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ChatGPT Article

<hr /> When I spun a <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a-tale-of-two-phils-exploring-umbracos-open/id1801794414?i=1000749874476">“Tale of Two Phils”</a> on an episode of <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/cms-critic-the-critics-corner-podcast/id1801794414">The Critic’s Corner Podcast</a> earlier this year, I wasn’t prepared for how complementary my two guests would sound. If you listen to the conversation, there are multiple such intersections between <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/umbraco">Umbraco</a> CTO <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/filipbech/">Filip Bech-Larsen</a> and Staff Engineer (and resident AI guru) <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/phil-whittaker-82481716/">Phil Whitaker</a><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/filipbech/">.</a> In many ways, the two complete each other, handing off thoughts like an MCP server connecting the dots. It elevated the knowledge on multiple levels.This makes the collaboration a solid one for Umbraco, an open source CMS that continues to diligently push forward on its agentic AI ambitions. The company’s steady pace of innovation just took another leap forward with the launch of new Backoffice Extension Skills, which are based on Anthropic’s <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://resources.anthropic.com/hubfs/The-Complete-Guide-to-Building-Skill-for-Claude.pdf">Agent Skills</a>. <figure class="image image_resized" style="width:32.52%"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2026/04/phil-whittaker-2.jpg" alt="" /></figure>Umbraco Staff Engineer (AI) Phil Whitaker “We’re seeing a fundamental shift in how digital projects are delivered,” Whitaker said, driving home the key advantages of these new additions to Umbraco. “AI is becoming the starting point for new projects and is where developers explore ideas. Backoffice Extension Skills ensure that when your team uses an AI assistant, the correct Umbraco knowledge is available.”<img /><figure class="image image_resized" style="width:80.99%"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2026/04/umbraco-ai-platform-winter-2026.png" alt="" /></figure>Source: Umbraco Winter Keynote 2026 Umbraco’s aggressive AI product horizon was teased during its <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GK-eGhzZYpw">Winter Keynote in February,</a> and several digital agency partners are experimenting with creating AI-based workflows. This includes some strong use cases, such as <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://digitalwonderlab.com/umbraco-agency/umbraco-lab-notes/alt-text-shouldnt-be-this-hard-so-we-fixed-it/">Digital Wonderlab’s automated Alt Text generator</a> for improving website accessibility.<h3 id="what-are-agent-skills?-">What are Agent Skills? </h3>In a nutshell, Anthopic’s Agent Skills are like “onboarding guides” that enable AI to execute specific, complex workflows – like data analysis or file creation – without overloading its context window. Agent Skills provide modular, reusable, and organized packages that contain instructions and scripts that help developers and users build, share, and deploy agents that are more effective and context-aware.Anthropic launched Agent Skills as an open standard in December 2025 under <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.linuxfoundation.org/">The Linux Foundation.</a> Since then, they’ve been widely adopted, working across Claude and other AI platforms.<h3 id="maintaining-control-and-extensibility">Maintaining control and extensibility</h3>Umbraco’s Backoffice Extension Skills are like a roadmap for AI agents, guiding them to the most up-to-date Umbraco documentation, examples, and source code. Skills are exposed using a standardized endpoint that can be called by AI tools like <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://claude.ai/">Claude</a>, <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://chatgpt.com/">ChatGPT</a>, or custom <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.langchain.com/langchain">LangChain agents</a> – making it incredibly extensible.With this guidance, LLMs and agents use the most current version of the Umbraco software and the essential modern frameworks – where they can effectively customize the backoffice or complete tasks like building dashboards or property editors. All of Umbraco’s Backoffice Extension points are registered, documented, and supported, ensuring that customizations are maintained.According to Filip Bech-Larsen, Umbraco’s Backoffice Extension Skills are the first series of skills, aimed at supporting developers using AI agents for building and extending their digital projects. <figure class="image image_resized" style="width:32.75%"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2026/04/filip-bech-larsen-1777422652939.jpg" alt="" /></figure>Umbraco CTO Filip Bech-Larsen “Agent Skills mirror the way that Umbraco’s Backoffice Extension points work,” he added. “Each Backoffice Extension point links AI Skills to the latest Umbraco documentation, source code, and examples. This supports safer development and positions Umbraco as one of the first major CMS platforms to deliver a comprehensive, agent-ready architecture.”Ready to level up your skills? <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://umbraco.com/blog/the-agent-ready-cms-introducing-agent-skills-umbraco-backoffice-extension/">Learn more here.</a><h3 id="building-on-an-agentic-ai-foundation">Building on an agentic AI foundation</h3>The proof is in the pudding, as they say – and Umbraco’s partners are putting its growing AI capabilities to work. Several use cases are nominated for the <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://codegarden.umbraco.com/awards/">Umbraco Awards</a> at the upcoming <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://codegarden.umbraco.com/">Codegarden 2026,</a> which is being held June 10-11 in Copenhagen. Case in point: <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/dennis-adolfi/">Dennis Adolfi</a>, head of technology at <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/knowit-experience/">Knowit Experience,</a> a leading digital agency based in the Nordics, recently shared an innovative agentic solution for <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/bewigroup/">BEWI Group.</a> In the use case, agents assist or fully manage complete workflows in the dev cycle, from design to code to deployment – even through content creation. The solution relies on <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://umbraco.ai/">Umbraco.AI</a> and Umbraco’s MCP to deliver transformative results, the kind that have earned Knowit a nomination for Umbraco’s Best Innovation with AI Award. “[Umbraco] really is a CMS built for AI,” Adolfi said. Another contender for this category comes from <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.perplex.nl/en/">Perplex Digital</a>, which developed an AI-powered solution for <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/autolease-van-centraal-beheer/">Autolease van Centraal Beheer,</a> allowing users to literally “talk” to their website. The agency replaced the company’s static navigation with conversation, making it easier for customers to use the site when they’re unable to manually browse for information. They can fill out forms simply by using their voice, making the company’s services more accessible. <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://nxtds.com">NXT Digital Solutions Ltd </a>is also nominated for a dynamic CMS migration project for <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.exclusive-networks.com/">Exclusive Networks</a>. NXT introduced Umbraco's Backoffice Agents to automate content tagging, publishing pipelines, and version control to resolve critical indexing failures that were affecting over 1,300 pages – making content more discoverable to search engines and users.<h3 id="why-it-matters">Why it matters</h3>Umbraco continues to introduce high-value tooling for its AI capabilities, and the alignment with Anthropic's Agent Skills is a sage move. By embedding an agent-ready architecture directly into its flexible and extensible CMS, it's moving beyond bolt-on assistants to guided, governed solutions – the kind that provide solid ground for faster and safer agent performance. As is evidenced by the use cases above, it's clear that Umbraco's partners are proving out the potential for how AI and agents can be successfully applied. My bet is that the “Two Phils” are seeing some innovative outcomes they weren't even anticipating. And I'm sure they would agree that's a good thing. <hr /><h3 id="upcoming-events">Upcoming Events</h3> <img style="width:34.15%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2026/01/logo_jday_hor.png" /><h4 id="joomladay-usa-2026"><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.jdayusa.com/">JoomlaDay USA 2026</a></h4>April 29 - May 2, 2026 – Delray Beach, FloridaBe part of the Joomla community in one of the most iconic cities in the world! JoomlaDay USA 2026 is coming to Delray Beach, and you can join us for a dynamic event packed with insights, workshops, and networking opportunities. Learn from top Joomla experts and developers offering valuable insights and real-world solutions. Participate in interactive workshops and sessions and enhance your skills in Joomla management, development, design, and more. And connect with fellow Joomla enthusiasts, developers, and professionals from across the world.<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.jdayusa.com/"> Book your seats today.</a> <img style="width:30.06%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2026/01/cms-summit-26-logo.jpg" alt="" /><h4 id="cms-summit-26"><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmssummit26">CMS Summit 26</a></h4>May 12-13, 2026 – Frankfurt, GermanyThe best conferences create space for honest, experience-based conversations. Not sales pitches. Not hype. Just thoughtful exchanges between people who spend their days designing, building, running, and evolving digital experiences. CMS Summit brings together people who share real stories from their work and platforms and who are interested in learning from each other on how to make things better. Over two days in Frankfurt, you can expect practitioner-led talks grounded in experience, conversations about trade-offs, constraints, and decisions, and time to compare notes with peers facing similar challenges. Space is limited for this exclusive event, <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmssummit26/tickets">so book your seats today.</a> <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://kontent.ai/events-and-webinars/raise-amsterdam/?utm_campaign=awareness-fy26&amp;utm_source=cms-critic&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;pi_campaign_id=117478"><img style="width:23.45%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2026/04/raise-logo-kontent.jpg" alt="" /></a><h4 id="raise-amsterdam"><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://kontent.ai/events-and-webinars/raise-amsterdam/?utm_campaign=awareness-fy26&amp;utm_source=cms-critic&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;pi_campaign_id=117478">RAISE Amsterdam</a></h4>May 20, 2026 – Amsterdam, NetherlandsSponsored by Kontent.ai, RAISE Amsterdam brings together bold marketing and technology leaders to explore how agentic AI is reshaping the way ambitious brands create and deliver content and what it takes to use it safely, responsibly, and with proper governance. Experience the ideas that are shaping the future and dive into big thinking, innovative strategies, and expert insights. Held at the Klein Canvas, Volkshotel, you'll hear from world-class speakers in dynamic sessions that will reveal how AI-powered content operations are accelerating production, improving governance, and driving creative impact. <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://kontent.ai/events-and-webinars/raise-amsterdam/?utm_campaign=awareness-fy26&amp;utm_source=cms-critic&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;pi_campaign_id=117478">Limited spots are available, so book yours today.</a> <img style="width:30.13%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2025/12/image-1765546475634.png" /><h4 id="umbraco-codegarden-2026"><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://codegarden.umbraco.com/">Umbraco Codegarden 2026</a></h4>June 10–11, 2026 – Copenhagen, DKJoin us in Copenhagen (or online) for the biggest Umbraco conference in the world – two full days of learning, genuine conversations, and the kind of inspiration that brings business leaders, developers, and digital creators together. Codegarden 2026 is packed with both business and tech content, from deep-dive workshops and advanced sessions to real-world case studies and strategy talks. You’ll leave with ideas, strategies, and knowledge you can put into practice immediately. <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://codegarden.umbraco.com/">Book your tickets today.</a> <img style="width:36.69%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2026/01/open-source-cms-26.jpg" /><h4 id="open-source-cms-26"><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/opensourcecms26">Open Source CMS 26</a></h4>October 20–21, 2026 – Utrecht, NetherlandsJoin us for the first annual edition of our prestigious international conference dedicated to making open source CMS better. This event is already being called the “missing gathering place” for the open source CMS community – an international conference with confirmed participants from Europe and North America. Be part of a friendly mix of digital leaders from notable open source CMS projects, agencies, even a few industry analysts who get together to learn, network, and talk about what really matters when it comes to creating better open source CMS projects right now and for the foreseeable future. <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/opensourcecms26/tickets">Book your tickets today.</a>

Level Up Your Agent Skills: Umbraco’s Agent-Ready Architecture Promises Faster, Safer Development

matt-garrepy

<h4 id="-"> </h4><h4 id="listen-to-the-full-episode-of-“the-critic's-corner”-podcast-&gt;"><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://tinyurl.com/bdzj4t2d">Listen to the full episode of “The Critic's Corner” Podcast &gt;</a></h4> <hr /> Last year, a new word was added to <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/">Merriam-Webster's</a> Dictionary called enshittification, a slang term used to criticize the degradation in the quality and experience of online platforms and experiences over time. Fun, right?Er… not so much.From a website or e-commerce perspective, enshittification typically manifests as an increase in things like ads, costs, or features, but the definition has been expanded to encompass any state of deterioration – even politics and culture.One might conclude that our world is in a current state of enshittification, but for the purposes of my latest episode of <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/asteroids-and-dinosaurs-a-moment-in-time-on-ai/id1801794414?i=1000720435502">“The Critic's Corner” podcast,</a> we'll stick with the decay of modern digital experiences. Something we're all familiar with. On that note: my guest <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/kellygoetsch/">Kelly Goetsch</a> was enshittified upon, something he wrote about recently on LinkedIn. If you don't know Kelly, he's what you might call an industry luminary, someone who has been shaping and influencing the DX and commerce landscape for quite some time. He's currently the COO at an outfit called <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://pipe17.com/">Pipe17,</a> an OSM alternative that's make waves in its category.In our podcast conversation, Kelly shares more about his recent brush with "abysmal" CX during a retail TV purchase, exposing how online experiences have truly degraded in quality over time as the pursuit of profit takes over. He digs into the prevailing winds that brands face and how a lot of discovery and transacting is happening off-platform and off-site – and that's changing commerce pretty substantially.“A lot of e-commerce over the traditional web is very, very broken,” he said. “And generally, it's a lot harder to drive people to your brand.com website.”Maybe this abysmal reality is a sign of the times. Simultaneously, AI is dismantling the SaaS landscape before our very eyes. It's now possible to build apps faster than ever with less developer reliance, and there's a conscious move to consumption-based pricing. All this uncertainty is disrupting the roadmaps for software vendors and enterprises, and it's all accelerating at a breakneck pace. <hr /><h4 style="text-align:center" id="-"> </h4><h4 style="text-align:center" id="“value-is-not-created-by-that-which-is-different,-but-that-which-is-unique.-that's-something-that-took-me-a-while-to-fully-understand,-but-it's-true.-there-are-a-lot-of-legacy-platforms,-or-even-newer-versions,-but-still-fundamentally-legacy-approaches.”">“Value is not created by that which is different, but that which is unique. That's something that took me a while to fully understand, but it's true. There are a lot of legacy platforms, or even newer versions, but still fundamentally legacy approaches.”</h4> <hr /> When I invited Kelly on “The Critic's Corner," I was hoping to catch up on our alignment within the <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/the-deep-dish-on-composable-6-tasty-takeaways-from-the-mach-alliances-2025-conference">MACH Alliance.</a> We've been in each other's orbit for several years, and I've watched him drive success at <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/commercetools">commercetools</a> while building a strong community of interest around composable architectures and practices. But our conversation took some intriguing twists and turns. During the episode, Kelly gets real about what’s at stake as consumers seek new and better ways to search and engage with brands – namely, AI-powered answer engines like <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://chatgpt.com/">ChatGPT</a>, where simplicity seems the norm (for now). No more combing through blue links or battling search ads to get a straight answer, and we can expect more ads and transactions to move there as well. Of course, this is resulting in a precipitous decline in classic search traffic, which is bad for marketers. He likened all this change to the moment an asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs.Dark? Sure. But from the ashes rose new life, and he sees the same potential.At the same time, as revolutionary as ChatGPT is, Google isn't going anywhere tomorrow. Websites will continue to be relevant for a while as consumers adapt to this new digital reality. You can catch a two-minute snippet of Kelly's observation about “living in the future” right here: <figure class="media"><div data-oembed-url="https://youtu.be/fcaczDULJ-c"><div style="position:relative;padding-bottom:100%;height:0;padding-bottom:56.2493%"><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/fcaczDULJ-c" style="position:absolute;width:100%;height:100%;top:0;left:0" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe></div></div></figure> On the content and enterprise software side, we also discuss CMS and its own category challenges. He recently asked in another LinkedIn post if we really need another content management system in an already crowded and mature space. This isn't a problem that's exclusive to our industry, but with hundreds of choices battling it out, it's a common question. I ask Kelly how we navigate this commoditization, where platforms – particularly legacy players – are compositionally the same, and AI is shifting expectations. He's focused beyond the legacy “dinosaur” story and looking for real differentiation.“Value is not created by that which is different, but that which is unique,” he said. “That's something that took me a while to fully understand, but it's true. There are a lot of legacy platforms, or even newer versions, but still fundamentally legacy approaches.”Asteroids… dinosaurs... could this be the end as we know it? Maybe. But as Kelly maintains, this is where the opportunity lies. So things get a little dark, but there's some light at the end of the tunnel. I promise. I have mad respect for Kelly's thinking, and this podcast episode is chock-full of wisdom nuggets. We spend a little time talking about his “origin story,” which colors some of his perspective. That collective experience – and success – might also be why he's firmly grounded despite these seismic changes. So strap in, turn up the volume, and watch the skies for falling objects.<h3 id="listen-to-“the-critic’s-corner”-podcast-with-kelly-goetsch">Listen to “The Critic’s Corner” podcast with Kelly Goetsch</h3> <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://tinyurl.com/bdzj4t2d">Listen to the full episode </a>&gt;<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://tinyurl.com/bdzj4t2d">Subscribe on Apple Podcasts</a> &gt; <figure class="image image-style-align-center image_resized" style="width:58.49%"><a href="https://tinyurl.com/bdzj4t2d" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2025/08/critics-corner-apple-podcast-kelly-goetsch.jpg" alt="" /></a></figure> <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>

Asteroids and Dinosaurs: A Moment in Time on AI, Commerce, and CMS with Kelly Goetsch

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From Chatbots to ContentOps: How AI is Coming to Your CMS (Whether You Like It or Not)

An android with its eyes closed, and a cloud above showing it dreaming of electric sheep.

When I first hopped on Zoom with <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/deannaballew/" target="_blank">Deanna Ballew</a>, Senior Vice President of Product at <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/acquia-upgrades-open-dxp-capabilities-to-expand-composable-enterprise-features/">Acquia</a>, we bantered casually about her home near Madison, Wisconsin – and the dark beauty of Midwestern thunderstorms.
At the time, we were both being treated to unstable spring weather, mine of the Southeastern U.S. variety but equally temperamental. It was an apropos reflection of what’s happening in the technology market as fears of recession and the specter of AI loom menacingly across the horizon.
But there's opportunity in that tornadic frenzy. As composable strategies continue to rain across the legacy landscape, DXPs have been repositioning their offerings in a bid to be more, well… composable in an increasingly omnichannel world. Heck, last year, Salesforce unveiled a new service called <a href="https://www.salesforce.com/news/stories/salesforce-headless-commerce-composable-storefront/" target="_blank">Composable Storefront</a> – a fully headless commerce solution that features an ecosystem of integrations.
Does this make Salesforce a “composable” platform? Maybe. Maybe not. But it’s a bit of a misnomer, really, when you consider that all DXPs were essentially composed to begin with.
Such is the case with Acquia. Over the years, it has expanded beyond its <a href="https://www.drupal.org/" target="_blank">Drupal</a>-powered CMS to comprise an ecosystem of integrated technologies, including cloud services, CDP, a marketing studio, and other goodies. By all accounts, the company fits the monolithic bill.
But as co-founder and CTO <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/buytaert/" target="_blank">Dries Buytaert</a> described in his <a href="https://www.acquia.com/blog/composable-digital-experience-manifesto" target="_blank">Composable DXP Manifesto</a>, Acquia has been evangelizing modular architectures that align with Drupal’s concept of the <a href="https://dri.es/the-assembled-web" target="_blank">Assembled Web</a> for over a decade. In that sense, they’re not newcomers to the composable game. In fact, in 2021, the <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/acquia-upgrades-open-dxp-capabilities-to-expand-composable-enterprise-features/">company expanded</a> its open capabilities by introducing a set of composable enterprise features.
Still, Acquia seems focused on the sum of its DXP parts to help customers grow. Most recently, it purchased <a href="https://www.widen.com/plans?utm_term=widen%20dam&amp;utm_campaign=US+-+Brand+-+New&amp;utm_source=adwords&amp;utm_medium=ppc&amp;hsa_acc=4148602931&amp;hsa_cam=19965617942&amp;hsa_grp=151430066111&amp;hsa_ad=656770360925&amp;hsa_src=g&amp;hsa_tgt=aud-2053871145734:kwd-23382924646&amp;hsa_kw=widen%20dam&amp;hsa_mt=e&amp;hsa_net=adwords&amp;hsa_ver=3&amp;gad=1&amp;gclid=CjwKCAjw04yjBhApEiwAJcvNoRz0NfJzgGc3qeATnNzF5WrjQs4GtIXBa8j5R7dCSXE3d_haybCWyhoCIi4QAvD_BwE" target="_blank">Widen</a>, a digital asset management (DAM) solution that is proving to be a key activator in its completeness of vision (it’s worth noting that the service can be procured separately). Deanna, who came along for the ride from Widen as its Chief Innovation Officer, is now working across the Acquia portfolio on the company’s vision and M&amp;A strategy.
Given all this, where does Acquia fit on the composable spectrum? Lately, I’ve been listening to many voices across the industry use this term in different ways, and I wanted to hear from a platform with a long-established leadership role in the DXP topology – and one striving to be more modular than monolithic. 
Deanna and I were also joined by <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/margaretschroeder94/" target="_blank">Maggie Schroeder</a>, Acquia’s Director of Product Marketing. We talked at length about composable, the hyperbolic explosion of AI, and the importance of their “Acquian” community as accelerators of innovation and success.
<h2>Finding growth as a Gartner Magic Quadrant Leader </h2>
For those who don't consult the analyst reports, Acquia held firm to its Leader position in the 2023 <a href="https://www.acquia.com/blog/acquia-named-leader-2023-gartner-magic-quadrant-digital-experience-platforms" target="_blank">Gartner Magic Quadrant for DXPs</a>, trailing only behind <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/optimizely-partners-with-google-cloud-to-take-experimentation-to-the-next-level/">Optimizely</a> and <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/adobe-experience-cloud-adds-new-headless-cms-capabilities-updates-to-commerce-integration/">Adobe</a>. The triad has persistently battled it out over several cycles in a bid to dominate the space, although Adobe – a much larger competitor – continues to wear the crown. 
So how did Acquia join this exclusive league of leaders? It's been a long road, and community and innovation played a big part. But it doesn't hurt that the company was <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2019/09/24/vista-equity-partners-buys-acquia-for-1b/" target="_blank">purchased by Vista Equity Partners</a> in 2019 for $1 billion, boosting its quest to build market presence. 
While these rivals all deliver industry-leading foundational technologies (CMS, CX, CDP, analytics, personalization, customer journey management, and more), Gartner highlighted Acquia’s synergy between its product innovations and acquisitions, as well as its uncommon support for intranet and employee portal applications. There was also a footnote about Acquia’s <a href="https://www.acquia.com/products/acquia-site-factory" target="_blank">Site Factory</a> toolset, which eases the burden of scaling deployments.
Analyst observations aside, I asked Deanna what was putting the wind in Acquia’s sails (or sales, n'est-ce pas?) in 2023.
“One of the core pieces to why we’re winning is that we continue to thrive and focus on content and data,” she said. “The foundation and flexibility of Drupal as our CMS delivers us over 46,000 modules, and by combining our CMS with Acquia Cloud, we can now give our customers the ultimate balance of enterprise security, stability, and scalability. And that's kind of the sweet spot where they can start small and grow, or they can start big and really scale up. So that's where we've grown.”
Deanna also underscored the impact of the Widen acquisition, and how pairing an award-winning DAM with Acquia’s ML-powered CDP – formerly <a href="https://www.acquia.com/newsroom/press-releases/acquia-acquire-agilone-deliver-powerful-customer-experiences" target="_blank">AgilOne</a> – is at the heart of the company’s composable promise to provide an open set of solutions that play well with other technologies.
“I think that's really key to what we're seeing with composability,” she explained. “You can't do everything with a single vendor. It has to work within our customers’ current systems and technologies when they need it and scale and grow as it goes.”
Maggie also touched on Acquia’s commitment to helping customers make technology work for them, suggesting it all comes back to the ease of use the company is building into its products.
“We’re providing low code capabilities for marketers, but also really advanced tools for our developers who we know are at the core of creating experiences – so those who are less technical and those who are very technical can work together to create experiences that are outcome-driven.”
<h2>What’s the best roadmap? Open source, of course</h2>
As a well-established open source vendor, Acquia’s community has been a wellspring for continuous innovation. I asked Maggie how the heritage of Drupal is impacting the company’s plans for the future.
“Drupal is at our core, and it’s part of the beginnings of Acquia,” she said. “We've really stayed true to that, throughout the duration of Acquia’s existence.”
But enhancing that legacy has been a key focus, and Maggie noted a series of very strategic acquisitions and innovations that have complemented the open source engine. For example, the <a href="https://www.acquia.com/newsroom/press-releases/acquia-acquires-cohesion#:~:text=BOSTON%20and%20BRIGHTON%2C%20England%20%E2%80%93%20September,low%2Dcode%20Drupal%20website%20builder." target="_blank">purchase of Cohesion</a> in 2019 and its subsequent transformation to Site Studio has made Drupal more accessible to low-code business users – what Dries calls an “ambitious site builder.” As Deanna echoed, the goal has been making things easier for users across the collective community.
“We put a lot of emphasis into content and really making that experience as seamless as possible. And then of course, giving our customers that foundation helps them get even closer to leveraging data and more complex use cases as well.”
As for that community, it’s quite expansive: <a href="https://www.acquia.com/drupal/why-drupal" target="_blank">according to the company’s website</a>, Acquia boasts more than 800 customers and over a million users worldwide, buoyed by a Drupal footprint that includes one in eight enterprise websites and over 10,000 active community contributors. Oh, and there’s also those 46,000 modules to boot.
While open source brings its own set of challenges from security to stability, it offers key benefits that are attractive in a composable world – like no vendor lock-in. But there’s more to it: this open community is helping Acquia and its customers jump ahead and drive delivery on their own terms.
“They don’t have to wait for our roadmap,” Deanna said. “And that's a really key thing to be able to do what you need to on your own timeline.”
<h2>AI: Acquia Intelligence</h2>
It’s a no-brainer to ask about the new brain driving this hype cycle: <a href="https://chat.openai.com/" target="_blank">ChatGPT</a>. It’s undeniable. In less than six months, countless platforms across the digital experience and martech stack have harnessed <a href="https://www.openai.com/" target="_blank">OpenAI’s</a> generative service to improve content operations and workflows.
While Acquia is already leveraging machine learning and predictive models in its CDP, I asked how this latest permutation of AI is transforming the strategy. Once again, it came back to the community.
“We see that even with all the AI stuff going on right now, our community and customers are doing it themselves,” Deanna said. “They're making it work when they want to do it.”
To that end, the Drupal community has already launched an <a href="https://www.drupal.org/project/openai" target="_blank">OpenAI initiative</a> that aims to provide a suite of modules and an API foundation for ChatGPT, <a href="https://github.com/features/copilot" target="_blank">GitHub CoPilot</a>, and more. This would include a bevy of features for powering generative text, content editing, audio transcribing, text prompts, and more.
“All of our sales engineers are enabled to leverage the Drupal OpenAI module as part of their demo to show ‘the art of the possible’ with ChatGPT,” Maggie explained. “It can create anything from text content, images, content analysis – there’s a lot. And this goes back to having the power of the Drupal community behind us, really helping our customers get ahead of the trends. So while others in the market are waiting for additions or integrations to ChatGPT, the Drupal community was, I'd say, first to market with the ChatGPT integration.”
<h2>A hybrid approach to omnichannel and headless</h2>
During my recent trip to the <a href="https://www.boye-co.com/groups/cms-experts/" target="_blank">Boye &amp; Company</a> CMS Experts summit in New York City, there was an epic debate about headless CMS and the challenges that exist with visualization. While <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/wrestling-with-category-confusion-in-the-dxc-slackdown/">DXC platforms</a> like <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/is-the-birth-of-dxc-the-death-of-dxp-a-conversation-with-darren-guarnaccia-president-at-uniform/">Uniform</a> are providing an answer for pure headless solutions, traditional CMS platforms are espousing the value of their APIs to reinforce the value of a hybrid play. This comes at a time when even WordPress is offering a <a href="https://wpengine.com/resources/headless-cms-and-wordpress/" target="_blank">headless backend</a> to power any kind of frontend framework.
With Acquia’s Drupal CMS falling into the traditional CMS and DXP column, I asked Maggie how omnichannel fits into Acquia’s strategy, and how it stacks up to purely headless contenders.
“First of all, I love that you're saying ‘omnichannel’ and you're not leading with headless, because headless is the technology that makes omnichannel possible,” she said. “However, something I want to acknowledge is that not all experiences we talk about are truly omnichannel, right? Omnichannel implies these experiences are connected and they're consistent across all the channels where you're delivering content. And I think that is where we've really stepped in to provide differentiation.”
As Maggie explained, business users are often seen as a “pain point” for pure-play headless competitors in the market. Acquia’s ability to supply both low code business features – as well as a completely headless experience to frontend developers – gives users the freedom to choose whatever framework they prefer.
“We see a lot of our customers adopting a hybrid approach to omnichannel,” Maggie said. “They’re asking, ‘What is the outcome we're looking to drive with the experience? Is it really going to be content dependent? And is it owned by, say, a marketing team?’”
A great example she cited: marketing campaign pages. A stakeholder probably doesn’t want to be dependent on a developer to update the content, especially if it needs to be changed frequently. This is different from a digital sign, which is highly dependent on a frontend developer to create.
“We want to give freedom to all the different contributors who are working on the same team to deliver experiences. I think those are really the two key differentiating factors for us: enabling the whole team and then also having the ability to provide low code and headless.”
<h2>Partnering on the composable journey </h2>
Dovetailing on the hybrid versus headless discussion, Maggie shared the importance of aligning with a customer’s goals and growing with them over time. Having a more composable approach seems to benefit this on multiple levels, particularly when a large migration or transformation is part of the program. But it also requires the right mindset – which Acquia champions for its users.
“Instead of painting this picture of ‘oh, you have to rip and replace everything,’ we say, ‘let's do this one at a time, let's focus on content first,” or ‘let's focus on your digital assets first,’ or ‘let's focus on product inventory first.’ I think that’s a huge benefit for our new and existing customers.”
From a roadmap perspective, Maggie said the various products and capabilities that Acquia offers can be rolled out over time, making the journey less overwhelming. For example, year one could include CMS, followed by year two with DAM, and year three with CDP and personalization. This is where the benefits of a composable DXP come into play.
Maggie also shared a customer use case for Anheuser-Busch/InBev, which pushed the limits of a composable approach to create new experiences. Working with Acquia, they created decoupled components for a game application, allowing any marketer to add it to new sites. The entire experience is low code and completely composable.
I asked Maggie where these high-touch professional services fit in the business model, and if Acquia plans to invest more in that level of relationship.
“I think being consultative is kind of end-to-end for Acquians,” she said, conjuring the mantle reserved for its team and community members. “Our sales team is very well versed in having those conversations. We try to go in as more of a trusted advisor.”
<h2>Consulting the crystal ball for 2023</h2>
In today’s macroeconomics, there’s no telling if we’re at the precipice of a global recession or knee-deep in a soft landing. While the pandemic resulted in a buying spree for Acquia and its contemporaries, the last 12 months have seen a softening in IT budgets and <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2023/01/30/the-real-reasons-for-big-tech-layoffs-at-google-microsoft-meta-and-amazon/?sh=1218f5612b67" target="_blank">layoffs</a> from the likes of Google, Meta, and Amazon. 
So does Acquia see 2023 through rose-colored glasses? I asked Deanna to weigh in.
“In the environment we’re in with the recession – are we in it or are we not – we’re really leaning into our existing customers to ensure they have great CX,” she said. “We’re seeing an increased focus on the customer journey, on CDPs. Focusing on customer retention and customer upsell has been a key trend.”
“I think we’re in a really great position because we’re empowering teams,” Maggie added. “I think the question that everyone is asking themselves is, ‘how do we do more with the same?’ Or maybe even ‘more with even less’ budget or team resources. We’ve really maximized what their team can do instead of bogging them down with maintenance and other types of menial tasks. They can get straight to the value and the mission they set forth.”
As we rounded the corner to the end of our conversation, I asked what’s on the horizon – and what gets this team excited about the prospects ahead. Deanna jumped in, and once again focused on the importance of community.
“I think about 40 percent of our customers now have a TAM – technical advisor manager – to help them grow in year one, year two, year three, and advise them along the way,” she said enthusiastically. “But I’m most excited about launching a broader Acquia community. Not only do we help them, but our customers help each other, giving [each other] ideas and advice to help them grow along the way. That’s really exciting for me.”
Exciting indeed. And even if 2023 turns into a Midwestern thunderstorm, Acquia seems well positioned to ride it out.

Acquia Taps its Modular, Open Source Legacy to Drive the Composable Future

Acquia logo with inset images of Deanna and Maggie in shapes of the Drupal logo icon - a water droplet.

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