Consumers expect good experiences and when they don’t get them they are likelier to decrease or cease spending with the brand (up six points YoY), based on a survey of over 20,000 consumers by experience management platform Qualtrics. They are also less likely to tell the brand about it (down five points). They are also unlikely to post about it on social media; indeed most just won’t tell anyone.

MessageGears has snappily redefined itself as “fully composable end-to-end data activation and engagement platform.”  In considerably plainer English, it says it can now replace a separate CDP, email service provider, and customer engagement platform while relying on a cloud data warehouse.  Although the different features are tightly integrated, they can be purchased as separate components by companies who don’t want the full kit.

CDP Zeta Global has unveiled Athena, a “superintelligent” voice-activated interface that delivers instant answers, smarter decisions, and agentic actions throughout the Zeta platform. It activates a suite of agentic apps that can adapt to each user’s specific goals and styles. Early access will begin later this year, with a suite of agentic apps to follow in the first half of next year.