Chicago, IL – Validity, a global leader in email marketing and data quality solutions, is poised to make a significant impact at Salesforce Connections 2026, held from June 3-4 in Chicago. The company arrives at this year’s premier marketing, commerce, and customer experience event not merely as an attendee, but as a formidable force, showcasing its newly unified, end-to-end marketing success platform, significantly bolstered by the strategic integration of Litmus and the introduction of its AI-powered Validity Engage platform. This year’s conference marks a pivotal moment for Validity, as it demonstrates a cohesive vision for the future of digital marketing, particularly in the realm of email, by bridging the gap between theoretical AI advancements and their practical, real-world application for enterprise teams.
Salesforce Connections stands as a cornerstone event for professionals navigating the complex landscape of digital commerce, marketing, and customer experience. Annually, it brings together a diverse assembly of practitioners, decision-makers, and thought leaders from across industries to dissect emerging trends, share successful strategies, and explore the cutting edge of technology. The 2026 iteration of Connections, set against the vibrant backdrop of Chicago, promises an agenda densely packed with sessions focused on artificial intelligence, CRM strategy, and the evolving future of digital marketing. Salesforce’s overarching theme for the event, as articulated on the Connections website, emphasizes that "Marketing is no longer static. It’s always-on and agentic—and Connections is where vision meets strategy." This sentiment perfectly encapsulates the industry’s current challenge: moving beyond pilot programs and integration hurdles to embed AI meaningfully into existing workflows, transforming marketing from a reactive function to a proactive, intelligent engine.
The value of Connections extends beyond the formal sessions. The conference is renowned for fostering invaluable "hallway conversations" and spontaneous "how are you handling this?" moments among peers. These informal exchanges often provide as much, if not more, practical insight than the main stage presentations, particularly when grappling with the tension between AI’s vast promise and its day-to-day reality in campaign execution. Validity’s presence is strategically designed to capitalize on these discussions, offering concrete solutions to the very challenges marketers face.
A Unified Vision: The Validity and Litmus Integration
A critical development distinguishing Validity’s presence this year stems from its strategic acquisition of Litmus, a renowned email creation and testing platform, which occurred just two months prior to the 2025 Salesforce Connections event. This acquisition has been a catalyst for Validity, allowing it to spend the past year meticulously merging the strengths of both entities to forge a truly end-to-end email solution tailored for enterprise-level marketing teams. For years, email marketing professionals have contended with the inefficiencies and complexities of integrating disparate point solutions for various stages of the email lifecycle. This fragmented approach often led to operational silos, compatibility issues, and a lack of holistic insight into campaign performance.
With the Litmus integration, Validity has fundamentally reshaped this paradigm. The company now offers a comprehensive suite of capabilities under one unified roof, encompassing critical functions such as data quality and list validation, streamlined campaign creation, rigorous QA testing, proactive deliverability monitoring, and insightful performance analytics. This consolidation is a significant industry shift, promising to simplify workflows, enhance collaboration, and drive greater ROI for marketers.
Riley Dambaugh, Demand Generation Manager at Validity, expressed the team’s excitement about this evolution: "Salesforce Connections is always one of my favorite events! This year I’m especially excited to be showcasing what’s possible now that Litmus and Validity have come together—we have some really exciting new innovations that we can’t wait to talk about. Excited to meet you all face-to-face!" Her statement underscores the transformative potential that the combined expertise and technology bring to the market, addressing long-standing pain points with an integrated, intelligent platform.
Practical AI: From Hype to High ROI
A central theme of Validity’s engagement at Connections 2026 is the demystification and practical application of AI in marketing. The industry has moved past the initial hype surrounding artificial intelligence, with marketers now demanding tangible, demonstrable value from AI solutions. The prevailing sentiment is a desire to understand "what actually works" in real-world scenarios, particularly when faced with the immediate demands of campaign deployment and performance targets.
This shift aligns seamlessly with Salesforce’s broader vision of "Agentforce" and AI-first CRM experiences, which aim to infuse intelligence throughout every customer interaction. However, the path to successful AI adoption is fraught with challenges. While the original text indicated barriers without listing them, common obstacles highlighted by numerous industry surveys include poor data quality, complex integration requirements with existing systems, a shortage of skilled talent, and a lack of clear strategies for measuring AI’s impact. Validity’s research, including their Q1 2026 Marketer Survey, confirms that marketing headcounts are expected to remain flat even as campaign volume and performance expectations continue to rise, making AI a crucial lever for efficiency, but only if implemented correctly.
Validity champions a pragmatic approach: success with AI isn’t necessarily about the largest budgets, but rather about foundational diligence. This includes meticulously cleaning data, defining clear, measurable outcomes, and building workflows that are intuitive, trustworthy, and genuinely augment human capabilities. Grace Dixon, Sr. Account Manager at Validity, articulated this focus: "At these events, it’s always really refreshing to see marketers in-person and share genuine excitement and ideas. I look forward to hearing about how teams are continuing to approach AI and marketing transformation in the real world, and to leaving with new perspectives that reshape how I deliver value for our amazing customers when I get back!" This highlights Validity’s commitment to understanding and addressing the practical challenges faced by marketers.
Unveiling Validity Engage: Simplifying the Email Workflow
At the forefront of Validity’s AI-driven innovations is the introduction of Validity Engage, an AI-powered platform specifically engineered to simplify the email workflow and maximize ROI from every send. In an environment where marketing teams are continually pressured to achieve more with static or shrinking resources, Engage offers a vital solution. It is designed to embed AI directly into the email creation and deployment process in a way that is genuinely helpful, rather than merely theoretical.
Validity Engage leverages advanced AI capabilities to assist marketers across various stages, from content optimization and audience segmentation to testing and performance prediction. By automating repetitive tasks, providing data-driven insights, and proactively identifying potential issues, Engage empowers teams to execute more consistent, high-quality email programs at scale.
Chris Shays, an Account Executive at Validity, shared his enthusiasm for the new platform: "Meeting with both our customers and prospects is something I always look forward to. Gaining an understanding of how they are implementing and utilizing Validity’s suite and how it impacts their day-to-day workflows and business needs is something I always look forward to discussing in depth. I’m very excited to have conversations around Engage to help prospects execute more consistent, high-quality email programs at scale." Similarly, Jeff Martin, another Account Executive, noted: "I’m really excited to be attending Salesforce Connections this year and meeting customers and prospects in person. It’s always valuable to hear how teams are actually building and optimizing their email programs, and where they’re running into challenges. I’m especially excited to share how we’re helping teams streamline workflows and improve performance across the full email lifecycle, and to start introducing Engage as part of that next evolution." These statements collectively emphasize the platform’s potential to revolutionize how marketers approach email, making it more efficient, effective, and intelligent.
Expert Insights: Danielle Gallant on Maximizing Email ROI with AI
A highlight of Validity’s presence at Salesforce Connections 2026 will be the theater session led by Danielle Gallant, a recognized expert in email marketing. Her session, titled "3 ways to push your email ROI above 45:1 using AI," is scheduled for June 3 at 1:30 PM CT in the Theater. Gallant, co-host of the popular "Email After Hours podcast" and a regular guest on Validity’s "State of Email Tactics webinar," as well as a key participant in Litmus Live 2026, brings a wealth of practical experience to the stage.
During her 20-minute presentation, attendees will gain insights into why advanced AI adopters are 75% more likely to achieve email ROIs exceeding 45:1. She will delve into the full-funnel techniques and strategies that enable these exceptional returns, offering actionable advice for marketers looking to significantly enhance their email program performance. This session is particularly relevant given email’s consistent ranking as the marketing channel with the highest return on investment, a fact further validated by numerous industry reports, often citing returns of $36-$42 for every dollar spent.
Julio Lopez, Sr. Customer Strategist at Validity, expressed the strategic importance of this discussion: "I’m most excited to talk with marketers about how they’re connecting the full email workflow—from data quality and deliverability through to content and performance—and where they’re unlocking the biggest impact. Connections is one of the best places to bring those pieces together and learn from others doing it in a way that goes beyond the hype." His perspective reinforces the necessity of an integrated approach to email success, where every component of the workflow is optimized and interconnected.
The Enduring Power of Email in a Digital-First World
Despite the emergence of new communication channels, email continues to be an indispensable tool for marketers, consistently delivering the highest ROI year after year. In 2026, email is not a legacy channel; it is a complex, highly capable, and increasingly central component of successful marketing strategies. The channel is evolving rapidly, with AI playing a transformative role in how messages are not only delivered but also perceived and engaged with by subscribers. AI-driven message summaries, intelligent sorting, and advanced filtering mechanisms are changing what it means to "reach" a subscriber, demanding a more sophisticated approach to email content and strategy.
According to Validity’s own 2026 Email Deliverability Benchmark Report, global inbox placement rates improved to 87.2 percent in 2025, representing a 3.7 percent year-over-year uplift. This improvement, while positive, also underscores the ongoing challenges and critical importance of deliverability. Marketers must contend with increasingly stringent spam filters, sophisticated sender reputation algorithms, and the constant need to ensure their messages land in the inbox, not the spam folder. Validity’s solutions, particularly its deliverability monitoring capabilities, are designed to give marketers the tools to navigate this complex environment successfully.
Furthermore, research from Salesforce’s "State of Marketing report" indicates a clear correlation between AI adoption and marketing performance, revealing that high-performing marketing teams are 2.2 times more likely to leverage AI than their underperforming counterparts. This data unequivocally shifts the industry conversation at Connections 2026 from "whether to invest in AI" to "how to invest in it correctly." Validity aims to provide the practical framework and innovative tools to answer this crucial "how," ensuring that AI integration leads to measurable gains and sustained success.
Connecting with the Validity Team in Chicago
Validity is deploying a robust and knowledgeable team to Chicago, eager to engage with attendees and discuss the future of email marketing and AI. Beyond Danielle Gallant and Julio Lopez, key team members include:
- Brady Edwards, Sr. Account Manager: "I am looking forward to engaging with our community of customers and partners at Salesforce Connections. My focus is on understanding how our clients integrate our solutions into their unique workflows to drive meaningful results. I am particularly excited to discuss how the recent integration of Litmus and Validity provides an expanded, end-to-end solution for modern marketing teams."
- Courtney Grab, Director of Customer and Lifecycle Marketing: "Connections brings together the exact people I want to connect with—email and CRM marketers who are genuinely pushing what’s possible in their marketing programs. It’s one of those events where the hallway conversations are just as valuable as the keynotes, and this year Validity is showing up in a big way. See you in Chicago!"
- Jim Tobolski, SVP of Global Account Management: "Every year, Salesforce Connections reminds me of what makes this industry so inspiring. I look forward to the amazing conversations that start with curiosity and turn into a genuine exchange about what’s possible. My number one priority is to connect with as many people as possible. Whether you’re a longtime customer, someone we’ve just started working with, or you’re simply navigating what an AI-first marketing strategy actually looks like in practice—I want to connect."
These statements reflect a collective enthusiasm to share insights, gather feedback, and foster collaborations that will shape the trajectory of digital marketing. The Validity team is ready to demonstrate how their unified platform, enhanced by AI, can empower marketers to overcome current challenges and unlock new levels of performance.
Strategic Implications and Future Outlook
Validity’s comprehensive offering at Salesforce Connections 2026 signals a significant strategic advancement in the marketing technology landscape. By bringing together data quality, email creation, testing, deliverability, and analytics into a single, AI-powered ecosystem, Validity is addressing a critical need for integrated solutions. This move not only streamlines operations for enterprise teams but also elevates the strategic importance of email as a channel that can fully leverage AI for personalized, high-impact customer engagement.
The implications extend to the broader industry, setting a new benchmark for what marketers should expect from their technology partners. The emphasis on practical AI, coupled with the foundational importance of clean data and robust deliverability, highlights a mature approach to digital transformation. As Salesforce continues to champion its "Agentforce" vision, partners like Validity become crucial enablers, providing the specialized, intelligent tools that bring this vision to life within specific domains like email marketing. The conversations at Connections 2026, driven by Validity’s innovations, are expected to redefine benchmarks for email ROI, AI integration, and end-to-end marketing effectiveness for years to come.
