Here’s a sign that customer data is increasingly important: open source database vendor Couchbase has introduced a “engagement database” that is says is new class of system, distinct from transactional and analytical databases. It’s optimized for real time interactions at scale, with key features including in-memory data, full text search, and mobile deployment. They’ve written a helpful white paper explaining the details.

B2B profiling vendor MarianaIQ was built from the start on using artificial intelligence to identify buyer personas. They’ve just announced a neural network-based model to help companies find new target accounts. Also new: a targeting option for Google AdWords, which joins existing Twitter and Facebook ad capabilities.

Martech keeps taking larger bites out of marketing budgets: 17.3% last year, 19.9% this year, 23.5% next year, and 30.9% five years from now, according to the latest CMO Survey. This despite barely more than half (56.4%) of current tools being used and nearly half (48.8%) of the survey respondents reporting worse-than-expected results. Oddly enough, marketers rate selecting marketing technologies as the thing they do best.