Why the ‘more is better’ era of marketing technology is officially over, and what actually works instead.

For the past two years, we’ve been living in AI’s gold rush era. To borrow from Taylor Swift, think of it as the “Lover” phase where everything is shiny, new, and full of possibility.

• The behavior: Buy everything.
• The metric: Can it generate something cool?
• The vibe: Pure FOMO.

But we’re entering a new era now. Call it the “Reputation” phase, which is darker, edgier, and entirely focused on receipts.

A sign of this shift was in the headlines recently, blaring on about Microsoft lowering its AI sales targets. The hot takes rushed in to frame it as a disappointment, a slowdown, and even a sign that enterprise demand is cooling.

They all misread the moment. This is really a sign of the market graduating.

We’re maturing. The AI gold rush era is coming to an end. Microsoft’s recalibration is one of many signals of this shift being felt broadly across the market, as we enter AI’s Production Phase era.

Another sign is how the questions leaders are asking have started to mature:

• Does this actually work inside my business?
• Does it connect to our stack?
• Does it move revenue?

Leaders are getting smarter and choosier. It confirms what many CMOs have suspected: We don’t need more tools. We need orchestration across the tools, so we use what we have more effectively and cohesively.

This shift comes as the broader AI market remains unsettled.

Nearly 40% of U.S. consumers have tried generative AI, but only half use it regularly, according to eMarketer. Platform loyalty is fluid. ChatGPT’s global traffic share fell from 86.6% to 72.3% in a year, while Google Gemini tripled to 13.7%.

For marketers, this volatility means orchestration is critical to future-proof against a fragmented ecosystem.

The ‘Pilot Theater’ problem

The martech landscape just crossed 15,384 solutions, up 9% from last year according to ChiefMartec. We’ve never had more capability available.

Yet Gartner shows martech utilization has dropped to just 33%. Companies are paying for the full stack but extracting value from one-third of it. Even as budgets are getting slashed everywhere.

During the gold rush, we bought point solutions to fix functional problems. A tool for copy. A tool for creative. A tool for bidding. Each team got their own set of tools. We built rooms full of brilliant soloists but never hired a conductor.

The result is something I call Pilot Theater: impressive AI demos that look innovative but can’t deliver enterprise ROI because they’re trapped in silos.

Here’s what Pilot Theater looks like in your actual P&L:

• The budget disconnect:* *Your CTV campaign sparks a 40% spike in branded search. Your search team has no automated way to adjust bids or shift budget. By next week’s meeting, the moment has passed and a competitor captured the demand you created.
• The experience break:* *A prospect engages with your LinkedIn Thought Leader Ad and visits your pricing page—clear buying intent. Your demand gen platform doesn’t catch that signal. It retargets them with a generic intro-to-brand ad. You just paid to move them backward in the funnel.
• The content gap:* *Sales loses late-stage deals because Finance keeps blocking contracts over compliance questions. Meanwhile, your content team, unaware of this pattern, keeps producing top-funnel brand stories instead of the ROI calculators and security docs needed to close.

The signals exist, as does the technology.

What’s missing is the coordination. And the pressure to fix this is mounting, with 86% of CEOs expecting AI ROI within three years (eMarketer).

Flashy pilots aren’t enough anymore. The orchestration gap is now a revenue risk.

From automation to agentic orchestration

Most leaders still confuse automation with orchestration.

Automation is rigid: “If X happens, do Y.” Orchestration is adaptive: “Achieve goal Z using the best available tools and conditions.”

In this new agentic AI era, you have systems that go beyond generating content to observing, coordinating, and optimizing workflows across your entire stack.

Think of orchestration as the nervous system of your marketing operation. The connective tissue that interprets signals across channels and triggers the next best action, instantly.

I’d even call this a survival strategy. Smaller AI platforms are running out of time as VCs lose patience, according to eMarketer. The prize for winning in AI is massive, but so are the resources required.

Betting on a single vendor is risky. Building adaptive orchestration is how you stay ahead when the ecosystem reshuffles.

What real orchestration looks like

Much of this is happening now, with manual handoffs being replaced with intelligent feedback loops. Here are three real-world examples:

1. The Budget Fluidity Workflow

• Signal: Your prospects exposed to CTV (Connected TV) ads show 3x higher CTR (Click-through-rate) on branded search terms.
• Action: Your orchestration layer automatically creates bid modifiers and routes budget toward that high-intent segment in real time.
• Result: You capture the demand you created instead of letting competitors conquest it.

1. The Buying Group Alignment

• Signal: Three stakeholders from the same enterprise account engage with your content within 48 hours.
• Action: Your system flags the account as “Active,” alerts Sales, and automatically shifts creative strategy from education to social proof to compliance.
• Result: You market to the account, not a cluster of disconnected individuals.

1. The Sales-to-Content Loop

• Signal: Your conversation intelligence tools surface repeated blockers: “security certification,” “integration timeline,” “ROI proof.”
• Action: Your orchestration layer identifies missing bottom-funnel assets and triggers a workflow for the content team to prioritize those materials.
• Result: Your content aligns with real buyer needs not just an editorial calendar built weeks ago.

The rise of the “Builder” leader

One of the most telling stats in the 2025 State of Martech report: Custom-built internal platforms jumped from 2% to 10% of core stacks.

A 5x increase in a single year.

Marketing teams are evolving into product teams. Product management tools grew from 23% to 42% penetration, the highest growth of any martech category.

The off-the-shelf ecosystem isn’t solving the coordination problem fast enough. So marketing leaders are building it themselves.

This mirrors what’s happening in AI platforms. Google’s Gemini is surging thanks to deep integrations across search, browser, and mobile OS. Advantages OpenAI can’t match. The lesson for marketers is that integration wins.

Welcome to your conductor era

Don’t fall for the hot takes touting the end of this era as a sign of the AI bubble popping. This is the end of AI tourism.

In this new era you can’t force growth with volume. You have to orchestrate it with intelligence.

Your competitive advantage will come from building the best AI nervous system. One that can sense a signal in one channel and react across the whole stack before the opportunity moves on.

Especially as AI platforms race to monetize through ads and sponsored content, orchestration layers help you measure and optimize ROI across the entire funnel.

The gold rush is over. The production era is here and it belongs to the orchestrators.

---

Contributing authors are invited to create content for Search Engine Land and are chosen for their expertise and contribution to the search community. Our contributors work under the oversight of the editorial staff and contributions are checked for quality and relevance to our readers. Search Engine Land is owned by Semrush. Contributor was not asked to make any direct or indirect mentions of Semrush. The opinions they express are their own.

---

About the Author

Purna Virji is the best-selling author of "High-Impact Content Marketing" and a leading voice on AI-powered marketing. As Principal Consultant at LinkedIn, she advises Fortune 500 brands and high-growth startups on content, creative, and branding strategy, helping them harness AI’s potential while keeping marketing deeply human.

Previously at Microsoft, Purna has shaped global AI marketing strategies and influenced industry trends, earning recognition as a Search Personality of the Year, Adweek Young Influential, and the Most Influential PPC Expert in the World. A sought-after keynote speaker, she’s shared her insights across 20 countries, guiding marketers toward smarter strategies for revenue growth.

When she’s not writing, consulting, or speaking, you’ll find her either in her garden, experimenting in the kitchen, or planning her next travel adventure, always with a cup of masala chai in hand.