation, you can put merged profiles to work instantly across ads, email, customer success, and more through its deep integration ecosystem. As Hightouch contends, this isn’t a “one-size-fits-all algorithm” they’re applying, but an intelligent, transparent framework that evolves with your business needs. And with AI inside the warehouse, identity resolution steps up from being just a hygiene task to a strategic advantage.<h3 id="the-verdict">The verdict</h3>Identity resolution tools have been around for a while at both a warehouse-native and black box level, providing options that are native and outside an organization’s data stack. Proximity aside, there are implicit limitations that are exacerbated by the growing number of data sources and disjointed customer records. Hightouch is endeavoring to solve this problem with its novel multi-zone identity engine. What’s key is that customers have more power to switch between deterministic and probabilistic graphs to achieve a more complete picture and attain greater confidence. There's more control over use cases for high confidence or high reach, and this could deliver more value to marketing teams as they focus more on personalization.The artificial intelligence piece is also pivotal, unlocking more scale and potential as the lakes of data continue to grow. But this investment in AI-powered solution is precisely what’s putting this platform on the map. Hightouch is still “riding high” as it innovates along its AI decisioning capabilities, which earned it an <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/u-cant-touch-this-cdp-hightouch-nails-80m-series-c-to-power-its-ai-decisioning">$80 million Series C last February.</a>Earlier this year, I spoke with Hightouch’s <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/hightouch-taps-adam-greco-as-product-evangelist-strengthening-its-leadership-in-composable-cdps">Product Evangelist, Adam Greco,</a> about the evolution of the company’s composable CDP and how it’s challenging the category. As I observed at the time, Hightouch is plotting a unique course, and this latest foray into native, AI-powered identity resolution is further evidence of that.  <hr /><h4 style="text-align:center" id="looking-for-guidance-on-hightouch?-talk-to-an-expert.">Looking for guidance on Hightouch? <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, 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>

Hightouch Adds New AI-Powered Adaptive Identity Resolution to its CDP

<hr /> The martech landscape is, in a word, messy. And we don’t need <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://chiefmartec.com/2025/05/2025-marketing-technology-landscape-supergraphic-100x-growth-since-2011-but-now-with-ai/">Scott Brinker’s 2025 Supergraphic</a>, now a breathtaking pointillist painting of 15,384 discrete solutions, to tell us how confusing this morass has become.Marketers know this truth all too well. Data lives everywhere, scattered across CRMs, analytics dashboards, customer data platforms, CMSes, and dozens of other tools. Getting a complete view of their customers and campaigns has become a struggle, if not impossible.Along comes AI, and with it, the promise of finally unlocking personalization at scale with automated variants and streamlined workflows. But despite the eagerness of non-technical marketers to tap the fabric of AI, the lack of unified data has been a barrier to success. As such, their efforts are falling flat, and their content strategies feel more reactive than revolutionary.But <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.databricks.com/">Databricks</a> might have an answer to this conundrum. The cloud-based data and AI company recently announced the launch of its new Data Intelligence for Marketing solution, which combines its popular <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.databricks.com/product/data-intelligence-platform">Data Intelligence Platform</a> with a library of out-of-the-box integrations – connecting its capabilities to an ecosystem of leading marketing solution providers. Data Intelligence for Marketing leverages the proven power of Databricks to amplify and accelerate successful outcomes. By weaving AI across a bench of trusted marketing partners like <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/adobe-experience-manager">Adobe</a> and <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/salesforce">Salesforce</a>, anyone can access insights, personalize experiences, and run more effective marketing – all from a single, unified platform. “We’re launching Data Intelligence for Marketing to ensure every marketer, regardless of technical background, can get the data they need to make smarter decisions faster and run relevant, efficient campaigns,” said <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/rischultz/">Rick Schultz</a>, CMO at Databricks. “By unifying customer and campaign data and using AI to reason on that data, this platform enables real-time, conversational analytics for marketers. This empowers marketers to make financially impactful decisions faster and drive more effective and efficient campaigns. It’s what marketers need to compete in today’s data-driven era.”Already deployed in global brands as the data and AI foundation for their broader martech stack, Data Intelligence for Marketing is giving teams an AI pathway that’s bolstered by Databricks. By combining customer and campaign data in real time, marketers can sidestep the complexities, self-serve deeper insights, and develop more relevant and efficient campaigns at scale. <h3 id="powered-by-an-ai-“brick-house”">Powered by an AI “brick house”</h3>Over the last few months, we've been covering the data frontier extensively, focusing on some big moves that vendors like <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</a> and <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/u-cant-touch-this-cdp-hightouch-nails-80m-series-c-to-power-its-ai-decisioning">Hightouch</a> have made in purchasing or expanding their data capabilities at the DXP and CDP levels. In a composable world, increasingly more tools are being leveraged to augment digital experience stacks. And as <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://chiefmartec.com/2025/05/2025-marketing-technology-landscape-supergraphic-100x-growth-since-2011-but-now-with-ai/">recently codified on Martech Day</a>, AI has been a catalyst for significant growth in multiple dimensions, and data is the elemental fuel for the fire.Databricks is part of the growing <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.databricks.com/product/data-lakehouse">data lakehouse</a> and <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://docs.databricks.com/aws/en/sql/">data warehouse</a> ecosystems, and the company has been on a meteoric rise. Founded in 2013 by the original creators of <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://aws.amazon.com/what-is/apache-spark/">Apache Spark</a> – an open-source, distributed processing system used for big data workloads – Databricks is a unified analytics platform for building, deploying, sharing, and maintaining enterprise-grade data, analytics, and AI solutions at scale. Why all the fuss? Because data systems are big – and only getting bigger. Enterprises are struggling to keep up, and marketers are drowning in the overflow. Databricks helps to unify and simplify this riptide of complexity by providing a fast, cost-effective, and highly scalable solution. There’s also the inherent flexibility. Databricks lives on top of existing cloud infrastructure, whether it’s <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/aws">AWS</a>, <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/microsoft-azure">Azure</a>, <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/google-cloud-platform">GCP</a>, or even a multi- or hybrid cloud combination. The Databricks Data Intelligence Platform integrates with cloud storage and security in a user’s cloud account, and automates the management and deployment of cloud infrastructure. The Apache Spark heritage is also a key asset, providing both speed and efficiency for large-scale data processing. Databricks is a clear innovator in the expanding AI landscape, and its Data Intelligence Platform is unlocking possibilities for leading global brands. Now, with the advent of its new marketing integrations, it’s making the promise of AI more attainable. <h3 id="unlocking-the-ai-potential">Unlocking the AI potential</h3>Marketers are hungry for AI. But they’re also cautiously optimistic – and sometimes, downright resistant. According to a <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.brafton.com/ebooks/state-of-ai-adoption-in-marketing-teams/?utm_campaign=Saturday&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;_hsenc=p2ANqtz--48LEY4V7WS3TcqHusrz9uJnUfJvH4bm3wYAx3hp-ielN7erV5V2wcizL8Uj3799cBZDwg_w2BJDU4owusHJWCG2UU6JFEKW2HxlMkN9NjMoXNhnw&amp;_hsmi=361878176&amp;utm_content=361870430&amp;utm_source=hs_email">recent survey conducted by Brafton</a>, AI tools are creating a lot of difficulty, even if the potential for value is clearly understood. This is especially true for marketers, who have mixed feelings about the role of AI in their content and marketing operations. On the upside, there’s been an abundance of adoption for streamlining manual tasks. But the struggle is real: Over half of Brafton’s respondents admit to challenges with content personalization, and a quarter find it difficult to generate specific content formats. Some of the friction with onboarding and managing AI tools is also a contributing factor. It can take time to assess AI platforms from a usability and performance perspective, and fully leveraging the capabilities can take time. There’s also the need to create the right internal policies and governance for marketing teams – and how they should use AI-powered resources or generated content. This also includes navigating the complexities of external regulatory requirements for data privacy. Finally, there’s the soft challenge: marketers are underwater. <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.marketingweek.com/career-overwhelmed-emotional-exhaustion/">According to a recent survey</a>, over half of them feel overwhelmed, undervalued, and emotionally exhausted. While AI has the propensity to complicate the matter, it could also be part of the solution.This is where simplification is essential, and Databricks stands to make its greatest impact. By connecting marketing data substantively, marketers can streamline processes and insights in new ways, giving them greater confidence in their strategies. Adding conversational analytics further eases the complexity of engaging with data and cutting through the noise. <h3 id="leveraging-key-partnerships-to-scale-ai">Leveraging key partnerships to scale AI</h3>Along with unifying marketing data, Databricks is democratizing broad insights for everyone. Now, marketers can easily access a complete view of customers and campaigns to improve segmentation, personalization, and conversion. With on-board AI that reasons on your customer and campaign data and understands the semantics of your business, enterprises can empower every marketer – not just technical teams – with tools to explore and act on data in real time. And by integrating with meaningful tools, Databricks can help streamline and accelerate the overall AI horizon.Built with open standards and out-of-the-box integrations, Databricks allows marketing teams of all sizes to maximize the value of their existing martech tools and services. The company has partnered with industry-leading technology platforms across multiple categories like analytics, customer data platforms, data management, customer engagement, data privacy, and more:<ul><li><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/adobe-experience-manager">Adobe</a></li><li><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://amperity.com/">Amperity</a></li><li><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.braze.com/">Braze</a></li><li><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.getcensus.com/">Census</a></li><li><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://deepsync.com/">DeepSync</a></li><li><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.epsilon.com/us">Epsilon</a></li><li><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/hightouch">Hightouch</a></li><li><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.onetrust.com/">OneTrust</a></li><li><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/salesforce">Salesforce</a></li><li><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://snowplow.io/">Snowplow</a></li><li><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://tealium.com/">Tealium</a></li><li><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.uniphore.com/">Uniphore</a></li></ul>Databricks has also aligned with key integrators to provide custom solutions and consulting expertise in critical areas like data decisioning, data science, customer analytics, and AI solutions for specific industry verticals:<ul><li><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://celebaltech.com/">Celebal Technologies</a></li><li><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en.html">Deloitte</a></li><li><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.latentview.com/">LatentView</a></li><li><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://lovelytics.com/">Lovelytics</a></li><li><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.slalom.com/us/en">Slalom</a></li><li><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.tredence.com/">Tredence</a></li></ul>Given the challenges and resistance marketers face in the shift to AI, this partnership model provides a unique asset for marketing organizations. It helps ensure seamless workflows and innovation at scale while helping businesses unlock the full potential of their marketing data.<h3 id="realizing-value-with-data-intelligence-for-marketing">Realizing value with Data Intelligence for Marketing</h3>For marketing professionals, it’s all about efficiency. AI can’t be part of the problem, and Databricks is working to address that. With Data Intelligence for Marketers, teams can adopt AI quickly with fewer barriers––allowing them to run more effective campaigns using real-time, accurate data to power recommendations, triggers, and automation they can trust.Marketing teams at leading global brands are already seeing the impact of Data Intelligence for Marketing while maintaining compliance with global privacy standards like GDPR and CCPA. Based on figures from highly visible customers, the investment appears to be paying off. For example, <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.databricks.com/customers/skechers">Skechers</a> – the global footwear brand – uses <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.uniphore.com/products/actioniq/">ActionIQ</a>, a composable CDP, with Databricks. The combo helps personalize customer journeys that boost lifetime value, resulting in a 324% increase in CTRs, a 68% decrease in CPC, and a 28% increase in return on ad spend.<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://hightouch.com/customers/petsmart">PetSmart</a>, a leading pet retailer, also tapped Hightouch on Databricks. By juicing the CDP capabilities with AI, the company’s marketing team orchestrates personalized journeys at unmatched scale while powering its broader marketing and loyalty initiatives. “We’re syncing millions of records directly to SFMC every single day to orchestrate personalized journeys for the 65+ million members in our loyalty program,” said <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/tinotomasone/">Tino Tomasone,</a> Senior Manager, Database &amp; Audience Management at PetSmart. “We’re powering thousands of audiences and over four billion emails every year, and that’s not even factoring in what we do across other channels.”<h3 id="why-it-matters">Why it matters</h3>We all live in a data-driven world, and it's getting spicy. Digital leaders are feeling the heat, but data intelligence platforms are providing a life ring of enhanced data management and insights. By employing AI models to deeply understand the semantics of enterprise data, brands and organizations are deriving faster insights, optimizing their decision-making, and scaling data analytics workflows with ease.Marketers stand to benefit significantly from AI-powered systems that unify data. That said, AI fatigue is a real phenomenon. And while marketers are wrestling with the need for more AI, they’re also struggling with onboarding greater complexity. What we need is less confusion, so marketers can do their jobs more efficiently. That’s where Databricks is potentially easing the burden. As an AI pioneer, the company has long focused on the essential layers of data that power effective AI. With its Data Intelligence for Marketing, it now brings the best capabilities of data lakehouse architecture to unify data, analytics, and AI while simplifying the value for marketers. Databricks is also greasing the wheels with purpose-built integrations that align with data-centric platforms and applications. They're also balancing the complexity equation by partnering with SIs and consultancies that can provide a foundation through the journey, which includes the perilous challenges surrounding data privacy and governance. This all translates into greater confidence and fewer limiting concerns when it comes to scaling marketing programs with AI.I have questions about the fabric of the partnership model and the roadmap for future additions, but harnessing AI successfully requires expertise – and this feels like the right approach for delivering product and support.From a content and digital experience perspective, we’re already seeing the potential for evolution. CDPs have been crucial components in the DXP composition, and Databricks is helping to augment their value through tangible use cases. This could have big implications for the CMS and DXP landscape as platforms continue to innovate with AI along a composable edge. One of the things I really like about Databricks is the spectrum of usability. At its core, it's designed to simplify the modern data stack by eliminating data silos and facilitating data access and insights. But it does this for everyone, whether you’re a non-technical marketer or a data scientist immersed in deep learning. This announcement is relatively fresh, so we can anticipate more details to emerge. In the meantime, do the intelligent thing with this data – and check it out.   <hr /><h4 style="text-align:center" id="looking-for-guidance-on-databricks?-talk-to-an-expert.">Looking for guidance on Databricks? <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:33.07%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2025/05/contentcon25-logo-1747412490394.png" /><h4 id="contentstack-contentcon-25"><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.contentstack.com/contentcon">Contentstack ContentCon 25</a></h4>June 3-5, 2025 – Chicago, USAThe future of digital is waiting for you! Contentstack presents ContentCon, the premier event for digital teams and industry leaders who are reimagining the future of digital experiences. Join us for two days of transformative presentations and workshops designed to help you put personalization and AI strategies into action. <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://contentcon2025.site.zuddl.com/">Register 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>

From Data Chaos to Campaign Clarity: Databricks Delivers AI for Marketers

U Can’t Touch This CDP: Hightouch Nails $80M Series C to Power its AI Decisioning

<hr /> Since 2018, <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/hightouch">Hightouch</a> has been “high touch” when it comes to data. The pioneering composable customer data platform (CDP) and AI decisioning company has been on a tear recently, doubling its revenue<a target="_blank" href="https://getlatka.com/companies/Hightouch"> </a>and growing its team.Hightouch is finding success with enterprises that prefer flexible, composable alternatives to traditional CDPs, which are often plagued by rigid and costly infrastructures. By leveraging data and AI across their organization, Hightouch enables its users to deliver personalized customer experiences, optimize performance marketing, and move faster.This unique approach – turning data warehouses into marketing engines – has earned it a growing list of high-profile customers, including PetSmart, Warner Music Group, Calendly, Spotify, and GameStop.Now, Hightouch is tapping the human power of a seasoned analytics veteran and industry thought leader as it aims to drive more growth. Today, the company announced that it has hired <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamgreco/">Adam Greco</a> as Product Evangelist, where he will focus on supporting Hightouch's mission to empower marketing and data teams.If you're “tuned in” to the data and analytics space, Adam's name needs little introduction. With more than two decades of experience driving innovation and strategy in the field, he's been shaping the roadmap at leading tech firms like <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/salesforce">Salesforce</a> and Omniture – which was <a target="_blank" href="https://techcrunch.com/2009/09/15/breaking-adobe-to-acquire-omniture-for-approximately-1-8-billion/">acquired in 2009 by Adobe</a> for $1.8 billion. In the wake of that acquisition, Adam wrote the definitive book on Adobe Analytics. During his most recent tenure at <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/amplitude">Amplitude</a> – a leading product analytics platform provider – I spoke with Adam about the evolution of CDP, the value of data, and how critical these technologies are within the stack. "CDPs should be more insights and analytics-driven, capable of looking at problems in experiences," he said. “Every vendor will need a CDP of some kind because they want to collect data from every touchpoint: mobile apps, OTT, web, etc. Pulling it all together and creating action is key.”<h3 id="doubling-down-on-growth-and-disruption">Doubling down on growth and disruption</h3>At its core, Hightouch is a data activation platform that specializes in synchronizing customer data from data warehouses into a variety of high-utility tools. These include CRMs, email and marketing automation platforms, and advertising networks (to name a few). Founded in 2018 by <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshcurl/">Josh Curl</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/guptakashish/">Kashish Gupta</a>, and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/tejasmanohar/">Tejas Manohar</a>, Hightouch started life outside the CDP boundaries as a travel booking Slackbot. The company pivoted during COVID-19 circa 2020, after developing reverse ETL technology to sync data from warehouses to SaaS tools. The move to the CDP space has certainly proven lucrative: the space is projected to grow to $15.3 billion by 2026.Since the transition, Hightouch has been enabling organizations to transform high-value data assets into actionable insights and strategies without the need for extensive engineering. This is accomplished through an elegant suite of no-code features – making data activation easier, so almost anyone can build audiences, orchestrate customer journeys, and uncover customer insights.As of 2024, Hightouch has <a target="_blank" href="https://sacra.com/c/hightouch/">raised over $92 million</a> across its Series A and B. Powered by this funding, the company has invested heavily in advanced AI and machine learning capabilities, unlocking even more opportunities for marketers to activate their data and drive measurable results. Hightouch positions itself as an alternative to more traditional CDPs like Twilio's <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/twilio-acquires-segment-for-3-2b-adds-market-leading-cdp-for-building-data-driven-apps">Segment</a>, which typically require data to be stored in their proprietary systems. This approach of leveraging existing data warehouses as the central data repository has resonated with companies looking to avoid data duplication and maintain control over their data infrastructure. For this reason, large enterprises like Warner Music Group have chosen Hightouch over a traditional CDP, even after performing a three-year evaluation process.As a CDP, Hightouch has been focusing on AI for quite some time, exploring more efficient ways to automate processes and scale its capabilities across large pools of data. In August of last year, the company announced the launch of <a target="_blank" href="https://hightouch.com/blog/introducing-ai-decisioning">AI Decisioning</a> – its new AI marketing product – which is also available as a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.snowflake.com/en/data-cloud/workloads/applications/native-apps/">Snowflake Native App.</a><h3 id="a-modern-day-legend-in-the-data-world">A modern-day legend in the data world</h3>Adam's arrival comes at a pivotal moment as Hightouch continues to redefine what’s possible for enterprises in the customer data space. As Product Evangelist, he will support Hightouch’s continued expansion and help users unlock the full potential of their data. He will also focus on educating and empowering customers to lean into new data and AI technologies safely and scalably.Adam's career reads like a blueprint for success in the analytics and data industry. As one of Omniture’s first customers and employees, Adam has been at the forefront of digital transformation for decades. His skills include hands-on expertise in online marketing, website design, voice of customer (VOC), and CRM integration with digital analytics. His contributions to the field are vast, and he has helped thousands of marketers optimize their digital experiences. As such, he will likely elevate Hightouch's perception as a market-leading authority. Over the years, Adam has become a trusted voice, sharing his insights as a speaker and board member for several data technology organizations. His leadership roles at companies like Salesforce and <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/amplitude">Amplitude</a> have further cemented his reputation as an innovator who understands the practical and strategic sides of data. To date, Adam has written over 200 blog posts related to Adobe Analytics. He also penned <a target="_blank" href="https://www.amazon.com/Adobe-SiteCatalyst-Handbook-Insiders-Guide/dp/032185991X">The Adobe SiteCatalyst Handbook: An Insider's Guide</a>, which has enjoyed positive reviews since its original publication over a decade ago. This followed his tenure at Omniture, where Adobe's acquisition revealed its focus on integrating management and metrics to drive its future strategy – and it appears that the deal is still paying off. "I've been through more than anyone on planet." That's how Adam described his 25 years in the Adobe Analytics world. As Adobe's reign over the digital experience space expanded, he consulted around the AEM product and continued to roadmap the critical role of analytics.Adam has also been active in supporting the broader industry. In 2019, he joined Further's <a target="_blank" href="https://www.apolloplatform.com/">Search Discovery</a> practice, where he supported digital analytics customers in doing more with data. He also played an instrumental role in the growth and development of Search Discovery's <a target="_blank" href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=2638129-1&amp;h=2362026&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.searchdiscovery.com%2Fapollo%2F&amp;a=Apollo">Apollo</a><a target="_blank" href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=2638129-1&amp;h=1357526835&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.searchdiscovery.com%2Fapollo%2F&amp;a=%C2%A0solution"> solution</a> and its related service offerings.“Adam knows what it takes to do digital transformation at the world’s biggest companies, and we’re beyond excited to have his expertise at Hightouch,” said <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/briankotlyar/">Brian Kotlyar</a>, VP of Marketing at Hightouch. “He uniquely pairs a big vision with pragmatic, hands-on knowledge of how to make it real for marketers in any company. His passion for helping organizations use data to drive growth aligns perfectly with our mission.”<h3 id="why-it-matters">Why it matters</h3>Hightouch is challenging traditional CDPs and redefining how businesses think about data activation. As the world of marketing and data continues to evolve, the need for scalable, flexible solutions has never been greater. Hightouch’s vision of a composable, AI-driven future is no longer just an ambitious goal – it’s a reality. CDP has also been an incredibly lively sector in 2024, particularly as digital experience platforms (DXPs) have sought to leverage their own capabilities as part of their differentiated value. Most recently, <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/contentstack">Contentstack</a> – a headless CMS turned composable DXP – <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/contentstack-just-acquired-lytics-a-real-time-customer-data-platform-heres-why-it-matters">purchased Lytics</a>, a key player in the customer data landscape.Brass tacks: Adam is an unmatched commodity in the realm of data and analytics. His expertise and leadership will undoubtedly benefit Hightouch and likely lift its brand perception upon his hiring alone. But given his track record, the company can reasonably predict a greater long-term impact on its roadmap.With Greco’s guidance, customers can expect even more innovative solutions to help them stay ahead in an increasingly data-driven world. His deep knowledge and leadership can further solidify Hightouch as a go-to platform for enterprise marketing and data teams seeking to unlock the full potential of their data."I'm thrilled to join Hightouch and help drive the future of data activation," he exclaimed. "The potential to transform how organizations leverage their data is immense, and I'm excited to work alongside the talented Hightouch team to help customers navigate the complexities of modern data infrastructure."CDPs have proven essential to the enterprise stack. As competition and choice escalate, pure-play platforms certainly have their work cut out for them in a fragmented marketplace. But Hightouch continues to differentiate itself against key players like Segment with its composable offering – an asset that will serve them well as they look to further disrupt the competitive landscape. If they maintain those attributes and execute, they might want to consider a new tagline: “Can't touch this.” <hr /><h3 id="upcoming-events">Upcoming Events</h3> <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> <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" 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" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmsconnect25">so book your seats today.</a>

Hightouch Taps Adam Greco as Product Evangelist, Strengthening Its Leadership in Composable CDPs

In physics, the word "amplitude" is defined as the maximum extent of a vibration or oscillation measured from the position of equilibrium.
OK. Unless you're a math nut, that might sound a little heady. But factor out the quantum mechanics and "amplitude" is really just a means of analyzing the range of quality for a process or phenomenon. 
In that sense, it's as relatable to measuring points on a wave as it is to tracking digital interactions. 
When <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamgreco/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Adam Greco</a> joined <a href="https://amplitude.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Amplitude</a> as a Product Evangelist in 2020, he saw a wave of displacement across the digital analytics industry – a seismic shift from a marketing to a product mindset, all in pursuit of broader customer analytics. He describes this moment as a new "digital divide" that centers around a much larger question: where exactly should digital analytics live in an organization?
I had a chance to chat with Adam just before Amplitude – a leading analytics and digital optimization platform – announced that it was named a "Strong Performer" in the Q2 <a href="https://amplitude.com/press/customer-analytics-report-q2-22" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Forrester Wave report</a> for Customer Analytics Technologies. The timing was apropos as the company has wind in its sails. 
Adam might well be a quantum physicist in the field of digital analytics. For over two decades, he's advised hundreds of organizations on the practice of analytics and authored over 300 blogs and one "definitive" book on Adobe Analytics. He is often a featured speaker at industry events and has served on the board of the Digital Analytics Association. 
"I've been through more than anyone on planet." That's how Adam described his 25 years in the Adobe Analytics world – which included the early days of <a href="https://molzana.com/blog/adobe-analytics-a-decade-after-acquiring-omniture/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Omniture</a>. As Adobe's undisputed reign over the digital experience space expanded, he consulted around the AEM product and continued to roadmap the critical role of analytics.  
What's interesting about Adam is how he grounds a complex narrative with simplicity. In a <a href="https://amplitude.com/blog/adam-greco-joins-amplitude?utm_source=linkedin_organic&amp;utm_medium=Social&amp;utm_campaign=adam-greco" target="_blank" rel="noopener">blog post</a> from late last year, he conjured Ted Lasso as a muse for his analytics journey, adding humorous anecdotes to help shape his story. In that sense, he's as much a physicist as a coach, which made for a great conversation around the convergence of digital analytics – and how Amplitude is helping to drive what's next. 
<h2>The Evolution of CDP and the Value of Data</h2>
Industry veterans always bring the gift of wisdom to technology organizations. Not to "age" Adam, but his two decades of work across the analytics landscape has provided him with unrivaled knowledge. To that end, he has some strong views on the role of customer data – and how organizations have had a traditionally siloed approach to managing and analyzing it. 
"We're really bringing disparate technologies together," he said. "CDP, analytics, personalization – all converging to build better customer experiences. As we moved from web to mobile to marketing, CDP, in particular, has been 'ungirding' all of this."
As Adam pointed out, many customers are using CDP just to collect data and then send it to analytics platforms. Part of his goal is to help move more organizations directly into Amplitude so they're not paying twice for their data – what he affectionately calls the "CDP Tax."
"CDPs should be more insights and analytics-driven, capable of looking at problems in experiences," Adam said. "Every vendor will need a CDP of some kind because they want to collect data from every touchpoint: mobile apps, OTT, web, etc. Pulling it all together and creating action is key."
What's clear to Adam is the critical role of analytics in the advancing data morass. He predicts that in five years, CDP will be unified with analytics and personalization, providing more of the actionable insight that organizations demand.
<h2>Expanding the Role of Customer Analytics</h2>
While still relatively fresh to his role at Amplitude, Adam's history and perspective have been key to shaping what's next for the field of analytics. He noted that companies are more interested than ever in using data to improve digital product experiences and understand customer behavior – and that product analytics, as a category, have been enabling product teams to be nimbler and more responsive.
According to Adam, Amplitude has had a head start in the analytics game because of its customer focus. He says that one of the biggest complaints is that organizations are having to use five or six different vendors to get what they need – from using <a href="https://analytics.google.com/analytics/web/provision/#/provision" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Google Analytics</a> on their website, Amplitude for the mobile apps, and <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/optimizely-partners-with-google-cloud-to-take-experimentation-to-the-next-level/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Optimizely</a> for testing. 
"That's a lot of tech," he said. "How do you build an audience with so much data going back and forth?"
<h2>Analytics in the Age of the App</h2>
Another factor that's weighing on Adam is the complexity of digital experiences and how apps are becoming the norm. The example he gave to me was of dropping your child off at college and realizing that they need three different apps to navigate schedules, calendars, transportation, and more. No websites – just apps. This shift can be generally positive for the user experience, but it's also creating challenges for tracking data.
"Google Analytics just isn't cutting it anymore," Adam said. "We're beyond websites. And websites aren't static anymore." He sees how even smart TVs, IoT, and other endpoints are displacing websites and how the younger generation seems to prefer apps over websites. He believes this trend may challenge legacy marketing products that track sessions and attribution. This includes the dependency on legacy vanity metrics like total users, downloads, and website visits – which are no longer enough to provide insights into the complete customer journey. 
Conflating all of this is the expectation that technologies will "just work." Companies are demanding advanced, out-of-the-box customer analytics and democratized access to data insights. As digital analytics markets converge, Amplitude is delivering a real-time, all-in-one analytics solution that equips companies with critical customer insights around all experience layers, including apps. 
<h2>Privacy and Legislation</h2>
One big thing Adam emphasized was the "earthquake" of change in customer data privacy. While <a href="https://gdpr-info.eu/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">GDPR</a> and <a href="https://oag.ca.gov/privacy/ccpa" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CCPA</a> have been codified, he said the legislation landscape is rapidly evolving, and business policies are shifting in lockstep. Case in point: Google, which continues to throw wrenches in the works.
"With Universal Analytics sunsetting and being replaced by <a href="https://www.solodev.com/blog/digital-marketing/how-to-make-the-leap-from-universal-analytics-to-google-analytics-4.stml" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Google Analytics 4</a>, [Google] realized they were in the wrong field," he said. "Companies are upset." This is creating an opportunity for Amplitude as the market winds shift and organizations look to address new policies and requirements as it relates to their analytics data.
<h2>The Shift from Marketing Teams to Product Teams</h2>
Part of what's driving Amplitude's strategy is the notable shift of marketing professionals to the product side of organizations. As CMOs come to grips with expanding endpoints of user interactions, Adam said that marketing leaders are realizing they need more emphasis on product analytics than ever before. With Amplitude, these professionals are now getting a suite of marketing analytics and data management tools in one place, reflecting the convergence around measuring and delivering customer value at scale. 
As product teams become nimbler, arming them with more insight is essential. Amplitude's efforts to close the "data-to-insights-to-action" loop has been a core attribute, enabling users to test with continuous experience optimization. Amplitude's <a href="https://amplitude.com/digital-optimization-system" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Digital Optimization System</a> is what enables these capabilities, providing both technical and non-technical product teams to tap behavioral insights to improve CX with greater speed and efficacy. 
<h2>A Thriving Community of Analytics Fans</h2>
Community is essential to the success of any company, particularly in technology. When a user event or conference materializes, it's a throat-clearing signal that a brand has achieved visibility and loyalty within its markets of interest. To that end, I asked Adam about the recent <a href="https://amplitude.com/amplify" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Amplify Conference</a> that was held in Las Vegas this past May. 
"We were all a little nervous given the pandemic," he said. "We had about 1,500 people in person and many more online, but I could see that people were just excited to be with other people again."
Adam said that Amplify is a little different from other conferences in that it leans on expertise from across the analytics field. Even if attendees don't use Amplitude, he feels that the real value is creating access to analytics leaders and providing more relevant, "snackable" content through a wide range of sessions. 
Outside the conference, Adam said that the Amplitude community has always been connected through their love for the platform. "We're the coolest company for product people that no has heard of before. People who use us are passionate [about our platform]. We've even launched programs like Amplitude Academy that don't just focus on products, but highlight how our users are successful."
<h2>What's Next?</h2>
Adam's channeling of Ted Lasso seems apropos, as he's very adept at his "coaching role" as an evangelist. He's excited about the direction of the company and his continued efforts to learn, reflect, and share his knowledge as an analytics expert – and a fierce customer advocate. 
"I'm listening to a lot of sales calls and meeting with customers, trying to find common problems," he said. That sounds a lot like Coach Lasso: a leader that's truly empathizing with his players and working to understand the root problems. 
As for Amplitude, the company appears on a roll as it drives the shift to even broader customer analytics. According to the aforementioned <a href="https://amplitude.com/press/customer-analytics-report-q2-22" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Forrester Wave</a>, "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." 
As Ted Lasso once said, "you could fill two internets with what I don't know about football." The same might be said for many marketers and digital leaders as they face the growing complexity of customer data. But with Adam evangelizing Amplitude's innovation, they might have the right team to help businesses win the analytics game.

Winning the Analytics Game: An Interview with Adam Greco, Product Evangelist at Amplitude

It would be impossible to cover any news this month without acknowledging <a href="https://www.economist.com/ukraine-crisis" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the crisis in Ukraine</a>. 
As many CMS and DXP vendors rely on the incredible talent and resources of the people in this region, the events of the last few weeks have hit especially close to home. Even as we publish our February recap, things continue to unfold – and our hearts go out to the people of this magnificent country.
Of course, this tragedy is evolving just as many countries are emerging from the worst of the <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/healthcare-systems-and-services/our-insights/when-will-the-covid-19-pandemic-end" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Covid-19 pandemic</a>, with many businesses poised for a return to normalcy (what that looks like still remains to be seen). Still, the lasting impact of the omnichannel revolution is being felt across all digital transformation strategies, giving way to more headless, composable, API-driven solutions as companies plan for a more digital future.
When it comes to movers and shakers, 2022 is starting much the same way as 2021: with big investments.
<a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/bloomreach-reaches-2-2-billion-valuation-following-175-million-investment-from-goldman-sachs/">Bloomreach</a>, a leading content and search platform focused on commerce, announced a $175 million round of funding – exploding its valuation to $2.2 billion. <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/elastic-path-secures-60m-in-funding-for-composable-commerce-growth/">Elastic Path</a> also made waves by securing $60 million in financing to grow its composable commerce solutions. We also saw <a href="https://www.pymnts.com/acquisitions/2022/ecommerce-platform-bigcommerce-acquires-software-firm-b2b-ninja/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">BigCommerce</a> purchase B2B Ninja, an e-commerce platform, in an effort to energize quoting and other commerce services in their ecosystem. (Hint: we have more investment news below...)
As always, we try to recap some of the news you might have missed this month. There's a lot happening across our industry, and on a brighter note, we'll be announcing the winners of the CMS Critic Awards next week – both the People's Choice and Editor's Choice categories. We had a lot of great engagement over the last month across our social channels, and we're looking forward to sharing the results. 
<h2>Twilio Segment releases its 2022 CDP Report, finds CDPs booming as businesses look beyond cookies</h2>
We're all asking the same question: what happens to data in a post-cookie world?
Segment – a leading customer data platform (CDP) purchased by Twilio<a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/twilio-acquires-segment-for-3-2b-adds-market-leading-cdp-for-building-data-driven-apps/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> in November of 2020</a> – is helping to shed some light on that query with the release of its third annual <a href="https://segment.com/the-cdp-report" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Customer Data Platform Report </a>(CDP).
Based on anonymized platform usage data of Segment's 25,000+ customers between 11/1/2020 to 11/1/2021, the report finds aggressive adoption of CDPs over the past year as businesses build digital-first customer engagement strategies and reduce their reliance on third-party data. 
Covid-19 shifted consumer behavior on a number of levels. In response, organizations changed how they interacted with their customers. As more digital engagements ensued, so too did the amount of data being generated. This spurred an explosive demand for CDP layers, particularly as it related to the broader CMS and DXP ecosystems.
Along with the unimaginable growth in data, the volume of API calls has also skyrocketed. <a href="https://www.postman.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Postman</a> – a leading application platform for API testing – conducted a <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/postman-releases-2021-state-of-the-api-report-shows-global-trend-towards-api-first-digital-era/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">survey</a> last year that showed the world is moving to an "API-first era" as integrations and endpoints expand exponentially. As an example, the API calls through Segment have been growing steadily year-over-year since 2017, but 2020-2021 was an inflection point – with API calls in their system reaching over 1 trillion per month. 
Another reason CDP popularity has rapidly exploded is the impending "death" of third-party data. With increasing privacy regulations and the shift to a cookieless future across apps and browsers, businesses are embracing first-party data as a focal point. 
Segment's findings validate that customer data has become an integral part of how organizations are powering their digital experiences. The report also lists 2021's fastest-growing apps. For more details, you can access the full report at: <a href="https://segment.com/the-cdp-report" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://segment.com/the-cdp-report</a>.
<h2>Headless commerce provider fabric announces $140 Million Series C funding led by SoftBank</h2>
<a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/top-headless-commerce-platforms/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">fabric</a>, the fast-growing headless commerce platform, announced the closing of a Series C funding round of $140M led by Softbank, with participation from Forerunner Ventures, Glynn Capital, and existing investors Redpoint Ventures Norwest Ventures, and Stripes. 
This latest round of funding closes a mere 219 days after its Series B – and now positions fabric's value at approximately $1.5B.
"Retailers need to meet modern consumers wherever they are – whether online, offline, mobile, social, or any future entry point. This means merchants of all sizes, and especially mid-market and enterprise, need the right commerce platform to keep pace with evolving trends," said Robert Kaplan, Investment Director at SoftBank Investment Advisers. "We believe that fabric has built the industry's best API-first modular commerce platform and accompanying commerce applications to give merchants unrivaled power and flexibility, all in a manner that reduces the pain of migrating over from legacy, outdated commerce platforms."
Funds from the Series C round will be utilized for accelerating product development largely through automation and intelligence and geographic expansion. 
<h2>Netlify announces Netlify Graph: A faster way for teams to develop web apps with APIs</h2>
Netlify, a Git-powered static site generator and headless CMS that's all the rage in the <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/top-jamstack-static-site-generators-for-2021/">Jamstack</a> community, has <a href="https://www.netlify.com/blog/announcing-netlify-graph-a-faster-way-for-teams-to-develop-web-apps-with-apis" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announced Netlify Graph:</a> a GraphQL-powered experience designed to help developers build interactive and connected web applications faster.
The shift to API-first development has created an ecosystem where apps are modular and reusable. While the API-first approach is developer-friendly, it has also introduced new complexities such as discovering, securing, learning, and governing APIs. Netlify's Graph is designed to make this experience easier for developers, allowing them to use APIs without writing undifferentiated glue code, learning every API's unique structure, or composing endless amounts of endpoints to get data from various APIs into your app.
Netlify Graph is in public beta and available globally. It starts with a catalog that includes some of the most frequently requested APIs that development teams use, such as GitHub, Stripe, and Salesforce. The company plans to add more in the coming months. The Netlify Graph beta is available to all Netlify users and can be accessed from your <a href="https://app.netlify.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Netlify team dashboard</a>. Once logged in, simply select "Graph" from your Netlify site dashboard menu.
To learn more, head over to the <a href="https://github.com/netlify/labs/tree/main/features/graph/documentation" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Netlify Graph docs.</a>
<h2>BigCommerce acquires B2B Ninja to make online selling easier for B2B merchants</h2>
<a href="https://www.bigcommerce.com/?utm_source=Business+Wire&amp;utm_medium=press+release&amp;utm_campaign=BigCommerce+Invests+in+Becoming+World%E2%80%99s+Most+Powerful+B2B+Ecommerce+Platform+with+Acquisition+of+B2B+Ninja" target="_blank" rel="noopener">BigCommerce</a>, a leading cloud e-commerce platform, <a href="https://www.bigcommerce.com/press/releases/bigcommerce-invests-in-becoming-worlds-most-powerful-b2b-ecommerce-platform-with-acquisition-of-b2b-ninja/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announced</a> the acquisition of <a href="https://www.b2bninja.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">B2B Ninja</a> (formerly Quote Ninja) – an enterprise software solution that provides leading business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce capabilities for merchants of all sizes.
<a href="https://www.forrester.com/playbook/The+B2B+eCommerce+Playbook+For+2018/-/E-PLA370" target="_blank" rel="noopener">According to Forrester</a>, U.S. B2B e-commerce transactions are expected to reach $1.8 trillion by 2023. This is creating a groundswell of opportunity for e-commerce platform providers to deliver focused solutions to this segment of the market. A longtime BigCommerce partner, B2B Ninja brings its best-in-class quoting solution to help streamline transactions by delivering powerful e-commerce functionality to B2B merchants.
"B2B Ninja is an excellent addition to our already strong B2B capabilities," said Brent Bellm, CEO of BigCommerce. "Complementing our recent launch of B2B Edition, this is the next big step in providing a platform that is easier to use and faster than legacy B2B solutions and more flexible and powerful than other SaaS platforms. We continue to invest in ways that make BigCommerce the best platform for merchants of all sizes regardless of who or where their customers are or where merchants are selling."
B2B Ninja is available to any BigCommerce merchant on any plan to enhance the customer experience and easily manage quotes online.

CMS Monthly Recap: Big Investment News, Segment Releases 2022 CDP Report, Netlify Graph Launches and More

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