Hello Friends—I'm back with my annual update from Sitecore Symposium, this year hosted near my house in Orlando, FL. Last year, I recapped all my sessions, but after attending this year, I realized that strategy doesn't make sense anymore. I didn't get much value from the breakout sessions. The keynotes delivered the big announcements, but I gained the biggest insights through MVP Summit and 1:1 conversations with product teams and the community. So I'll break down the event using all that 1:1 knowledge instead of sharing every session I attended. Let's get started.

## The Big Announcement

Let's start with the biggest announcement from Sitecore Symposium 2025: the rebranding of Sitecore XM Cloud to SitecoreAI. I'll admit, I'm not sure I love the new name—it doesn't really describe it well, and it feels like they just want to stick AI in their branding. But that's not the real story. The big news, as Eric Stine described it, is that all the products will now be part of this new platform. Sitecore is building a unified DXP as a single cloud solution, bringing together CDP, Personalize, Content Hub, Search, and all the former XM Cloud products into one product. From a value proposition, this makes a ton of sense. It will really set Sitecore apart—especially from Optimizely. It'll take Optimizely years to catch up to this strategy, and customers will gain value quickly. While talking to the product team, I learned that Sitecore is positioned to enhance SitecoreAI fast, as they already have a huge roadmap of enhancements coming.

## Unpacking Sitecore AI

This is where things get interesting. It took me a little while to process this big announcement and what it means. I think Sitecore's vision here is A+, but the path to that vision will be more complicated than it appears on the surface. Keep in mind this is my opinion, and I've tried my best to verify my understanding—though some details might be off. So what should you expect? On Monday, November 10, 2025, the rollout begins. As I understand it, Monday brings a few new features and a fresh UI. Sitecore XM Cloud customers will now see SitecoreAI instead, with a completely new interface. However, the underlying architecture won't have changed—any functionality that existed before Monday will still be there, just in a different place in the navigation.

On the main stage, they said all the products will become Sitecore AI, but it's actually a rebuild—taking features from other products built with different infrastructure and re-imagining them. This means there could be issues with features that worked fine before. It's also unclear whether a new customer who wants decision models, for example, can buy Personalize + Sitecore AI until those reach feature parity. The other thing is that I'm not sure how long it'll realistically take to reach feature parity—or if that will ever happen.

One last concern is what happens Monday morning for XM Cloud customers when they log in and find a radically new UI. Minor tweaks or a temporary way to revert to the old UI would be fine, but this change could cause significant confusion on day one for many users. People will adapt—that's the nature of SaaS—but I wish Sitecore had taken more time to consider the rollout and its impact on users. They're also rolling it out to some partners, but possibly not all. Partners could have prepared content to help customers, but in my opinion, Sitecore did a poor job of enabling the community of experts before this rollout.

One of the main reasons they're building everything under one roof is to make it easier and faster to develop new capabilities for the platform. In the age of AI, context is everything—and Sitecore wants to build a Knowledge Graph from all that combined data. It's not just about content. It's about metrics collected from the combined abilities of Search and CDP, then using that data to enable more automation with AI Agents.

## AI

Sitecore wants to build AI capabilities into the product as a first-class citizen. They've integrated this throughout the application and built an Agentic AI platform consisting of Signals, Spaces, Flows, and Agents. You can build agents in the app using a workflow that reminds me of n8n—but a bit more deterministic. There's also the ability to bring in external AI Agents from third-party platforms, and they've already built several agents. I'll explore the AI Agentic tools in more detail after Monday, because this could really be a topic in its own right.

## Sitecore Studio

The new Sitecore Studio consists of Agentic Studio (which I discussed above), App Studio, Marketplace, and Sitecore Connect. The two main additions are Marketplace and Agentic Studio.

Marketplace is finally being released—over a year after its announcement. Sitecore is positioning it as a way to build custom SaaS, which has always been the vision. You can add Marketplace apps for Sitecore AI as well. I had many conversations about the new Marketplace. It's a great opportunity for partners to build unique offerings that set them apart. However, there were many discussions around data protection, privacy, and how Sitecore will ensure a safe and secure Marketplace. The old Marketplace on Sitecore had many poorly maintained products. As a partner, this might be less likely—but I've worked for partners where even their own products lose support over time. How the Marketplace is shaped may become more of an issue in the future. Either way, I'm eager to work on it.

There was also the Hackerspace. I didn't participate since I've already built an app, but I learned that they were vibe coding the Marketplace apps—using MCP servers for Blok and other tools to help build marketplace apps faster. Most were simple, but it allowed more people to start playing around with the marketplace.

## Content

I didn't attend the content-focused sessions at Symposium because I prefer focusing on the `Experience` side of the product. However, there were talks about the upcoming Content Service, which promises faster publishing times. There was also discussion about how Sitecore AI will eventually unify content services. For example, instead of having separate media libraries—one in the DAM from Content Hub and another in XM Cloud—there will eventually be a single storage location for media items.

## Experience

As mentioned above, Sitecore AI will now include both CDP and Personalize capabilities. The team plans to rebuild these apps within Sitecore AI. One major challenge will be migrating the data lake (warehouse) from AWS to Azure. In Sitecore AI, this is now called the Unified Data Layer. This change brings exciting possibilities—they're re-imagining and doing their first major overhaul of the Boxever Data Lake. This means fewer references to the airline industry and a more flexible data layer. I don't have many details on the specifics yet, but since this is my focus, expect more content to come.

## Search

Search is worth highlighting. During the main stage previews, they teased a common UI within Sitecore AI to manage indexed content. This would be a game changer for companies that need simple search for their websites. However, keep in mind these will be new search capabilities built directly with Azure within Sitecore AI. This could create challenges during the transition period—because some features will be available while others may take some time to appear back into the Sitecore AI platform.

## Pathway

Pathway was another highly discussed feature. It allows content migration initially from Sitecore to Sitecore, though they mentioned it would eventually support any CMS to Sitecore AI. Some previews appeared on the main stage, but after many discussions, I got the sense it's still a long way off. That said, anything that speeds up migrations—even slightly—is promising. However, it will be built for Sitecore 360 customers, which may limit access for other Sitecore users. Interestingly, I was considering building a tool for this before Symposium, but now that might not make sense. The feature is more sophisticated than I initially thought—Mo Cherif's team is building it with AI to help map schemas from one platform to another. I'll be curious to see whether this continues development or fades away. It seems like every year something loses momentum.

## Wrap Up

In conclusion, Symposium was excellent and reinforced what I believe is a strong vision—returning to a monolithic-like application that gives customers many capabilities in a single purchase. The challenge ahead is rebuilding all existing tools into Sitecore AI over the next year. They plan to launch new features rapidly over the coming months.

Starting Monday (11/10/2025), there will be many new launches that I'll explore and create content about shortly! They also announced next year's Symposium, returning to Orlando, FL on November 10–12.

As always, Symposium was a blast. It was a great opportunity to network and meet new faces on the Sitecore side, as well as connect with new MVPs and customers from the community.

Unlocking the Future: Key Insights and Major Announcements from Sitecore Symposium 2025

Hello friends! A few weekends ago, I participated in the Sitecore Hackathon 2025—a 24-hour event that starts at 7 PM on Friday and ends at 8 PM EST on Saturday. But wait, that's 25 hours? Well, the first hour is dedicated to brainstorming an idea based on the provided category. This year, our team—team DED (named by combining the first letters of team members Dylan, Dan Solovay, and Erica Stockwell-Alpert)—used that entire hour to develop our concept. The category gave us freedom to build anything we wanted. While we initially considered creating a CLI for IAR files, we ultimately settled on an idea that energized the whole team. I was particularly excited because it aligned with my work on the Sitecore Assistant and would expand the tool in a new direction (which I'll discuss later when covering the Hackathon outcomes).

## The Idea

We decided to build something similar to the Sitecore Assistant tool, expanding upon a tool that Erica had developed for XM/XP. However, since Sitecore XM Cloud's landscape has changed and traditional package installation methods no longer work, we created an XM Cloud replacement—a separate Next.js application that integrates with both the XM Cloud Edge/Delivery APIs and the Authoring/Management APIs. The app's architecture allowed us to deploy it to Vercel (check it out here: [https://sitecore-content-export.vercel.app](https://sitecore-content-export.vercel.app/)). Taking inspiration from the Sitecore Assistant, we added a Copilot feature that pulls content from the Delivery/Edge API. Though we had to rush the interface, the potential is enormous. I particularly loved our tech stack choice—Next.js, Tailwind, and ShadCN for the UI. Even with my limited UI experience, I breezed through the interface development using Vibe code, and the results were fantastic.

## My Overall Thoughts

This was definitely one of the best Hackathons I've ever experienced. With AI by my side, I never felt stuck—I could use it to overcome any obstacle. I primarily relied on GitHub Copilot, which proved invaluable for 90% of situations. Rather than getting bogged down wondering how to build something, I could simply ask how to refactor the code to achieve specific goals, and I was off to the races.

That said, Copilot Edits has its drawbacks—it frequently overwrote my changes, causing me to lose code, and its formatting leaves much to be desired. Still, Copilot's chat feature has been transformative for my productivity. When Copilot occasionally struggled, I turned to Claude 3.7, which was phenomenal for coding modifications. I could even attach photos and draw on them to illustrate the issues I was facing, and somehow it understood and resolved them perfectly.

AI particularly excels at UI work, and the latest models are clearly improving rapidly in this area. While I'm uncertain about when it might replace humans—I encountered some challenges with AI in another post-hackathon project—it proved to be an invaluable tool for enhancing the UI. I successfully created a stunning UI for the Chat app, which I'll definitely incorporate into future applications.

![](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/lanua4su/production/c2668dbb966d589b04d7c93b1f1ac594926354db-1285x838.png)

## The Outcome

I was impressed with what we were able to create. I plan to make several improvements to both the Sitecore Assistant and this new application. For the app we built during the hackathon, I'll first enhance the API Instance configurator. The initial version was confusing, so I'm rebuilding it to be more flexible and allow for future Sitecore integrations, such as Personalize. While helping Erica enhance the Instance configuration, I also plan to bring more features into the original tool. I learned an important distinction between Session Storage and Local Storage—Session Storage only persists during the current browsing session, while Local Storage remains across multiple browsing sessions indefinitely. This storage functionality is one of the tool's features I'm most proud of, as it allows anyone to configure instances and start using them with their environments. Of course, if we pursue adding this to the Marketplace, we'll need to do additional development work to meet their requirements.

I plan to rename the Sitecore Assistant to Sitecore Copilot and transform it into a multi-agent tool that handles content, personalization, and future capabilities. I'll incorporate the UI we built for the Hackathon submission into Sitecore Copilot and develop advanced chat interfaces that integrate with other Sitecore systems. Additionally, I hope to bring the content-related copilot enhancements back into the Hackathon submission.

I'll share more details about these enhancements to the Sitecore Assistant (Copilot) in my next few posts. Overall, it was an excellent Hackathon experience—our team collaborated seamlessly, and I'm already excited for the next one.


Sitecore Hackathon 2025: Team DED - My Thoughts and Review My Contributions

Sitecore Symposium Recap 2024

Today, I have a real treat for you: an in-depth comparison between Optimizely's new Headless SaaS CMS and Sitecore's XM Cloud product. This is one of the biggest perks of working at a large partner—exclusive access to the latest products. With extensive experience in Headless SaaS CMS products ([Sanity.io](http://sanity.io/), Storyblok, Contentful, XM Cloud, Content Hub One) and significant hands-on time with XM Cloud, I'm excited to compare these two market contenders.

This isn't a deep dive into Optimizely's new SaaS CMS; however, since I have access, I'll likely create more content on this topic in the future. It's important to note that unlike Sitecore, which has been on the market for several years, Optimizely's offering was recently released. This is crucial to keep in mind, as it will influence our final comparison today.

## An Overview

Before we dive into our comparison between these two SaaS CMS platforms, let's clarify what a SaaS-based Enterprise CMS is and explore more about these two companies and their products.

A SaaS-based Enterprise CMS is a cloud-hosted content management system that offers scalability, flexibility, and reduced maintenance for large organizations. These platforms provide robust content creation, management, and delivery capabilities without the need for on-premises infrastructure. Now, let's delve into Optimizely and Sitecore, two major players in this space.

Both Optimizely and Sitecore's SaaS CMS offerings embrace a more modern architectural approach, departing from the monolithic structure where all systems were tightly coupled. The most common grievance I've heard from developers on both platforms is the inability to extend them—but I argue that's precisely the point. You can't extend these platforms using traditional methods from non-SaaS tools, and that's by design. Modifying the platforms would compromise the SaaS model, necessitating a complete rethink of architecture. The new paradigm focuses on integrating external systems with these headless tools, rather than directly altering the platforms themselves.

The traditional approach involved directly modifying the existing platform. In contrast, the modern approach focuses on extending functionality through external options—which we'll discuss shortly—and building around the product using hooks and APIs.

Now that we have a better understanding of how these products compare to each other and fit into the existing Headless SaaS CMS ecosystem, let's evaluate various aspects to determine which of these two products excels in each area. Let's dive in.

## Ability to Learn

This category assesses how easy or difficult it is for developers, marketers, and end users to navigate and utilize the product. It considers both newcomers to the platform and existing users who may have experience with the company's on-premises offerings.

From Optimizely's perspective, their new SaaS platform introduces several features not present in the on-premises version. For instance, `Experiences`—which I initially mistook for a competitor to Sitecore XM Cloud's personalization capabilities—actually adds more presentation-like information to your page and enables the `Visual Builder`, another new feature in this SaaS product. I must admit, the `Experiences` and `Visual Builder` feel somewhat disconnected. The requirement to change a Page to an Experience to enable the Visual Builder, rather than having it available for all pages, seems a bit confusing. For a new user, aside from this quirk, the platform is relatively easy to grasp. In contrast to XM Cloud, which I'll discuss shortly, this product more closely resembles a traditional SaaS and Headless CMS.

Sitecore has always presented a steep learning curve for newcomers to the content management space. Users face a barrage of terminology, even for simple tasks. Take, for example, SXA (Sitecore Experience Accelerator) and its newer iteration, "headless SXA"—a term that, in my view, doesn't quite fit, given that it and the Component Builder are now the sole building methods in XM Cloud. Beyond grasping product concepts and new XM Cloud apps, developers must also wrestle with additional terms like JSS (JavaScript Services) when implementing Sitecore solutions.

This steep learning curve is further complicated by the existence of "right" and "wrong" ways to implement a Sitecore solution. Even seasoned Sitecore developers face new challenges with XM Cloud. They must master the Component Builder, grasp the nuances between headless SXA and traditional SXA, and adapt to feature changes that differ from the on-premises XM and XP versions.

Furthermore, implementing the "head" (front-end) of XM Cloud demands additional learning. In contrast to Optimizely, which offers a .NET Core example for its SaaS product implementation, Sitecore solely recommends Next.js for the host application. While it's challenging to determine if Optimizely's .NET Core version is feature-complete, it's essential to recognize these substantial learning obstacles in the Sitecore XM Cloud ecosystem.

**Winner**: Optimizely SaaS CMS

## Features

Before comparing the features and capabilities of these two offerings, it's important to note that Sitecore's product has been on the market longer than Optimizely's SaaS offering. This extended presence gives Sitecore the advantage of having more time to develop and refine its capabilities.

As previously mentioned, Optimizely's new SaaS CMS reminds me more of a traditional headless CMS compared to XM Cloud. This is because it lacks many capabilities you'd find in XM Cloud. I'm sure Optimizely, now that it has a SaaS CMS product, will eagerly embark on a journey of rolling out new features. However, one additional drawback is that this product has fewer features than XM Cloud had in its early days.

XM Cloud, on the other hand, is packed with features. As I mentioned, this is largely due to user demand and XM Cloud's continuous addition of new capabilities since its launch. I expect Optimizely will follow a similar trajectory. Let's take a moment to explore some of the capabilities that exist in XM Cloud but are currently absent from Optimizely's SaaS CMS.

### Forms

Sitecore XM Cloud frequently received requests for a forms feature in the year following its release. Without it, customers migrating from XP or XM, who were accustomed to these capabilities, would have had to use other providers. Sitecore has now delivered, offering Forms as a SaaS option with ongoing improvements. Since its initial release, which had numerous issues, they've enhanced the product's stability and added new features like conditional fields. Unfortunately, Optimizely doesn't offer a comparable option in their SaaS CMS. While a forms engine may exist somewhere in their product lineup, it's not available in the Optimizely SaaS CMS without additional licensing costs.

### Personalization

Sitecore XM Cloud offered basic personalization capabilities out of the box from its launch, without requiring additional licensing. This is a compelling reason to choose XM Cloud, as many customers are just beginning their personalization journey. The platform provides an excellent opportunity for users to start personalizing content without investing in full-fledged personalization tools. Additionally, A/B testing (experimentation) is on the horizon. XM Cloud now also features edge-side personalization for scenarios where decisions can be made at the edge. Optimizely has significant ground to cover to match these capabilities.

The only downside to this is that the added benefit of personalization likely increases the cost of XM Cloud. Some customers may not want this additional feature, either because they don't plan to use it or they're already using another personalization solution. This highlights a potential drawback of XM Cloud: it might be too expensive for some, partly because it's trying to do too much. While I won't delve into pricing details (as I'm not certain how these products compare), it's an important consideration when choosing between these platforms. Do you want a content management system that excels at its core function, allowing you to add forms or personalization engines as needed? Or do you prefer a solution with all these capabilities built-in, potentially at a higher price point?

### Analytics

Analytics complements Personalization by leveraging Sitecore Personalize (CDP) capabilities behind the scenes. To my knowledge, Optimizely lacks a comparable feature. While this functionality is useful, I believe there are superior options available in the market, such as Google Analytics. Collecting this data can be beneficial if you plan to purchase Personalize in the future. However, I must admit that this is another instance where Sitecore may be adding capabilities that increase costs without delivering substantial value to their customers. Nonetheless, Sitecore offers this capability while Optimizely does not.

### Components

I won't delve too deeply into this topic. While XM Cloud's `Components` feature doesn't have a direct counterpart in Optimizely, it feels somewhat underdeveloped. It now competes with SXA components, which remain the recommended approach for development teams. It's an intriguing concept, but perhaps it was released prematurely. Nevertheless, having additional options is always beneficial.

### A Better Visual Builder

Although some may argue that Sitecore XM Cloud's visual builder (called Pages) isn't as feature-rich as the older Experience Editor, it's definitely superior to Optimizely's editor in my opinion. The main issue I have with Optimizely's editor is that you must configure it for pages, which likely means some marketers won't fully understand the steps to set it up. In contrast, Pages works seamlessly with any site you've set up in XM Cloud. This ease of use makes it superior, in my view. It feels like Optimizely hastily added this new capability, whereas XM Cloud built it as an integral feature from the ground up.

**Winner**: Sitecore XM Cloud

## Identity / Portal

Currently, when you log into the Optimizely SaaS CMS portal, it only contains the CMS. This contrasts with XM Cloud, which allows you to access and use SSO with their other SaaS composable options. Both products offer integration with external Identity providers (such as Azure or Okta), so they're equal in this respect. Neither platform provides a way to add apps to their portals—a feature that would be very useful. Sitecore XM Cloud gains an edge here because more of their SaaS composable products are now available in the Cloud Portal, creating a more unified interface.

**Winner**: Sitecore XM Cloud

## Extensibility

At first glance, XM Cloud appears to have an advantage with its deploy app. However, a closer look reveals that Sitecore actually discourages deploying .NET code customizations to the CMS. This approach aligns with SaaS best practices, as allowing direct platform modifications by customers or partners can be risky. Given the frequent upgrades inherent to SaaS products, such customizations could cause problems. Instead, SaaS architecture typically favors platform extension over modification. Interestingly, neither Optimizely SaaS CMS nor Sitecore XM Cloud currently provides a clear method for extending their platforms.

That said, I wouldn't be surprised if either platform provides clearer direction for extensibility in the future. For example, customers might want to create custom fields or launchpad apps—will either platform offer a way to do this? Alternatively, they may never provide these capabilities, leaving developers to use various APIs for creating external integrations and applications that work across different systems. At this point, both platforms could use more guidance for the community. While Sitecore has offered some direction, neither has clearly outlined how to achieve the customizations that customers were accustomed to with their non-SaaS products. This may be intentional, suggesting that customers seeking a highly customizable platform might need to stick with on-premises options.

**Winner**: Tie

## Developer Experience + Developer Choice

Developer choice is crucial in headless architecture. Both CMSs offer a hosted platform delivering content via API (REST or GraphQL), so it's vital for developers to have ample support for various frameworks or languages they might use to build their `head` application.

With the release of Optimizely’s SaaS CMS, example repositories were made available—though I haven't used them yet. They support a wide range of options, including .NET Core, Next.js, React, and Gatsby. For a complete list, check out the repository here: [https://github.com/episerver/content-graph-js-sdk/tree/main/samples](https://github.com/episerver/content-graph-js-sdk/tree/main/samples). This stands in stark contrast to Sitecore, which essentially provides just one fully functional example for XM Cloud. Although JSS (the SDK for Sitecore’s APIs) offers more options, many features like Multisite and Personalization in XM Cloud only work with Next.js. This is disappointing for a headless CMS, which by nature should offer framework choices. You could theoretically use something other than Next.js, but you’d need to build those XM Cloud features yourself. This is especially frustrating given that Optimizely’s offering is new, while XM Cloud has been around for years. I've heard talk of expanding support for other frameworks and languages, but as of now, that's not possible, making the winner in this category clear.

**Winner**: Optimizely SaaS CMS

## Stability + Maturity

This is an easy win for Sitecore XM Cloud. As with any new product in its infancy, Optimizely's SaaS CMS must learn to improve processes for running a SaaS business. It's different from running an on-premises option, as any issues are magnified when they arise, with immediate impacts. Gone are the days when you could build and release a product, then wait several months to receive feedback from customers beginning to build on the platform.

**Winner**: Sitecore XM Cloud

## The Ultimate Winner

I don't believe there are clear winners in this case, except perhaps the customers who now have another option for modern, enterprise-grade infrastructure. However, it's important to note that a SaaS enterprise CMS isn't always the right choice for every customer. When selecting a platform, carefully consider whether SaaS is the best fit for your business. While SaaS offers significant benefits that warrant thorough consideration, it does limit some direct customization options. For developers who've worked with these platforms over the past decade, the new Composable SaaS products demand a fundamental shift in approach. Building for these platforms now requires a focus on API utilization rather than direct customizations.

In summary, these products are evenly matched, with Sitecore XM Cloud having a slight advantage due to its longer time on the market. However, it's important to note that Optimizely's offering will likely mature rapidly, thanks to the continuous innovation and improvement inherent in SaaS platforms. When choosing between these products, your decision will ultimately depend on the specific features you're looking for. It's also crucial to recognize that both products exist within larger ecosystems. The choice isn't just about selecting the best CMS, but about finding the right combination of products that work well together to meet your needs.

I hope you've enjoyed this comparison! Stay tuned for more content on Optimizely and other SaaS CMS platforms coming soon to my channel.

Sitecore

Unlocking the Future: Key Insights and Major Announcements from Sitecore Symposium 2025

Sitecore Hackathon 2025: Team DED - My Thoughts and Review My Contributions

Sitecore Symposium Recap 2024

Optimizely SaaS CMS vs Sitecore XM Cloud