MarTech Podcast ™ // Marketing + Technology = Business Growth Scott Brinker’s 2026 Martech Predictions Unpacked
Jan 5, 2026
Scott Brinker, VP of Platform Ecosystem at HubSpot and founder of chiefmartec.com, discusses the rapid evolution of the MarTech landscape. He reveals how AI has added 1,200 new vendors while changing traditional sales playbooks, empowering customers through agentic AI. Brinker introduces context engineering as the next step in AI deployment, emphasizes the need for better data layers, and contrasts deterministic automation with generative AI. He predicts a shift in 2026 where buyers leverage AI to control their journeys, transforming marketing dynamics.
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AI Increased Martech Complexity
- AI expanded Martech instead of consolidating it, adding many new vendors and churn.
- The rules for marketing and technology are shifting beneath us and stacks are getting messier.
Widespread Early Agent Use
- Many marketers already use agentic AI but mainly in early experiments and limited production use cases.
- Rapid experimentation in 2025 was impressive given how new the capabilities were.
Use AI To Amplify Content Workflows
- Use AI to speed each step of content production rather than expecting full end-to-end automation.
- Combine human judgment with AI for brainstorming, repurposing, and engagement analysis to save time.