The Fort Worth Press - How Do Higher-Performing Brands Get More from Martech? New Research Reveals

NEW YORK CITY, NY / ACCESS Newswire / October 6, 2026 / While 87% of enterprise consumer brands report flat or growing martech budgets, proving what that technology delivers is becoming crucial to the funding conversation. The Enterprise Martech Outlook 2026, released today by The Martech Weekly, uncovers a divide between brands that can prove the value of Martech in financial terms and peers relying on value they cannot measure.

Pressure to move AI beyond experimentation is adding new costs to stacks, despite 40.2% of surveyed leaders not being able to tie a measurable financial contribution to their existing stacks. The report provides brands a way to compare their own practices with those of their peers and assess where adjustments may deliver value.

What do higher-performing martech teams do differently?

The Enterprise Martech Outlook 2026 compares organizations based on their self-reported customer experience maturity. Its Martech Advantage cohort includes those rating themselves market-leading or above industry standard. The Market Baseline includes those rating themselves industry standard, developing or lagging.

The research identifies two differences in how these groups operate:

• Technical architecture plays a more central role. Among Martech Advantage organizations, 74.3% said their cloud data platform was fairly or very central to their martech stack, compared with 37.8% of the Market Baseline.
• Technology evaluation continues after purchase. Among Martech Advantage organizations, 74.3% reported managing contract renewals proactively, compared with 45.3% of the Market Baseline.

How far has AI moved into production?

Only 10.8% of 461 tracked AI-agent initiatives had reached full production scale during the research period of this report. Interest and budget were already accounted for, with 95.3% of surveyed organizations putting AI agents on their roadmaps and 65.3% of leaders reporting dedicated AI funding.

The Enterprise Martech Outlook compares individual AI use cases by production maturity and self-reported return on investment, separating use cases with reported returns from those that need more testing or a clearer case for expansion.

"Nearly every brand we surveyed has AI agents planned on the roadmap, but few have scaled a use case into full production, so knowing which use cases show returns now matters most," said Keanu Taylor, global head of research at The Martech Weekly.

Which platforms do enterprise brands use?

Enterprise consumer brands use a small fraction of the more than 15,000 martech products on the market. The Enterprise Martech Outlook identifies 261 unique platforms across 417 validated enterprise consumer-brand stacks, and just 89 platforms appeared in five or more stacks.

The landscape focuses on owned-media marketing technologies and reflects adoption within the research sample rather than ranking or endorsing any platform. It's a representation of the information source that buyers already lean on heavily, as surveyed leaders named peer and staff recommendations as their most influential sources when selecting new platforms.

"Trust in martech is being rebuilt from the outside in. Buyers are relying less on institutional promises and more on proof: peer networks, practitioner communities, independent data and observable outcomes," said Juan Mendoza, founder and CEO of The Martech Weekly.

What earns further martech investment?

Proof of financial value. Among organizations able to demonstrate a measurable financial contribution from martech, 56% reported budget increases, compared with 37.5% of those unable to demonstrate that contribution. Yet 40.2% of surveyed leaders could not demonstrate a clear, measurable contribution from their martech investments to financial objectives or accepted financial proxies.

"Enterprise martech is an investment discipline, and leaders who can tie it to commercial outcomes are in a stronger position to fund it," added Mendoza.

The report shows how enterprise teams connect technology investments to conversion, customer lifetime value, retention and customer acquisition cost.

What does the report offer martech vendors?

For vendors, the Enterprise Martech Outlook provides a buyer-side view of the platforms enterprise consumer brands use and the sources they trust when choosing them. It also shows what buyers expect in measurable outcomes and implementation before expanding a technology investment.

The Martech Weekly offers vendor briefings drawn from its anonymized brand-side research, including how enterprise buyers perceive their platforms and where they stand against competitors.

About the research

The Martech Weekly conducted the research from February through June 2026. The Enterprise Martech Outlook 2026 combines 417 validated enterprise consumer-brand technology stacks with survey responses from 127 brand-side martech leaders in the U.S., Australia and the U.K. Cohort comparisons show associations with stronger reported customer experience delivery or budget outcomes and do not establish that any single practice caused them.

Download the Enterprise Martech Outlook 2026.

About The Martech Weekly

The Martech Weekly (TMW) is an independent research and intelligence firm that helps enterprise marketing technology leaders make clearer, better-informed decisions about the platforms they buy and run. Through data-driven insights and original research products, including Martech Intelligence and the Enterprise Martech Outlook, TMW provides consumer brands with peer benchmarks and gives vendors a buyer-side market view. TMW also hosts the Martech World Forum, an event series in New York City, uniting brand executives with industry innovators. Backed by a robust research network of over 42,000 U.S. decision-makers managing enterprise martech, TMW delivers insights and perspectives on modern marketing that traditional firms lack.

Media contact

Allyse Sanchez, Comms with Context
[email protected]

SOURCE: The Martech Weekly

View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire

M.McCoy--TFWP