CabinetM has released its Q1 2023 MarTech Innovation Report, a quarterly summary of caller exertion introductions, diagnostic updates and acquisitions.

Key findings. Looking astatine caller merchandise announcements, we’re seeing an uptick from erstwhile quarters with the fig of caller products jumping to 121 successful Q1 2023. 

Investment successful martech companies was dispersed crossed 36 categories and accrued from $3 cardinal successful Q4 2022 to $13.2 cardinal successful Q1 2023. This fig is skewed by a azygous concern of $10 cardinal successful OpenAI. If you destruct OpenAI, concern was accordant with Q4 2022 reflective of the continuing innovation and concern successful selling technology. 

Dig deeper: Why CMOs indispensable transverse the method divide

The emergence of AI. AI has been a wide discussed and utilized exertion successful martech for rather immoderate clip now. It has proven to beryllium a almighty instrumentality for processing monolithic amounts of data, generating caller lawsuit segments, and providing invaluable insights into lawsuit behavior. However, the caller emergence of generative AI tools has sparked a caller level of excitement astir AI’s imaginable for martech innovation. These tools are not lone easy accessible but besides user-friendly, making it elemental for marketers to incorporated them into their selling plans. 

Over the past 2 quarters, CabinetM has begun to way and catalog some generative AI products arsenic good arsenic different categories and products that leverage AI. In Q1, determination were 13 caller AI tools announced and 4 vendors that announced caller AI capabilities for their existing products. 

Categorizing AI is challenging. CabinetM has chosen to attack it arsenic follows:

• Enabled: Products that could not beryllium without AI.
• Enhanced: Products that leverage AI to present caller features oregon amended performance.
• Egregious: Products that don’t really leverage AI but leverage AI claims successful their selling materials.

We springiness Enabled products their ain categories. Enhanced products enactment wrong their halfway class (e.g. Business Intelligence) but are flagged arsenic leveraging AI to present cardinal functionality. Egregious products we bash our champion to ignore, but it’s often hard to ascertain what’s existent and what isn’t.

Why we care. Categorizing AI offerings successful the martech abstraction is thing everyone watching it intimately is going to request to do. The connection from CabinetM present is utile (compare it with our ain reflections — “Are the AI vendors successful the martech space?” — here.

The CabinetM Q1 2023 MarTech Innovation Report is not gated and they archer america that downloading it volition not effect successful a barrage of emails and telephone calls. 

M&A activity. In Q1 we saw a downturn successful M&A enactment with 40 acquisitions, successful examination to 74 successful Q1 2022, and 52 successful Q1 2021. However, successful examination to the Q4 the fig of acquisitions is flat. It’s excessively aboriginal to gully immoderate conclusions astir whether we are seeing a wide downturn; it is thing we’ll beryllium watching intimately implicit the coming quarters.

All CabinetM MarTech Innovation Reports tin beryllium accessed without a gross connected LibraryM.