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.

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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.

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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.

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Rising customer expectations for seamless, personalized interactions are pushing enterprises to adopt advanced journey analytics and orchestration platforms that turn real-time data into meaningful engagement. Reflecting this shift, CSG Systems International has been named a Leader in the 2026 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Customer Journey Analytics and Orchestration, recognizing the company’s ability to help organizations deliver more connected customer experiences.

The evaluation assessed vendors based on two key criteria: Completeness of Vision and Ability to Execute, positioning CSG among the top technology providers in the customer experience orchestration space.

Customer Experience Now Requires Real-Time Decisioning

As enterprises manage increasingly complex digital ecosystems, simply understanding customer behavior is no longer enough. Organizations must act on insights immediately to ensure every interaction contributes to long-term loyalty and business value.

According to Katie Costanzo, President of Customer Experience at CSG, modern customer engagement demands real-time operational intelligence.

“It’s not enough to understand the customer—businesses must act on that knowledge in real time and prove the value of every customer interaction,” Costanzo said.

She noted that organizations increasingly need unified systems capable of transforming customer data into clear decisions, measurable outcomes and trusted customer experiences.

Xponent Platform Enables Real-Time Customer Journey Orchestration

At the center of CSG’s recognition is CSG Xponent, the company’s customer engagement and journey orchestration platform.

The platform is designed to help organizations bridge the gap between customer expectations and operational execution by integrating real-time data across multiple touchpoints. This allows brands to deliver contextual interactions precisely when they matter most.

Key capabilities of the platform include:

• Real-time journey analytics
• Cross-channel personalization
• Customer experience monitoring
• Automated decisioning and orchestration
• Real-time issue detection within customer journeys

By enabling businesses to identify and resolve friction points as they occur, the platform aims to improve both customer satisfaction and operational performance.

Measurable Business Impact

CSG reports that organizations using the Xponent platform have already achieved measurable results.

One example cited involves a U.S.-based bank that implemented the platform to optimize customer engagement across digital channels. The deployment reportedly delivered several improvements:

• 12% reduction in inbound customer calls
• Threefold increase in SMS response rates
• 25% decrease in fraud cases
• $30 million in financial impact

These results highlight how journey analytics platforms are evolving beyond reporting tools into systems that directly influence business outcomes.

Journey Analytics Emerging as a Strategic Technology Category

The Gartner Magic Quadrant for Customer Journey Analytics and Orchestration represents one of the first comprehensive evaluations of this rapidly growing technology segment.

The research provides enterprises with a comparative view of vendors operating in the space, helping organizations assess which platforms can best support customer experience transformation initiatives.

According to Gartner’s methodology, Magic Quadrant research evaluates vendors based on market understanding, product strategy, innovation, and execution capabilities across real-world customer deployments.

The Growing Importance of Journey Orchestration

Customer journey orchestration platforms are gaining traction as organizations seek to unify interactions across marketing, service, digital commerce and support channels.

As digital engagement continues to expand, businesses increasingly need systems that can analyze customer signals in real time and respond with contextual actions—whether through messaging, offers, service interventions or fraud prevention.

For enterprises investing in customer experience transformation, journey analytics and orchestration technologies are quickly becoming essential infrastructure for delivering the connected, personalized experiences customers now expect.

Organizations interested in exploring the full research findings can access the 2026 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Customer Journey Analytics and Orchestration through CSG’s resource center.

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Customer relationship management platforms are rapidly evolving into strategic enterprise systems as artificial intelligence reshapes how companies manage customer engagement, revenue operations and business growth.

That is the key conclusion of new research released by Information Services Group (ISG), a global AI-centered technology research and advisory firm. The firm’s 2026 ISG Buyers Guides™ for Customer Relationship Management analyze CRM platforms across the market and highlight how AI-powered capabilities are transforming CRM from a data repository into an operational intelligence hub.

CRM Expands Beyond Sales Automation

Historically, CRM platforms primarily served as tools for contact management and sales force automation. However, ISG’s research shows the technology has evolved significantly, becoming a foundation for revenue operations, customer experience strategy and performance management.

According to Barika Pace, director of research for revenue operations at ISG, enterprises increasingly depend on CRM platforms to unify organizational insights.

“Companies need a shared, trusted view of customer interactions to create long-term value,” Pace said. “They rely on CRM to align marketing, sales and service teams and inform strategy and execution throughout the organization.”

The report evaluated 52 software providers and their CRM-related products, examining platforms designed to manage customer and prospect data, sales engagement, digital commerce and partner relationship management.

Multi-Channel Customer Engagement Drives CRM Demand

ISG found that enterprise requirements for CRM platforms have expanded as companies adopt digital commerce models and engage customers across more channels than ever before.

Organizations now expect CRM systems to support:

• Cross-channel customer engagement
• Revenue forecasting and pipeline visibility
• Workflow automation
• Customer lifetime value analysis
• Integration across marketing, sales and service platforms

Despite this demand, many enterprises still rely on legacy CRM systems dependent on spreadsheets and manual data entry, limiting their ability to automate processes and generate actionable insights.

AI Is Transforming CRM Platforms

Artificial intelligence is playing a central role in the next generation of CRM platforms.

The research highlights several AI-driven capabilities already embedded in modern CRM systems, including:

• Predictive lead scoring
• Customer segmentation optimization
• Intelligent service routing
• Forecasting and analytics automation

However, most AI implementations currently augment human decision-making rather than operate autonomously.

ISG notes that the rise of agentic AI—systems capable of planning and executing actions within defined parameters—represents the next stage of CRM evolution. These capabilities are shifting CRM systems from passive data repositories to active orchestration engines for revenue and customer engagement workflows.

Legacy Architectures Remain a Barrier

Despite the growing importance of AI in CRM platforms, many enterprises are not yet prepared to deploy advanced capabilities.

ISG predicts that more than half of enterprises will be unable to implement the latest AI-driven CRM technologies through 2027 because their internal processes and system architectures remain outdated.

These limitations could significantly affect revenue growth, as organizations without modern CRM infrastructure may struggle to deploy AI-powered sales automation, service optimization and partner management tools.

To prepare for the next generation of CRM systems, ISG advises organizations to prioritize:

• AI strategy alignment with business goals
• Flexible system architecture
• Strong integration ecosystems
• Governance frameworks that limit technical debt

Top CRM Providers Identified

The ISG Buyers Guides evaluate vendors based on five categories: Overall performance, Product Experience, Capability, Platform strength and Customer Experience.

Among major CRM vendors, Salesforce and Oracle ranked as the top two Overall Leaders across all platform categories, reinforcing their dominant positions in the global CRM market.

Other leading providers highlighted in the research include:

• HubSpot, which ranked as the third Overall Leader across six categories
• ServiceNow and Microsoft, which each ranked third in specific platform categories

The research also evaluated emerging CRM providers, with Creatio ranking as the top Overall Provider, followed by SuperOffice and Pipedrive.

CRM Platforms Now Span Multiple Enterprise Functions

The 2026 Buyers Guides cover several CRM-related categories reflecting the expanding role of the technology ecosystem:

• Customer Relationship Management platforms
• CRM marketing platforms
• CRM sales platforms
• CRM service platforms
• Digital commerce solutions
• Partner relationship management software
• Sales engagement tools

Providers evaluated across these segments include major technology companies such as Adobe, SAP, Zendesk, Zoho and ZoomInfo.

CRM Strategy Will Shape Enterprise Competitiveness

According to David Menninger, executive director of software research at ISG, the CRM platform an organization selects can significantly influence its ability to adopt new technologies and scale revenue.

“The CRM software an enterprise chooses can significantly influence its ability to adapt to new technologies and increase revenue and profit over time,” Menninger said.

ISG notes that the Buyers Guides are based on more than a year of independent market research and are not sponsored by software vendors, providing enterprises with an objective framework for evaluating CRM technology investments.

As CRM platforms continue evolving into AI-driven operational hubs, the research suggests that organizations investing in flexible, AI-ready architectures today will be best positioned to compete in the next generation of digital customer engagement.

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LearnUpon, a global provider of learning management systems (LMS), has launched Create+, an AI-native content authoring capability designed to dramatically accelerate course creation for learning and development teams.

The launch represents the first major product milestone following LearnUpon’s acquisition of AI learning creation platform Courseau in November 2025. By integrating Courseau’s AI capabilities directly into its LMS platform, LearnUpon aims to eliminate one of the most persistent challenges in corporate training: the content creation bottleneck.

Tackling the Learning Content Bottleneck

For many organizations, building digital training courses can take weeks or even months. Instructional designers often rely on multiple tools, external vendors, and lengthy production cycles to develop structured learning materials.

Create+ aims to change that workflow.

The new AI-powered authoring system allows organizations to convert existing materials—including PDFs, documents, videos, and links—into structured, interactive learning modules in minutes. The generated courses can then be reviewed, edited, and customized directly within the platform.

By reducing reliance on complex development processes and external production resources, Create+ helps organizations accelerate training delivery while lowering costs.

Making Course Creation Accessible to Subject Matter Experts

A key focus of Create+ is expanding who can build learning content. Traditionally, course creation has required instructional design expertise or specialized software skills.

With AI-native authoring integrated into the LMS, internal Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) can now transform their expertise into structured learning experiences without needing formal training design backgrounds.

According to Louise Jackson, Learning and Development Business Partner at Ebor Academy Trust, the technology simplifies internal knowledge sharing.

“By using Create+ as part of our LearnUpon portal, Ebor Academy Trust can instantly transform our internal expertise and existing resources into engaging, high-quality learning modules for our staff,” Jackson said.

She added that simply uploading a document or link enables the AI system to generate a structured course within minutes, with content remaining fully editable afterward.

The organization expects the platform to reduce reliance on expensive external content while supporting a more sustainable internal training model aligned with its educational standards.

Consolidating the Learning Technology Stack

Another major advantage of the integration is operational consolidation.

By embedding AI-powered authoring directly into the LMS platform, administrators can manage the entire learning lifecycle—from course creation to distribution and tracking—within a single system.

This approach helps organizations streamline their learning technology stack and reduce spending on separate authoring tools.

Brendan Noud, CEO of LearnUpon, said the launch reflects the company’s broader mission of helping organizations unlock the potential of their workforce and communities.

“It’s great to see this come together so quickly,” Noud said. “We’re incredibly keen to save our customers both time and money while supporting their evolving course creation needs.”

Strengthening the LearnUpon–Courseau Partnership

The release of Create+ also highlights the rapid integration of Courseau’s technology into LearnUpon’s platform following the 2025 acquisition.

According to Ro Ren, co-founder of Courseau, the collaboration between the two teams enabled the product to move from acquisition to launch in a relatively short time.

“This launch is a clear testament to the great fit between LearnUpon and Courseau,” Ren said, adding that the teams are now focused on shaping the future of workplace learning together.

The Growing Role of AI in Workplace Learning

The launch of Create+ reflects a broader shift toward AI-driven learning technologies. As organizations face increasing pressure to train employees, partners, and customers quickly, AI-powered authoring tools are emerging as a critical solution.

By reducing development time and enabling experts across organizations to create learning materials directly, platforms like LearnUpon aim to make workplace learning more agile and scalable.

Organizations interested in the new capability can request a 14-day Create+ trial or schedule a platform demonstration through LearnUpon.

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Artificial intelligence has become a staple in modern marketing stacks—but most teams still struggle to turn AI-generated insights into real operational impact.

That’s the central takeaway from a new industry survey released by NinjaCat, an AI-enabled marketing data and analytics platform. The report, titled “The Next Phase of Marketing Intelligence: AI Maturity Across the Analyze–Optimize–Act Cycle,” surveyed more than 500 marketing and advertising leaders and found a significant gap between AI experimentation and true AI-driven operations.

While many marketing teams report confidence in their AI capabilities, the infrastructure required to convert insights into consistent action remains largely missing.

AI Adoption Is High—But Operational Maturity Is Low

The survey highlights a paradox familiar to many marketing leaders: widespread AI usage paired with persistent operational inefficiencies.

For example, 85% of respondents say they are satisfied with their data visibility, suggesting marketers feel they have access to the information they need. Yet 78% report that performance data remains fragmented across platforms and spreadsheets, making it difficult to translate insights into coordinated action.

Reporting workflows reveal a similar disconnect. While 91% of respondents say AI has streamlined parts of their workflows, 72% still describe reporting as highly manual, indicating that many organizations rely on AI for analysis but not execution.

Perhaps the most revealing statistic involves workflow orchestration. Only 8% of marketing teams report running multi-step AI workflows across tools and departments, suggesting that true AI operational maturity remains rare across the industry.

According to Paul Deraval, CEO of NinjaCat, the gap reflects a deeper structural challenge rather than a lack of enthusiasm for AI.

“AI can be an extremely powerful amplifier, but you need to know what it is amplifying,” Deraval said. “AI is not a band-aid you can slap on a problem; it needs to be properly integrated.”

Evaluating AI Across the Marketing Lifecycle

The report evaluates AI adoption across three stages of the marketing lifecycle: Analyze, Optimize, and Act. Across each phase, organizations appear to encounter barriers that prevent insights from turning into measurable outcomes.

In the Analyze phase, data fragmentation remains a major obstacle. Although 83% of marketing leaders feel confident in their ability to analyze performance data, 70% report that reconciling data from multiple sources consumes significant time. Only 37% of organizations maintain a unified source of truth, limiting the reliability of insights.

The Optimize stage shows similar friction. Roughly 80% of marketers say they are comfortable with AI automating campaign optimization, yet the lack of integrated workflows limits how those insights are applied. With only 8% of organizations orchestrating multi-step AI processes, many teams identify opportunities but struggle to implement them effectively.

The Act phase—where insights become execution—remains the weakest link. Two-thirds of respondents (66%) rely on generic AI tools, while just 16% report using AI systems connected directly to their proprietary data.

This reliance on off-the-shelf AI tools often limits personalization, automation depth, and operational integration.

The Small Group Achieving AI Maturity

Despite the widespread challenges, the report identifies a small segment of organizations that have successfully operationalized AI across the marketing cycle.

These advanced teams share several common characteristics. They consolidate marketing data into centralized intelligence layers, connect AI-generated insights directly to operational workflows, and automate execution across platforms without relying on manual handoffs between teams.

One example cited in the report is Seer Interactive, a digital marketing agency that integrated an AI agent into its existing marketing processes.

According to Alisa Scharf, Vice President of AI and Innovation at Seer Interactive, the integration significantly accelerated insight generation.

“Now in marketing, timing is the asset,” Scharf said. “A great insight that shows up three weeks late isn’t an insight—it’s a recap.”

By combining unified data infrastructure with automated AI workflows, the organization reportedly achieved a 30× reduction in time-to-insight, dramatically improving responsiveness to performance signals.

The Next Phase of Marketing Intelligence

The survey suggests that the marketing industry may be entering a new phase of AI adoption.

During the initial wave of AI integration, many organizations experimented with tools for reporting automation, predictive analysis, or content generation. The next phase, according to NinjaCat, will focus on operationalizing AI across the full marketing lifecycle.

That means integrating AI not just into analysis or optimization, but also into execution systems that manage campaigns, reporting, and performance adjustments in real time.

As marketing ecosystems become more complex—spanning advertising platforms, analytics tools, CRM systems, and social media channels—the ability to orchestrate AI-driven workflows across those environments could become a critical competitive advantage.

Organizations that succeed in building that infrastructure may gain faster insight cycles, improved campaign agility, and more efficient data-driven decision-making.

For marketing leaders, the challenge ahead may not be adopting AI—but ensuring it actually changes how work gets done.

The full report is available from NinjaCat for organizations interested in benchmarking their own AI maturity across marketing operations.

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AI assistants are increasingly becoming the interface for business software. Now, one e-signature platform wants to make sending legally binding documents as easy as asking an AI to do it.

Firma.dev has launched Firma 12, a major update to its developer-focused e-signature API that introduces dual Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers. The integration allows users to send, track, and manage document signatures directly through AI tools such as ChatGPT, Claude AI, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Visual Studio Code, and OpenAI Codex.

The update positions Firma.dev among a growing group of platforms building AI-native integrations that allow conversational interfaces to perform real operational tasks—rather than simply generating content or summaries.

AI as the New Interface for E-Signatures

Firma 12 introduces two MCP servers designed to connect AI tools directly with the platform.

The Docs MCP server, released earlier in 2026, enables developers to query live API documentation inside coding environments. The newly released Data MCP server goes further by allowing AI tools to perform real actions inside a Firma.dev account.

The system exposes 84 AI-ready tools across 10 operational categories, enabling users to create signing requests, manage templates, track envelope statuses, configure webhooks, and query usage data.

According to Derick Dorner, co-founder of Firma.dev, the goal is to remove traditional barriers between users and digital document workflows.

“You can literally say ‘send the standard NDA to Sarah’ inside Claude, and it happens,” Dorner said. “You don’t need to be a developer. You don’t need to learn an API. You just talk to your AI.”

Authentication is handled through OAuth, meaning users can connect their AI tools simply by adding the MCP server URL and signing into their Firma.dev account.

Competing on Price in the E-Signature Market

Alongside its AI integrations, Firma.dev is also competing aggressively on cost.

The company charges €0.029 per envelope, roughly three U.S. cents, using a pure pay-as-you-go model without contracts, per-seat fees, or monthly minimums.

That pricing stands in contrast to legacy e-signature platforms such as DocuSign, where enterprise customers can pay anywhere from $1 to more than $5 per envelope depending on plan structure and volume.

The pricing difference has already attracted customers processing large document volumes.

Paul Jolley, CEO of Hawaiian property management platform Clear, said switching platforms could reduce his company’s annual costs by thousands of dollars.

Jolley’s team processes roughly 20,000 envelopes per month, and he estimates the move to Firma.dev could save between $5,000 and $10,000 over the next year.

“The billing model is like Twilio,” Jolley said. “You just use it and pay for what you send.”

AI-Native Integration Speeds Implementation

The platform’s AI-driven approach also appears to simplify integrations.

Yavuz Selim Mert, founder of Splendid Consulting in Toronto, said he completed a full implementation in roughly a day despite having no prior coding experience.

Using ChatGPT as a guide during setup, Mert reduced his monthly e-signature costs from about $230 with his previous provider to roughly $14 using Firma.dev—an estimated 94 percent cost reduction.

Another customer, Ghali Bennani, co-founder of London fintech startup Ralio, specifically chose the platform for its MCP integration and completed setup in under five minutes.

These examples highlight a growing trend in enterprise software: AI tools increasingly serve as both development assistants and operational interfaces.

Built for AI-First Workflows

Firma.dev’s MCP architecture reflects a broader shift toward AI-driven workflows, where conversational interfaces trigger real business processes across software systems.

Instead of navigating dashboards or writing custom integrations, users can instruct AI agents to perform tasks such as sending contracts, checking document status, or retrieving usage metrics.

This model mirrors developments across the SaaS ecosystem as platforms integrate with AI development tools and agent frameworks.

As AI assistants become more deeply embedded in developer environments and business operations, APIs designed for conversational control may become a defining feature of modern enterprise platforms.

Legal Compliance and Global Availability

Firma.dev’s e-signatures are legally valid in 54 countries and support SES (Simple Electronic Signatures) and AdES (Advanced Electronic Signatures) under the European Union’s eIDAS regulatory framework.

The platform also complies with U.S. electronic signature laws, including the ESIGN Act and UETA, along with equivalent regulations in other supported jurisdictions.

Infrastructure is hosted on European cloud servers, including AWS infrastructure in Paris with content delivery via Stockholm. The system is designed to meet regulatory requirements such as GDPR, HIPAA, SOC 2, and ISO/IEC 27001.

Availability

Firma 12 is available immediately through the company’s website. New users can create an account and begin sending documents without providing a credit card.

Developers and AI tool users can connect to the Docs MCP server or Data MCP server directly, enabling AI-driven document workflows across supported platforms.

As AI interfaces increasingly move beyond chat and into operational control, Firma.dev is betting that e-signatures—one of the most common digital business processes—are ready for a conversational future.

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