Designkit has launched a new AI-powered e-commerce design platform aimed at helping global sellers produce high-quality product visuals faster and at significantly lower cost. The platform combines generative AI image creation with advanced photo editing tools, enabling merchants to generate complete product image sets—including lifestyle visuals, white-background photos, and promotional assets—from a single prompt.

The launch addresses a growing challenge in digital commerce: producing conversion-ready product imagery at scale without the time and cost constraints of traditional photography studios.

High-quality product visuals have become one of the most important conversion factors in online retail. From marketplace listings to social commerce campaigns, compelling imagery often determines whether a shopper clicks “buy.”

However, creating professional product images traditionally requires expensive photography studios, specialized equipment, and long production timelines.

To simplify this process, Designkit has introduced a comprehensive AI-driven design platform that allows sellers to produce e-commerce product visuals in hours instead of days.

The platform combines two integrated toolsets designed to automate the entire product image production workflow.

Generative AI Suite for Product Visual Creation

The first component is Designkit’s Generative AI Suite, which enables sellers to generate complete product listing visuals from a single text prompt.

Using generative AI, the system automatically produces multiple types of product imagery, including:

• white-background product shots
• lifestyle scenes
• product-in-use images
• promotional marketing visuals

This approach allows sellers to rapidly create listing-ready visuals without requiring physical product photoshoots.

The system also supports high-volume batch processing, allowing merchants and agencies to generate imagery for hundreds of products simultaneously.

Built for Global E-Commerce Localization

A key feature of the platform is its localization capability.

Designkit’s AI engine can adapt visuals and product content for different regional markets, supporting five major languages:

• English
• Spanish
• Portuguese
• Chinese
• Indonesian

Localization extends beyond translation, enabling the system to adjust visual style, layout preferences, and cultural design elements to align with regional consumer expectations.

For global sellers operating on platforms like Amazon, Shopify, and Walmart Marketplace, this functionality can significantly accelerate international product launches.

Specialized AI Tools for E-Commerce Content

The generative suite includes several specialized tools designed for different product categories and marketing formats.

These include:

AI Fashion Model Generator
Allows apparel brands to generate virtual models and create try-on visuals without physical photoshoots.

AI Product Photography Generator
Creates realistic product backgrounds instantly, eliminating the need for studio photography.

Product Video Generator
Enables sellers to create short promotional videos optimized for social commerce platforms like TikTok and Instagram.

AI Product Detail Page Design
Automatically generates A+ style product detail pages for marketplace listings.

These tools allow merchants to create complete visual merchandising assets for product listings and marketing campaigns.

AI Photo Editor Suite for Final Optimization

In addition to generative design capabilities, the platform also includes an AI Photo Editor Suite for refining images.

The editing suite features five core tools:

• background remover
• background generator
• object remover
• image enhancement tools
• text and design element integration

These tools allow sellers to finalize images for publication across marketplaces and digital storefronts.

The integrated workflow helps compress image production timelines from days to hours.

Why Product Visuals Matter for E-Commerce Conversion

Product imagery has become increasingly important as online shopping continues to grow globally.

According to research from Statista, global e-commerce sales are expected to surpass $6 trillion annually within the next few years, intensifying competition among online retailers.

Studies from Baymard Institute also show that high-quality product images significantly improve customer confidence and reduce return rates by helping shoppers better understand product features.

For merchants managing hundreds or thousands of SKUs, scalable visual content production is becoming a critical operational challenge.

AI-powered design platforms aim to solve that problem by automating the creation and optimization of product visuals.

Toward an Operating System for the Digital Shelf

According to Designkit’s leadership, the company plans to expand the platform beyond image generation and editing.

Future product updates are expected to include:

• automated product description generation
• marketplace compliance checks
• listing optimization tools
• enhanced product content localization

The long-term goal is to develop a comprehensive operating system for digital retail listings, helping sellers manage all aspects of visual and content merchandising.

Key Insights

• Designkit has launched a global AI-powered platform designed to automate e-commerce product visual creation.
• The platform includes a Generative AI Suite for image generation and an AI Photo Editor Suite for image refinement.
• Merchants can generate full product listing visuals—including lifestyle images and marketing assets—from a single prompt.
• Localization features support multiple languages and regional design preferences.
• The platform aims to evolve into a broader digital shelf management system for global e-commerce sellers.

Get in touch with our MarTech Experts.

AcquireUp has released its 2026 Industry Index, revealing how financial advisors are modernizing client acquisition strategies by combining traditional referral marketing and educational seminars with automation and AI tools. Based on insights from more than 500 financial professionals, the report highlights how advisors are building repeatable growth systems to generate new client relationships and net new assets while operating with lean teams.

The findings underscore a key industry shift: rather than relying solely on digital advertising or aggressive lead-generation tactics, many advisors are focusing on structured referral programs, event-driven engagement, and automation-powered marketing workflows.

Client acquisition remains one of the most critical challenges for financial advisors seeking sustainable business growth.

According to the 2026 Industry Index from AcquireUp, roughly 66% of financial professionals plan to grow their client base within the next three years. However, many firms must pursue that growth with limited marketing resources and small internal teams.

The report suggests that success is increasingly tied to systematizing proven client acquisition channels rather than experimenting with entirely new marketing strategies.

Referrals Still Deliver the Highest ROI

Despite the expansion of digital marketing tools, referrals remain the most powerful client acquisition channel for financial advisors.

The study found that 48% of financial professionals identify networking and referrals as their highest-return growth channel.

However, there is a significant gap between reliance on referrals and structured programs designed to support them.

The research revealed that 52% of advisors do not have a formal referral program, meaning many firms depend on informal client recommendations rather than consistent referral systems.

According to Greg Bogich, CEO of AcquireUp, the issue for many advisors is not a lack of leads but a lack of consistent processes.

Advisors who build structured systems around referrals and follow-up communication often see more predictable growth in client acquisition.

Automation and Technology Expand Advisor Capacity

Technology is playing a growing role in helping advisors scale marketing and client engagement without expanding headcount.

The report found that 41% of advisors plan to adopt technology tools to automate marketing activities, client communication, and operational processes.

Automation tools are commonly used for:

• email marketing campaigns
• client follow-ups
• appointment scheduling
• marketing workflow management

These technologies allow advisors to streamline administrative tasks while dedicating more time to strategic client conversations.

Major financial services technology platforms such as Salesforce and HubSpot have introduced automation tools specifically designed for financial advisory firms.

Seminars Continue to Generate Qualified Prospects

Educational seminars remain a core part of many financial advisors’ client acquisition strategies.

The report indicates that seminar-based marketing contributes roughly 25% of benchmark production among advisors who use event-based marketing strategies.

These seminars typically involve educational presentations about financial planning, retirement strategies, or investment management.

They are often hosted in community venues or restaurants, creating a trust-focused environment where prospective clients can interact directly with advisors.

Hybrid engagement models are also becoming common. The study found that 34% of advisors conduct more than half of their business online, combining digital meetings with in-person events.

This blended strategy enables advisors to maintain personal relationships while reaching a broader audience.

AI Supports Marketing and Operations

Artificial intelligence is also gaining traction among financial professionals.

The report shows that 40% of advisors are now using AI tools, primarily for marketing support, operational efficiency, and communication management.

Common AI applications include:

• marketing content generation
• email communication automation
• CRM data analysis
• workflow optimization

However, technology is not replacing human interaction in financial advisory relationships.

Nearly 47% of advisors say managing client emotions and expectations during market volatility remains their biggest relationship challenge.

This highlights the continued importance of trust and personal judgment in financial services.

Building Repeatable Growth Systems

The report concludes that the next phase of advisor growth will be driven by building structured systems around strategies that already work.

These systems typically include:

• formal referral programs
• repeatable seminar marketing frameworks
• automated follow-up processes
• CRM-driven client relationship management

By combining trusted relationship-building strategies with modern marketing technology, advisors can create predictable and scalable client acquisition models.

AcquireUp’s platform aims to help financial advisors turn these strategies into repeatable growth engines that generate consistent lead flow and long-term client relationships.

Key Insights

• AcquireUp’s 2026 Industry Index surveyed more than 500 financial professionals about client acquisition strategies.
• Referrals remain the most effective growth channel, yet more than half of advisors lack formal referral programs.
• Automation and marketing technology are helping advisors scale operations without expanding teams.
• Educational seminars continue to generate qualified leads and account for a meaningful share of advisor production.
• AI is increasingly used to support marketing and operations, though human relationships remain central to financial advice.

Get in touch with our MarTech Experts.

Enterprise software vendors often talk about artificial intelligence transforming the workplace. Fewer demonstrate what that transformation looks like at scale.

At Automation Anywhere, the shift toward AI-driven operations has become central to the company’s internal strategy—and that effort has now received industry recognition.

Kapil Vyas, Chief Information Officer at Automation Anywhere, has been named a 2026 CIO 100 Award winner by CIO, marking the third consecutive year he has received the honor. The award recognizes technology leaders who drive measurable business transformation through IT innovation.

For Automation Anywhere, the recognition highlights a multi-year transition from early experimentation with generative AI to what the company describes as operating as an “Autonomous Enterprise.” The concept centers on a hybrid workforce where human employees collaborate with AI agents embedded into business processes.

While enterprise AI adoption is accelerating across industries, the company’s internal transformation reflects a broader shift underway in how organizations deploy Marketing automation, manage workflows, and structure digital infrastructure.

From Early AI Experiments to Enterprise Autonomy

Automation Anywhere’s journey toward an AI-first operating model began several years ago, before generative AI tools became mainstream in enterprise software.

The first phase focused on governance and experimentation. In 2024, the company established internal frameworks designed to guide responsible AI adoption. An internal AI council was formed to evaluate use cases, assess risk, and ensure that automation initiatives aligned with business priorities.

Early deployments focused on low-risk, process-level automation. These projects tested generative AI capabilities in controlled environments and provided data to determine where AI could meaningfully improve operational efficiency.

By 2025, the company shifted from experimentation toward scaled implementation. Instead of isolated pilot programs, AI-powered automation began expanding across core business functions including finance, IT operations, sales processes, and customer service workflows.

At that stage, the company began redesigning end-to-end workflows rather than automating individual tasks. The shift marked a critical step toward integrating AI agents directly into day-to-day operations.

Today, the company describes itself as operating under a hybrid model where humans and AI systems collaborate across departments.

Agentic Automation Moves Into the Enterprise Core

The transformation underway at Automation Anywhere reflects a growing enterprise trend toward agentic automation—a new category of AI-driven systems capable of executing tasks, interacting with software environments, and making decisions within defined operational frameworks.

Unlike traditional robotic process automation (RPA), which typically follows fixed rule-based scripts, agentic systems are designed to adapt to changing inputs and complex workflows.

The company’s platform for Agentic Process Automation (APA) combines automation infrastructure with generative AI capabilities to create digital agents capable of supporting enterprise tasks.

Within Automation Anywhere’s own operations, those systems now support work across several departments:

Finance operations
IT service management
Sales pipeline processes
Customer support interactions

The deployment reflects a shift away from automation as a back-office efficiency tool toward AI systems that actively participate in business operations.

According to company data, more than 90 percent of employees now use AI-powered tools or agentic systems as part of their daily workflows.

More than 90 agentic automations have been deployed internally, supporting thousands of operational processes.

The Rise of the Hybrid Workforce

One of the most visible outcomes of the transformation is the emergence of what the company calls a “hybrid workforce.”

In this model, human employees collaborate with AI agents responsible for executing routine tasks, analyzing operational data, and managing workflow steps.

The approach reflects a broader shift underway across enterprise IT organizations as AI tools move beyond analytics into operational execution.

Automation Anywhere reports that approximately 20 percent of its workforce activities are now supported by AI agents, compared with roughly 6 percent in 2024.

The shift has returned hundreds of thousands of working hours annually through automation initiatives.

At the same time, the company says it has seen up to 15x return on investment from certain AI deployments, significantly higher than the 2–3x ROI typically associated with traditional automation tools.

The operational impact extends beyond productivity. According to the company, AI-driven automation has also enabled a 25–30 percent reduction in software licensing costs and IT spending, as AI systems take on tasks previously handled by standalone SaaS tools.

Automation Anywhere’s “Customer Zero” Strategy

Many enterprise technology vendors test their own products internally before offering them to customers—a strategy sometimes referred to as “Customer Zero.”

Automation Anywhere has used that approach extensively during its AI transformation.

The company implemented its automation and agentic AI systems internally first, using real business operations as testing environments before scaling solutions externally.

This approach allowed the company to address common enterprise AI challenges including:

system integration across legacy platforms
AI governance and compliance oversight
employee adoption and change management
demonstrating measurable ROI from automation investments

Lessons learned from these deployments led to the creation of an AI maturity model and a five-pillar operating framework designed to help enterprises scale AI initiatives beyond early experimentation.

The framework focuses on governance, operational integration, workforce collaboration, performance measurement, and long-term automation strategy.

For organizations navigating similar transitions, these operational models provide guidance on how to expand AI deployments across multiple departments without creating fragmented technology environments.

AI Adoption Accelerates Across Enterprise IT

Automation Anywhere’s internal transformation reflects a larger industry shift as enterprises move rapidly to adopt generative AI and automation technologies.

Large technology companies including Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Salesforce, and Adobe are integrating generative AI into enterprise software platforms ranging from productivity suites to customer data systems.

At the same time, automation technologies are evolving beyond traditional robotic process automation toward AI agents capable of reasoning and adapting to dynamic environments.

Research from Gartner suggests the shift toward autonomous and semi-autonomous systems could redefine enterprise operations over the next decade.

The firm estimates that by 2028, a significant portion of enterprise workflows will involve AI-driven decision systems operating alongside human employees.

Meanwhile, McKinsey & Company reports that generative AI could add between $2.6 trillion and $4.4 trillion in annual economic value globally, largely through productivity improvements across knowledge work.

These trends suggest that enterprises will increasingly treat AI as a foundational operational layer rather than a standalone analytics capability.

The Bigger Picture: Automation and the Future of Work

The emergence of AI-powered enterprise systems is reshaping how organizations think about digital infrastructure.

In earlier waves of automation, companies focused primarily on reducing manual processes through scripting or robotic automation.

The current wave is different. AI systems can interpret language, analyze context, and interact with complex software environments, allowing them to support higher-level operational tasks.

As these systems mature, enterprise leaders are beginning to rethink how work itself is structured.

Instead of assigning tasks exclusively to human employees, organizations are exploring models where AI agents manage operational workflows while people focus on strategic decision-making, oversight, and creative work.

This shift raises new questions around governance, accountability, and performance measurement.

IT departments increasingly find themselves responsible not just for deploying technology systems but for orchestrating how work flows between human teams and digital agents.

For companies exploring similar transitions, Automation Anywhere’s internal transformation provides an early example of how enterprises may structure these hybrid operational models.

Top Insights

• Automation Anywhere CIO Kapil Vyas won the 2026 CIO 100 Award for leading a multi-year enterprise transformation centered on AI-driven automation and hybrid human-AI workforce operations.

• The company has deployed more than 90 agentic automations internally, with over 90 percent of employees actively using AI tools across finance, IT, sales, and customer support workflows.

• Automation Anywhere reports up to 15x ROI from certain AI deployments, alongside a 25–30 percent reduction in software licensing and IT spending through agentic automation.

• The company’s AI maturity model and five-pillar framework aim to help enterprises move from early AI experimentation toward fully scaled autonomous operations.

• The transformation highlights a broader shift in enterprise technology where AI agents increasingly augment employee workflows and reshape operational infrastructure.

Get in touch with our MarTech Experts.

Event marketing has quietly become one of the most data-rich — and strategically important — components of the modern B2B marketing stack. As enterprises increasingly rely on events to generate pipeline, capture customer insights, and nurture relationships, the technology behind event management platforms is evolving rapidly.

In the latest industry evaluation, RainFocus has been positioned as a Leader in the Gartner 2026 Magic Quadrant for Event Marketing and Management Platforms, marking the third consecutive year the company has appeared in the report’s leadership quadrant.

According to Gartner’s analysis, leaders in the Magic Quadrant demonstrate strong execution capabilities while also presenting a compelling vision for the future of the market. RainFocus was also noted for having the furthest position for Completeness of Vision among the evaluated vendors, signaling the firm’s strategic direction in a rapidly evolving event technology ecosystem.

The recognition arrives at a time when enterprise organizations are rethinking the role of events—not simply as logistical gatherings but as critical engines for customer engagement, data generation, and revenue growth.

Event Technology Moves Toward Data and AI

The market for event marketing and management platforms has expanded dramatically in recent years as enterprises shift toward digital-first and hybrid engagement strategies.

Historically, event platforms focused primarily on operational tasks such as attendee registration, agenda management, ticketing, and venue coordination. While these capabilities remain essential, the modern enterprise event stack now integrates marketing automation, CRM systems, analytics platforms, and customer data environments.

Platforms like RainFocus are increasingly designed to function as part of a broader marketing technology infrastructure.

According to Gartner’s evaluation, vendors in the event marketing platform category must demonstrate capabilities across several core areas:

• attendee and registration management
• event analytics and reporting
• integrations with martech platforms
• hybrid and virtual event support
• customer journey data collection

These capabilities allow organizations to capture behavioral insights from events and feed that information back into broader marketing and sales systems.

For enterprise marketing teams, this shift turns events into a strategic source of intent data—signals that help identify potential buyers, measure engagement, and refine targeting strategies.

RainFocus Expands AI Capabilities with Nexus Framework

A major factor influencing RainFocus’s market positioning is its recent push into artificial intelligence–driven event infrastructure.

The company recently introduced RainFocus Nexus, an AI framework designed to support event marketing programs with autonomous agents that assist across the event lifecycle.

The framework introduces a suite of AI-powered agents capable of supporting operational tasks such as:

• event planning workflows
• attendee engagement personalization
• event data analysis and insights
• marketing automation coordination

Unlike traditional SaaS-based event platforms that rely solely on built-in infrastructure, the RainFocus architecture follows a cloud-agnostic approach, allowing organizations to integrate the platform within their existing enterprise technology stacks.

This design enables companies to deploy Nexus AI agents using their preferred cloud environments or data platforms rather than adopting a rigid infrastructure model.

The flexibility is particularly relevant for large enterprises that operate complex marketing environments built on systems from vendors such as Salesforce, Adobe, Microsoft, and Amazon.

By integrating with existing enterprise stacks, RainFocus aims to position event marketing data as a core component of customer intelligence systems.

Why Event Data Is Becoming Strategic

Enterprise marketing leaders increasingly view events as high-value data environments.

Compared with traditional digital marketing channels, events generate deeper signals about customer intent, engagement levels, and product interest.

During conferences, webinars, and customer gatherings, attendees interact with content sessions, speakers, product demonstrations, and networking experiences. Each interaction provides insight into buyer behavior.

RainFocus has focused heavily on capturing this contextual data and connecting it with broader marketing and sales systems.

The result is a more unified view of the customer journey.

Instead of treating events as isolated marketing activities, enterprises can integrate event data with CRM systems, marketing automation platforms, and customer data platforms.

That integration allows marketing teams to identify high-intent prospects more accurately and deliver personalized follow-up engagement.

In an era where privacy regulations and cookie restrictions are limiting third-party tracking capabilities, first-party engagement data from events has become increasingly valuable.

Enterprise Demand for Event Platforms Continues to Grow

The event marketing technology market has experienced rapid growth as organizations expand hybrid engagement strategies.

Industry research from Statista estimates the global event management software market will surpass $14 billion by 2028, reflecting strong demand from enterprises investing in digital engagement tools.

Meanwhile, research from Forrester indicates that B2B organizations increasingly rely on events as one of the highest-performing channels for pipeline generation.

Events frequently produce higher engagement and conversion rates compared with digital advertising campaigns because they foster deeper interaction between brands and prospects.

As a result, marketing leaders are looking for platforms capable of capturing event interactions and translating them into actionable customer insights.

Customer Experience Becomes a Key Differentiator

Beyond technology capabilities, the competitive landscape in the event platform market increasingly revolves around customer experience.

According to feedback collected through Gartner Peer Insights, enterprise users have highlighted RainFocus for both platform capabilities and customer support.

One enterprise marketing director described the platform as “the best software for comprehensive event management,” citing its ability to manage complex event programs across large organizations.

Another reviewer highlighted the platform’s support experience, noting that strong customer service played a major role in maximizing the value of the platform.

Such feedback is particularly important in enterprise software markets where implementation complexity and long deployment cycles can impact adoption success.

The Bigger Picture: Events Become a Core Marketing Intelligence Channel

The growing prominence of event marketing platforms reflects a broader transformation underway across B2B marketing technology.

In the past decade, marketing infrastructure has evolved from fragmented point solutions toward integrated data ecosystems.

Customer data platforms, marketing automation tools, and analytics platforms now form the foundation of enterprise marketing operations.

Events are increasingly being integrated into that architecture.

Rather than serving purely logistical roles, modern event platforms act as customer intelligence hubs, capturing behavioral data that informs marketing campaigns, sales outreach, and product strategy.

At the same time, artificial intelligence is beginning to automate aspects of event management—from personalized session recommendations to post-event engagement analysis.

For vendors like RainFocus, the challenge is not only delivering operational functionality but also helping enterprises transform event programs into strategic data engines.

Recognition in the Gartner Magic Quadrant signals that the company’s vision aligns with where the market is heading.

Top Insights

• RainFocus was named a Leader in the 2026 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Event Marketing and Management Platforms, marking the third consecutive year the company has appeared in the leadership quadrant.

• Gartner noted RainFocus as having the furthest position for Completeness of Vision among evaluated vendors, highlighting its strategic direction in AI-driven event marketing platforms.

• The company’s RainFocus Nexus framework introduces AI agents designed to automate event planning, engagement, analytics, and marketing coordination across enterprise event programs.

• Event marketing platforms are evolving into customer data engines that capture high-intent behavioral signals across conferences, webinars, and hybrid engagement experiences.

• Growing enterprise investment in event technology reflects broader marketing trends focused on first-party data strategies, AI-powered engagement, and integrated marketing infrastructure.

Get in touch with our MarTech Experts.

Healthcare organizations are navigating a period of rapid transformation driven by digital innovation, regulatory complexity, and rising demand for data-driven growth strategies. Against this backdrop, consulting and advisory firms specializing in healthcare strategy are expanding leadership teams to help clients adapt to the changing landscape.

Sage Growth Partners has appointed veteran healthcare strategist Jason Baim as the head of the firm’s strategy practice, a move aimed at strengthening its advisory capabilities for healthcare technology companies and provider organizations.

In his new role, Baim will oversee Sage’s growth strategy and advisory services, helping healthcare organizations develop data-driven strategies for market expansion, product positioning, and revenue growth.

The appointment reflects a broader trend across healthcare consulting and marketing firms as demand increases for strategic guidance in a sector shaped by digital transformation, value-based care models, and evolving healthcare technology ecosystems.

Leadership Expansion as Healthcare Strategy Becomes More Complex

Healthcare providers, technology vendors, and digital health startups face mounting pressure to differentiate products and services while responding to regulatory changes, reimbursement shifts, and emerging technologies.

For many organizations, this complexity has increased reliance on external advisory firms specializing in healthcare growth strategy and commercialization.

Baim’s appointment is intended to expand Sage Growth Partners’ capabilities in helping clients navigate these challenges.

The company’s chief executive officer, Dan D'Orazio, described the leadership addition as part of the firm’s effort to strengthen strategic advisory services during a period of industry change.

Healthcare technology companies and provider organizations are increasingly seeking guidance on how to scale offerings, expand into new markets, and communicate value propositions in competitive healthcare markets.

According to D’Orazio, Baim’s experience across strategy, innovation, and commercialization positions him to help clients translate insights into actionable growth strategies.

A Career Spanning Healthcare Technology and Strategy

Before joining Sage Growth Partners, Baim held several senior leadership roles across the healthcare technology sector.

Most recently, he served as president of the care and outcomes business at Radicle Health, where he oversaw operations focused on technology solutions supporting healthcare and human services organizations.

Earlier, Baim served as chief strategy and corporate development officer at Net Health, a provider of specialty electronic health record (EHR) solutions used by healthcare providers across multiple care settings.

In that role, he led strategic initiatives including mergers and acquisitions, market expansion strategies, and long-term business planning.

His background also includes product leadership positions at TeleTracking Technologies and Dell EMC, where he worked on technology platforms supporting healthcare and enterprise IT environments.

The combination of product leadership, strategy development, and healthcare technology experience provides a perspective shaped by both operational execution and long-term strategic planning.

Baim earned his MBA from the University of Michigan Ross School of Business, where he studied management strategy and business innovation.

Transition in Sage’s Strategy Leadership

Baim’s appointment also marks a leadership transition within the firm’s strategy practice.

Stephanie Kovalick, who has led Sage Growth Partners’ strategy practice for the past decade, is moving into a senior advisor role within the organization.

During her tenure, Kovalick helped build the firm’s advisory practice and worked with healthcare organizations on market strategy, brand positioning, and growth planning.

Under the new structure, she will remain actively engaged with clients while continuing to contribute to the firm’s leadership initiatives.

The leadership transition is intended to maintain continuity within the strategy practice while introducing new perspectives aligned with evolving healthcare market dynamics.

According to Boh Hatter, the transition positions the firm to continue expanding its strategic advisory services while maintaining the institutional knowledge developed over the past decade.

The Bigger Picture: Healthcare Strategy Firms Adapt to Industry Change

The leadership changes at Sage Growth Partners highlight the growing importance of strategic advisory services in the healthcare sector.

Healthcare markets are undergoing structural changes driven by several major trends:

• digital health technology adoption
• growth of healthcare data analytics
• increasing role of AI in clinical and operational systems
• shift toward value-based care models
• consolidation across healthcare providers and technology vendors

These developments are reshaping how healthcare organizations approach product development, marketing, and growth strategies.

Research from McKinsey & Company suggests that digital health investment has grown significantly over the past decade, with healthcare organizations accelerating technology adoption across telehealth, analytics, and patient engagement platforms.

Meanwhile, data from Statista indicates that global digital health markets could exceed $650 billion by the end of the decade, highlighting the scale of transformation underway.

As healthcare organizations adopt new technologies and business models, they increasingly require strategic guidance to navigate complex competitive environments.

Advisory firms like Sage Growth Partners aim to help organizations align product innovation, marketing strategy, and operational growth with evolving healthcare market demands.

Top Insights

• Sage Growth Partners has appointed healthcare strategist Jason Baim as head of its strategy practice to strengthen advisory services for healthcare technology companies and provider organizations navigating complex market dynamics.

• Baim brings experience from leadership roles at Radicle Health, Net Health, TeleTracking Technologies, and Dell EMC, with expertise in strategy development, market expansion, and healthcare technology commercialization.

• The appointment comes as healthcare organizations face growing pressure to differentiate offerings, scale digital health platforms, and develop data-driven growth strategies.

• Stephanie Kovalick, who led the strategy practice for a decade, will transition into a senior advisor role while continuing to support client engagements and leadership initiatives.

• Increasing digital health investment and healthcare technology innovation are driving demand for strategic advisory services across providers, software vendors, and healthcare startups.

Get in touch with our MarTech Experts.

Financial planning and analysis (FP&A) teams have long relied on spreadsheets, disconnected reporting tools, and manual workflows to translate financial data into insights. For many mid-market organizations, that process often requires exporting planning data into separate business intelligence systems before executives can visualize performance metrics.

Centage is attempting to close that gap with a major upgrade to its analytics capabilities. The company announced enhanced dashboard functionality within its FP&A platform, positioning the release as the first step toward embedding business intelligence directly into financial planning workflows.

The update introduces real-time, customizable dashboards designed to provide finance teams with deeper visibility into operational and financial data without requiring external BI tools. The dashboards also lay the groundwork for a broader roadmap that will introduce AI-powered analytics and automated insights later in the year.

For finance teams operating in mid-market organizations, the shift could reduce the friction between planning, analysis, and executive reporting.

Bridging the Gap Between Planning Tools and Business Intelligence

Traditional FP&A workflows frequently involve multiple systems. Finance teams create budgets and forecasts within planning tools, export financial data to spreadsheets, and then rebuild reports in separate BI platforms before presenting insights to leadership.

This fragmented workflow creates inefficiencies that many organizations accept as part of financial planning.

Centage’s new dashboard functionality aims to consolidate those steps within a single environment.

The updated dashboards allow finance professionals to build visual reports directly inside the platform, pulling real-time data from integrated enterprise systems. Executives can access dashboards without waiting for manual report preparation or data refreshes before meetings.

The change represents a broader evolution in finance technology where analytics capabilities are increasingly integrated into operational platforms rather than delivered through separate reporting systems.

A Series of AI Releases Leading to Embedded BI

The dashboard launch is part of a larger product roadmap that Centage has been executing throughout 2026.

Earlier this year, the company introduced an AI Integration Framework designed to simplify ERP system connectivity. The feature uses generative AI to automatically generate custom integration code for enterprise resource planning systems, reducing onboarding timelines from several weeks to a few days.

ERP integration has historically been one of the biggest obstacles for FP&A software adoption. Finance teams often wait weeks for technical teams to build data pipelines between systems.

With the AI Integration Framework, Centage says onboarding timelines can drop from eight to twelve weeks down to roughly 48 to 72 hours, allowing organizations to start analyzing financial data sooner.

Another release earlier this year introduced AI Account Group Mapping, a feature designed to streamline general ledger configuration.

Finance teams typically spend weeks mapping general ledger accounts when implementing planning software. The AI-powered mapping tool reduces that process to a single automated step, allowing the system to categorize accounts in minutes.

Together, those updates signal a broader strategy focused on reducing manual configuration and accelerating financial data accessibility.

Real-Time Dashboards Become the Foundation Layer

The newly released dashboards expand on those AI-driven capabilities by introducing a visual analytics layer directly inside the FP&A platform.

The updated interface includes:

• customizable data visualizations
• real-time financial metrics
• streamlined connections to ERP systems
• dashboards designed for both analysts and executives

The platform integrates with widely used enterprise systems including NetSuite and other financial data sources, allowing organizations to visualize operational performance alongside financial planning models.

Finance teams can now create executive-ready dashboards without exporting data into presentation tools or rebuilding reports manually.

The release also reflects a design shift toward user experiences that serve both analysts building financial models and executives consuming summarized insights.

In practice, that means finance leaders can access live financial metrics without waiting for periodic reporting cycles.

A Product Strategy Focused on Continuous Delivery

The dashboard update is the latest in a series of product releases from Centage over the past year.

In March 2025, the company introduced Worksheets, a feature designed to replicate the flexibility of spreadsheet modeling within a governed planning environment. The feature allows finance teams to perform familiar spreadsheet-style analysis while maintaining centralized data control.

Another release, the Spread Method Wizard, introduced a visual workflow designed to simplify budgeting allocations—one of the more repetitive tasks in financial planning.

Meanwhile, real-time payroll integrations connected workforce data directly to planning models. Because labor costs often represent the largest operational expense for many organizations, direct payroll integration allows finance teams to model workforce changes more accurately.

The platform also introduced Maestro, an AI-powered FP&A assistant designed to help finance professionals navigate financial models, locate data, and surface insights faster.

These releases collectively illustrate the company’s broader strategy: combine automation, AI capabilities, and usability improvements to simplify financial planning workflows.

Finance Software Enters the Era of Embedded Intelligence

Centage’s roadmap aligns with a broader shift underway across enterprise software platforms.

Historically, companies relied on dedicated BI tools for analytics and visualization. Platforms such as Microsoft’s Power BI, Tableau, and Qlik became essential tools for transforming raw data into insights.

But a growing number of software vendors are embedding analytics directly into operational applications.

The approach—often described as embedded business intelligence—allows users to analyze data within the context of the systems where that data originates.

In finance software, this trend means planning platforms are beginning to incorporate visualization, reporting, and predictive analytics capabilities that previously required separate tools.

The result is a more integrated workflow where planning, reporting, and analysis occur in the same environment.

The Bigger Picture: AI Reshapes Financial Planning Tools

The push toward embedded BI also reflects broader changes in enterprise finance technology.

Finance teams increasingly expect planning tools to deliver real-time insights rather than static reports.

According to research from Gartner, organizations are investing heavily in advanced analytics capabilities that allow finance departments to move from historical reporting toward predictive forecasting and scenario modeling.

Meanwhile, IDC estimates that global spending on analytics and business intelligence platforms continues to grow steadily as companies prioritize data-driven decision-making.

Artificial intelligence is accelerating this transition.

AI-driven analytics tools can automatically detect patterns, flag anomalies, and generate recommendations based on financial data. Instead of manually analyzing spreadsheets, finance professionals increasingly rely on automated systems that surface insights in real time.

Centage’s roadmap suggests the company aims to integrate these capabilities directly into its FP&A platform.

Upcoming releases include mobile dashboards that allow finance leaders to access reports on the go and AI-powered analytics designed to identify trends or anomalies within financial data automatically.

Top Insights

• Centage has launched enhanced real-time dashboards designed to embed business intelligence capabilities directly into its FP&A platform for mid-market finance teams.

• The dashboard update builds on earlier 2026 releases including the AI Integration Framework and AI Account Group Mapping, both designed to accelerate ERP integration and financial data setup.

• The new dashboards allow finance teams to create executive-ready visual reports directly within the platform without exporting data into separate BI or presentation tools.

• The release establishes the foundation for upcoming AI-powered analytics capabilities that will surface trends, anomalies, and strategic insights from financial data.

• Embedded business intelligence is emerging as a key trend in enterprise software as companies integrate analytics directly into operational platforms.

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Global B2B companies remain optimistic about growth, yet many are struggling to translate ambition into results. A new industry survey suggests the gap between expectations and actual performance is widening as companies grapple with artificial intelligence adoption challenges and rising geopolitical uncertainty.

Research from Bain & Company shows that a growing share of companies are failing to meet revenue targets despite strong confidence among leadership teams. The firm’s 2026 B2B Growth Agenda report, based on responses from more than 1,100 senior executives across 18 industries worldwide, highlights how technological disruption and volatile economic conditions are reshaping commercial strategy.

The findings reveal a striking contradiction: while 91% of executives believe they will achieve their 2026 growth goals, a growing number missed targets the year before.

In 2025, 42% of companies failed to reach revenue goals, up sharply from 32% in 2024, even though the majority of leaders had expected to succeed.

The results illustrate how quickly market conditions—and the technology shaping them—are evolving.

Confidence Remains High Despite Recent Missed Targets

The survey results show that executive optimism remains strong despite recent setbacks.

Nearly nine out of ten leaders expected their companies to hit growth targets in 2025. Yet the percentage of companies falling short rose significantly compared with the previous year.

According to Bain, companies are projecting 20% higher revenue growth expectations for 2026 compared with last year. Still, the growing gap between expectations and outcomes suggests many organizations may be underestimating the operational changes required to succeed in increasingly dynamic markets.

Industry analysts point to several factors driving the disconnect, including rapid technological change, macroeconomic uncertainty, and shifting buyer behavior in B2B markets.

Jamie Cleghorn, global head of Bain’s customer practice, described volatility as a permanent condition rather than a temporary disruption.

Executives, he said, are often setting aggressive growth targets while relying on commercial operating models that were designed for slower-moving markets.

As technology innovation accelerates and competitive landscapes evolve, companies are finding that traditional sales and marketing systems struggle to adapt quickly enough.

Artificial Intelligence Becomes a Growth Imperative

Artificial intelligence has become one of the most prominent themes in corporate growth strategies.

According to Bain’s research, 90% of surveyed companies are experimenting with AI technologies across functions such as marketing, sales, operations, and customer service.

Yet the results remain inconsistent.

Nearly 60% of executives say their organizations lack the data infrastructure or technology foundation necessary to scale AI effectively.

Without those capabilities, many AI initiatives remain experimental rather than operational.

Leading companies, however, appear to be approaching AI adoption differently.

Instead of deploying isolated use cases, high-performing organizations are redesigning their commercial processes end to end. AI is embedded directly into workflows—from lead generation and demand forecasting to pricing strategies and sales operations.

These organizations report twice the AI-driven revenue growth and roughly 1.8 times higher cost efficiency compared with peers.

The difference, according to Bain researchers, lies in operational integration rather than experimentation.

Companies that treat AI as a core infrastructure capability—not a standalone tool—are better positioned to translate technology investments into measurable business outcomes.

Legacy Workflows Remain a Barrier to AI Adoption

One of the most persistent obstacles to AI adoption is the complexity of legacy business processes.

Many B2B organizations still rely on fragmented systems, manual workflows, and inconsistent data environments.

These operational limitations make it difficult to deploy AI tools that require structured data and standardized processes.

Rob Stein, a partner in Bain’s Customer Strategy and Marketing practice, said companies must first simplify and standardize commercial operations before AI can deliver meaningful impact.

Without that foundation, automation and machine learning technologies struggle to scale.

In practical terms, this means organizations must rethink how their go-to-market teams operate.

Processes such as lead qualification, sales pipeline management, pricing decisions, and customer engagement workflows often require modernization before AI systems can enhance them.

Companies that successfully combine process redesign, targeted AI use cases, and structured change management programs tend to capture the most value from AI initiatives.

A Surprising Weakness: Differentiation

Perhaps the most striking finding in Bain’s research involves competitive positioning.

Despite intense competition across nearly every industry, very few companies believe they have a clearly defined value proposition.

Only 4% of executives surveyed said their organization has a strong, consistently understood value proposition.

For many companies, the challenge lies in articulating how their products or services are meaningfully different from competitors.

Nearly half of respondents cited product or service differentiation as the biggest barrier to growth.

The performance impact of differentiation appears significant.

Companies with a clear value proposition achieved 19% revenue growth in 2025, compared with 12% for those without one.

The findings suggest that strategic messaging—how companies communicate their value to customers—remains a critical driver of growth.

Brand perception also plays an increasingly important role in B2B markets.

Nearly 40% of revenue and margin leaders said brand reputation is a major factor in winning and expanding customer relationships.

That trend highlights the growing importance of demand generation, brand marketing, and early-stage buyer engagement.

Industry Impacts Vary Across Sectors

The challenges facing B2B companies are not uniform across industries.

Bain’s research indicates that different sectors are responding to volatility in distinct ways.

In healthcare and life sciences, companies are dealing with persistent pricing pressures and regulatory constraints. Organizations in these sectors are focusing on operational efficiency and innovation to maintain margins.

Technology, media, and telecommunications companies face a different challenge: intense competition and rapidly evolving customer expectations. These organizations are prioritizing customer acquisition and retention strategies while investing heavily in AI and digital platforms.

Meanwhile, financial institutions—including banks—are emphasizing sales productivity and modernization of go-to-market technologies to remain competitive in uncertain economic conditions.

Industrial sectors such as advanced manufacturing, aerospace, logistics, and building products are also experiencing growing operational complexity.

Global supply chains, geopolitical risks, and fluctuating demand patterns are forcing companies in these industries to rethink commercial planning and execution.

The Bigger Picture: A New Commercial Playbook Emerges

The findings from Bain’s research reflect a broader shift in how companies approach growth.

Traditional sales and marketing strategies were designed for relatively stable markets. Today’s environment, however, is defined by rapid technological change, geopolitical uncertainty, and increasingly sophisticated buyers.

To adapt, organizations must develop more flexible commercial operating models.

These models rely heavily on data analytics, AI-driven insights, and agile decision-making frameworks.

Industry analysts at Gartner and Forrester have similarly noted that B2B organizations are investing heavily in advanced analytics and AI-enabled revenue platforms.

The goal is to create systems capable of translating real-time market signals into actionable strategies.

Companies that succeed in this AI transformation often focus on three priorities:

• modernizing commercial technology stacks
• embedding AI into everyday decision-making
• strengthening brand differentiation and customer engagement

Together, these capabilities allow organizations to respond more quickly to changing market conditions.

As Bain’s research suggests, companies that combine strategic clarity with operational agility are more likely to outperform peers in volatile environments.

Top Insights

• Bain & Company’s 2026 B2B Growth Agenda report finds 42% of companies missed revenue targets in 2025, highlighting a widening gap between executive growth ambitions and market realities.

• While 90% of organizations are experimenting with AI, nearly 60% lack the data infrastructure and technology foundations needed to scale AI effectively across operations.

• Companies embedding AI directly into commercial workflows report twice the AI-driven revenue growth and 1.8 times greater cost efficiency than peers.

• Only 4% of surveyed executives say their organization has a clearly defined value proposition, a factor strongly correlated with faster revenue growth.

• Growing geopolitical uncertainty and technology disruption are forcing companies across industries to rethink traditional commercial strategies.

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Headless CMS provider Storyblok has introduced FlowMotion, a new automation and orchestration layer designed to transform content updates into automated workflows across marketing systems, developer environments, and AI-powered tools.

The platform aims to address a growing operational challenge for modern digital teams: content changes rarely stop at publishing. A single update can trigger approvals, localization workflows, catalog changes, search re-indexing, and distribution across multiple channels and regions.

FlowMotion enables teams to connect these events into structured workflows, replacing manual coordination that often occurs through messaging tools, spreadsheets, and custom scripts.

As organizations accelerate content production and expand global digital experiences, the need for coordinated workflow automation has become increasingly critical.

Content Operations Still Depend on Manual Coordination

New research conducted by Storyblok among 200 marketers working with global brands highlights how fragmented content workflows remain across organizations.

The survey found that 75% of marketers spend more than six hours per week coordinating content work, including approvals, follow-ups, and routing updates between systems.

Additionally:

• 71% said their tools do not communicate effectively with one another
• 90% reported lacking end-to-end workflow coordination
• 50% said content updates frequently go live late, incomplete, or inconsistent across regions

These challenges often emerge in large digital ecosystems where marketing, development, product, and operations teams rely on multiple platforms to manage websites, e-commerce, mobile apps, and customer engagement channels.

Manual coordination between these systems slows execution and increases the risk of errors.

Developers Also Face Workflow Complexity

Developers experience similar inefficiencies when implementing automation within content operations.

A parallel survey of 200 developers working with global brands revealed that 88% said implementing new automation workflows takes more than a week, while 37% reported the process can take more than a month.

Maintaining workflow infrastructure also consumes engineering resources.

According to the research:

• 78% of development teams spend more than 10% of engineering time maintaining integrations, scripts, and workflow logic
• Only 8% of organizations currently have centralized and observable workflow orchestration

These findings suggest that both marketing and engineering teams struggle with fragmented workflow systems.

FlowMotion Connects Content Events to Automated Workflows

FlowMotion is designed to bridge these gaps by linking content events inside the Storyblok platform to automated, event-driven workflows.

Actions such as content creation, updates, approvals, translations, scheduling, and publishing can trigger automated sequences across connected tools.

The platform is built on a fully managed, single-tenant instance of n8n, which provides access to more than 500 integrations.

Through these integrations, workflows can perform multiple tasks automatically, including:

• triggering approval processes
• synchronizing CRM and sales platforms
• updating product catalogs
• rolling out content across markets
• re-indexing search systems
• coordinating localization workflows

Teams can also pause workflows for human approvals, enforce governance policies, and ensure actions occur only where relevant.

Enterprise Governance and Observability

FlowMotion includes enterprise-level governance features designed to help organizations manage complex digital operations.

Workflows are versioned, observable, and debuggable, with built-in audit trails that allow teams to track what actions occurred and when.

This capability helps organizations meet governance requirements and maintain visibility across distributed teams and systems.

Examples of automated use cases include:

• triggering legal reviews for pricing changes in regulated regions
• rolling out storefront updates gradually across markets
• synchronizing customer relationship management systems after approvals
• updating support documentation when FAQs change

Such orchestration ensures that content updates propagate consistently across digital environments.

AI Capabilities Integrated Into Workflow Automation

FlowMotion also incorporates artificial intelligence into content workflows.

Organizations can run AI enrichment, tagging, summarization, and routing as part of automated processes.

Importantly, AI tasks can be executed using a company’s own API keys, allowing teams to control where and how AI services operate.

This governance layer is particularly important as AI becomes more deeply embedded in content production pipelines.

According to Storyblok’s research, 84% of marketers believe stronger governance frameworks would increase trust in AI-powered content workflows.

A Step Toward Autonomous Content Operations

For many organizations, content management systems are evolving from publishing tools into orchestration hubs for digital experiences.

Dominik Angerer, CEO and co-founder of Storyblok, said FlowMotion aims to centralize workflow logic that is often scattered across scripts, webhooks, and individual tools.

With visual workflow design capabilities, teams can map processes directly inside the platform while still extending functionality with custom code when necessary.

The system also supports triggers through machine communication protocols, enabling automated systems and AI agents to participate in workflow orchestration.

Industry analysts say this shift reflects broader trends in enterprise content infrastructure, where automation, AI integration, and cross-system coordination are becoming essential capabilities.

As organizations scale digital operations across websites, apps, commerce platforms, and AI-driven experiences, workflow orchestration tools like FlowMotion may play a key role in enabling faster and more reliable content delivery.

Key Insights

• Storyblok launched FlowMotion to automate content workflows across marketing, development, and AI systems.
• Surveys show 75% of marketers spend more than six hours weekly coordinating content updates manually.
• 88% of developers say building automation workflows takes more than a week, highlighting integration complexity.
• FlowMotion connects CMS events to automated workflows using n8n with 500+ integrations.
• The platform includes governance features, audit trails, and AI workflow integration to support enterprise-scale content operations. 

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