From rigid stacks to a composable canvas

As AI agents, humans and applications increasingly need to reason and act together, rigid martech “stacks” can no longer keep up.

In this research report, Scott Brinker, dubbed the “godfather of martech” by Ad Age, outlines an unavoidable shift to a fluid, composable canvas. In this new marketing architecture, five classes of data — customer, company, content, code and control data — share a unified foundation without integration bottlenecks.

This isn’t a rip-and-replace proposition. It’s a three-to-five-year architectural vision that helps marketing and data leaders make smarter decisions today, turning martech from a constraint into a competitive advantage.

CMOs gain strategic clarity. Martech and data teams get a practical framework for what comes next.

This research draws on perspectives from leaders already building toward this future, including those from Samsara, Domino’s, HP, Epsilon and Databricks.