Priya Gill, Chief Marketing Officer at Iterable chats about the latest trends impacting the martech landscape in this catch-up:
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Hi Priya, tell us about yourself and your time in the B2B martech market.
Over the past 15+ years, I’ve built my career at the intersection of marketing, product, and customer experience. I actually started my career in engineering and product, which shaped how I think about building things that scale and solving problems with both creativity and rigor. That foundation has always kept me grounded in how great products work and how customer insights translate into real business impact.
At Box, I got to be part of a company that was redefining how businesses worked in the cloud. Leading product growth and customer marketing there—owning the self-serve business and driving adoption and retention through data and experimentation—put me right at the forefront of a significant shift in how people used cloud software.
From there, I had the opportunity to modernize a beloved brand at SurveyMonkey. We were early in exploring how AI and automation could strengthen insights, accelerate go-to-market, and elevate the customer experience. Leading the global marketing organization through that transformation pushed me to think even more deeply about where the industry was headed and how marketers needed to evolve.
And now, we’re at an actual inflection point—where AI, data, and rising customer expectations are rapidly reshaping what “great marketing” looks like. Today at Iterable, we’re operating at the center of this shift, helping organizations turn these changes into real business outcomes: stronger customer relationships, smarter engagement strategies, and experiences that feel more connected and human. In many ways, it feels like a full-circle moment for me: continuing to build at the frontier, but in a space where the opportunity has never been bigger.
What about the current state of martech innovations excites you most?
What excites me most about martech right now is how much possibility it’s unlocking for CMOs. We’re being asked to do more than ever—drive growth, make budgets go further, and embrace AI in a responsible, strategic way. That’s a lot of pressure. But for the first time, the technology is actually meeting the moment. Breakthroughs in AI are giving us the opportunity to redesign how marketing operates: to streamline our stacks, overhaul outdated workflows, and build a more intelligent, more connected system that works with us, not against us. It’s unlocking a new era of speed, clarity, and value creation for our organizations. For the first time, it truly feels like innovation is working in the service of the marketing team—amplifying our impact, not just adding complexity. And that shift is going to open up enormous doors for the profession and redefine what high-performing marketing organizations can look like.
What trends will dominate martech through 2026, in your view?
2026 will be a defining year for martech, marked by a shift from experimentation to fundamental operational transformation. Two significant trends will lead the way:
#1. The rise of the AI-native martech stack. In the coming year, I expect a dramatic shift toward streamlined, intelligent ecosystems that replace the bloated, fragmented stacks slowing teams down today. After years of pilots and experimentation, marketers are ready for systems that truly learn, adapt, and support real-time decision-making. CMOs are evaluating technology through a much sharper operational lens: Does this platform power modern, AI-driven playbooks? Does it integrate cleanly? Does it make us materially faster? The platforms that deliver intelligence, simplicity and security will become the backbone of the martech stack of the future. Expect consolidation, accelerated adoption of adaptive systems, and a rapid decline in tools that add complexity without compounding value.
#2. The evolution of peak moments into continuous engagement. In our recent Iterable Black Friday Insights report, our data showed that Black Friday is no longer just “a weekend” of big pushes and heavy promotional noise. It’s become an extended engagement window for brands and consumers. The companies that showed up early—warming up loyal customers and building momentum well before November—saw some of their strongest results before the big weekend even arrived. The winners in 2026 will be the companies that treat engagement as a year-round discipline, not a sequence of disconnected bursts. To support this shift, marketers will need technology that powers continuous, personalized, cross-channel engagement—and one that can scale right alongside their ambitions.
Can you highlight your thoughts on AI and martech: the deepening connection? How will this impact the future of marketing?
We’re at a real inflection point in our industry where innovation, trust, and technology are reshaping what it means to be a modern marketer. AI isn’t just optimizing workflows or helping us do the same things faster—it’s fundamentally expanding what’s possible. It’s giving marketers smarter ways to understand our customers, anticipate their needs, and deliver experiences that feel more personal and relevant at scale.
As AI becomes more deeply embedded across martech, we’ll see marketing organizations evolve into more agile, insight-driven teams that can move with far more speed and precision. We’ll see stronger cross-channel orchestration, more responsive lifecycle engagement, and a level of personalization that simply wasn’t possible before. Smart technology working in the service of creative, talented marketers—that’s what will unlock an entirely new era of growth and customer connection.
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A few common martech myths you’d like to bust in this martech interview?
There are many, but I’ll start with the one I hear most often: that AI is here to replace marketers. I understand where the fear comes from — AI is absolutely automating tasks that once required human hours, and some roles will shift or even disappear. But that doesn’t mean AI will replace entire marketing teams or the core functions that drive brand, creativity, and strategy.
What I’m seeing in practice is very different. For the people who lean in — who experiment, who upskill, who embrace new workflows — AI becomes a force multiplier. It removes the repetitive, manual work and gives marketers more space for strategic thinking, deeper insights, and better storytelling. In other words, AI is taking the tasks, not the talent.
I also believe we’re entering the era of the “AI boss.” Not in a dystopian sense, but in a practical one: marketers will increasingly guide a small fleet of AI agents that support research, execution, optimization, and analysis. Human judgment sets the vision, defines the strategy, and brings the creativity. AI handles the operational lift.
It’s a shift, yes — but it’s a shift toward greater impact. And for teams that embrace it, it’s going to unlock some of the most exciting, high-leverage work marketing has ever had the chance to do.
Five martech best practices you’d like to leave us with before we wrap up?
1. Speed matters: Today’s market moves unbelievably fast. I’ve seen fabulous ideas lose their edge simply because a team waited too long to act. One of the best shifts we made this year was empowering teams to make decisions quickly without over-orchestrating every step. Speed builds confidence—and confidence builds momentum.
2. Human ingenuity always wins: AI is incredible, but it still can’t replicate that spark you see when a marketer has a breakthrough idea. I remember watching a teammate use AI to get past a creative block, and the output was good—but theirversion was exceptional. AI can accelerate the work, but the magic is still human.
3. Cut the clutter: Every year when our team gets together to talk budget, we end up staring at this very long list of tools… and inevitably someone asks, “Do we even use half of these?” It’s a humbling moment, but an important one. Complexity creeps in quietly, and before you know it, your stack is bigger than it is useful. The real power comes from a focused, intentional stack where every tool has a clear role and clear value. When we removed redundancies and centered on the platforms that truly moved the business, execution got faster and outcomes got sharper.
4. Protect trust at all costs: As AI becomes more central to how we work, trust and governance have to sit at the core of every decision. I’ve said to my teams many times: if customers don’t feel safe, nothing else matters. You can have the most innovative tech and the most creative campaigns, but without trust, the relationship breaks instantly. The brands that prioritize responsible AI, strong data protection, and transparency in their operations will be the ones customers choose—and stay loyal to. Trust isn’t a checkbox; it’s a long-term commitment that earns you the right to grow.
5. Think differently: Stepping into this CMO role at Iterable, one of the first things I encouraged the team to do was ask a simple question: “Why do we do it this way?” Some of the biggest unlocks so far happened because someone was willing to challenge an old habit or offer a fresh perspective. Thinking differently isn’t about change for the sake of it—it’s about creating space for curiosity and encouraging teams to reimagine what’s possible. That’s when real innovation takes shape.
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Iterable is an AI-powered customer communication platform used by marketers to create personalized experiences across multiple channels.
About Priya Gill
Priya Gill, is Chief Marketing Officer at Iterable