Sitecore unveils SitecoreAI: Agentic orchestration arrives for the CMS era

Sitecore used this year’s Symposium in Orlando to introduce SitecoreAI, a next-generation take on the digital experience platform that places agentic orchestration at the centre of content operations.

As Eric Stine put it on stage, You can’t publish content for the next generation using yesterday’s playbook. The message was clear: this is about changing how work gets done, not just adding more AI features.

SitecoreAI is a single platform that unifies content, data and personalisation in a SaaS model, then layers on an Agentic Studio (Sitecore Studio) where marketers, technologists and AI work side by side. Out of the box, the studio includes a set of pre-built agents (20 in total) for planning, migration, production, testing and optimisation, and it also lets teams design their own agents and flows using visual tools, no code required.

For existing XM Cloud customers, adoption is deliberately low friction. Sitecore Studio sits on top of your environment with continuity of content and data, so teams can begin experimenting with agent-driven workflows without a major replatform. For organisations still on on-premise XM/XP or running an entirely different CMS, migration tooling agents automate content and schema conversion to accelerate the move to XM Cloud and the SitecoreAI stack.

Gradial features prominently in the story. The strategic partnership connects agent workflows directly to delivery inside Sitecore’s ecosystem, helping teams turn briefs into executed campaigns without constant tool-switching. Combined with Content Hub, Stream and the Marketplace SDK, Sitecore’s path over the last few years now reads as a clear build-up to an agentic DXP (or #AEX).

What happened in Orlando

During the keynote, Sitecore set out a practical vision: agentic capabilities embedded where marketers already work. Agentic Flows coordinate multi-step campaigns from briefing to experimentation, publishing and ongoing optimisation, while Spaces provide shared context so people and agents can collaborate with visibility and control. The emphasis was not “AI for AI’s sake”, but measurable outcomes, faster content delivery, improved conversion and a cleaner operating model for global estates.

The numbers behind XM Cloud set the tone. A recent Total Economic Impact study reported a 371% ROI over three years, a 50% improvement in digital conversion rates by year three, a 60% increase in marketing productivity and a 40% reduction in developer time on website operations. Those gains now power SitecoreAI’s promise: move faster, personalise at scale and spend time where it counts.

Agentic orchestration, explained

If you’re new to the term, agentic orchestration is simply the coordination of specialised AI agents, each with a defined role, across the content lifecycle. Think of a production team operating inside your CMS:

• Agents sense goals, brand rules and performance signals.
• They plan a flow from brief to publish to optimisation.
• They act on discrete tasks: writing, page building, tagging, QA and experimentation.
• People review and approve within a shared workspace.
• The system learns and optimises based on real-time feedback.

In practice, that means turning a campaign brief into on-brand copy and components, running accessibility and compliance checks, launching personalisation experiments and promoting winners without creating new silos or adding headcount. It also means using agents to monitor content staleness, search performance, geo-variants and technical regressions so teams spend less time firefighting and more time shaping outcomes.

Why this matters if you’re evaluating a DXP

For organisations actively comparing platforms, SitecoreAI shifts the conversation from features to operational impact. The value is not just in generating content; it’s in running the entire content and personalisation loop as a governed, observable workflow. If you’re already on XM Cloud, you gain agentic capabilities without a migration. If you’re not, migration agents reduce risk and compress timelines, particularly useful for multi-brand portfolios with legacy templates and inconsistent taxonomies.

Commercially, Sitecore 360 customers benefit from SitecoreAI being included within the subscription, avoiding a separate AI bill and the complexity of tiered entitlements. That simplifies planning and speeds up experimentation because teams can switch on agents where they create value rather than where licensing allows.

How Sitecore compares to the market

The wider DXP landscape is moving towards agent-driven models, and competitors have showcased compelling demos of their own. Sitecore’s differentiation is its end-to-end approach: agentic creation tied to migration, governance and personalisation, delivered inside a composable SaaS platform most teams already know. It’s less a bolt-on and more a re-wiring of how work gets done.

Our take as XM Cloud specialists

You don’t need a big-bang transformation to realise value. Start with a single, revenue-relevant journey, product launch pages or a seasonal campaign. Enable a small set of agents for briefing, page assembly, QA and personalisation. Set clear guardrails for brand, compliance and data handling. Measure content velocity and conversion deltas. Then scale to migration agents for the properties that will benefit most from consolidation.

At Think Fresh Digital, we have already built AI tools to migrate clients onto Sitecore’s next-generation stack. That experience, combined with our XM Cloud delivery work for global brands, means we are well placed to advise on AI-powered migrations and to design agentic flows that deliver outcomes from day one.

Agentic is the future. Agentic is the way. It will not replace human endeavour, and it will not replace human creativity, which is why, at Think Fresh Digital, the intersection of technical mastery and creative thinking has always been at the core of how we deliver.

FAQs

What is Gradial?

Gradial is an AI-powered orchestration platform that turns marketing briefs into live campaigns, covering copy, pages, QA, compliance and more.

How does Gradial work with Sitecore?

Gradial integrates with XM Cloud and Content Hub, allowing teams to generate and execute campaigns directly within Sitecore’s environment.

Does Gradial replace Stream?

No. Gradial is complementary to Sitecore Stream. Stream provides intelligence across the stack; Gradial focuses on orchestrating execution.

How do we get started with SitecoreAI?

XM Cloud customers can adopt Sitecore Studio immediately. On-premise or non-Sitecore users can employ migration agents to accelerate the move and standardise templates, taxonomies and components.