As we begin the New Year, we spoke to industry leaders to reflect on the shifts that shaped 2025 and the forces expected to define 2026. For Ankit Utreja, Co-founder & CTO, WebEngage, 2025 marked a decisive inflection point—when Martech in India stopped evolving in silos and began driving business strategy at scale.
Reflecting on the year gone by, Utreja explains how the country’s rapidly expanding digital economy pushed marketing technology from the margins to the centre of brand growth. “As 2025 draws to a close, the Martech landscape in India is experiencing a strategic transformation and not just incremental upgrades. The country’s digital advertising market is on track to surpass ₹59,200 crore by 2025, underscoring how Martech has become foundational to how brands reach and engage audiences.
Emerging technologies like Agentic AI and Generative AI have become critical. In fact, over 60% of Indian companies now prioritise GenAI adoption in marketing, a shift from experimentation to execution. Meanwhile, many organisations are redefining their stack: replacing fragmented tools with composable CDPs and unified data platforms to enable real-time data activation, agile customer journeys, and scalable personalisation, all while optimising ROI.
Simultaneously, the shift toward Composable CDPs has empowered organisations to unify fragmented data ecosystems, operationalise insights faster, and design adaptive customer journeys with far greater precision and flexibility. As a result, the industry is poised for double-digit growth in CDP adoption, projected at 20 to 30% in 2026.
Strengthening this transformation, Zero Trust frameworks have become foundational, ensuring resilient data security and governance as digital operations expand. Persona modelling has also evolved from static segmentation to fluid, behaviour-based personas powered by real-time signals. Across sectors such as Financial Services, Retail, and Consumer Goods, Martech-led innovation has already unlocked breakthrough business growth throughout 2025, delivering a growth of approx 20%.”
With this foundation firmly in place, Utreja believes the conversation in 2026 will shift from whether brands should invest in Martech to how responsibly and intelligently they deploy it at scale.
“Looking ahead to 2026, these capabilities will shift from emerging technologies to mission-critical components of the marketing stack. The Martech industry is forecast to grow by 15-20% as brands prioritise responsible AI, advanced consent management, and privacy-first design in the wake of DPDP legislation and stronger regulatory enforcement. Martech-driven growth in India is likely to accelerate significantly, supported by rising digital penetration, a booming e-commerce ecosystem, and the growing scale of AI-powered content, experience, and customer-journey orchestration.”
(As told to Ruchika Jha)
