Mastering the Digital Experience Tech Stack for 2025

Summary

As convoluted as the DX space has been since its origins, the past two years have been unique thanks to generative AI.

Tech stack evolution. Stay ahead in 2025 by optimizing your digital experience tech stack. Embrace AI advancements and adapt to evolving technology trends.
Strategic tech planning. Effective DX tech stack management involves strategic budgeting and careful tech selection. Focus on long-term goals and outcomes.
API integration importance. Adopt an API-first mindset for a flexible digital experience stack. Ensure seamless integration and future-proof your technology solutions.

In the past decade, everything has changed in the technology marketing arena, and it has changed fast. There has been an explosion of new martech tools, as well as new roles, licensing schemas and tech providers. To make sure that your organization stays relevant in the digital space, you must carefully assess your digital experience tech stack all the time, especially during these budgeting months.

The DX space has been complex since its origins, and the past two years have been especially unique thanks to generative AI. Companies quickly understood the impact that generative AI could have on their ways of working, and most have already implemented generative AI in their
processes. And this is just the beginning.

Most providers offer some sort of generative AI solution, but just a few have been able to effectively embed AI in their tools. Meanwhile, a swarm of new software solutions have appeared backed by AI. In these months, we are living in the moment when AI stopped being a toy and started being an actual useful tool for marketing teams — of course, with a long list of caveats.

Every marketing department seeks to be distinct. There is no gold standard for marketing organizations when it comes to tech. There are no "de facto" solutions. On top of that, IT has a voice and vote in digital marketing approaches. The distinctive blend of technologies, digital maturity, budget constraints and consumers make the needs and realities of every organization very unique.

Despite the diverse digital marketing landscape, certain core considerations apply to most organizations. In your digital experience tech stack budgeting exercise, take into account the following considerations.

Planning Your DX Tech Stack for Future Success

In such a heterogeneous DX technology environment, it is easy to get overwhelmed and lost in the details. The temptation to focus on the cool stuff — and boy, there is a lot! — is enormous. But it is essential to focus on what’s actually important to your business: the revenue or savings that a tech solution can bring to your organization. You should carefully measure your investments and the outcomes that they bring to understand their performance. This will facilitate future conversations with your financial teams.

As no strategy will work in all environments, it is important to bake in the risk adversity of your organization. Many marketing investments are not going to pan out. Some of them are going to be complete disasters. But if you want to be cutting edge, that is going to be the cost.

Maybe your organization doesn't expect to be a front-runner overall but wants to excel in specific areas. Having this kind of clarity will ultimately impact your tech stack, especially in these years that have witnessed a massive explosion of marketing tools that have not been time-tested.

Be strategic and start from the end. What are your marketing goals? What business goals are they serving? Can you measure them with hard data and numbers? How ready is the rest of the organization to support those goals? Do you have the internal talent to undertake those efforts? Do you have the right partners? How are you going to close the gap between where you are and where you want to be? Be assertive and clear on these questions, as the technology you acquire will be a medium to reach those goals.

Optimize Your Tech Stack by Cutting Clutter

A fundamental consideration that often gets overlooked is to get rid of what’s not being used. Some tools will not make the cut, not necessarily because they are deficient but because they are not the right fit or your company. They are costing you money that could be allocated somewhere else. Most importantly, they are diverting your focus from the tools that are going to make you successful.

When you are in charge of handling a large number of tools — which is the case for most organizations — you can get rid of two or three…or five.

Look out for redundancy. It's not uncommon for platforms to have functionality that overlaps with other blocks of your stack. Finding those intersections can help you save money by figuring out which tools could be replaced by others or by a combination of different available tools. Also, take the time to examine what software providers are being used outside your department or area. Other areas are paying for software that you could use at a very low or no cost.

For those tools that you are unsure about but would like to keep, negotiate with vendors. There is nothing more scary to software providers, especially SaaS companies, than churn. If you've been a client for some time, you can leverage that relationship to negotiate discounts or better tiers with your current providers.

Adopt an API-First Approach in Your Digital Experience Tech Stack

Your ecosystem should be designed in an API-first fashion — not only your tech stack but also your team structure and culture. In two years, we will be talking about technologies that we have yet to invent. You will have bots talking to bots, and AI agents talking to AI agents. The only thing that we can venture to anticipate is that these new actors will interact through APIs.

Prioritize API design wherever you can, but also go further. API-first thinking requires continuous awareness of API testing, security considerations, microservices architectural considerations and content supply chain factors.

Build your digital experience tech stack so that its components are as interchangeable as possible. The trend of composable tech solutions solves the crucial need for flexibility, but it does add complexity to the overall system. You might have the right breed of platforms, but if the way they interact is flawed, your results will be hindered.

Cohesion, rather than mere integration, is what we’re after. Every new software vendor will tell you that their solution integrates seamlessly with your existing stack, but that doesn't translate to a cohesive and orchestrated sub-system. Dig more deeply when evaluating how integrations are implemented, including their format, latency and caching strategies. It will save you headaches in the future.

Navigating Tech Trends in Your Tech Stack

The number of flashy solutions in the market is vast. Restrain yourself from falling for every new trendy approach or technology. Not everybody needs everything to be a microservice. Some monolithics may be better for your organization in the long run. Not everybody needs a CDP. You might do OK without blockchain. Your current marketing automation tool can manage your generative AI needs for some more time. Your tag management system is still good for what you need.

Your tech will also be as solid as the people (or bots) operating it. If you don’t have the proper maturity, or the right partner, you might end up having a Ferrari sitting in your garage. That balance between the right tools and the right people is vital to getting to the outcomes you are looking for.

You will need a healthy mix of established and emerging technologies. Go ahead and test out new solutions, but in most cases, wait to understand how to make the most of it. Remember the initial point: Be strategic, and be clear on where you want to take some risks.

Champion the Rise of Citizen Creators

One of the beauties of AI is the possibility of enabling citizens in your organization to achieve the outcomes of specialists. For example, anybody can build data dashboards that previously required data scientists or build apps without the need for developers using no-code tools. Anyone can create beautiful images or variations without being graphic designers.

This is huge, and enabling your teams to have this mindset will have a huge impact on the quality and quantity of your outcomes. Your base of people proposing, inventing and innovating can suddenly grow by multiple degrees.

But this won’t happen entirely by emergent behavior. It must be nurtured somehow. Make sure that you have the basic elements that will facilitate this outcome: unified data layers, a culture of testing and experimenting, low-code/no-code internal contest and proper training on the basics (i.e., awareness of these technologies, security and compliance considerations, risks and costs).

Cracking the code of a successful digital experience tech stack requires science, art and pragmatism. In general, it’s a process that involves a lot of internal collaboration. It also consists of considerable alignment, both within the marketing department and outside the department.

By being clear on your strategic business objectives, cultivating a culture of innovation, embracing AI, understanding the power of APIs and empowering the hidden capabilities of citizen creators, your marketing team will be in the best of positions to make the most of your tech selection for 2025.