The Forrester Wave™ Reveals the Future of DXPs: Why Your Partner Is More Important Than Your Platform
The latest Forrester Wave™ for Digital Experience Platforms (Q4 2025) has landed, and it paints a clear picture of the future: the market is no longer about who has the most features, but who has the most intelligent, AI-driven orchestration. The report, "Agentic DXPs Redefine Platform Mastery, But Adoption Lags Innovation," highlights a profound shift from composable platforms to systems powered by "agentic intelligence."
Forrester's analysis is a must-read for any leader in the digital space. It confirms that the conversation has evolved from "What can this platform do?" to "How well can we wield it—and how fast can we learn?"
The New Differentiator: Agentic Orchestration
According to Forrester, the most advanced Digital Experience Platforms (DXPs) from leaders like Adobe, Optimizely, and Salesforce are now defined by their "agentic orchestration" capabilities. These aren't just collections of tools; they are dynamic, goal-seeking systems where AI agents work under human direction to execute complex marketing and customer experience workflows.
This is a monumental leap forward. It promises to unlock unprecedented levels of precision and agility for brands. However, the report also delivers a critical warning.
The Real Challenge: Adoption, Not Innovation
Forrester's most crucial finding is that "Adoption is the bottleneck, not innovation." The pace of AI innovation in DXPs has outstripped the readiness of most enterprises to harness it. Many organizations have vast, complex operations that are poorly understood, making it nearly impossible to implement these new agentic capabilities effectively.
The report points out that to succeed, vendors must go beyond demos and "deliver full digital experience engagements, via forward-deployed engineers, that guide enterprises through phased modernization across people, process, and technology."
This is where the role of a true digital consultancy becomes paramount.
HT Blue: Your Partner in the Age of Agentic AI
The Forrester Wave™ evaluates the DXP vendors—the toolmakers. But the report's central challenge isn't about the tools themselves; it's about how to master them. This is where HT Blue excels.
While the report focuses on the "what," we provide the "how." HT Blue is not a DXP vendor; we are a digital consultancy with a deep-rooted engineering heritage. We are the "forward-deployed engineers" that Forrester identifies as critical for success.
Led by our Director of Engineering and DXP Platforms, Erika Halberg, our practice is built on the principles of platform strategy, engineering innovation, and AI orchestration. With decades of experience designing and building the kind of large-scale, distributed systems that power the world's leading technology companies, we bring a level of engineering discipline that is unique in the agency world.
We help our clients bridge the "adoption gap" by:
- Developing a Clear Platform Strategy: We work with you to understand your business goals and map them to the capabilities of modern, agentic DXPs.
- Driving Engineering Innovation: We don't just configure your DXP; we architect and implement the elegant solutions and reliable automation workflows needed to make it sing.
- Mastering AI Orchestration: We provide the expertise to design, implement, and manage the AI agents and orchestration layers that will drive real business outcomes.
The Takeaway: Mastery Requires More Than a "Leader" Platform
The Forrester Wave™ is an invaluable guide to the DXP landscape. It shows us that the future is intelligent, automated, and agentic. But it also shows us that technology alone is not enough.
To truly lead in this new era, you need more than a platform from the "Leaders" quadrant. You need a partner who can help you achieve mastery. You need a partner with the engineering DNA to translate agentic potential into business reality.
That partner is HT Blue.
