slug: martech-stack-benchmarks

metric_category: utilization

claim: Gartner's public 2025 summary reports martech utilization at 49%.

source_title: Maximize ROI With Marketing Technology (Martech)

source_section: Build trust and safeguard your budget with a fully utilized martech stack

evidence_type: official public summary of the 2025 Gartner Marketing Technology Survey

population: marketing organizations in Gartner's 2025 survey; respondent count not disclosed on the public page

geography: not disclosed on the public page

period: 2025 survey; public page accessed July 14, 2026

methodology: Gartner's public topic page summarizes selected survey results and recommendations but does not expose the full sample or fieldwork details.

caveat: Supporting evidence only. The public page does not disclose N. Martech utilization is not the same measure as unused licenses or wasted spend. The page alternates between utilization and tools actively used; quote the 49% figure only with the missing-N limitation adjacent.


metric_category: performance

claim: Gartner's public summary says 15% of organizations qualified as martech high performers that met strategic goals and demonstrated positive ROI.

source_section: Align your martech strategy with business goals to drive performance

caveat: Supporting evidence only. The public page does not disclose N. Martech utilization is not the same measure as unused licenses or wasted spend.


metric_category: budget

figure: nearly 22%

claim: Gartner's public summary says martech accounted for nearly 22% of total marketing spend.

source_section: Martech audits are essential to improve outcomes and optimize costs


figure: 9 channels; 20% adding new ones

claim: Gartner's public summary says CMOs oversaw nine marketing channels on average and 20% were already adopting new channels.


figure: 15,505 products

claim: The 2026 Marketing Technology Landscape mapped 15,505 products.

source_title: State of Martech 2026

source_section: Page 18 / report page 13: 2026 Marketing Technology Landscape

evidence_type: product-landscape census methodology plus primary survey

population: 15,505 mapped martech products; separate February 2026 survey of 208 marketing and marketing-operations leaders across about 70 AI use cases

geography: survey geography is not fully disclosed in the public report

period: product landscape and survey published May 5, 2026; AI category comparisons use the report's 2024 and 2026 surveys

methodology: Chiefmartec and MartechTribe maintained the product landscape and surveyed 208 leaders. The sample was 40% VP or above, 36% technology companies, 21% professional services, 61% pure B2B, and explicitly described as tech-forward/top-quartile.

caveat: The product map is not a count of purchases or active enterprise stacks. The N=208 survey is intentionally tech-forward and multi-select where stated, so it is not market-representative.


claim: The mapped martech landscape grew by a net 121 products, or 0.79%, from 15,384 to 15,505.

source_section: Page 18 / report page 13: landscape year-over-year change


figure: 1,488 added; 1,367 removed

claim: Behind the 121-product net increase, the 2026 landscape added 1,488 products and removed 1,367.

source_section: Page 18 / report page 13: product additions and removals


figure: 176 removed; 139 added; net -37

claim: The Content Marketing subcategory recorded 176 removals and 139 additions in 2026, a net decline of 37 products.

source_section: Content Marketing category analysis


claim: Advertising and Promotions AI use-case adoption rose from 30% in the report's 2024 survey to 50% in its 2026 survey.

source_section: Page 35 / report page 30: AI adoption by martech category

caveat: The product map is not a count of purchases or active enterprise stacks. The N=208 survey is intentionally tech-forward and multi-select where stated, so it is not market-representative. The comparison uses separate report surveys and does not prove a causal effect. The 2024 comparator denominator and composition are not disclosed in the extracted evidence, so use the change directionally.


claim: Commerce and Sales AI use-case adoption rose from 28% in the report's 2024 survey to 49% in its 2026 survey.


claim: Content and Experience AI use-case adoption rose from 79% in the report's 2024 survey to 89% in its 2026 survey.


claim: The Martech for 2026 report says 90.3% of its tech-forward participants used AI agents somewhere in the martech stack.

source_title: Martech for 2026

source_section: AI agents in the martech stack

evidence_type: Chiefmartec and MartechTribe AI and Data in Marketing survey

population: tech-forward marketing and martech participants; respondent count not disclosed in the accessible report

geography: not disclosed in the accessible report

period: 2025 survey published December 2, 2025

methodology: The report asks participants about AI agents, integrations, data sources, autonomy, and barriers. Several questions allow multiple selections.

caveat: Supporting evidence only. N is not disclosed and the authors say participants skew more tech-savvy than average. Percentages must not be presented as market-representative or hero claims.


claim: The Martech for 2026 report says 23.3% of participants had AI agents in full production.

source_section: AI agent deployment status

caveat: Supporting evidence only. N is not disclosed and the authors say participants skew more tech-savvy than average. Percentages must not be presented as market-representative or hero claims. Do not infer that every other respondent was in one mutually exclusive status without the original response table.


claim: The Martech for 2026 report says 80.6% used AI agents in assistant-only mode.

source_section: Page 57: AI agent autonomy


figure: 85.4% enhanced existing functionality

claim: The Martech for 2026 report says 85.4% used AI to enhance existing functionality.

source_section: Page 59: enhance, add, or replace functionality


figure: 42.7% new; 30.1% replaced

claim: The Martech for 2026 report says 42.7% added new functionality while 30.1% replaced existing functionality with AI.

caveat: Supporting evidence only. N is not disclosed and the authors say participants skew more tech-savvy than average. Percentages must not be presented as market-representative or hero claims. The question allowed multiple selections, so the values are not shares of one exclusive whole.


figure: 56.3% custom; 47.6% prebuilt; 40.8% iPaaS

claim: The Martech for 2026 report lists custom integrations at 56.3%, prebuilt integrations at 47.6%, and iPaaS at 40.8%.

source_section: Pages 47-49: integration methods

caveat: Supporting evidence only. N is not disclosed and the authors say participants skew more tech-savvy than average. Percentages must not be presented as market-representative or hero claims. The question allowed multiple selections.


claim: The Martech for 2026 report says 37.9% connected cloud warehouse or lakehouse data directly to AI agents.

source_section: Page 50: cloud warehouse or lakehouse connection to AI agents


metric_category: barrier

claim: Poor data quality was the most-selected AI and data challenge in the Martech for 2026 report, at 56.3%.

source_section: Page 51: AI and data challenges


claim: Organizational and process readiness was selected by 52.4% in the Martech for 2026 report.


claim: Integration friction was selected by 50.5% in the Martech for 2026 report.


claim: Cost observability and budget control was selected by 26.2% in the Martech for 2026 report.


claim: Flexera respondents at beginner, intermediate, and advanced ITAM maturity each estimated SaaS software waste at 20%.

source_title: Flexera 2026 State of ITAM Report

source_section: Page 36, Figure 21: estimated wasted spend across the IT estate

evidence_type: global survey of IT asset-management professionals

population: 512 professionals with IT asset-management responsibilities sourced from an independently maintained and vetted panel

geography: worldwide across industries and organizational contexts

period: fielded in early 2026

methodology: Flexera surveyed 512 ITAM professionals and rounded published percentages to whole numbers. The report is licensed CC BY 4.0.

caveat: Enterprise SaaS comparison only, not martech data. Waste estimates are respondent estimates and cannot be converted into a marketing revenue-loss figure.


figure: 43% increased; 42% same; 15% decreased

claim: In Flexera's 2026 survey, 43% said SaaS wasted spend increased, 42% said it stayed the same, and 15% said it decreased over the previous year.

source_section: Page 38, Figure 22: how wasted spend changed


claim: Flexera reports that complete visibility across IT environments declined from 43% in 2025 to 36% in 2026.

source_section: Visibility gap across cloud, SaaS, and AI


claim: Flexera reports that 64% of surveyed ITAM teams managed SaaS licenses.


claim: Zylo reports that organizations left an average of 36% of SaaS licenses unused against its recommended utilization levels.

source_title: 2026 SaaS Management Index

source_section: License waste remains a persistent challenge

evidence_type: enterprise SaaS-management telemetry plus a separate IT-leader survey for cost-shock claims

population: telemetry covering 40M+ SaaS licenses and $75B+ in discovered and categorized spend; cost-shock questions use a separate survey of 218 IT leaders

geography: not disclosed on the public report page

period: 2026 edition with year-over-year comparisons and nine years of underlying spend, license, and usage data

methodology: Zylo aggregates observed customer portfolio, license, usage, and spend data. Its public newsroom release separately identifies N=218 for unexpected-cost questions.

caveat: Enterprise SaaS comparison only, not martech data. Zylo customer telemetry is not a probability sample of all organizations and must not be converted into a martech waste or revenue-leakage rate.


claim: Zylo's 2026 benchmark reports average annual SaaS spend of $55.7 million and an average portfolio of 305 applications.

source_section: Portfolios Make Room for New AI Investments—But It Comes at a Cost


claim: In Zylo's separate survey of 218 IT leaders, 78% reported unexpected charges tied to consumption-based or AI pricing in the previous 12 months.

source_section: Unexpected SaaS costs are disrupting budgets


claim: In Zylo's separate survey of 218 IT leaders, 61% said unplanned SaaS cost increases forced them to cut projects.


figure: 81% business units; 15% IT

claim: Zylo reports that business units controlled 81% of SaaS spend while IT directly managed 15%.

source_section: Visibility is declining as SaaS ownership continues to decentralize


figure: +108% overall; +393% at 10,001+ employees

claim: Zylo reports that AI-native application spend grew 108% overall and 393% in organizations with more than 10,000 employees.

source_section: AI Is Transforming How Software Is Built, Priced and Managed

caveat: Enterprise SaaS comparison only, not martech data. Zylo customer telemetry is not a probability sample of all organizations and must not be converted into a martech waste or revenue-leakage rate. The year-over-year telemetry describes spend change, not business value or causal ROI.