What does Marketing Operations look like in 2026? Predictions in an ever-evolving MOps landscape?
We talked in a recent blog about our expectations for the future of marketing automation, the rise of data orchestration platforms and the evolution of the martech ecosystem.
There, we alluded to the potential extinction of traditional marketing automation platforms, but as anyone embedded in the industry will tell you, hyperbole around the ‘next big thing’ and the redundancy of current systems is an ongoing theme.
The reality is quite different. In the same way that people continue to tout the death of email, talking about the death of marketing automation is largely hype. Email strategy has never been stronger, and, in the same way, marketing automation won’t just disappear in the next five years.
However, it’s clear that businesses will start to move to a more centralised focus on core processes that maximise and enhance the great new technology and AI-driven developments that are coming our way in the next year.
How will marketing operations evolve?
Orchestration platforms will be considered as the basis of marketing strategy to allow for processes to be more scalable, especially with AI
Budgets will focus on investing in orchestration platforms, while marketing automation platforms/email tools will go back to what they do best: delivering email campaigns and automated journeys rather than the central marketing process system.
- AI driven journeys will support campaigns but will still require heavy monitoring and high maintenance, with testing
AI is less predictable than the usual marketing workflows and continues to pose some reliability issues. As a result, teams will need to spend more time understanding the limitations and scope of prompts that are required to ensure AI gives the correct output. - Emails will get smarter, so much so that recipients may not realise the email is personalised to them
Emails will use certain messaging and tone of voice to resonate with you much more deeply. They will also move from standardised structures like ‘Hi first name’ at ‘company name’ to a tailored understanding your persona, delivering content that leads to high conversion. - Marketing ops team will move from campaign execution to systems architecture and data strategy
Skills are already moving towards a data and compliance focus for marketing, technology and sales operations roles but there will be a greater desire to understand data and system architecture. - 2026 will see stronger enforcement around privacy and governance, especially around AI
Understanding the advantages and capabilities of AI is key to marketing success, but, more importantly, the limitations and security risks needs to be understood as security attacks become ever more sophisticated. - Driven by business demands for quicker content delivery, campaign intake and campaign production will be increasingly automated
Marketing teams will be under increasing pressure to efficiently manage intake processes and production workflows, reduce manual effort and accelerate turnaround times. Advances in AI and orchestration platforms will be critical here, allowing for much of the automation of campaign creation, and audience segmentation, as well as content personalisation. - Campaign audiences will become more dynamic, driven by intent and AI-driven buyer stage calculation rather than account or persona
Marketers will leverage AI to analyse real-time behavioural signals and buyer intent, enabling the creation of fluid audience groups that shift as prospects progress through their decision-making journey. This dynamic approach allows for the delivery of highly relevant content at precisely the right moment, increasing the likelihood of engagement and conversion. - Generative AI will become integrated into the data layer as a complement to existing data cleansing approaches
Embedding AI within the data layer will allow for real-time analysis and transformation of incoming data. As new data flows into marketing systems, AI can automatically identify anomalies, flag potential compliance issues, and generate insights that were previously inaccessible through manual processes. Rather than simply removing duplicates or correcting errors, generative AI will intelligently fill gaps and dynamically generate new, high-quality data points based on existing patterns. - The divide between the lead funnel and account funnel will break down
As marketing scales more efficiently, marketers will be able to run and measure every activity using both lead-based and account-based funnel metrics in parallel. Rather than rigidly segmenting go-to-market programs into either ABM or demand generation approaches, marketers can focus the customer lifecycle on buyer intent and personalised experiences - Marketing analytics will move from measurement to prediction
Combining AI and Business Intelligence (BI) will allow marketers to predict the impact of planned activities before they’re launched. This shift from measuring past performance to predicting future outcomes means the role of analytics within marketing will fundamentally change. Teams can allocate resources more efficiently, tailor strategies to forecasted customer behaviours and take pre-emptive action to maximise ROI and minimise potential pitfalls.
Conclusion: marketing automation is a continually moving feast
The marketing technology landscape is shifting rapidly, driven by advances in AI, data orchestration and changing consumer behaviours. Despite this, marketing automation platforms remain a vital part of the martech stack, albeit with a shift in its place in the hierarchy.
Marketing operations’ continual evolution is a huge positive for marketing and sales teams, and for the wider business: it shows the capability and agility to adapt in response to market trends and technological innovation.
The ability for marketers to embrace new approaches, integrate them with existing platforms, and enhance the way existing tools are used will be the key to future success. Ultimately, those who can harness the strengths of automation alongside AI and other emerging technologies will be best placed to deliver meaningful, scalable results in an ever-changing environment.