In 2026, MarTech budgets are growing. But the more important story is not how much enterprise marketing teams plan to spend. It is how deliberately they are spending it.
The data behind the Stensul 2026 MarTech Outlook shows a clear shift in mindset. AI is no longer being tested at the edges. It’s being funded as core infrastructure.
At the same time, enterprise marketing leaders are confronting a harder truth: speed does not come from more tools alone. It comes from fixing how work actually moves through the organization.
Below, we break down the four biggest trends shaping MarTech decisions in 2026, and what they mean in practice.
AI Is the Priority, but Workflow Friction Is the Real Constraint
AI appears consistently as the top MarTech priority for 2026. What is more telling is why teams are prioritizing it.
At enterprise scale, the limiting factor is rarely ideation. It’s coordination. Nearly half of organizations with more than 10,000 employees prioritize improving collaboration workflows, reflecting the reality that approvals, handoffs, and disconnected systems slow execution far more than a lack of ideas.
As organizations get smaller, priorities change because constraints change. Mid-sized companies most often prioritize reducing costs and optimizing spend, reflecting tighter scrutiny on ROI as complexity grows faster than budgets.
Smaller enterprises emphasize attribution and analytics. For these teams, proving impact—and using data to guide investment—is the fastest path for smarter growth.
Business model matters, too. B2B organizations lean toward attribution and collaboration workflows, reflecting longer buying cycles and multi-stakeholder complexity. B2C teams prioritize campaign creation efficiency, where speed to market and volume directly affect performance. Hybrid B2B/B2C organizations most often anchor on AI itself, using it to manage the operational complexity of multiple motions at once.
2026 is a Growth Year for MarTech Budgets
Most organizations expect MarTech budgets to increase meaningfully in 2026, with many planning double-digit growth. This is not incremental spending. It reflects structural investment driven by execution pressure.
The strongest expectations for budget expansion come from complex environments, including technology companies and heavily regulated industries. In these organizations, enterprise marketing investment is closely tied to risk management, compliance, and the cost of slow or error-prone execution.
The signal is clear. Budget growth is being justified by the need to scale safely and predictably, not by experimentation or trend chasing.
Investment is Flowing Directly into AI-Powered Execution
If budget growth answers how much organizations plan to spend, investment priorities answer where that money is going.
AI-powered tools are the top MarTech investment priority for 2026, cited by more than half of all companies. This signals a shift from AI as a standalone capability to AI embedded directly into execution, optimization, and production workflows.
Beyond AI, priorities diverge by business model. B2B organizations are 64% more likely than B2C companies to invest in marketing automation, reflecting a focus on standardization, process efficiency, and operational leverage. Meanwhile, B2C organizations are more likely to prioritize personalization engines, underscoring the importance of relevance, experience, and scale in consumer marketing.
In both cases, the pattern is the same: teams are investing in technology that removes manual effort and makes speed repeatable—not dependent on heroics.
In-House Enablement Is Replacing Outsourced Execution
One of the most telling signals in the report isn’t about tools at all; it’s about operating models.
Nearly a third of respondents (31%) plan to reduce spending on external agencies for campaign execution in 2026. At the same time, 57% plan to invest in reskilling their teams on AI.
This isn’t about cutting headcount or eliminating partners altogether. It’s about changing the balance of work. Routine execution is increasingly handled in-house, supported by AI-enabled workflows and better internal systems. Agencies, in turn, are being reserved for specialized, high-impact needs rather than day-to-day production.
The implication is long-term. Organizations aren’t just buying tools: they’re investing in people and processes that allow AI to be embedded into everyday work safely and sustainably.
What the 2026 MarTech Outlook Signals for Enterprise Marketing Teams
Taken together, these trends show a more mature phase of MarTech adoption. AI is no longer optional, but its value depends on the workflows that support it. Budget growth is tied to execution realities. Enablement is moving inward as teams build AI-ready operating models.
In 2026, the teams that move ahead will not be those chasing the newest technology. They will be the ones redesigning how marketing work gets done so speed, quality, and governance can scale together.
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