Hey everyone, back with Act II of our 3-part series on the 2026 Customer Engagement Report.
- Act I: The Rise of the Apex Consumer. 🧠
- Act 2: The Myth of Marketing Progress ⏳
- Act 3: Marketing’s Mandate: Adapt or Fall Behind. 🚀
If Act I was about how customers have changed, Act II gets at something many teams are feeling right now.
Even with more tools, more channels, more data, and more AI than ever, marketing still feels harder.
In many cases, what looks like progress is really just more activity, and the systems behind it haven’t fully caught up to how customers behave today.
So where are things starting to break down?
The Myth of Marketing Progress
Act II is called The Myth of Marketing Progress, and it really comes down to this: Progress doesn’t always feel like progress when complexity rises faster than capability.
A few things here felt especially real.
Three things that stood out
1. More tools, same bandwidth
Many teams have added platforms over time, but not always more time, budget, or headcount to support them. More capability can create more opportunity, but also more complexity.
2. Speed outside, friction inside
Customers move fast, but internal processes often don’t. Sometimes the challenge isn’t coming up with ideas, it’s getting those ideas live.
3. More content, less impact
AI has made it easier to create more, but more content doesn’t automatically mean better outcomes. Relevance, timing, trust, and creativity still matter most.
What to look at on your team
What stood out to me is that the issue may not be a lack of innovation. It may be too much activity without enough alignment.
More effort doesn’t always translate to better results if the system behind it isn’t built to move quickly.
There’s also a gap when it comes to AI.
While expectations are high, fewer than 18% of teams are using AI deeply in areas like orchestration or optimization.
So the opportunity isn’t just adopting AI, it’s figuring out how it actually fits into how work gets done.
Curious what feels most true for your team right now? (You can answer in the poll below ⬇️)
One small thing to try this week
Act II isn’t really about whether marketing has advanced. It’s about whether the way we operate has kept up. Pick one recurring bottleneck and ask, if we were building this process today, would we design it the same way?
That question alone can uncover a lot.
If you'd like the full research, benchmarks, and findings, you can explore the complete 2026 Customer Engagement Report.
Act III is next: what stronger teams are doing differently to adapt and move faster.