CourtAvenue Unveils AI-First Martech Practice, Taps Dan Hixson to Lead

Mar. 12, 2026

CourtAvenue today unveiled its reimagined AI-first martech practice and the appointment of experienced solutions engineer Dan Hixson to lead it, evolving the agency’s long-standing digital transformation work into a modern blueprint for enterprise martech delivery.

The evolved offering is designed to meet the needs of marketers seeking platform-agnostic partners that can implement complex marketing technology systems efficiently, with senior strategic counsel and AI embedded at the core of delivery.

Hixson joins in the newly created role of Executive Director, Martech and brings more than two decades of experience helping major brands implement enterprise marketing technology platforms. He was most recently Director of Digital Experience Platforms at Protiviti Digital and previously led Solutions Engineering at R2integrated. His appointment is effective immediately.

Hixson said:

“What stands out to me about CourtAvenue is how it combines innovative thinking with empathy in how it serves clients. While most of the industry is trying to bolt AI onto yesterday’s service model, what we’re building here is fundamentally different: an AI-first martech practice designed from the ground up for quality and efficiency, while keeping the work human-led and client-centric.”

 

The announcement represents an evolution of CourtAvenue’s enterprise transformation work for Fortune 500 clients, building on the agency’s strength in creating customer experiences grounded in user needs, data and cutting-edge design. The new practice extends those capabilities into martech delivery, helping clients build higher-performing platforms today while establishing readiness for an AI-driven future. It uses specialized agents and automation to accelerate development, testing and optimization while keeping senior experts closely involved in strategy and oversight.

Dan Khabie, Co-Founder of CourtAvenue said:

“Martech is ripe for a reset. Dan brings the solutions engineering depth to pinpoint where the ecosystem creates friction and how to unlock faster deployments, lower overhead, and better outcomes by drawing on the full CourtAvenue portfolio, including our recently launched AI practice.”

 

Hixson will also strengthen CourtAvenue’s platform capabilities through his deep experience in the Adobe ecosystem, building on the agency’s credentials with Optimizely, Contentful and Storyblok while maintaining a platform-agnostic approach focused on the best-fit suite for each client.

The martech investment comes amid growing momentum for CourtAvenue’s specialist independent model, bolstered by the recent launch of its Velocity AI practice and the additions of Robyn Freye as President and Chief Growth Officer and Josh Mooney as Chief Growth Officer of Gigantic Playground.