IDC Names Optimove a Leader in AI-Enabled CDPs. Agents that let you act while others are still analyzing! Why it matters: In reading this post, marketers will learn that the IDC MarketScape evaluates Customer Data Platform (CDP) vendors' AI built specifically for B2C users and use cases. That focus is what makes it useful for marketers. It assesses these platforms not as general data infrastructure, but how well they serve the day-to-day realities of consumer marketing: managing customer data, deciding what to do with it, activating campaigns, and measuring results. Marketers will also learn why Optimove has been named a Leader. This reflects where Optimove is today and the power of its Positionless Marketing Platform. This post goes further, to Optimove AI, the suite that brings AI everywhere the marketer works. Key takeaways: * Optimove has been named a Leader in the 2026 IDC MarketScape for AI-Enabled Customer Data Platforms for B2C users * Behind the recognition is the Optimove Positionless Marketing Platform, built on Optimove Orchestrate, Engage, Personalize, and Gamify * Ahead of it is Optimove AI, which puts AI everywhere the marketer works: inside the platform with Native AI, outside it through the Optimove MCP, and on top of it through Custom Apps * The three work together under one execution layer, with full governance, so a marketer can start anywhere and stay in control What Optimove Was Chosen For Optimove has been named a Leader in the IDC MarketScape: Worldwide AI-Enabled Customer Data Platforms for B2C Users 2026 Vendor Assessment. The assessment looks specifically at customer data platforms built for B2C users and use cases, not general data infrastructure. For a marketer weighing a CDP, that makes it a practical, independent reference point, based on criteria set by an outside analyst rather than by any vendor. Behind the Recognition: the Positionless Marketing Platform Optimove is the creator of Positionless Marketing. Positionless Marketing frees marketing teams from the limitations of fixed roles, giving every marketer the power to execute any marketing task instantly and independently. Positionless Marketing has been proven to improve campaign efficiency by 88%, allowing marketing teams to create more personalized engagement with existing customers. A customer data platform is only as valuable as a marketer's ability to extract value from data. Optimove treats the CDP not just as a place where customer data lives, but as the engine for coordinated decisioning, activation, measurement, and ongoing optimization. That is the foundation of the Optimove Positionless Marketing Platform, which brings customer data together with AI decisioning, orchestration, and campaign activation in one environment. Its core spans four areas: Optimove Orchestrate for unified customer data and AI decisioning, Optimove Engage for native multichannel execution, Optimove Personalize for real-time web and email recommendations, and Optimove Gamify for loyalty, gamification, and zero-party data capture. A Step Further: Optimove AI Optimove AI is the next step. AI has changed where and how marketers work. Optimove AI is the only suite that meets them in all three places at once: inside the platform, outside it, and on top of it. Inside the Platform, with Native AI For the marketer who wants a CRM marketing platform with AI built in, Native AI delivers it out of the box. AI agents handle decisioning, content creation, insights, and optimization across strategy and execution. Optimove's AI Decisioning Studio is the clearest example. Rather than handing the marketer recommendations to act on, it lets the marketer manage decisioning agents directly. The marketer gives them direction, a strategy and a KPI, and the agents optimize for it autonomously, acting across journey, offer, send time, and content without further intervention. A team running Black Friday campaigns can point every agent at a single revenue goal and let them optimize across segments, channels, and offers in real time, all from one hub. Outside the Platform, in the Tools Marketers Already Use The Optimove MCP connects AI tools like Claude and ChatGPT directly to Optimove. No new interface. No switching platforms. The marketer prompts the AI in the surface they already use, the AI calls Optimove, and the platform ships the work with governance preserved. A CRM manager can prompt Claude to identify high-value customers likely to churn in the next two weeks, build an audience with multi-channel preference data, draft personalized email and SMS, and generate the campaign in Optimove, ready for review and activation. The marketer never leaves Claude. The platform does the work. On Top of the Platform, with Custom Apps When no off-the-shelf product covers a workflow, Optimove Custom Apps deliver a tailored solution built on top of Optimove's data, creative, and optimization power. These are built by Optimove AI engineers in partnership with the brand, for the workflows that are specific to a single business. They are deployed directly inside Optimove. One System Underneath The three are not exclusive choices. One marketer can use all three. A team can use them in parallel. And underneath them all, the same execution layer holds the work together, with full governance, frequency rules, and approvals intact. Whatever surface a marketer is on, inside the platform, outside it, or on a custom app, it is a launching pad to put AI to work. Positionless Marketing Means Marketing Empowerment in Perpetuity Every part of Optimove's Positionless Marketing Platform points to the same practical goal: reducing the handoffs that slow marketing down. When data, decisioning, execution, and measurement live in one environment, and AI reaches the marketer wherever they work, a marketer moves from insight to action without waiting on a chain of specialists and tools. That is what Positionless Marketing means for B2C teams, and why it matters most in retail, ecommerce, sport, and iGaming, where high campaign volumes, time-sensitive offers, and overlapping customer eligibilities create real complexity. Being named a Leader is an external validation of the platform behind it. Optimove AI is how Optimove Inc. take it further. Positionless Marketing is marketing empowerment in perpetuity. For more information, request a demo. Published on: July 8, 2026 AI built for marketers. Predict, create, and optimize - without waiting on data, dev, or design. Writers in the Optimove Team include marketing, R&D, product, data science, customer success, and technology experts who were instrumental in the creation of Positionless Marketing, a movement enabling marketers to do anything, and be everything.

Prediction markets are here to stay, gaming leaders say as industry faces regulatory turning point. 2026-06-23 Reading time 4:37 min Prediction markets may still be tangled in lawsuits, regulatory uncertainty and political debate across the United States, but for the executives building the space, one thing already feels settled: the category is not going away. That was the prevailing message during "The State of Prediction Markets in the U.S.," a panel discussion held at SBC Summit Americas in Fort Lauderdale on June 10, where industry leaders from DraftKings, Sporttrade, Optimove and the legal sector debated the future of event-based trading, sports prediction products and the broader convergence between financial markets and gaming. The panel featured Alex Kane, founder and CEO of Sporttrade; Jeanine Hightower-Sellitto, Senior Vice President and General Manager of DraftKings Predictions; Jeff Laniado, Optimove's U.S. lead; and Ian McGinley, partner at Sidley Austin, who discussed the evolving legal framework surrounding prediction markets, the convergence between gaming and financial trading, and why many executives believe the category is only beginning to scale. Much of the conversation revolved around the increasingly blurred line between traditional sports betting and prediction markets, particularly as operators such as DraftKings expand deeper into the category and companies like Kalshi and Polymarket continue to attract massive valuations and investor interest. "There's going to be three or four, maybe five, that are going to have a right to win," Kane said of the long-term market outlook. "And it's all going to be about quality and execution for brokers." Legal battles continue, but momentum grows. McGinley opened the discussion with an overview of the legal environment surrounding prediction markets, noting that several lawsuits involving state gaming regulators, tribal interests and private plaintiffs are currently moving through the courts. At the center of many of those disputes is the question of whether sports event contracts qualify as swaps under federal commodities law and whether federal authority preempts state gaming enforcement. "You have district courts that have issued decisions," McGinley explained. "I think it's fair to say they've gone both ways." He added that many observers expect the issue to eventually reach the U.S. Supreme Court as conflicting rulings continue to emerge from different federal circuits. Still, despite the legal uncertainty, operators are already building aggressively around the category. During the panel, DraftKings reiterated its belief that prediction markets represent a major long-term opportunity. Referencing comments previously made by DraftKings CEO Jason Robins, Hightower-Sellitto described prediction markets as "a strategic priority" for the company. DraftKings pushes forward with its "super app" According to Hightower-Sellitto, DraftKings believes it holds a significant advantage because of its existing sports infrastructure and customer base. The company recently integrated prediction markets directly into its main sports app, creating what executives described as a "super app" experience that combines sportsbook and prediction products in one ecosystem. "Being able to leverage our brand, being able to leverage all of our resources into a single experience for customers for the sports experience is really where we're heading," Hightower-Sellitto said. She argued that prediction markets and sportsbooks are complementary products rather than direct replacements. "Both coexist really well," she said. "They are different businesses at their core." Hightower-Sellitto described sportsbooks as essentially "single-dealer markets," while prediction markets function more like traditional exchange and brokerage systems where traders interact within a marketplace structure. That distinction, panelists argued, could fundamentally reshape how consumers engage with gaming-style products in the future. Sporttrade sees convergence between trading and betting. Few executives on the panel were as bullish about the broader convergence between financial trading and betting as Kane. Sporttrade, which originally launched as a state-licensed sports betting exchange, is now focused on becoming a federally regulated exchange through the CFTC framework. Kane argued that prediction markets sit at the center of a much larger transformation involving trading, gaming and financial products. "Customers are going to want to trade or play traditional gaming products like horse racing and online casino and DFS," he said, "or whether they're more interested in doing options and futures trading and equities." "The prediction market sits in the middle of that Venn diagram." Kane also pointed to the enormous investor enthusiasm surrounding the space. He referenced recent funding rounds involving Kalshi and Polymarket, noting that their valuations reflect ambitions extending far beyond sports contracts alone. "I think those valuations are more an indication of just how interconnected trading and betting can ultimately be," he said. Regulation remains a major dividing line. One of the most recurring themes during the discussion was the difference between state gaming regulation and the principles-based framework used by the CFTC. Kane criticized the highly detailed regulatory structures common in state sports betting markets, contrasting them with what he described as a more flexible federal approach centered on broader "core principles." "It's not about what color font it is, size 14 and a half," Kane said, describing his frustrations with state-level licensing processes. "It's a completely different paradigm shift." McGinley agreed that the CFTC's proposed framework appears focused primarily on preventing market manipulation and ensuring integrity rather than micromanaging operational details. At the same time, several speakers acknowledged that prediction markets still face difficult questions around consumer protection, particularly because many platforms are available to users aged 18 and older rather than the 21-plus standard used in most U.S. sports betting markets. Hightower-Sellitto said DraftKings has already implemented "responsible trading" protections modeled after responsible gaming programs commonly used in sportsbook operations. "It's something the CFTC is going to need to address," she said. CRM and customer retention evolve alongside the market. From the marketing side, Laniado explained that prediction markets are already changing how operators think about retention and customer value. While many traditional sportsbook strategies focus heavily on deposits, net gaming revenue and casino cross-sell activity, prediction market operators are often optimizing for trading volume, liquidity and spread efficiency. "The mechanics of the businesses inform what we're trying to incentivize from a marketing perspective," Laniado said. Still, many familiar customer behavior patterns remain intact. Operators acquiring large numbers of users during major sporting events such as the World Cup or Super Bowl now face the same challenge prediction market platforms encounter: how to keep those users engaged once the event is over. "The players that are trading across products are of higher value," Laniado noted. The next phase of prediction markets. As the panel wrapped up, speakers were asked where they believe the industry will stand by 2027. McGinley predicted that prediction markets would survive ongoing legal scrutiny, even if future CFTC rules narrow portions of the market. Kane forecast consolidation, arguing that only a small handful of major operators will ultimately dominate the space. Hightower-Sellitto took perhaps the broadest view of all, suggesting that prediction markets may eventually stop being viewed as controversial altogether. "I think prediction markets just become part of the overall landscape," she said. "They're not controversial. People understand how they work." Laniado agreed that the category would likely continue expanding into increasingly sophisticated products and broader content verticals. "In the next year, we'll probably see even more productization and more breadth of markets that are available," he said. Related topics:

Optimove launches AI suite designed for the era of positionless marketing. Published on: Jun 2, 2026 As generative AI becomes embedded across marketing workflows, organizations are increasingly looking for ways to connect intelligence, execution, and customer data without forcing teams to switch between disconnected systems. In response to that challenge, Optimove has introduced Optimove AI, a new marketing AI suite designed to operate across multiple environments, including native CRM workflows, external AI assistants, and custom enterprise applications. The launch reflects a broader shift in how marketing technology vendors are adapting to an AI-first operating model where work increasingly happens across platforms rather than within a single application. Artificial intelligence is rapidly reshaping the structure of modern marketing organizations. What began as a collection of content-generation tools has evolved into a broader transformation of how campaigns are planned, executed, analyzed, and optimized. Against this backdrop, Optimove has unveiled Optimove AI, a platform designed around what the company describes as "Positionless Marketing" - an operating model that enables marketers to perform tasks traditionally associated with specialized roles while leveraging AI across the entire campaign lifecycle. The launch comes as marketing leaders continue to grapple with a persistent challenge: despite growing investments in AI, many organizations remain in the early stages of operational adoption. According to research cited by Optimove, a 2025 Forrester study found that only 39% of marketers were using AI for content creation, 37% for campaign workflow management, and just 14% for audience segmentation. Meanwhile, Gartner data from 2026 indicates that chief marketing officers allocate more than 15% of marketing budgets to AI initiatives, yet only 30% of marketing organizations report mature AI readiness. The gap between investment and execution has become one of the defining themes of the current martech landscape. Optimove's response is a three-layered AI architecture designed to support marketers wherever work occurs. Rather than requiring users to remain inside a single application, the platform extends AI capabilities across native CRM environments, external AI assistants, and customized business applications. The first layer, Native AI, embeds intelligence directly within the Optimove platform. The functionality includes AI-driven decisioning, campaign optimization, content creation, and performance analysis tools designed to support CRM and lifecycle marketing initiatives. A central component is the company's AI Decisioning Studio, which allows marketers to coordinate AI agents responsible for customer journeys, offer selection, send-time optimization, audience engagement, and content recommendations. The approach reflects an emerging trend toward agentic marketing systems, where AI agents collaborate to achieve defined business objectives rather than performing isolated tasks. The second pillar introduces support for the emerging Model Context Protocol (MCP) ecosystem. Through the Optimove MCP, marketers can interact with Optimove's data and campaign infrastructure from external AI environments such as Claude and ChatGPT. This capability highlights a significant evolution occurring across enterprise software markets. Increasingly, users expect business applications to connect seamlessly with generative AI interfaces rather than requiring separate workflows for data analysis, content creation, and execution. The concept is similar to developments being pursued by major enterprise technology providers including Microsoft, Salesforce, Adobe, and Google, all of which are expanding AI interoperability across their ecosystems. For marketers, the practical implication is workflow flexibility. Rather than manually moving between AI assistants, analytics dashboards, customer databases, and campaign management platforms, tasks can be initiated through a conversational interface while maintaining governance and operational controls. The third component, Optimove Custom Apps, targets organizations with specialized requirements that cannot be addressed through standard software functionality. These custom-built applications sit on top of the platform and leverage Optimove's customer data, campaign management, and optimization capabilities to support unique workflows. Examples include inventory-based marketing scenarios, audience planning applications, campaign forecasting tools, and business-specific decision support systems. Collectively, the three components reflect a broader movement toward composable martech architectures. Organizations increasingly seek technology ecosystems that allow AI capabilities to operate across multiple surfaces rather than being confined to individual applications. Another notable aspect of the launch is its emphasis on governance. As enterprises expand AI adoption, maintaining approval processes, communication frequency controls, compliance requirements, and customer engagement policies remains a critical concern. Optimove's execution layer is designed to preserve those governance structures regardless of where a task originates. Whether initiated inside the CRM platform, through a conversational AI interface, or via a custom application, campaigns remain subject to existing operational controls. This focus aligns with broader enterprise AI trends identified by Gartner and IDC. Both firms have repeatedly emphasized that scalable AI adoption depends on governance, workflow integration, and operational oversight rather than model capabilities alone. For enterprise marketing teams, the launch underscores a larger shift taking place across customer engagement technologies. Marketing platforms are increasingly evolving from standalone systems of record into interconnected systems of intelligence capable of operating across multiple AI environments. As generative AI becomes a primary interface for knowledge work, vendors face growing pressure to ensure their platforms are accessible wherever users choose to work. Optimove's latest release suggests the future of marketing technology may not revolve around a single destination platform, but rather an ecosystem where intelligence, execution, and decisioning move fluidly across applications, agents, and user experiences. Market landscape. The marketing technology industry is entering a new phase of AI adoption focused on workflow integration rather than isolated automation. Gartner research shows that AI spending continues to rise across marketing organizations, yet operational maturity remains relatively low. This gap is creating demand for platforms capable of embedding AI into everyday marketing processes while maintaining governance and business oversight. At the same time, the rise of agentic AI, Model Context Protocol (MCP) integrations, and composable software architectures is reshaping expectations for CRM, marketing automation, and customer engagement platforms. Vendors that enable AI interoperability across ecosystems are increasingly positioned to support the next generation of enterprise marketing operations. Top insights. * Optimove AI introduces a three-layer architecture combining native AI capabilities, external AI integrations through MCP, and custom enterprise applications. * The platform reflects growing demand for agentic marketing systems that coordinate decisioning, optimization, audience management, and content generation across workflows. * Integration with conversational AI environments such as ChatGPT and Claude aligns with emerging trends toward AI-first enterprise work environments. * Governance remains a key focus, ensuring compliance, approval workflows, and campaign controls remain intact regardless of where marketing activities originate. * The launch highlights a broader shift toward composable martech ecosystems where AI, data, and execution capabilities operate across multiple platforms and interfaces.