The martech landscape in 2025 is dynamic, with tools, AI adoption, and stack architecture shifting simultaneously. Here’s what marketers need to know.
15,384 Martech Tools: Boom, Bust, and Balance
The 2025 Martech Landscape grew 9%, adding 2,489 tools while removing 1,211—the most in three years.
- Boom: Content AI (video, content marketing) thrives, driven by demand.
- Bust: 84% of removed tools (pre-2020, 52% with G2 scores >4.5) shut down due to financial or market challenges.
- Balance: Product Management tools (e.g., Jira, Aha!) nearly doubled stack presence (23% to 42%), with a 3.2% G2 rating boost, reflecting brands building custom, low-code solutions.
Insight: Martech is both expanding and consolidating, with in-house tools rising.
AI Adoption: From Assistants to Architecture
AI is reshaping martech stacks via a five-stage adoption curve:
- AI Assistants (87.5% adoption): ChatGPT aids ideation and writing, external to core systems.
- Co-Pilots (54.2%): Embedded in CRMs and analytics, offering in-tool suggestions.
- AI Workflows (69.8%): Tools like Zapier automate multi-step processes.
- AI Agents (44.8%): Autonomous agents optimize campaigns and route leads, though complex.
- Model Context Protocols (MCPs): Emerging, enabling AI with memory and cross-tool coordination.
Insight: AI is evolving from peripheral tools to the stack’s operational core.
Two Composability Shifts in Martech Stacks
Stacks are restructuring around composability for agility and customer-centricity.
Shift 1: B2B Stacks Embrace Modularity
- CRM: Remains central (42% of stacks), anchoring systems.
- MAPs: Declined from 30.7% to 26%.
- Custom Platforms: Surged from 2% to 10%, integrating bespoke automation and data layers around CRMs.
Insight: B2B stacks prioritize flexible, tailored architectures.
Shift 2: B2C/B2B2C Stacks Recenter
- CDPs: Dropped from 26.9% to 17.4%.
- MAPs: Rose to 26.1%, becoming orchestration hubs.
- CDWs: Grew to 23.9%, serving as AI-ready data foundations.
Insight: Composable, cloud-native tools (Fivetran, DBT) replace monolithic CDPs, with IT-managed CDWs empowering marketing.
Takeaway
Martech in 2025 is a story of growth, consolidation, and redesign. Tools expand and vanish, AI integrates deeply, and composable stacks prioritize flexibility. Marketers must adapt to stay competitive.
