August 13, 2026
While we are busy working towards adding new AI grid to our Leaderboard, we have also seen new activities amongst vendors, and we have welcomed a new UK vendor to the Aspire Leaderboard. Here is a summary of key updates from Q2:
Messagepoint introduced MARCIEAssist™, a new agentic AI capability designed to automate the work of customer communications management. Rather than simply guiding users through tasks, MARCIEAssist plans and executes supported actions across content, rules, data, and templates on the user’s behalf — while enforcing strict governance, permissions, audit trails, and rollback capabilities. To enable agentic AI, Messagepoint has evolved its MARCIE AI engine into a proprietary agentic AI platform (MARCIE now means Messagepoint Automation, Rationalization and Content Intelligence Engine) platform that allows generic and domain-specific AI agents to run on an infrastructure that combines an institutional knowledge base, contextual learning, and human-in-the-loop-control. The first release supports automated content operations, insights into content and rules, and contextual guidance for faster, more accurate work, as well as automated template migration enhancements. The rollout is phased, with limited release expected in Q3 and general availability targeted for October 2026.
kwsoft continues to evolve Serie M/ around its container-native, Quarkus-based architecture, giving customers the flexibility to run on-premises, in the cloud, or hybrid with faster performance and lower resource overhead. Release 6.26 adds M/OMS Input X, a standalone module for consolidating incoming documents from multiple formats and source systems, and introduces a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that lets enterprise AI applications work directly with M/TEXT, M/OMS, and the TONIC Editor — alongside new multi-provider automatic translation and collaborative terminology tools. On the cloud front, kwsoft is expanding managed services on AWS and Azure and has announced a multitenant SaaS offering targeted for January 2027. The company also reports steady growth, now employing over 250 people across Europe, with continued expansion across France, Italy, and Spain.
Elixir continues to build out its privacy-first AI product family at accelerated pace . Alongside Elixir Muse™ (its browser-based AI writing assistant with verifiable no-storage, no-training architecture), the company has introduced two companion tools: Elixir Fuse™, a lightweight browser-based PDF utility for merging, splitting, watermarking and encrypting documents with no uploads or accounts required, and Aetherdiff™, an AI-assisted document comparison tool built for QA and template-migration validation. All three share the same zero-retention design and can be used standalone or wired into automated workflows via API — and Elixir’s roadmap points toward native MCP support so AI agents can call them directly, alongside a planned “bring your own AI model” option. Elixir is also continuing to execute against a large-scale legacy template migration for a major insurance client, using its Catalyst AI migration tool built on patent-pending technology that reconstructs editable CCM templates — including data mappings and personalization logic — from rendered documents and corresponding source data, without requiring access to the legacy template definitions.
Smart Communications continued to build out its Conversation Cloud this quarter, with both of their recent acquisitions — SmartHUB and SmartPATH — showing tangible progress since launch. SmartHUB, its cloud-native archive, added Document Lifecycle Management for rule-based retention and deletion, an MCP-based AI Agent Infrastructure paired with an AI Audit Meter for governed oversight, and is on track for HIPAA attestation by year-end. SmartPATH, meanwhile, demonstrated a maturing trigger-based orchestration engine (Salesforce, webhook, and Kinesis triggers) with automatic digital failover, and is expanding across the enterprise. Looking to 2026 and beyond, both products point toward a common theme — turning the archive and orchestration layer into a governed source of AI-ready intelligence, via roadmap items like semantic/vector search, agentic MCP workflow control, and a white-label revenue stream. Several of these AI capabilities remain in development rather than generally available, but the direction of travel reinforces Smart Communications’ position as a comprehensive, compliance-minded CCM/CXM platform for regulated industries.
Finally, we welcome MBA-Group to our Leaderboard community. MBA Group Ltd, is a UK-based communications group founded in 1987, offering customer communications software alongside data, creative, print, mail, and outsourcing services delivered by an in-house professional services team. Its MBA Pulse platform is designed to link existing customer data sources, systems, and channels into a common framework for producing, orchestrating and archiving customer communications. Pulse differentiates through its Orchestrate capabilities, which enable real-time orchestration and data segmentation, while the acquisition of Textplode has added CPaaS and digital delivery infrastructure to support communications across a broad range of channels. Look out for their new profile page in the next few weeks, to see more details and our analysis.
The third quarter is usually quiet because of summer holidays, but CCM/CXM activity doesn’t stop! We look forward to updating you on the new AI grid and further development, soon.