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Posts by Matthew Niederberger

Everyone wants clean data, no one wants to take out the trash

Everyone wants clean data, no one wants to take out the trash

Why, in my opinion, “actionable data ownership” should be the most radical thing in Martech right now!

There’s a certain absurdity to how we talk about data. We obsess over real-time pipelines, predictive models, AI *cough* that promise to know our customers better than we know ourselves… and then completely sidestep the question of who’s actually responsible for the data in the first place.

And this is why Avo’s latest announcement matters more than it probably should. “Actionable Data Ownership” isn’t a sexy product drop, I mean it does contain the letters ‘A’ and ‘I’, but it’s a blunt instrument aimed at one of the most deeply neglected problems in Martech.

⚠️ This

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Agentic AI in Martech: The Handoff

Agentic AI in Martech: The Handoff

Part 6: Practical experiments for teams ready to delegate

After five posts exploring the theoretical challenges of agentic AI, scale, complexity, conflicts, roles, and trust, I want to end this series with something more practical. If you're convinced that agentic systems represent the future of Martech but aren't sure where to start experimenting, what's the actual first step?

Based on the patterns I've observed and my own experiments, I think the answer lies in designing deliberate handoff protocols. Not grand AI strategies or comprehensive automation plans, but careful experiments in delegation that help you learn how to work with autonomous systems.

Starting with low-stakes decisions

The teams that seem

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Survey Announcement: How Martech gets done in 2025

Survey Announcement: How Martech gets done in 2025

Who actually delivers Martech today? And is anyone happy with how it’s going?

This has been on my mind a lot lately. I’ve spoken with clients who are tightening budgets, vendors who are reshaping their services teams, and contractors who are either flooded or forgotten. At the same time, AI is quietly replacing some of the guidance people used to pay for.

So I built a survey to explore it all → rates, friction, perceived value, stack maturity, and the subtle power shifts happening between contractors, agencies, clients, and vendors.

It’s short, anonymous (unless you opt in or stay subscribed here), and open to anyone working in or around Martech:

Start the

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Don’t let your CDP become the Fall Guy

Don’t let your CDP become the Fall Guy

Five things you can do right now to make your data work harder.

The CDP market is taking a breather.

I was recently speaking to an industry leader who told me:

“I think the whole CDP space has quietly ground to a halt… We’re seeing no more than 3–5 new opportunities per quarter. Lowest number ever.”

Funding has dried up, unless you are adding the “AI” label to a new feature. Sales cycles have slowed. Implementations are dragging. And the next big thing? It’s not here yet. AI might be “le mot du jour” (French for “word of the day”) of the moment, but it’s not the thing replacing

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Can identity resolution work without AI? Steven Renwick from Tilores explains

Can identity resolution work without AI? Steven Renwick from Tilores explains

Tilores’ CEO explains why rules still rule, and how GenAI plays a supporting role in identity resolution, not the starring one.

There’s a lot of noise around AI and identity right now.

Hightouch just launched Adaptive Identity Resolution, Meiro is leaning hard into real-time CDP-native matching, and Amperity continues to push its probabilistic + deterministic blend for enterprise brands. But when someone asked me whether GenAI could solve identity resolution, I went straight to someone who’s seen the inside of the problem: Steven Renwick, co-founder and CEO of Tilores.

Steven and his team aren’t building another black box, they’re focused on traceability, reversibility, and real-time performance for messy, high-volume data. In this episode, we dig into what that

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Agentic AI in Martech: Trust without understanding

Agentic AI in Martech: Trust without understanding

Part 5: How to govern systems you can’t fully comprehend.

My Tesla occasionally does something that makes me question everything I think I know about driving. Since I have owned it, there have been numerous times when it suddenly slammed on the brakes while on autopilot, no visible obstacles, no construction signs, perfect weather. Just phantom braking, the phenomenon that’s been getting Tesla scrutinized by government agencies.

My wife hates when this happens. She’s made it very clear that I shouldn’t rely on autopilot when the family is in the car, both for safety reasons and because she’d prefer I not sleep on the couch.

8-car
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