What happened
Forrester's 2027 Budget Planning Guides, published July 15, surveyed business and technology leaders on planned 2027 spending across marketing, product, and technology functions. More than 80% of leaders across all functions surveyed expect budget increases next year, a notable swing after a year Forrester describes as defined by caution. Customer experience leaders showed the sharpest jump: 55% now expect spending growth of 5% or more, up from just 39% a year earlier. Chief research officer Sharyn Leaver framed the shift bluntly, saying business leaders are no longer planning for a return to stability but for a future where volatility is the constant condition. The guidance explicitly warns against scaling AI initiatives without first strengthening data foundations and organizational readiness, urging leaders to prioritize governance and experimentation discipline over simply adding more budget to existing AI line items.
Why the budget planning guide matters for founders now
MagnetizeX builds founder visibility systems for B2B firms.
This reads as a course correction after eighteen months of budgets chasing every new AI tool on the market. Forrester is telling enterprise buyers, and by extension the vendors selling to them, that 2027 spending will reward infrastructure and governance work over another point solution. For a founder selling into marketing or RevOps budgets, that shifts the pitch: the winning conversation next year is less "here's our new AI feature" and more "here's how we help you get your data foundation ready to use one." It also suggests the era of buyers approving AI spend on enthusiasm alone is ending, replaced by a harder question about whether the underlying data can actually support what's being pitched.
- Reframe your pitch around readiness, not noveltyIf your product is another AI layer competing for a 2027 budget line, lead with how it fits into a buyer's existing data and governance work rather than pitching a brand-new capability that assumes their foundation is already solid.
- Target CX and operations budgets specificallyCX leaders showed the largest year-over-year jump in spending confidence. If your product touches customer experience, operations, or service, that's the budget category with the most fresh appetite heading into 2027 planning cycles.
- Build a one-page "readiness audit" as a sales assetBuyers are now explicitly told by their own analysts to check data and governance readiness before scaling AI spend. A short, free audit tool or checklist that helps a prospect self-assess that readiness is a low-cost way to enter budget conversations early.
"Business leaders are no longer planning for a return to stability — they're planning for a future where volatility is a constant." — Sharyn Leaver, Chief Research Officer, Forrester
What to do this week
If you're pitching into 2027 planning cycles already underway, rewrite your opening slide to lead with the specific readiness gap your product closes, not the AI feature itself. Buyers are being told by Forrester to ask about foundations first, so the vendor who answers that question unprompted, in the first slide rather than buried in an appendix, has a real edge over the one still pitching capability alone.