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artificial intelligence 30 Jan 2026

AI video creation has improved rapidly over the past two years—but for most platforms, ease of use still drops sharply the moment projects become complex or mobile enters the picture. MediaPET.ai is aiming to change that dynamic with the release of MediaPET.ai 2.0, which introduces what the company describes as the first chat-enabled interface built specifically for end-to-end AI video creation .

The update goes beyond a new UI. MediaPET.ai 2.0 reframes how users plan, edit, and scale video projects—especially on mobile—by combining conversational AI, project-level control, and new content formats that extend well beyond ads.

For marketers, creators, and performance teams under pressure to produce more video with fewer resources, the release signals a shift toward conversation-led, mobile-first creative workflows.

From Prompting Clips to Managing Projects

Most AI video tools today still operate at the clip level. Users generate a scene, tweak it, export it, and repeat. MediaPET’s new approach treats the project—not the clip—as the core unit of creation.

The headline feature in version 2.0 is a chat-based interface, designed to feel familiar to anyone who has used ChatGPT or similar conversational tools. But unlike general-purpose chatbots, MediaPET’s interface is highly structured around a video project, guiding users step by step through ideation, scripting, scene generation, and editing.

Instead of juggling timelines, menus, and settings, users can now:

Ask for creative direction or revisions in plain language
Move through production stages conversationally
Apply changes across all scenes at once, not one clip at a time

That last capability is particularly notable. According to MediaPET, no other AI video platform currently supports global, cross-scene edits through natural language. For example, a user can change tone, pacing, branding, or spokesperson style across an entire video with a single instruction.

For teams managing high volumes of content, that shift alone can dramatically reduce production time.

Built for Mobile, Not Just Compatible With It

While many AI video platforms technically work on mobile devices, few are designed around mobile usage. MediaPET.ai 2.0 takes a different stance, positioning itself as the first truly mobile-friendly AI video creation platform.

The chat-driven workflow plays a key role here. By removing the need for complex UI controls and timelines, MediaPET enables creators to build and edit videos directly from their phones—an increasingly important capability as social-first and UGC-style content dominates distribution channels.

This mobile-first design aligns with broader trends in creator tools, where conversational interfaces are replacing dense dashboards. For marketers and small teams, it also opens the door to faster iteration, on-the-go approvals, and real-time content updates without being tied to a desktop setup.

Expanding Beyond Ads: Three New Creation Modes

MediaPET built its early reputation as an AI-powered ad creation platform, but version 2.0 expands its scope significantly with three new content creation modes:

Ads Mode
Short-Form Movies
Story Mode

Together, these modes reflect how video marketing is evolving—away from rigid formats and toward storytelling, authenticity, and platform-native experiences.

Short-form movies and story-based videos are particularly relevant for brands experimenting with TikTok, Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, and emerging CTV formats. These modes allow creators to structure narratives more naturally, rather than forcing everything into a traditional ad framework.

The result is a platform that positions itself as all-in-one video infrastructure, rather than a niche AI ad generator.

Spokesperson Videos and the Rise of AI-Driven UGC

One of the most impactful additions in MediaPET.ai 2.0 is its expanded spokesperson video capability, designed to scale user-generated content (UGC) and product demos.

With the new release, users can create spokesperson videos using:

Uploaded photos of real people, or
AI-generated characters

These spokespersons can deliver scripted content, testimonials, or explanations, helping brands produce UGC-style videos without relying on creators or production crews.

More notably, MediaPET now supports rich demo segments generated from a single product photo. That means marketers can showcase products “in use” visually—even when no video footage exists.

This capability taps directly into a growing demand in performance marketing: scalable, authentic-looking video that doesn’t require expensive shoots or influencer coordination.

Why the Chat Interface Matters More Than It Sounds

Chat interfaces are becoming common across AI tools, but MediaPET’s implementation is less about novelty and more about workflow orchestration.

Unlike chat systems that simply generate outputs, MediaPET’s conversational UI:

Understands project context
Maintains continuity across scenes
Applies instructions globally
Guides users through structured stages of creation

This design reduces the cognitive load of video production, especially for non-experts. Instead of learning video editing concepts, users focus on intent—what they want the video to communicate—while the system handles execution.

For MarTech teams, this lowers the barrier to entry for video creation and makes it easier to distribute production across marketing, growth, and even product teams.

Executive Perspective: Differentiation Through Usability

MediaPET CEO Dr. Duane Varan frames version 2.0 as a clear step-change rather than an incremental update.

“Version 2.0 is a game-changing release adding new features that further differentiate MediaPET,” said Varan. “The chat feature makes AI video content creation easier than ever and mobile friendly. And the spokesperson mode radically advances UGC creation—particularly with its demo features that allow you to truly highlight the product in use.”

That emphasis on differentiation is telling. The AI video space is increasingly crowded, with competitors racing to add generative features. MediaPET is instead leaning into usability, structure, and end-to-end flow as its core advantage.

Competitive Context: Where MediaPET Fits

The broader AI video market has split into a few camps:

Text-to-video generators focused on novelty
Avatar-based platforms centered on talking heads
Ad-centric tools optimized for performance media

MediaPET.ai 2.0 attempts to unify these approaches under a single interface, while adding project-level intelligence that many rivals lack.

The ability to manage entire video projects conversationally—and to apply edits across scenes—positions MediaPET closer to a creative operating system than a point solution.

For teams juggling speed, cost, and consistency, that distinction matters.

Pricing and Availability

MediaPET.ai 2.0 is available now to all users, with plans starting at $24.99 per month. The new chat-enabled interface, creation modes, and spokesperson features are live as part of the rollout.

That entry price places MediaPET competitively within the AI video market, particularly given its mobile-first design and all-in-one positioning.

The Bigger Picture: Conversational Creative Tools

MediaPET’s update reflects a broader shift in MarTech and creative tooling: interfaces are becoming conversational, and complexity is moving behind the scenes.

As AI capabilities mature, differentiation is increasingly about how intuitively humans can direct those systems. MediaPET.ai 2.0 suggests that chat-based, project-aware interfaces may be the next step in making AI-generated video practical at scale—not just impressive in demos.

For brands and creators trying to keep up with the relentless demand for video, that evolution couldn’t come at a better time.

Get in touch with our MarTech Experts.

marketing 30 Jan 2026

Rural hospitals are under strain from nearly every direction: declining patient volumes, workforce shortages, tighter reimbursement, and growing competition from large regional health systems with far deeper marketing budgets. Yet visibility, trust, and service-line growth have never been more critical to survival.

Against that backdrop, 121G Marketing (121GM) is making a clear bid to become the marketing partner of record for rural healthcare systems, and it’s backing up that ambition with data.

The company has released a new case study detailing its partnership with Russell Medical, a rural hospital that overhauled its marketing performance and community reach in just seven months—without building a costly internal marketing department or relying on fragmented agency vendors.

The results point to a larger shift underway in rural healthcare marketing: from ad hoc tactics to embedded, accountable, performance-driven partnerships.

The Rural Hospital Marketing Gap

Marketing has long been a weak spot for rural hospitals—not because leadership doesn’t value it, but because the economics rarely work in their favor.

Many rural systems face a familiar set of constraints:

Limited or nonexistent in-house marketing teams
Reliance on small vendors handling isolated tasks (web, email, social)
Inconsistent branding across service lines
Minimal access to real-time performance data
Pressure to justify every dollar spent

At the same time, patient expectations have evolved. Consumers now research providers online, expect clear digital communication, and increasingly choose care based on trust, convenience, and perceived expertise—not just proximity.

This gap between expectations and capabilities is where 121G Marketing is positioning itself.

A Different Agency Model—Built for Rural Healthcare

121GM describes itself not as a traditional agency, but as an embedded marketing partner designed specifically for rural hospitals. Rather than delivering isolated campaigns, the firm operates as an extension of the hospital—handling strategy, execution, analytics, and service-line growth under one roof.

“Rural hospitals don’t need cookie-cutter agencies or fragmented vendors,” said Alex Hoskins, Managing Partner at 121G Marketing. “They need a true partner—one that understands their communities, operates with transparency, and delivers measurable results.”

That philosophy guided the firm’s engagement with Russell Medical, which had reached a turning point in its marketing maturity.

Russell Medical’s Challenge: Visibility Without Overhead

Like many rural hospitals, Russell Medical was navigating growing competition from larger systems with more sophisticated marketing operations. Its leadership team recognized the need for a more strategic, data-driven approach—but faced two hard realities:

Building a full internal marketing department was cost-prohibitive
Piecing together vendors had already led to inconsistent messaging and limited accountability

What Russell Medical needed wasn’t more tools—it was a cohesive marketing function aligned with clinical, operational, and community priorities.

That’s where 121GM stepped in.

From Fragmented Efforts to an Embedded Marketing Function

Rather than acting as an external agency, 121GM assumed the role of Russell Medical’s marketing department of record.

The engagement spanned the full marketing lifecycle, including:

Developing a unified brand and messaging framework across the hospital
Launching integrated digital and community-focused campaigns
Implementing real-time dashboards to track performance and ROI
Aligning marketing priorities directly with service-line and operational goals
Reducing vendor overlap and unnecessary spend

This approach replaced fragmented execution with a single, accountable team—while preserving institutional knowledge and community context.

The emphasis wasn’t just on visibility, but on sustainable, measurable growth.

Measurable Gains in Just Seven Months

Between April 1 and October 31, 2025, Russell Medical recorded significant improvements across digital reach, engagement, and operational efficiency.

Key outcomes included:

1.5 million Facebook impressions, reaching more than 204,700 users
238,757 email sends with a 39% open rate, exceeding healthcare benchmarks
78,000 active website users and 79,000 new users, with organic search as the top traffic driver
34% growth in LinkedIn followers, supporting recruitment and provider visibility
Approximately $40,000 in vendor cost savings through strategic optimization
The hospital’s first-ever unified brand and messaging system

These weren’t vanity metrics. Increased engagement translated into stronger awareness of specialty services, more consistent community communication, and a modernized marketing infrastructure that Russell Medical could sustain.

Crucially, all of this happened without adding internal headcount.

Why the Results Matter Beyond One Hospital

While the case study focuses on Russell Medical, its implications extend far beyond a single organization.

Rural hospitals nationwide face similar pressures:

Declining inpatient volumes
Greater reliance on outpatient and specialty services
Heightened competition for clinicians and staff
Increased scrutiny of marketing spend and ROI

The Russell Medical engagement suggests that enterprise-level marketing capability doesn’t have to come with enterprise-level costs—if the model is built for rural realities.

121GM’s approach replaces the traditional agency-client dynamic with something closer to operational integration, where marketing decisions are tied directly to clinical and organizational priorities.

A Repeatable Playbook for Rural Healthcare

121G Marketing is explicit about its ambitions. The firm isn’t positioning Russell Medical as a one-off success story, but as proof of a repeatable model.

“Our success with Russell Medical isn’t an exception—it’s a repeatable model,” Hoskins said. “We’ve built a playbook specifically for rural hospitals, allowing them to gain enterprise-level marketing capabilities without enterprise-level costs.”

That playbook is grounded in a few core principles:

100% in-house execution, avoiding vendor sprawl
Senior-led strategy, rather than junior account handoffs
Custom engagements, not templated packages
Performance transparency, with real-time reporting

In an industry where trust is paramount, that level of accountability is increasingly attractive.

Marketing as a Trust-Building Function

One of the less discussed—but most important—outcomes of Russell Medical’s transformation was its impact on community trust.

For rural hospitals, marketing isn’t just about growth. It’s about reinforcing the hospital’s role as a community anchor. Consistent messaging, clear service-line communication, and accessible digital channels all contribute to patient confidence.

By unifying Russell Medical’s brand and improving how it communicates across platforms, 121GM helped modernize the hospital’s presence without alienating its core audience.

That balance—modernization without corporatization—is a delicate one for rural systems, and a key differentiator for partners that understand local dynamics.

The Competitive Landscape Is Shifting

As healthcare marketing becomes more data-driven and consumer-centric, rural hospitals risk falling further behind if they rely on outdated or under-resourced approaches.

Large health systems continue to invest heavily in digital acquisition, brand building, and recruitment marketing. Without comparable capabilities, rural providers may struggle to compete for patients, clinicians, and partnerships.

Embedded marketing models like 121GM’s offer a potential path forward—one that scales expertise without scaling overhead.

What This Signals for Rural Healthcare Leaders

For hospital executives and boards, the Russell Medical case study highlights several strategic takeaways:

Marketing performance can improve rapidly with the right structure
Unified strategy beats fragmented execution
Data transparency is essential for trust and sustainability
Outsourcing doesn’t have to mean losing control

As margins tighten and expectations rise, rural hospitals will increasingly be forced to rethink how marketing fits into their broader growth and sustainability strategies.

Bottom Line

121G Marketing’s partnership with Russell Medical underscores a growing realization in rural healthcare: marketing is no longer optional, and it can’t be an afterthought.

By acting as an embedded, accountable partner rather than a traditional agency, 121GM helped a rural hospital achieve measurable gains in visibility, engagement, and efficiency—without the burden of building an internal department.

For rural systems searching for a viable path to growth in an increasingly competitive healthcare landscape, the model offers a compelling alternative—and one that may soon become harder to ignore.

Get in touch with our MarTech Experts.

marketing 30 Jan 2026

InMarket is making a clear statement about where it believes the advertising industry is headed—and how it plans to compete there. The real-time marketing and measurement company has appointed Natalie Bastian as Chief Marketing Officer, tasking her with sharpening InMarket’s market position as advertisers push harder for measurable outcomes over traditional reach-based metrics.

The hire comes at a pivotal moment for InMarket, which has been doubling down on AI-powered measurement, real-world outcomes, and full-funnel attribution. With brands under increasing pressure to justify every dollar of media spend, InMarket is betting that strong product innovation must be matched with equally strong storytelling, market education, and go-to-market execution.

Bastian will lead InMarket’s global marketing organization, overseeing public relations, product marketing, brand, content, events, creative, and inside sales—effectively owning how the company shows up across the broader marketing, commerce, and data ecosystem.

A Strategic Hire for an Outcomes-Driven Market

InMarket has long positioned itself around real-world measurement—connecting digital media exposure to physical-world outcomes such as store visits, conversions, and incremental lift. That value proposition is gaining urgency as marketers grapple with signal loss, fragmented identity, and rising scrutiny from finance teams.

CEO Todd Morris framed Bastian’s appointment as a growth accelerator rather than a brand refresh.

“Natalie brings a proven track record of driving business growth at scale that will build on our double-digit growth trajectory and our recognition as one of the fastest-growing technology companies in North America,” Morris said. “As InMarket continues its mission to help move advertising from impressions to outcomes, Natalie’s leadership will drive the expansion of our market presence and strengthen the value we deliver to our clients.”

The emphasis on outcomes is deliberate. As cookies fade and probabilistic attribution becomes less reliable, platforms that can tie media exposure to verifiable business results are moving from “nice to have” to essential.

Why Natalie Bastian—and Why Now

Bastian’s background reads like a roadmap through modern ad-supported media and platform growth.

Most recently, she served as Global CMO at Teads, where she played a central role during the company’s nearly $1 billion acquisition by Outbrain. During that transition, she helped reposition Teads from a premium video player into a global omnichannel platform, aligning brand, product narrative, and sales enablement under a single strategy.

Before Teads, Bastian was SVP, Head of Marketing at Tubi, where she helped scale the free streaming service during a period of rapid growth that culminated in its acquisition by FOX. There, she focused on integrated marketing and sales strategies that expanded brand awareness while unlocking new revenue streams—experience that translates directly to InMarket’s enterprise ambitions.

Her earlier roles at Roku, DISH Media, and A&E Networks further anchor her expertise at the intersection of media, advertising, and data—an increasingly crowded and competitive space.

For InMarket, that mix matters. The company isn’t just selling technology; it’s selling a new way of thinking about media performance.

From Product Innovation to Market Education

In the past year, InMarket has rolled out a series of major product updates aimed squarely at enterprise advertisers:

Predictive Moments, designed to identify high-intent consumer behavior in real time
Unified Measurement, bringing together media exposure and real-world outcomes
Lift Conversion Index for CPG, focused on incremental impact in retail and commerce

These launches signal a broader strategy: positioning InMarket as a platform that doesn’t just report what happened, but helps advertisers predict, optimize, and prove impact across the funnel.

Bastian’s role will be to translate that technical sophistication into clear, compelling narratives that resonate with CMOs, performance marketers, and analytics leaders alike.

That includes evolving InMarket’s go-to-market strategy, sharpening its brand voice, and increasing visibility with brands, agencies, and ecosystem partners who are reevaluating their measurement stacks.

Marketing Leadership as a Growth Lever

Unlike many CMO appointments that focus narrowly on demand generation, InMarket’s description of the role underscores its strategic weight.

Bastian will be responsible for:

Refining InMarket’s brand and product narrative
Driving go-to-market and growth strategies
Elevating InMarket’s relevance across marketing, commerce, and data ecosystems
Aligning marketing more tightly with sales and enterprise value creation

That scope reflects a broader trend in adtech and martech: marketing leaders are increasingly expected to shape category definition, not just pipeline.

As the line between data platforms, measurement providers, and media execution continues to blur, companies that articulate a clear point of view tend to win mindshare—and budgets.

Industry Context: Measurement Is the Battleground

Bastian’s appointment comes as advertisers are reassessing long-held assumptions about measurement.

With privacy changes limiting deterministic attribution and walled gardens controlling their own metrics, marketers are searching for independent, outcome-based measurement frameworks that can withstand scrutiny.

InMarket’s approach—grounded in real-time location intelligence, AI-powered insights, and closed-loop measurement—positions it at the center of that shift. But standing out in a crowded field requires more than technical credibility; it requires trust, clarity, and consistency.

That’s where Bastian’s experience scaling brands through inflection points becomes particularly relevant.

Bastian’s Perspective on the Opportunity

For her part, Bastian sees InMarket as well-positioned to capitalize on a fundamental change in how advertisers evaluate performance.

“As marketers increasingly seek better ways to attribute media investment and understand its impact on their business, InMarket sits at the center of this inflection point—delivering forward-looking solutions that close the gap and prove real, meaningful outcomes,” she said. “I’m excited to step into this role and build on the momentum of the brand’s transformation.”

Her focus on meaningful outcomes speaks to a growing frustration among marketers with metrics that look impressive but fail to move the business forward.

Recognition and Industry Credibility

Bastian also brings significant industry credibility. She has been recognized as:

Chief Marketer’s Top Woman in Marketing
Winner of She Runs It’s Changing the Game Award
Finalist for AWNY’s Future is Female

She currently serves on the board of IRTS, is an active member of She Runs It’s Executive Class, and has previously served on the board of the Ad Council.

That visibility matters in an industry where relationships, trust, and thought leadership influence buying decisions as much as feature sets.

What This Signals for InMarket’s Next Phase

InMarket’s leadership move suggests the company is entering a new phase—one focused on scale, category leadership, and long-term enterprise value.

With double-digit growth already in place and a steady drumbeat of product innovation, the next challenge is differentiation in a market crowded with measurement claims. By investing in senior marketing leadership now, InMarket is signaling that it intends to define the conversation around outcomes-based advertising, not just participate in it.

For advertisers navigating a complex, privacy-constrained ecosystem, that clarity could be decisive.

Bottom Line

Natalie Bastian’s appointment as CMO is more than a personnel update—it’s a strategic bet on where advertising is going next.

As marketers move away from impressions and toward provable outcomes, InMarket is aligning leadership, product, and positioning to meet that demand head-on. With Bastian at the helm of marketing, the company is sharpening its voice at a moment when the industry is listening more closely than ever.

Get in touch with our MarTech Experts.

technology 30 Jan 2026

G2 is making one of the most consequential moves in the history of B2B software discovery. The company announced it has formally agreed to acquire Capterra, Software Advice, and GetApp from Gartner, uniting four of the most influential software review and recommendation platforms under one roof.

The deal reshapes the software buying landscape at a moment when AI-driven search, buyer intent data, and trust signals are rapidly redefining how businesses evaluate technology. Once finalized, the acquisition will give G2 unmatched scale, data depth, and reach—positioning it as the default infrastructure layer for software discovery in the AI era.

For buyers, vendors, investors, and partners alike, the implications are substantial.

A Power Shift in B2B Software Discovery

Individually, G2, Capterra, Software Advice, and GetApp have long been go-to destinations for researching business software. Together, they form what may be the most comprehensive dataset ever assembled on how companies discover, evaluate, and purchase technology.

The combined platform will offer:

6 million verified customer reviews
More than 200 million annual software buyers globally
10,000+ software vendors served
Coverage across 2,000+ software and service categories
An expanded foundation of first- and second-party buyer intent data

That scale fundamentally changes the competitive dynamics of the software marketplace industry, particularly as AI-powered recommendations begin to replace traditional listicles, rankings, and keyword-based search.

“This acquisition represents a transformational moment for G2 and, more importantly, the global B2B software industry,” said Godard Abel, CEO and co-founder of G2. “By integrating the verified reviews, insights, and audiences from Capterra, Software Advice, and GetApp, we’re building the trusted data foundation for buyers and sellers of software for the age of AI.”

Why This Deal Matters Now

Software buying has reached an inflection point.

Traditional discovery models—search engines, analyst reports, and static comparison pages—are struggling to keep pace with exploding category complexity and accelerating AI adoption. At the same time, buyers increasingly expect personalized, context-aware recommendations rather than generic rankings.

This is where G2’s timing becomes critical.

By consolidating trusted review platforms and layering AI-driven intelligence on top, G2 is positioning itself not just as a marketplace, but as the decision engine behind modern software purchasing.

The acquisition also reflects a broader trend: as AI reshapes search behavior, companies with proprietary, high-quality data gain outsized power. Verified reviews, buyer intent signals, and real behavioral data are becoming more valuable than traffic alone.

What Changes for Software Buyers

For buyers, the most immediate impact will be smarter, faster, and more personalized discovery.

G2 plans to integrate the newly acquired platforms’ datasets directly into G2.ai, its AI-driven recommendation engine. With a much larger pool of verified feedback and behavioral data, G2.ai aims to move beyond surface-level comparisons toward genuinely contextual guidance.

That means:

More accurate recommendations based on role, industry, company size, and intent
Faster shortlists with fewer irrelevant options
Greater confidence that insights are based on real, verified user experiences

In practice, G2 wants to become the AI-powered “guide” that buyers consult before, during, and after evaluating software—reducing friction in a process that has become notoriously time-consuming.

A Bigger Opportunity for Software Vendors

For vendors, the acquisition dramatically expands both reach and revenue potential.

By absorbing Capterra, Software Advice, and GetApp, G2 gains access to massive inbound buyer traffic—much of it coming from high-intent searches near the moment of purchase. That creates new leverage for demand capture, advertising, and intent-based sales activation.

According to G2, vendors can expect:

Expanded global visibility across traditional search and AI-driven discovery
Up to 3x more Buyer Intent signals through unified datasets
Stronger performance across SEO and answer engine optimization (AEO)
A more advanced digital advertising infrastructure
A forthcoming pay-per-lead model designed to convert intent into sales-ready opportunities

This is a notable evolution from review platforms as passive awareness channels to active revenue drivers—especially for B2B SaaS companies under pressure to improve pipeline efficiency.

The SEO and AI Search Angle

One of the most strategic aspects of the acquisition is its impact on search—both traditional and AI-powered.

Capterra, Software Advice, and GetApp are already dominant players in organic search across thousands of high-intent software keywords. Combining that footprint with G2’s review depth and buyer intent intelligence gives the company a commanding position as search behavior shifts toward AI-generated answers.

G2 has explicitly framed this as an AEO and SEO play, preparing for a future where:

Buyers ask AI tools for software recommendations instead of clicking through multiple websites
Search engines prioritize trusted, structured datasets over generic content
Discovery happens inside conversational interfaces rather than static web pages

In that context, owning the underlying data becomes more important than owning the front-end experience—and G2 now controls more of that data than any competitor.

What Gartner Gets Out of the Deal

While G2’s upside is clear, the deal also signals a strategic recalibration for Gartner.

By divesting Capterra, Software Advice, and GetApp, Gartner appears to be sharpening its focus on its core strengths: research, advisory services, and enterprise decision support. The move allows Gartner to step back from operating high-scale, consumer-style marketplaces while still benefiting from its broader position in the enterprise ecosystem.

For G2, acquiring assets previously backed by Gartner also adds credibility and reinforces trust—particularly among enterprise buyers who already rely on Gartner insights.

Implications for the Broader Software Ecosystem

Beyond buyers and vendors, the acquisition has ripple effects across the industry.

Partners and integrators gain access to richer datasets that can improve targeting, personalization, and workflow automation.
Consultants and investors can leverage deeper, verified insights to assess market trends, competitive positioning, and category growth.
Product teams gain clearer visibility into customer sentiment and unmet needs across thousands of categories.

In short, the combined platform becomes not just a marketplace, but a system of record for software adoption and sentiment.

Competitive Landscape: Who Can Keep Up?

This deal raises uncomfortable questions for competitors.

Smaller review sites and comparison platforms may struggle to compete with G2’s combined scale, especially as AI systems increasingly favor authoritative data sources. Even large digital publishers face challenges as AI-driven discovery reduces reliance on traditional content models.

Meanwhile, adjacent players in intent data, ABM, and B2B advertising will need to rethink integrations as G2 consolidates more of the buyer journey inside its ecosystem.

The message is clear: in the AI era, fragmented data loses value. Unified, trusted datasets win.

The Bottom Line

G2’s acquisition of Capterra, Software Advice, and GetApp marks a defining moment for B2B software discovery.

By uniting the industry’s most trusted review platforms, G2 is building what it describes as the trusted data foundation for software buying in the age of AI—one that serves buyers seeking clarity, vendors chasing demand, and partners navigating an increasingly complex market.

As AI reshapes how decisions are made, this deal positions G2 not just as a marketplace, but as the intelligence layer behind the global software economy.

For buyers, vendors, investors, and partners alike, the implications are substantial.

A Power Shift in B2B Software Discovery

The combined platform will offer:

6 million verified customer reviews
More than 200 million annual software buyers globally
10,000+ software vendors served
Coverage across 2,000+ software and service categories
An expanded foundation of first- and second-party buyer intent data

Why This Deal Matters Now

Software buying has reached an inflection point.

This is where G2’s timing becomes critical.

By consolidating trusted review platforms and layering AI-driven intelligence on top, G2 is positioning itself not just as a marketplace, but as the decision engine behind modern software purchasing.

What Changes for Software Buyers

For buyers, the most immediate impact will be smarter, faster, and more personalized discovery.

That means:

More accurate recommendations based on role, industry, company size, and intent
Faster shortlists with fewer irrelevant options
Greater confidence that insights are based on real, verified user experiences

A Bigger Opportunity for Software Vendors

For vendors, the acquisition dramatically expands both reach and revenue potential.

According to G2, vendors can expect:

Expanded global visibility across traditional search and AI-driven discovery
Up to 3x more Buyer Intent signals through unified datasets
Stronger performance across SEO and answer engine optimization (AEO)
A more advanced digital advertising infrastructure
A forthcoming pay-per-lead model designed to convert intent into sales-ready opportunities

This is a notable evolution from review platforms as passive awareness channels to active revenue drivers—especially for B2B SaaS companies under pressure to improve pipeline efficiency.

The SEO and AI Search Angle

One of the most strategic aspects of the acquisition is its impact on search—both traditional and AI-powered.

G2 has explicitly framed this as an AEO and SEO play, preparing for a future where:

Buyers ask AI tools for software recommendations instead of clicking through multiple websites
Search engines prioritize trusted, structured datasets over generic content
Discovery happens inside conversational interfaces rather than static web pages

In that context, owning the underlying data becomes more important than owning the front-end experience—and G2 now controls more of that data than any competitor.

What Gartner Gets Out of the Deal

While G2’s upside is clear, the deal also signals a strategic recalibration for Gartner.

For G2, acquiring assets previously backed by Gartner also adds credibility and reinforces trust—particularly among enterprise buyers who already rely on Gartner insights.

Implications for the Broader Software Ecosystem

Beyond buyers and vendors, the acquisition has ripple effects across the industry.

In short, the combined platform becomes not just a marketplace, but a system of record for software adoption and sentiment.

Competitive Landscape: Who Can Keep Up?

This deal raises uncomfortable questions for competitors.

Meanwhile, adjacent players in intent data, ABM, and B2B advertising will need to rethink integrations as G2 consolidates more of the buyer journey inside its ecosystem.

The message is clear: in the AI era, fragmented data loses value. Unified, trusted datasets win.

The Bottom Line

G2’s acquisition of Capterra, Software Advice, and GetApp marks a defining moment for B2B software discovery.

As AI reshapes how decisions are made, this deal positions G2 not just as a marketplace, but as the intelligence layer behind the global software economy.

For buyers, vendors, investors, and partners alike, the implications are substantial.

A Power Shift in B2B Software Discovery

The combined platform will offer:

6 million verified customer reviews
More than 200 million annual software buyers globally
10,000+ software vendors served
Coverage across 2,000+ software and service categories
An expanded foundation of first- and second-party buyer intent data

Why This Deal Matters Now

Software buying has reached an inflection point.

This is where G2’s timing becomes critical.

By consolidating trusted review platforms and layering AI-driven intelligence on top, G2 is positioning itself not just as a marketplace, but as the decision engine behind modern software purchasing.

What Changes for Software Buyers

For buyers, the most immediate impact will be smarter, faster, and more personalized discovery.

That means:

More accurate recommendations based on role, industry, company size, and intent
Faster shortlists with fewer irrelevant options
Greater confidence that insights are based on real, verified user experiences

A Bigger Opportunity for Software Vendors

For vendors, the acquisition dramatically expands both reach and revenue potential.

According to G2, vendors can expect:

Expanded global visibility across traditional search and AI-driven discovery
Up to 3x more Buyer Intent signals through unified datasets
Stronger performance across SEO and answer engine optimization (AEO)
A more advanced digital advertising infrastructure
A forthcoming pay-per-lead model designed to convert intent into sales-ready opportunities

This is a notable evolution from review platforms as passive awareness channels to active revenue drivers—especially for B2B SaaS companies under pressure to improve pipeline efficiency.

The SEO and AI Search Angle

One of the most strategic aspects of the acquisition is its impact on search—both traditional and AI-powered.

G2 has explicitly framed this as an AEO and SEO play, preparing for a future where:

Buyers ask AI tools for software recommendations instead of clicking through multiple websites
Search engines prioritize trusted, structured datasets over generic content
Discovery happens inside conversational interfaces rather than static web pages

In that context, owning the underlying data becomes more important than owning the front-end experience—and G2 now controls more of that data than any competitor.

What Gartner Gets Out of the Deal

While G2’s upside is clear, the deal also signals a strategic recalibration for Gartner.

For G2, acquiring assets previously backed by Gartner also adds credibility and reinforces trust—particularly among enterprise buyers who already rely on Gartner insights.

Implications for the Broader Software Ecosystem

Beyond buyers and vendors, the acquisition has ripple effects across the industry.

In short, the combined platform becomes not just a marketplace, but a system of record for software adoption and sentiment.

Competitive Landscape: Who Can Keep Up?

This deal raises uncomfortable questions for competitors.

Meanwhile, adjacent players in intent data, ABM, and B2B advertising will need to rethink integrations as G2 consolidates more of the buyer journey inside its ecosystem.

The message is clear: in the AI era, fragmented data loses value. Unified, trusted datasets win.

The Bottom Line

G2’s acquisition of Capterra, Software Advice, and GetApp marks a defining moment for B2B software discovery.

As AI reshapes how decisions are made, this deal positions G2 not just as a marketplace, but as the intelligence layer behind the global software economy.

Get in touch with our MarTech Experts.

artificial intelligence 30 Jan 2026

MiningLamp Technology has added a major credential to its fast-growing reputation in enterprise AI. The Hong Kong–listed company (2718.HK) took home the Grand Prize at the national finals of the 3rd China’s Innovation Challenge on Artificial Intelligence Application Scene (CICAS)—one of the country’s most competitive and influential AI events—cementing its status as a serious force in Agentic AI and multimodal large models.

The winning project, developed in collaboration with Peking University, is called “Intelligent Platform for Brand Globalization Creative Generation and Emotional Connection Based on Multimodal Large Models.” Beyond the long name, the idea is straightforward and timely: help companies expand globally by using AI to localize creative content, predict emotional response, and generate marketing assets faster—without losing cultural nuance.

The project was also named a “2025 National Artificial Intelligence Application Scenario Exemplary Case,” a designation reserved for AI systems with strong real-world commercial and societal impact.

A Fierce Competition With National Significance

CICAS is not a typical startup pitch contest. Jointly organized by the Chinese Association for Artificial Intelligence, the Suzhou Municipal People’s Government, and Soochow University, the competition is designed to surface AI technologies that can scale across industries.

This year’s challenge drew more than 3,250 registered teams, with 113 elite teams advancing to the national finals. Over 350 participants—from China and abroad—competed in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, placing MiningLamp’s win firmly in “best-of-the-best” territory.

For MiningLamp, this marks a symbolic moment. While the company has been active in enterprise AI since 2006, the CICAS Grand Prize represents its first major national AI competition win since its Hong Kong Stock Exchange listing in November 2025.

Why Brand Globalization Is an AI Problem Now

Global expansion has become harder, not easier, for brands. Cultural missteps go viral instantly, consumer sentiment shifts faster than traditional research can track, and content localization remains expensive and slow.

MiningLamp’s platform is built around a clear thesis: global brand marketing is no longer a creative-only problem—it’s a data, emotion, and automation problem.

According to Wu Minghui, Founder, CEO, and CTO of MiningLamp, brands going global face three persistent barriers:

Cultural and emotional differences across markets
High costs and long timelines for content localization
Limited data-driven insight into how creative will actually land

The platform addresses these challenges by combining multimodal AI, Agentic workflows, and proprietary data intelligence into a single system designed for marketing teams—not just data scientists.

Four Technologies Powering the Platform

At the core of MiningLamp’s winning solution are four tightly integrated capabilities. Together, they form an end-to-end workflow that spans insight generation, emotional evaluation, and content creation.

1. A Global Multimodal Content Asset Library

The platform includes a multimodal content library covering major global markets, incorporating video, image, and text assets. Rather than starting from scratch for every campaign, brands can draw from culturally relevant creative materials aligned with regional norms and preferences.

The practical upside is speed and cost efficiency. Localization cycles that once took weeks can now be compressed into days—or even hours—while maintaining cultural relevance.

In a market where brands are expected to “think global but act local,” this library becomes a strategic advantage rather than a simple repository.

2. Trustworthy Data Collection via the “Dexterous Hand” Mano Model

MiningLamp’s Mano model—described internally as an AI “dexterous hand”—is one of the platform’s most distinctive features.

Mano can operate across browser environments, visually identifying interface elements and interacting with them much like a human would. Users simply provide a URL and a description of their data needs; Mano handles the rest, collecting multi-source web data with minimal manual intervention.

This capability matters because global market analysis often fails due to fragmented, unreliable data. Mano’s human-like perception allows it to gather cleaner, more contextual datasets—critical for downstream decision-making.

Technical benchmarks underscore Mano’s maturity:

Ranked first in the specialized model category of the OSWorld benchmark
Ranked second overall, just behind Anthropic’s Claude-Sonnet-4.5
Achieved SOTA performance on the Mind2Web benchmark
A 7B-parameter version supports private deployment for enterprise security needs

For enterprises wary of black-box AI, this emphasis on transparency and controllability is notable.

3. Subjective Emotional Perception Analysis With HMLLM

Perhaps the most ambitious element of the platform is its Hypergraph Multimodal Large Language Model (HMLLM), designed to simulate how different audiences feel about content—not just how they engage with it.

Unlike traditional sentiment analysis, HMLLM models subjective emotional response across dimensions like attention, emotion, and cognition. It can estimate how viewers from different cultures, age groups, and genders are likely to react to advertising content before it goes live.

The model is trained on uniquely rich datasets:

Video-SME and SPA-ADV, built from EEG and eye-tracking data
Data collected from over 10,000 real human subjects
Emotional response modeling with R² consistency exceeding 89%

The research behind HMLLM earned a Best Paper Nomination at ACM MM 2024, lending academic credibility to what is often treated as a fuzzy marketing problem.

For global brands, the implication is clear: fewer cultural misfires, less guesswork, and more confidence in creative decisions.

4. AI-Driven Video Generation at Scale

Once insights and emotional assessments are complete, the platform can automatically generate and optimize video content. This closes the loop—from market understanding to creative output—inside a single AI-driven workflow.

MiningLamp claims the system can compress traditional video production timelines from weeks to hours, a meaningful advantage as short-form video and rapid campaign iteration become standard across platforms like TikTok, YouTube, and connected TV.

This positions the platform not just as an analytics tool, but as a full-stack AI marketing engine.

Enterprise-Grade AI, Not Just a Demo

MiningLamp’s broader technical credentials reinforce the seriousness of the platform. The company has published 20+ papers in top-tier international journals and conferences, including:

ACM MM 2024 (CCF-A): Best Paper Nomination for HMLLM
TPAMI (SCI Q1): Few-shot video instance segmentation
IJCV (SCI Q1): Image generation methods
AAAI 2026 (CCF-A): Mano model compression, accepted as an oral presentation

These aren’t marketing whitepapers—they’re peer-reviewed contributions that help explain why MiningLamp is increasingly described as China’s first “Agentic AI” public company.

Strategic Implications for MarTech and Global Brands

MiningLamp’s win highlights a broader industry trend: AI is moving from content optimization to content decision-making.

While many Western MarTech platforms focus on performance metrics after launch, MiningLamp is betting on AI that evaluates cultural fit and emotional resonance before content reaches consumers. That shift could reshape how global campaigns are planned, especially in regulated or reputation-sensitive industries.

The platform also aligns with the growing enterprise demand for trustworthy AI—systems that are explainable, auditable, and deployable in private environments.

What Comes Next

At the CICAS closing ceremony, MiningLamp signed a cooperation intent with Gusu District, signaling plans to expand AI R&D and real-world deployment scenarios locally.

The company says it will continue applying its “data-driven trustworthy productivity” philosophy beyond brand globalization, targeting additional vertical industries where Agentic AI can deliver measurable impact.

As global competition intensifies and AI-driven differentiation becomes table stakes, MiningLamp’s platform could emerge as a critical infrastructure layer for companies trying to scale internationally without losing cultural intelligence along the way.

Get in touch with our MarTech Experts.

artificial intelligence 30 Jan 2026

Campaign Monitor is making a clear bet on practical AI—not flashy automation for its own sake, but tools designed to help small and mid-sized businesses actually make better email marketing decisions.

The company has announced three new AI-powered features—Marketing Monitor, Segment Mapper, and AI Email Booster—aimed at giving marketers always-on guidance directly inside the platform. The goal: reduce guesswork, shorten optimization cycles, and help lean teams improve results without changing how they work.

Marketing Monitor is already live for customers, while Segment Mapper and AI Email Booster roll out on January 28.

AI as an In-App Marketing Partner, Not a Black Box

Campaign Monitor’s new features are positioned less as autonomous AI and more as a built-in marketing advisor—surfacing insights, recommendations, and next steps without forcing users to hand over control.

That distinction matters. Many SMB marketers are surrounded by dashboards and metrics but lack clarity on what to act on next. Campaign Monitor’s approach focuses on turning data into direction.

Together, the three features cover the core email marketing loop: performance analysis, audience targeting, and campaign optimization.

Marketing Monitor: Performance With Context

Marketing Monitor tackles one of email marketing’s biggest blind spots: knowing whether your results are actually good.

The feature benchmarks campaign performance against relevant industry standards, adding context to metrics like opens, clicks, and engagement. Instead of just showing numbers, it highlights where marketers should focus next—helping teams prioritize fixes that will have the most impact.

For SMBs without analysts or dedicated optimization teams, this kind of guidance can dramatically speed up decision-making.

Segment Mapper: Audience Building Without the Technical Headaches

Segment Mapper lowers the barrier to advanced targeting by letting marketers describe their audience goals in plain language. The AI then translates that intent into usable audience segments inside Campaign Monitor.

This removes a common friction point for non-technical users who know who they want to reach but struggle with filters, logic rules, and segmentation syntax. It’s a notable step toward making personalization more accessible—especially as inbox competition continues to intensify.

AI Email Booster: Optimization Inside the Builder

AI Email Booster works directly inside the email builder, analyzing content as it’s created and surfacing clear, actionable recommendations. Marketers can apply suggestions with a single click, rather than switching tools or interpreting abstract scores.

The focus here is speed and clarity. Instead of overwhelming users with AI-generated rewrites or opaque predictions, Campaign Monitor is aiming for small, confident improvements that compound over time.

Why This Matters for SMB Marketers

Email remains one of the highest-ROI channels, but expectations for personalization and relevance keep rising. At the same time, most SMBs don’t have the time, staff, or budget to experiment endlessly or interpret complex analytics.

Campaign Monitor’s AI strategy is designed to close that gap by:

Reducing time-to-value for campaign improvements
Making advanced tactics accessible to non-experts
Preserving human control over creative and strategy

“AI should make email marketing easier, not more complicated,” said Elizabeth Smalley, Chief Product Officer at Campaign Monitor. “We built these new AI features to provide always-on guidance directly inside the platform, helping marketers better see what’s working to optimize faster, without losing control of their strategy.”

That emphasis on collaboration—AI assisting rather than replacing human judgment—sets Campaign Monitor apart from more aggressive automation-first approaches in the email marketing space.

Launch Events and Availability

To showcase the new capabilities, Campaign Monitor will host two live launch webinars:

Tuesday, February 3 at 1:00 PM EST
Wednesday, February 4 at 10:30 AM AEST

The sessions will walk marketers through real-world use cases and demonstrate how the tools can simplify decision-making and boost performance.

The Bigger Picture

Campaign Monitor’s update reflects a broader MarTech shift: AI is moving from experimental features to embedded decision support. Rather than asking marketers to trust AI blindly, platforms are increasingly focused on delivering contextual guidance that fits naturally into existing workflows.

For SMBs, that balance—between intelligence and control—may be exactly what’s needed to stay competitive as inboxes grow more crowded and customer expectations continue to rise.

Get in touch with our MarTech Experts.

marketing 29 Jan 2026

In the multifamily housing business, speed is money. Miss a prospect inquiry—especially after hours—and there’s a good chance that lead is already touring a competing property by morning. H2L Marketing is betting that problem is big enough, and expensive enough, to warrant a dedicated solution.

The company has officially launched Ellipse, a leasing-automation platform designed to ensure multifamily properties respond to every prospect inquiry, all the time. Emails, texts, and voice calls are handled in real time, day or night, while human leasing teams focus on higher-value work—like tours, relationship-building, and closing leases.

At a time when property operators are under pressure from rising costs, tighter margins, and increasingly digital-first renters, Ellipse positions itself as a productivity engine rather than just another chatbot. The promise is straightforward: fewer missed leads, faster response times, and better use of leasing staff.

Why Ellipse Exists: The Cost of Silence in Leasing

Industry data consistently shows that more than half of leasing inquiries go unanswered, particularly outside traditional business hours. For properties juggling lean staffing models and high inquiry volumes, responding instantly to every prospect simply isn’t realistic.

Ellipse aims to close that gap with intelligent automation that handles initial engagement, scheduling, and follow-ups without burning out on-site teams.

“With Ellipse, our mission is clear,” said Femi Lakeru, Chief Operating Officer at H2L Marketing. “We enable properties to respond to 100% of prospect inquiries and improve property staff utilization through intelligent automation.”

Unlike generic marketing automation tools, Ellipse is purpose-built for multifamily leasing. H2L Marketing says the platform was developed in consultation with leasing teams and property owners—people who understand firsthand how easily opportunities slip through the cracks.

That owner-operator perspective is notable. Ellipse isn’t framed as a replacement for leasing agents, but as infrastructure that handles repetitive front-line interactions so humans can focus on what actually closes deals.

What Ellipse Does—and How It’s Different

At its core, Ellipse functions as a 24/7 digital leasing assistant. When a prospect reaches out—via email, text, or phone—the platform responds instantly, answering questions, capturing lead details, and moving conversations toward the next step.

Key capabilities include:

Always-on lead handling: All initial contacts are managed around the clock, including evenings, weekends, and holidays.
Real-time responses across channels: Ellipse engages prospects through email, SMS, and voice, meeting renters where they already are.
Automated tour scheduling: Prospects can move from inquiry to scheduled tour without waiting for staff availability.
Seamless integration: The platform is designed to work with existing property management and CRM systems, minimizing disruption.
Transparent pricing: No opaque usage tiers or hidden fees—pricing is straightforward and predictable.

This focus on operational fit matters. Multifamily operators are often wary of new tech that promises transformation but requires complex integrations or retraining. H2L’s pitch is that Ellipse fits into current workflows rather than forcing teams to rebuild them.

Early Results: Faster Tours, Higher Conversions

During pilot deployments, properties using Ellipse reported measurable gains across the leasing funnel. According to H2L Marketing, participating properties saw:

54% faster tour scheduling from the initial prospect contact
35% more leases attributed to Ellipse’s after-hours interactions
16% increase in lead-to-lease conversion rates
15% increase in overall occupancy

Those numbers highlight an often-overlooked reality in multifamily marketing: a significant portion of leasing activity happens when offices are closed. Prospects browse listings at night, send inquiries on weekends, and expect responses that feel immediate—even if they’re automated.

Ellipse’s strongest impact appears to come from capturing and nurturing those off-hours interactions, which are traditionally the most neglected.

Automation Meets Human Leasing Teams

One of the persistent fears around automation—especially in sales and leasing—is that it degrades the customer experience. H2L Marketing is careful to position Ellipse as an assistant, not a replacement.

By handling repetitive first-touch interactions, Ellipse frees leasing agents to focus on:

Delivering high-quality, personalized property tours
Building rapport with qualified prospects
Supporting resident satisfaction and retention

That division of labor reflects a broader trend in B2B and B2C tech: automation handles scale, humans handle nuance. In leasing, that nuance often determines whether a prospect signs—or keeps shopping.

Ellipse also addresses staff utilization, a growing concern as properties operate with smaller teams. Rather than forcing agents to juggle phones, inboxes, and walk-ins simultaneously, Ellipse absorbs the constant background noise of inbound inquiries.

The Competitive Landscape: Not Just Another Chatbot

Ellipse enters a crowded ecosystem of proptech tools, many of which promise AI-driven engagement. What sets Ellipse apart is its narrow focus on leasing outcomes rather than generalized marketing automation.

Compared with basic chatbots or generic CRM automations, Ellipse emphasizes:

Multi-channel engagement (not just web chat)
Leasing-specific workflows, including tour scheduling
Metrics tied directly to occupancy and lease conversion

Rival solutions often require extensive customization or rely heavily on scripted interactions. Ellipse, by contrast, is marketed as an operational layer that works continuously in the background.

This specialization aligns with a larger industry shift. As proptech matures, platforms are becoming more vertical-specific, solving discrete operational problems rather than offering all-in-one dashboards that do a little of everything.

Pricing and Accessibility

Ellipse’s pricing model reflects its operational positioning. Complete packages for properties with 100 or more units start at $499 per month, with options available for properties of all sizes.

That price point places Ellipse within reach of mid-sized operators—not just large institutional owners. Transparent pricing also reduces friction in procurement, a pain point for property managers burned by unpredictable SaaS costs.

In an environment where every expense is scrutinized, Ellipse’s value proposition hinges on ROI: fewer missed leads, faster leasing cycles, and higher occupancy rates.

Why This Matters Now

The timing of Ellipse’s launch is notable. Multifamily operators are navigating a complex market shaped by:

Increased competition for renters
Rising operational costs
Higher expectations for digital responsiveness

Renters accustomed to instant replies in e-commerce and travel bring those same expectations to housing. Properties that fail to respond quickly risk appearing outdated—or worse, uninterested.

Ellipse addresses that expectation gap directly. By ensuring no inquiry goes unanswered, it turns responsiveness into a competitive advantage rather than a staffing challenge.

From a MarTech perspective, Ellipse also underscores how marketing automation is moving closer to revenue operations. This isn’t about brand awareness or campaign performance—it’s about signed leases and filled units.

The Bigger Picture: Automation as a Revenue Safeguard

H2L Marketing frames Ellipse as a tool to “protect investment,” and that language is telling. In multifamily real estate, vacancy is one of the most expensive problems an owner can face.

Automation that prevents even a small percentage of missed opportunities can have outsized financial impact. A single additional lease per month can easily justify Ellipse’s subscription cost.

That calculus explains why leasing automation is gaining traction while other categories of proptech struggle for adoption. The value is concrete, measurable, and immediate.

Final Take

Ellipse isn’t flashy, and that may be its strength. It targets a mundane but costly problem—missed leasing inquiries—and solves it with always-on automation designed around real-world workflows.

For multifamily operators looking to improve responsiveness without expanding headcount, Ellipse offers a pragmatic answer. And for the MarTech ecosystem, it’s another sign that automation’s future lies not in novelty, but in quietly making money where it’s already being lost.

Get in touch with our MarTech Experts.

marketing 29 Jan 2026

Artificial intelligence has officially crossed the point of no return in marketing. According to Jasper’s newly released 2026 State of AI in Marketing Report, AI is no longer an experimental productivity boost or a “nice-to-have” add-on. It’s now foundational infrastructure—embedded in how marketing teams operate, measure success, and are held accountable.

Just two years ago, most marketing organizations were still testing the waters. In early 2025, many teams were debating whether AI belonged in their workflows at all. That debate is over. In 2026, the question isn’t if marketers use AI, but how well they run it.

Jasper’s report captures this inflection point clearly—and not always comfortably. While adoption has gone nearly universal, the pressure to scale AI responsibly, govern it effectively, and prove business impact has intensified. AI has moved from experimentation to expectation, and with that shift comes scrutiny.

AI Adoption Is Now Table Stakes

The headline number is hard to ignore: 91% of marketing teams now use AI, up sharply from 63% in 2025. What’s more telling is how mature that usage has become. Nearly two-thirds of marketers—63%—now describe their AI maturity as intermediate or advanced, signaling a broad move beyond pilots and isolated use cases.

This maturation reflects a wider industry trend. AI tools are no longer limited to copy drafts or brainstorming sessions. They’re increasingly embedded in content operations, campaign execution, and performance workflows. For many teams, AI access is as assumed as a CMS or analytics platform.

“Our findings capture just how quickly AI in marketing has evolved from experimentation toward measurable business impact,” said Loreal Lynch, CMO at Jasper. “With adoption now table stakes, the advantage is shifting to organizations that run AI with clear ownership, disciplined governance, and meaningful measurement.”

In other words, simply using AI no longer differentiates leaders from laggards. Execution does.

Scale Becomes the New Battleground

As AI use becomes widespread, the competitive edge is shifting to scale—and not just more output, but consistent, high-quality execution.

Jasper’s data shows that scaling high-quality content is now the top AI objective for marketers, and the fastest-growing priority year over year. Compared to 2025, this goal has increased 2.4x, reflecting a shift from experimentation to repeatable production.

This evolution mirrors what many marketing leaders are experiencing firsthand. Early AI wins were often tactical—faster drafts, lower costs, quicker turnaround. Now, organizations want AI systems that can reliably support always-on content engines without degrading brand voice, accuracy, or trust.

That’s a much harder problem to solve. It requires not just better prompts or models, but governance, workflows, and ownership structures that treat AI like core infrastructure rather than a side tool.

ROI: Harder to Prove, More Valuable Than Ever

One of the report’s more counterintuitive findings is that fewer marketers can confidently prove AI ROI than last year. In 2026, just 41% say they can demonstrate clear returns, down from 49% in 2025.

This doesn’t necessarily mean AI is performing worse. Instead, expectations have risen. As AI becomes operational—and often mandatory—leaders are demanding harder evidence of impact, not anecdotal wins.

Among teams that do measure ROI, the results are compelling. Most report returns of 2x or greater on their AI investments, reinforcing the idea that disciplined measurement unlocks confidence and continued investment.

The gap between perceived value and provable value is becoming a fault line. Organizations that fail to connect AI usage to revenue, pipeline, or growth metrics risk seeing their initiatives stall—even as adoption remains high.

Governance Emerges as the Primary Bottleneck

In 2025, AI challenges were scattered: budget limitations, lack of expertise, leadership skepticism. In 2026, the constraints have consolidated—and intensified.

Jasper’s report shows that friction from cross-functional review processes has increased 3.4x year over year, making governance the single biggest blocker to scaling AI. Legal, compliance, and brand teams are now deeply involved in AI oversight, slowing execution but raising accountability.

This shift reflects AI’s new status. When AI-generated content is experimental, risks are tolerated. When it becomes core infrastructure, scrutiny follows.

The implication is clear: organizations that don’t build scalable governance frameworks will struggle to grow AI usage beyond small teams. Manual reviews and ad hoc approvals don’t scale—and marketers are feeling the drag.

The CMO–IC Divide Widens

Another striking insight from the report is the growing disconnect between leadership and frontline marketers.

CMOs report the highest levels of AI maturity, job satisfaction, and ROI confidence, with 61% saying they can prove AI ROI. Among individual contributors, that number drops to just 12%—even as pressure increases for AI usage to be mandatory.

This gap suggests that while AI is delivering strategic value at the top, the operational burden is falling disproportionately on individual marketers. For ICs, AI isn’t optional experimentation anymore—it’s part of the job description, often without clear ownership or support.

The risk here isn’t burnout, but misalignment. Without structure and transparency, AI can feel like surveillance or enforcement rather than empowerment.

AI Disruption Correlates With Satisfaction—With Conditions

Contrary to common fears, AI isn’t broadly burning marketers out. In fact, teams most impacted by AI report the highest job satisfaction, but only when AI is supported by clear structure, governance, and ownership.

Overall, 75% of marketers say AI increased their job satisfaction in 2026, down slightly from 78% in 2025. That modest dip reflects rising accountability rather than declining enthusiasm.

The takeaway is nuanced: AI can be energizing or exhausting depending on how it’s implemented. Structure turns disruption into momentum. Chaos turns it into stress.

Marketing Roles Are Being Redefined

Perhaps the most lasting impact of AI’s rise is how it’s reshaping marketing roles themselves.

According to Jasper, one in three marketers now has AI responsibilities formally built into their role, spanning prompt design, workflow development, and governance. AI fluency is no longer a bonus skill—it’s becoming baseline competence.

The talent implications are significant. 97% of marketers say access to AI factors into their job decisions, and 75% say it’s critical when considering a role. For employers, AI maturity is now part of the employer brand.

This aligns with broader workforce trends across tech and knowledge work, where AI access and enablement increasingly influence retention, recruitment, and satisfaction.

From Efficiency Tool to Competitive Advantage

Jasper positions this moment as a strategic fork in the road. AI can remain a collection of efficiency hacks—or it can become a durable competitive advantage.

“At Jasper, we are focused on helping marketers turn AI into a durable competitive advantage, not just a short-term efficiency gain,” said Timothy Young, CEO of Jasper. “This research reinforces that success with AI now depends on how well teams operationalize it.”

That distinction matters. Efficiency gains are easily replicated. Operational excellence is not.

Organizations that treat AI like infrastructure—complete with governance, ownership, and measurement—are pulling ahead. Those that rely on informal adoption risk stagnation, even as usage remains high.

The Bottom Line

Jasper’s 2026 State of AI in Marketing Report makes one thing unmistakably clear: AI has grown up. It’s embedded, expected, and increasingly evaluated with the same rigor as any other core system.

The winners in this next phase won’t be the teams with the most tools, but those with the clearest operating models. AI leadership now looks less like experimentation and more like execution discipline.

For marketers, the era of “trying AI” is over. The era of running it well has begun.

Get in touch with our MarTech Experts.