HFS Horizons: Digital Marketing and Sales Services, 2025

The HFS Horizons: Digital Marketing and Sales Services, 2025 report is for CMOs, chief sales officers, customer experience leaders, and transformation executives evaluating service partners to modernize marketing and sales operations with AI, martech, and experience-led design.

Overview

The HFS Horizons: Digital Marketing and Sales Services, 2025 report evaluates 14 global service providers on how effectively they help enterprises move beyond functional digitization toward experience-led, AI-powered transformation. The study assesses providers across three Horizons defined by HFS Research: Horizon 1 (functional digital transformation), Horizon 2 (enterprise transformation via the OneOffice model), and Horizon 3 (ecosystem transformation via the OneEcosystem model).

Key findings

1. Of the 14 providers evaluated, seven were named Horizon 3 Market Leaders (Accenture, Cognizant, Concentrix, Genpact, Infosys, Mphasis, Tech Mahindra), five Horizon 2 Enterprise Innovators (Capgemini, HGS, IBM, Publicis Sapient, Virtusa), and two Horizon 1 Disruptors (TCS, Wipro).
2. Generative AI is embedded across the marketing and sales funnel, with Infosys (Aster), Cognizant (Campaign+), Genpact (Growth.ai), and Publicis Sapient (Core AI, a $325M investment) deploying proprietary AI suites.
3. Providers are deepening design and experience investments, led by Cognizant’s Moment, a US$1.4B integrated service line bridging creative and business technology, alongside Infosys’ WongDoody, Mphasis’ Studio Platform, and Wipro’s Designit.
4. Named outcomes anchor differentiation: Accenture delivered a 24% site revenue uplift for illycaffè, IBM helped Boots UK achieve a 42% increase in digital orders and 115% revenue rise, and Capgemini drove 4x digital sales growth and 42% cost reduction for a global QSR chain.
5. Clients flag pricing, overselling, and blurred roles between account management and delivery as top improvement areas, even as sales and marketing silos dissolve into integrated journey orchestration.

HFS finds that doing more of the same with newer technology is no longer enough. HFS assesses that only providers combining design, technology, and process to reimagine front-office operations rather than layering AI onto fragmented martech stacks will meaningfully shift how customers experience a brand.

The Bottom Line

Enterprises must rethink how marketing, sales, and experience intersect, connect, and impact brand differentiation, and the service providers driving that shift bring together design, technology, and process to make a real impact on how the front office operates and impacts business value.

Research methodology

The study draws on provider briefings, reference checks with active clients and partners, and HFS Pulse demand-side survey data covering 305 enterprise leaders, fielded in 2025.

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