10 martech predictions of what won’t happen in 2025

Every year, the martech world is flooded with bold predictions about what’s next. But let’s be honest: some of these predictions will never come true. Here are 10 martech trends you won’t see in 2025 and the reasons why they’re simply not realistic.

1. Martech is getting cheaper

In most areas of technology, devices are getting smaller and cheaper every day, but martech software is getting bulkier and more expensive. That won’t change. We’re all going to spend more on martech tools this year — and probably in the years to come. Why?

Part of the problem is that established martech tool vendors tend to dominate, making it difficult and expensive for startups to disrupt existing martech categories. As a result, startups often compete in the new martech categories they help create. Ultimately, these categories are integrated into established tools, making everything more complex and expensive.

2. Martech stacks are getting smaller

Relentless increasing complexity the only one who will ensure that this never happens!

3. AI writes flawless long marketing copy

The AI ​​is pretty cool. It’s exciting to see what a computer can create. What’s not so exciting – and very frustrating – is that AI just isn’t good enough. Whether it’s creating falsehoods by abusing technical language or belching bland, formulaic copy, AI still needs an editor with a flesh-and-blood brain to provide real-world context.

And what happened to the massive AI improvements we were promised for 2024? Has AI already reached the upper limit of its capabilities?

Dig deeper: What Every Marketer Should Watch Out for in 2025

4. Automatic campaign optimization will work perfectly, every time

We all love the “super car” way of marketing platforms. From advertising to marketing automation, the promise of set it and forget it sounds amazing. (Just imagine creating a campaign and letting the platform optimize it for you!)

Unfortunately, it often isn’t. Yes, you can make some modest improvements, especially with simple tasks like A/B tests. But the platform can’t go beyond telling you whether A or B worked better. You still need a human to determine why one ad performed better than the other, and then create option C to beat both A and B. In short, automated campaign optimization is still not optimal.

5. We solve the problem of attribution and ROI

Not. sorry We are still far from being able to directly attribute results to multi-channel campaigns or determine the exact ROI for a specific activity.

Why? There are many reasons:

• Long sales cycles.
• Time needed to build a brand.
• The interplay of different tactics, which makes it impossible to isolate the effectiveness of one.
• The challenge of gathering relevant data in a B2B context where sales are made by people.

The problems far outweigh the solutions. While we’re making progress in some channels (eg e-commerce search ads), if you’re working in a discipline like PR, you probably won’t be able to realistically measure ROI for many years.

Dig deeper: The ROI problem in marketing has its roots in marketing culture

6. Blockchain is revolutionizing marketing

There was a lot of initial hype around the use of blockchain in marketing, but that has died down — and is unlikely to return. The emphasized advantages did not outweigh the complexity of switching to a new way of monitoring marketing performance. However, if Bitcoin continues to rise, we might be tempted to give crypto a try. I’m just saying.

7. Cookies are finally dying

Despite countless assassination attempts, the ubiquitous cookie stubbornly remains alive. And it will live even after 2025.

We may be witnessing the last few years of the third-party cookie, but even that cookie won’t completely disintegrate in 2025. First-party cookies, on the other hand, are becoming increasingly important and will thrive in 2025.

Dig deeper: What’s next for Google’s third-party cookie saga?

8. Customers will finally get paid for sharing their data

I’m sorry to disappoint you, but I repeat: this simply will not work. The process would be so cumbersome that consumers would not justify the time and effort, especially since the real value of an individual’s data is too small.

The only viable model would involve a few companies controlling the market. The data privacy implications of such dominant players are simply too terrifying to consider.

9. QR codes replace URLs

With all the recent talk about the IT security risks associated with QR codes, audiences are becoming increasingly wary of scanning those coded squares.

Ironically, the publicity is encouraging more people to misuse QR codes for hacking or other shady activities. No, we’re not saying goodbye to URLs anytime soon. Keep creating those memorable vanity URLs!

10. Chatbots now understand sarcasm

When chatbots work, they’re great. But they still have limitations. As an Englishman, their lack of understanding of sarcasm is particularly annoying.

For example, when they give you the wrong answer and you respond with, “Oh, thanks. That was soooo helpful,” the chatbots will reply, “I’m glad I could help. Would you like to rate my support five stars?”

Um, can I get back to you about that?

Dig deeper: Why AI will lack human intelligence