Year in Review: How ActiveCampaign Made Marketing Autonomous

This year, ActiveCampaign transformed from a marketing automation platform into an autonomous marketing powerhouse. And yes, we’re biased, but we’ve got the proof to back it up. With Active Intelligence leading the charge, we shipped groundbreaking features that put AI agents to work for you—while you focused on what matters most: growing your business.

Throughout the whole of this year, we’ve built faster, shipped smarter, and listened to your feedback. By doing so, our year in review is one to be proud of.

These numbers paint a picture of dedication to our customers. We shipped 59 updates across the year—which averages out to one every week—because when you're drowning in to-dos and stretched thin on resources, your marketing shouldn't wait.

With AI tools, marketers reclaim 13 hours every week. That's 700 hours a year, or roughly 4 months of full-time work back in your pocket—time you can reinvest in strategy instead of execution, or use to finally tackle that endless list.

We expanded our product with new channels to expand your reach, like WhatsApp messaging and revolutionary Active Intelligence agents that work in the background, recommending best next steps based on real customer data—so you spend less time choosing between "intentionally unsophisticated" platforms and more time building those win-win relationships that drive repeatable scale.

Our recent research also found some truly remarkable data on time-to-value:

• 88% of surveyed customers say ActiveCampaign delivers value faster than competitors.
• Over two-thirds (67%) said they saw ROI within 6 months, with 83% seeing ROI within the first year
• 93% of customers surveyed said our deliverability is better than that of competitors
• After implementing ActiveCampaign, 86% of customers report they can focus on more strategic marketing tasks, freeing them up to develop autonomous marketing strategies while AI handles routine tasks.

Innovation never stops. We’ve got a ton more in store for 2026. If you’d like to stay up-to-date with new capabilities, check out our What’s New page for the latest and greatest.

At the start of the year, marketing teams were drowning in AI complexity. Building a single automation meant clicking through dozens of conditions, analyzing campaign performance required digging through multiple reports, and creating audience segments demanded understanding complex if/then logic. The tools were powerful, but they took too much time to master.

In May 2025, we introduced Active Intelligence. Not just another AI feature, but a complete reimagining of how marketing automation works, evolving it into autonomous marketing. Active Intelligence is a system-wide intelligence engine powered by billions of data points and dozens of specialized AI agents working together. For marketers, this means reclaiming hours every week, 13 according to our research.

The conversational workspace is where this magic happens. Ask “How did my last email perform?” and get instant data, summaries, and AI-driven recommendations—not just raw metrics, but actionable insights.

Or type something like “Create a welcome series for new customers,” and Active Intelligence builds a complete multi-step automation tailored to your business, industry, and customer journey patterns. Instead of spending 2-3 hours building an automation from scratch, you’re launching sophisticated campaigns in minutes.

Active Intelligence operates on a fundamentally different model: instead of building workflows step by step, you set strategic goals in plain language, and the system dynamically builds, adapts, and optimizes cross-channel campaigns.

Active Intelligence includes an abundance of capabilities and AI agents designed to work together in lock step. To name a few, the AI-Suggested Segments agent identifies high-value customer segments you should target, the Automations agent instantly generates multi-step nurture flows without the complex setup, and the AI Brand Kit agent instantly applies your business’s brand identity across all content.

Active Intelligence launched first to Pro and Enterprise tiers in May, then opened to all admin accounts on all plans in October 2025.

Early adopters reported:

• Up to 20% performance gains through autonomous marketing
• The ability to build campaigns 3x faster (in minutes instead of hours)

Segments agent arrived in October as part of Active Intelligence’s beta features, eliminating technical barriers to audience building entirely. Rather than building your own segments from scratch, you can now describe your audience in natural language—“Find all contacts who engaged with our content in the last 90 days but haven’t downloaded a lead magnet”—and the agent builds complex conditions instantly.

For marketers, this removes the intimidation factor of segmentation. 

Now your new team members can create sophisticated audience segments on day one, without needing training on operators and conditions. Experienced marketers can test segment ideas rapidly, exploring "what-if" scenarios that would have taken too long to build manually. The agent handles multi-condition segments, behavioral combinations, temporal logic, and custom field queries that would typically require careful planning and technical knowledge.

WhatsApp has 2.4 billion users and 98% open rates compared to 20% for email. For businesses in Latin America and Europe, it’s the primary customer communication channel. Our mission at AC has been to help businesses create meaningful connections with their customers—and we knew that meant meeting them where they already are. This is why we knew we had to expand our product to include a WhatsApp offering.

In April 2025, ActiveCampaign acquired Mexico City-based Hilos, bringing sophisticated workflow automation and best-in-class WhatsApp inbox management into the platform—enabling more powerful cross-channel campaigns. Then, in July, we launched ActiveCampaign WhatsApp Messaging as a comprehensive solution.

Adding WhatsApp natively opens up a direct line to your customers, where they spend most of their time. 

With 98% open rates, your messages get seen. The conversational format builds relationships rather than broadcasting offers. You can automate qualification conversations, guide customers through complex processes, and recover revenue from abandoned carts—all while maintaining the 1:1, personalized interactions that make WhatsApp different from email.

The WhatsApp Messaging experience, in a nutshell, enables: 

• No-code automation for personalized 1:1 experiences
• Real-time insights from user interactions and
• A unified inbox that tracks touchpoints across multiple channels.

We also introduced WhatsApp Inbox, which shows when messages were sent, who sent them, allows conversation assignment to team members, and enables seamless switching between automated and manual responses.

ActiveCampaign customers are excited by the prospect. Richard Batista, Head of Performance at Camesa, said, “We’re excited about the potential of using ActiveCampaign to not only personalize our marketing on WhatsApp, but also to enhance the overall integration between marketing, processes, and sales. ActiveCampaign will help us deliver personalized, meaningful interactions at scale — creating a unique experience for our customers.”

The #1 most requested SMS feature from our customers landed in September: SMS Inbox with two-way messaging. When someone texts back to your marketing message, it means they're engaged, asking questions, and showing intent to buy. Now you can actually respond—and turn those conversations into conversions.

The missing piece businesses needed:

SMS Inbox captures all replies to campaigns and automations in one central hub, transforming what was once a dead end into a live sales conversation. When prospects text back, you can qualify leads, answer questions, and provide support on the spot—moving them down the funnel in real time.

What makes it powerful:

• Never miss a revenue opportunity. Filtering, search, and AI Conversation Summaries keep your team on top of incoming messages without missing details or duplicating work
• Respond faster with AI. AI Reply Suggestions powered by your Brand Kit data, website content, and FAQs help your team handle routine responses instantly while focusing on high-value conversations
• Build relationships that last. Every text becomes a chance to deepen customer loyalty through timely, personalized interactions that increase lifetime value

How businesses are using it:

Businesses are turning SMS replies into revenue across the customer journey. When someone fills out a web form, companies text them immediately—and when prospects respond with questions, they're already in a real-time sales conversation moving toward conversion.

• Appointment-based businesses use the inbox to let customers confirm, reschedule, or ask questions instead of just sending one-way reminders.
• Service teams address concerns and objections the moment they arise through text, eliminating friction before it becomes a deal-breaker.
• Event organizers engage personally with prospects who reply to invitations, driving higher registration and attendance through authentic two-way conversations.

This means faster response times, more revenue captured, and better customer satisfaction—without hiring additional support staff.

Postmark, ActiveCampaign’s transactional email platform, delivers the mission-critical messages that power modern business—from password resets to order confirmations. This year, the team pushed email innovation forward with AI tooling, community engagement, and pricing that made sense.

AI meets email infrastructure

Postmark Labs introduced a tool that lets AI assistants like Claude and Cursor send emails through natural conversation. Instead of wrestling with API documentation, developers can simply say “Send a welcome email to our new customer” and watch it happen. The open-source Model-Context-Protocol (MCP) server translates plain English into working email infrastructure—no coding required.

The challenge that reimagined what email can do

Partnering with DEV.to, Postmark launched the Inbox Innovators Challenge with $3,000 in prizes. Developers worldwide submitted creative projects using Postmark’s inbound email parsing:

• A fully functional Game Boy emulator controlled entirely through email
• An AI service that converts voice memos into searchable, organized transcriptions
• A tool that turns emailed code requests into ready-to-view GitHub pull requests

The results proved that email isn’t just for messages; it’s a platform for building entirely new experiences.

An improvement to pricing

Postmark listened to customer feedback and made advanced features affordable for smaller teams. Pro-level capabilities (including inbound email processing and unlimited team members) now start at just $16.50/month for 10,000 emails—down from $60.50/month. That’s over $500 in annual savings for teams who need powerful tools without paying for volume they don’t use.

In June, we released the ActiveCampaign MCP (Model Context Protocol) Server for all plan tiers. This connects AI tools like Claude, ChatGPT, and Cursor directly to your ActiveCampaign account, so you can update your database, analyze trends, and execute campaign changes without interrupting your creative flow or switching applications.

Model Context Protocol, released by Anthropic in November 2024, provides a standardized way for AI models to connect with external data sources. This means Claude can read from your CRM, query your databases, or pull data from internal APIs without you manually copying information back and forth. Setup takes minutes: copy your remote MCP URL from Settings > Developer, add the connection in your AI tool, authenticate, and start prompting.

Tell your AI assistant to "Add everyone who clicked my last email to the VIP segment" or "Show me campaign performance for Q3 and identify which subject lines drove the most opens," and watch as it executes the tasks using your actual data.

This is like having a marketing analyst and operations specialist available 24/7. 

Working on strategy? Ask your AI to pull campaign data. In a meeting? Have your AI generate reports and identify optimization opportunities. You can manage contacts, update tags, analyze performance, control automations, and pull reports—all through conversation.

Check out our MCP prompt library for inspiration 

There’s often a disconnect between what marketers do day-to-day and the business outcomes they're trying to drive. You can see top-of-funnel metrics—opens, clicks, form fills—but connecting those activities to what actually matters at the bottom of the funnel? That's where things get murky.

Business Goals changes that. Now you can track the complete customer journey in one place. Link your campaigns, automations, and forms to specific business outcomes and watch how each piece contributes to hitting your targets in real time.

Here's where it gets powerful: Active Intelligence generates goals, custom conversions, and the supporting marketing assets you need—campaigns, automations, forms—in seconds. No more building everything from scratch or guessing which activities will move the needle.

When you're off track, AI recommends exactly what to adjust. When you're crushing it, you see precisely which tactics are working so you can scale them. The result? Less time interpreting data, more time executing strategies that deliver measurable business impact.

This year, ActiveCampaign was recognized by industry leaders and customers alike, validating our commitment to making marketing autonomous and accessible for businesses of every size.

Where we stand out from the rest:

• We were recognized by G2 as a leader in 14 grids and earned 1,241 badges across all G2 reports in 2025
• Less than 1% of software companies make G2’s 2025 Best Software Awards list. ActiveCampaign made it with Top 50 and Top 100 badges across five categories, including Best Marketing Products, Best Global Software, and Highest Satisfaction.
• Earned six #1 placements on G2's Summer Momentum Grid
• In 2025, we placed #1 in 326 reports across all categories and company sizes.
• With over 14,000 reviews on G2 (+95% of them being 4 and 5 star), ActiveCampaign remains one of the most reviewed products on G2's software marketplace.
• ActiveCampaign is a top-rated tool on 9 Capterra shortlists, including CRM, Marketing Automation, Lead Generation, Lead Generation, Lead Management, Salesforce Automation, Sales Tracking, Campaign Management
• Top-rated email marketing software on TrustRadius (for the 8th consecutive year)
• Leader in the IDC MarketScape: Worldwide AI-Enabled Marketing Platforms for Small Businesses 2025

The best proof of our impact? The businesses that grew with us. From solopreneurs scaling to experienced marketers helping to grow their companies, our customers turned their marketing into real results.

Parrish Law leveraged Active Intelligence to revolutionize their community engagement and client communication, achieving email open rates of 35-40%—nearly double the industry average of 20%—while automating what once required hours of manual reporting.

Amy Chinitz of Spark Joy New York tripled her sales volume after implementing Active Intelligence, maintaining authentic personalization while scaling efficiently as a solopreneur. “As a solopreneur, I care deeply about personalization and voice—and now, I’m creating better content in a fraction of the time. Since making the switch, I’ve tripled my sales volume.”

Big customer wins

While we're proud of what we shipped in 2025, the real measure of success is what our customers achieved. Here's what happened when businesses embraced autonomous marketing with ActiveCampaign:

These aren't just numbers—they're businesses growing, marketers reclaiming their time, and teams achieving results they couldn't have imagined at the start of the year.

These stories represent thousands more across industries—from nonprofits maximizing limited resources to retail businesses delivering personalized experiences at scale, from agencies managing multiple client accounts to SaaS companies nurturing complex buyer journeys.

We can't forget the integrations we've built with our partners! In September, ActiveCampaign crossed a major milestone: over 1,000 apps are now available in our marketplace. This achievement was driven by the 40+ new apps we added throughout 2025, each one designed to help you build more powerful, connected workflows.

The response from our community has been remarkable. Agencies in particular have embraced the Webflow integration, a leading website experience platform (WXP), which has seen just under 90% month-over-month paid account growth since launching in September. Today, over 150 agencies use it to manage nearly 180 end-client accounts, transforming how they deliver value to their customers.

We built several of these integrations—SOCi, Square Loyalty, and the enhanced Mindbody integration—specifically for growing franchise businesses that needed better tools to manage multi-location marketing. By listening to customer demand and identifying these opportunities, we’re dedicated to helping franchise operations deliver consistent, personalized experiences across every location.

These numbers tell a clear story. When partners integrate with ActiveCampaign, everyone wins. More connected tools mean more powerful workflows, better automation, and ultimately, stronger results for the businesses you serve.

Every feature we ship starts with listening. In 2025, your feedback shaped our roadmap in meaningful ways.

• You asked for easier segmentation, and we built the Segments agent that understands plain language and builds complex conditions instantly.
• You needed better two-way SMS conversations, and we created the SMS Inbox with AI-powered reply suggestions.
• You told us your customers are on WhatsApp, and we acquired Hilos and launched comprehensive WhatsApp Messaging with native automation.
• You wished your AI tools could access your marketing data, and we built the MCP Server so you can stay in Claude and ChatGPT.
• You said setting up automations was too manual, and we launched Active Intelligence with 34+ AI agents that go from goal to execution in seconds.

Your voice shapes our product. Through support conversations, feature requests, user interviews, and community feedback, you're helping us build the future of marketing automation.

We’re always innovating and adding new features to our platform. If you’d like to be one of the first to try them out, you can sign up for our Early Access Program and play a crucial role in shaping the future of our product.

As we move forward, ActiveCampaign is shifting the marketing landscape by pioneering autonomous marketing. Standard marketing automation meant setting up workflows that respond to triggers—if X happens, then do Y. Autonomous marketing means setting goals and letting AI agents orchestrate everything to achieve them, adapting in real-time and continuously optimizing.

This isn't a distant future. It's happening now. Marketing teams are spending more time on strategy and less on execution, creating more personalized experiences with less manual work, and achieving more growth with less complexity.

The marketers who thrive in 2026 won't be the ones working harder—they'll be the ones working smarter with autonomous marketing.

Join The Autonomous Marketer community for data-driven insights on autonomous marketing trends, real stories from marketers building AI-powered workflows and achieving breakthrough results, practical strategies to leapfrog your competition, and early access to thought leadership and research.

And if you can’t wait, there’s plenty you can discover now. Join our 4-part webinar series where you’ll not only learn about autonomous marketing, but also how to implement it and build workflows of your own that save you time and money. We bring in real marketers who are experimenting with autonomous marketing and seeing big results.

Plus, take our free mini-course that dives into how you can audit your current workflows and gives you the tools and strategies you need to set autonomous marketing into action. This isn’t fluff; it’s real step-by-step processes that help you take the first step into autonomy.

To every business that trusted us this year, every customer who shared feedback, every marketer who pushed boundaries with our platform—thank you. Your success drives everything we build. Your challenges inspire our innovation. Your feedback shapes our roadmap.

In 2025, we shipped more features, launched more AI agents, earned more recognition, and helped more businesses grow than ever before. And we're just getting started.

Here's to a year of growth, innovation, and marketing that works while you sleep.

The ActiveCampaign Team