By Karl Bagci, Head of Information Security, Exclaimer
TechStacks
The Rise of ‘Bring Your Own’ AI Models
In 2025, the trend of “Bring Your Own” (BYO) AI models is poised to accelerate, letting businesses integrate their own data assets and custom-trained AI models into third-party platforms. Rather than relying on pre-configured solutions, companies will be able to leverage proprietary large language models (LLMs) or data lakes across various tools, particularly in complex martech stacks.
This shift is expected to streamline workflows by reducing the redundancy of re-training models across multiple applications, enabling a seamless, customized AI integration that adapts to unique business data and insights. This will be particularly appealing to companies that have invested heavily in tailored AI models based on their customer and product data, fostering more personalized, efficient, and scalable use of AI across enterprise applications.
Heightened Security Challenges
However, this raises significant security concerns. Protecting the organization is only one layer; the real challenge is safeguarding customer data when it moves through third-parties in this integrated ecosystem. So in 2025, as martech becomes more interconnected, security standards will need to evolve.
Customers expect their data to be handled securely across every service, and data breaches at any point in this chain affects the whole ecosystem. Therefore, companies will have to share responsibility for the safety of shared data. To do this, they encrypt data, enforce strict access controls, conduct vendor audits, minimize data sharing, and implement real-time monitoring. These practices establish a shared responsibility model, raising security standards toward mutual accountability
Reputation at Risk – The Growing Impact of Security Failures
The reputational risk associated with data leaks has never been higher. The public tends to hold both the primary organization and its partners accountable. This means that if a vendor’s security fails, it directly affects the brand, damaging customer trust and, ultimately, financial health and profits.
In this context, technology and product leaders face a moral and operational responsibility to act in the best interests of customers. Implementing security cannot just be a checkbox, but a proactive, integrated component of their operations.
So, tech leaders in 2025 must ask themselves: Are we truly in control of this data, and are we respecting our customers’ expectations? This will be crucial for safeguarding brand integrity in an interconnected, data-driven landscape.
Integrated Security as a Competitive Advantage
To address these risks, a shift in security strategy in 2025 is essential. Security should not be treated as an isolated initiative, but as a core aspect of the tech stack, embedded from the start of development rather than an afterthought. This “baked-in” approach to security, where protections are integrated at foundational stages, offers a strategic advantage, serving as a potential marketing point further down the line. For example, companies with built-in security measures can reassure customers of their commitment to data protection and regulatory compliance. This can distinguish themselves from others in a crowded market.
As the BYO models and integrated systems become more common, we can expect to see new or enhanced standards that will require upskilling tech teams. These standards will demand a more comprehensive understanding of data protection and shared responsibility, requiring leaders to upskill their teams accordingly. Instead of pushing security to the periphery, successful organizations will treat it as an intrinsic part of their operations. This will enable them to stay ahead at a time when reputational and data risks are constantly evolving.
IT Leadership Priorities and Challenges
Navigating Lean Budgets and Resource Constraints
For many organizations facing funding slowdowns in 2025, the pressure is on CTOs to innovate within tight budgets, reducing headcounts, and operating more leanly. They will need to prioritize high-impact investments, such as scalable cloud solutions that reduce infrastructure costs, and look for resource-efficient ways to develop transformative technology. The focus will increasingly shift towards these lean development methods, driving CTOs to find cost-effective pathways to achieving proof of concept before investing in full-scale AI rollouts.
Balancing innovation through AI with cost control
AI and analytics will continue to be essential in 2025. However, they will present significant cost challenges for tech leaders. While AI offers potential long-term savings, the initial expenses associated with training, deploying, and maintaining models are substantial, particularly for companies with lean budgets or lower-cost products.
The emphasis in 2025 will be on targeted investment: companies must deploy AI where it can deliver tangible results. Applying AI to core, repeatable functions, such as automating internal processes or enhancing customer support, can yield cost savings at scale. However, if a company deploys “five clever solutions for five small problems,” it may not see the financial benefits, as the initial spending often outweighs any incremental savings when addressing low-cost issues.
The challenge for companies will be to balance innovation with cost control by testing AI solutions on a smaller scale before full implementation. This approach will enable businesses to strategically use AI while keeping financial risks in check.
Strategic AI Investment for Sustainable ROI
In 2025, companies will need a more careful approach to AI investment to ensure a sustainable ROI. CTOs will need to evaluate where AI can truly optimize operations, whether by automating customer interactions or streamlining internal processes. The scale at which AI is deployed will be crucial: companies with large-scale operations may see substantial returns. However, for smaller operations, the cost of AI implementation might not be justified. As such, CTOs need to prioritize AI applications that comes with measurable cost efficiencies, avoiding a scattergun approach
Security as a Core Component in Tech Strategies
With increasing concerns around data security, CTOs in 2025 will prioritize security as a central part of their technology strategy. As AI and analytics solutions handle vast amounts of sensitive data, CTOs will seek out solutions that integrate security from the ground up rather than treating it as an afterthought. In a landscape with mounting regulatory and reputational risks, CTOs will face the challenge of not only safeguarding customer data but also ensuring that security is a differentiator, helping to build customer trust and protect brand reputation.
Digital transformation
Iteration as the Key to Success
With global digital transformation spending set to reach 3.9 trillion U.S. dollars by 2027. organizations will increasingly realize that large, one-off transformation projects are a recipe for failure. The pitfalls of attempting a “big bang” transformation, resulting in cost overruns and delays, are well-documented.
In 2025, businesses need to embrace an iterative approach to digital transformation. Rather than overhauling everything at once, companies will prioritize breaking projects into smaller, more manageable stages, allowing for continuous improvement and adjustment. As part of this strategy, CTOs will also focus on mitigating risks from emerging technologies and AI, recognizing these as critical areas of concern. This shift will enable businesses to deliver value faster, address potential challenges early, and build a more adaptable, sustainable transformation strategy.
Identity Verification Will Become Essential
As email and productivity solutions evolve, the importance of security and identity verification will reach new heights in 2025. With increasing concerns around data breaches and fraud caused by sophisticated cyberattacks, the absence of built-in identity verification in emails is a major vulnerability. To keep innovating and improving productivity while safeguarding sensitive information, companies must prioritize seamless integration of identity verification processes into email systems. This will be critical for protecting both personal and business data, creating a more secure and trustworthy communication ecosystem.
Balancing Efficiency and Security
In 2025, organizations will increasingly prioritize email productivity solutions that balance efficiency with robust privacy and data protection. As these solutions streamline email workflows, enterprises will face a growing challenge: how to embrace these advances while meeting stringent security and compliance requirements. New entrants in this space will need to adopt enterprise-grade security practices from the outset if they hope to gain traction.
Looking ahead, the next frontier in email security may come from quantum computing, which has the potential to completely disrupt today’s standards. Though still on the horizon, quantum technology could quickly render current email security measures outdated, exposing communications to unforeseen vulnerabilities. As we saw with the rapid rise of AI, quantum advancements could arrive sooner than expected, making it important to start preparing even now.
Email Ecosystems
Another significant trend for 2025 will be a shift toward a more open, integrated ecosystem for email and martech tools. While tech giants like Microsoft and Google have long dominated business communications, enterprises will increasingly seek interoperable solutions from challengers that offer flexibility beyond a single provider. For example, companies might adopt email signature management platforms to enhance branding and compliance, seamlessly integrating these solutions with existing tools such as Microsoft Outlook or Google Workspace. This shift will encourage competition and collaboration, pushing the martech sector forward and enabling a more versatile and responsive future for email.
About Exclaimer:
Exclaimer is the market leader in email signature management solutions, empowering businesses to unlock the potential of 1:1 email as a powerful marketing channel. With its award-winning platform, organizations can simplify email signature management to deliver consistent branding, promote marketing campaigns and company news, gather customer feedback, and more.
Since it was founded in 2001, Exclaimer has grown from three entrepreneurs to a global SaaS business with 300+ employees. Over 65,000 organizations use Exclaimer for their email signature solutions. Its diverse customer base includes Sony, Mattel, Bank of America, NBC, the Government of Canada, the BBC, and the Academy Awards.