Research

Marketing Automation Stack Notes 2026

The CRM wars are over. The orchestration wars just started.

Sample · n/a — synthesized from vendor product/pricing pages, Gartner and Forrester citations, and 2025-08 through 2026-08 product releases

• The 2026 B2B stack still has four layers — CRM, MAP, data/intent, agents — but the agent layer has moved inside the CRM. HubSpot Agent Hub and Salesforce Agentforce are no longer side bets; they are the platform.
• Agent pricing has gone outcomes-based. HubSpot charges $0.10–$1.00 per resolved outcome. Salesforce sells Flex Credits at $0.005/credit, with each Agentforce action costing 20 credits ($0.10). For the first time, you can forecast agent spend like a media plan.
• The composable CDP won. Hightouch was named a Leader in the 26 January 2026 Gartner Magic Quadrant for CDPs, and Forrester named it a Strong Performer in its B2B CDP Wave. The data warehouse is the system of record.