Age of the Customer
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HIMSS26: A Shift From AI Optimism To Operational Reckoning
Healthcare is moving beyond fascination with AI and into a far more consequential phase. AI was everywhere at HIMSS26, but the conversation shifted decisively from promise to preparedness. Speakers, vendors, and attendees spent less time debating what is possible and more time confronting what is scalable, governable, and culturally sustainable. The most important signals were […]
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Your Employees Aren’t Ready For AI — And It’s A Problem
Forrester’s AIQ Reveals Severe Gaps In Employee Readiness For AI Employers aren’t successfully equipping their employees with the understanding, skills, and ethics to succeed in a world of AI. And it’s becoming a bottleneck that inhibits productivity and return on investment. We measure this with AIQ, Forrester’s Artificial Intelligence Quotient, and we’ve got alarming new […]
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A Product Leader’s Roadmap To B2B Summit North America
The pressure is on product leaders to reimagine and reinvent for a new GTM reality. B2B Summit North America is designed to help you do just that. Here are the sessions and experiences you should prioritize.
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Virtual Event Platforms In 2026: The Live Event Is No Longer The Product
Questionnaire responses submitted by vendors for the Virtual Event Management Platforms Landscape, Q1 2026 show a clear transformation in the market. During (and following) the Covid-19 pandemic, vendors primarily focused their differentiation efforts on the ability to deliver. In 2026, buyers simply assume that capability exists. Therefore, the real competition has shifted to what platforms […]
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Banks Are Losing Their Place In Small Business Decisions — Here’s How To Reclaim It
Small businesses face more volatility than ever, yet banks are becoming less present at the moments when owners make critical financial choices. This growing gap is why relationship sovereignty in small business banking has become the defining challenge for 2026. Small business owners now rely on the platforms they use every day — accounting, payroll, […]
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Mastercard Makes Its Stablecoin Move: The BVNK Acquisition
Mastercard’s acquisition of BVNK seizes on the opportunity of stablecoins to disrupt cross-border payments. Learn what the move means for banks, card networks, payment fintechs, and B2B firms.
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Why Stripe’s Machine Payments Protocol Signals A Turning Point For Micropayments
For thirty years, micropayments failed for one reason: the payer was human. Humans hesitate; they abandon carts, resent friction, and perform mental accounting before every small transaction. The smartest engineers and best-funded companies in technology couldn’t engineer their way around human psychology — so they stopped trying. On March 18, 2026, that constraint disappeared. Stripe […]
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The Five Capabilities CX Leaders Need Now — And How To Build Them At CX Forum West
As AI accelerates customer expectations, legacy CX playbooks are losing their effectiveness. Organizations are discovering they need a sharper, more modern skill set to drive clarity and alignment. Read this blog to uncover the five capabilities CX leaders need now — and how to build them at CX Forum West.
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The Five Capabilities CX Leaders Need Now — And How To Build Them At CX Forum East
AI is exposing cracks in journey strategy, personalization, and alignment faster than teams can patch them. Most CX organizations feel the pressure, but few know which capabilities will actually change their trajectory. Read this blog to learn the five capabilities CX leaders need now to adapt — and how to build them at CX Forum East.
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Twitter’s Twentieth: It’s Complicated
Tomorrow (March 21, 2026) marks two decades since Jack Dorsey (Twitter cofounder) posted the very first Tweet. I created my Twitter account in January 2008 while working for one of the first social media marketing agencies. Back then, Twitter was a delightful enigma — a first of its kind media platform that each of us […]
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Agent Control Planes Still Need A Robust Standards Stack
This post is a follow-up to my earlier announcement of our coverage of the agent control planes market. Research questionnaires for the landscape report will formally go out in the second week of April 2026. We are in the “dial-up internet” phase of the agentic era. The architecture is emerging faster than the standards needed […]
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Apple Turns 50. Now Comes The Reckoning.
Milestone anniversaries invite reflection when what's required is foresight. Apple is at a crossroad — and the way forward may require challenging some of the very principles that have made it so successful.
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Word On The Retail Street: What To Watch In 2026
Retail is in a tough spot: economic pressure, rapid tech change, and customers who are harder to read than ever. After dozens of conversations with executives, fresh consumer data, and time on the floor at events such as NRF, CES, and vendor showcases, here are my three takeaways for retail in 2026 on the consumer environment, Google search, and agentic AI solutions.
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When Things Go Wrong With A Commerce Task, Many Consumers Will Blame The Answer Engine
We asked consumers in the US, the UK, and Canada who they would hold responsible for issues when they use an answer engine to complete commerce-related tasks. Consumers might take personal responsibility for some issues (such as feeling that their prompts hadn’t been targeted enough) or might even hold the brand they ordered from responsible. […]
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Why Having Digital Insights Doesn’t Always Translate To Digital Outcomes
Digital business leaders continue to heavily invest in data and analytics to drive their digital business, yet many still struggle to turn insights into action. In our report, The State Of Digital Intelligence, 2026, we highlight how organizations collect, analyze, and operationalize customer and digital insights — and why progress continues to stall. Based on […]
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Starbucks’ Loyalty Program Upgrade Felt Like A Downgrade — Here’s Why
Starbucks’ recent rewards program update should have been a brand win — instead, it triggered a wave of frustration. Loyalty marketers can learn from the missteps.
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Marketing Chaos Is Our Calling: Why CMOs, Agencies, And Martech Have Forrester On Their Side
Forrester uniquely covers the entire marketing ecosystem and its underlying business. 2026 heralds a monumental shift in marketing and advertising, surpassing the decades-long “digital” transformation. AI will upend commercial models, reshape brand expectations from partners, and demand new measures of efficient growth. CMOs face the herculean task of rewiring the marketing function. Martech leaders must […]
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Think About The Agentic Shift With Your Next Customer Service Solution
There is so much excitement about how AI is changing customer service operations. What was once a reactive, cost-heavy, and manual function is turning into a proactive function that drives revenue growth. C-level executives and board members are more than curious. They are leaning heavily into the ROI potential of AI in customer service technology. […]
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Mobile World Congress 2026: From 5G Hype To AI Hope
MWC 2026 in Barcelona made one thing clear: The 5G hype has finally cooled, and the industry is sprinting toward what’s next. While I was on the ground navigating the chaos of the Fira, my partner Octavio was tracking the global signals from the digital sidelines. Between my sore feet and his high-level view, we’ve […]
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Connection, Confidence, And Community: A Look Inside The Forrester Women’s Leadership Program
The Women’s Leadership Program has become a staple of Forrester events. Here’s what you can expect this year — and why it’s particularly resonant now.
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