Weekly Newsletter Analysis: Week 4 2026

THE 30-SECOND TAKE AI is entering the physical world, and the race isn’t for the smartest model anymore. It’s for who owns your context. Apple just signed a multi-year deal to power Siri with Google’s Gemini while simultaneously racing to put AI in a wearable pin. The shift is clear: competitive advantage has moved from… Read More

What “Self-Service” Really Means

Marketing promises: “No technical resources needed!” Marketing reality: “Let me Slack the data team again.” Every “self-service” CDP still routes through IT. The only question is how many tickets. The bottleneck isn’t the tool. It’s the org chart. The market reality in 2026 makes this paradox even more stark. While vendors continue positioning their platforms… Read More

The 22% Problem

Only 22% of marketers actually use their CDP. Not “use it a little.” Use it at all. The other 78% have a very expensive database they occasionally log into. Technology doesn’t solve utilisation problems. Strategy does. The data quality crisis has only intensified since this post. Recent industry benchmarks from Forrester’s 2025 Customer Data Platform… Read More

What “Real-Time” Actually Costs

Real-time sounds impressive in the demo. Then you see the invoice. Refreshing 100 segments hourly instead of daily: 25x the compute cost. Every 5 minutes? 50x. The math doesn’t lie. Neither does your budget. Most of what we call “urgent” can wait until tomorrow. The economics of real-time data have shifted dramatically as cloud costs… Read More

The Orchestration Imperative: Mastering First-Party Data for a Transformative Future

In today’s ever-evolving digital landscape, first-party data has emerged as both a challenge and an opportunity. The privacy tide is rising. Traditional tools like third-party cookies are fading. As a result, businesses are re-evaluating their approach to understanding and engaging with customers. Yet, midst this complexity, one principle stands out: orchestration. Orchestration isn’t just about… Read More