Sitecore’s own migration guidance is clear about one thing. When you move to SitecoreAI, workflow states, personalization rules, analytics data and custom modules or integrations stay behind, and Sitecore advises rebuilding them in the new platform. Those are the parts of a digital estate that customers actually feel: the offer that recognizes them, the Arabic page that goes live on time, the service agent who already knows what they were doing. Every SitecoreAI programme ends up redesigning the customer experience, so it pays to do it on purpose. This guide gives Gulf digital and marketing leaders five customer tests to run before, during and after the move, what each one asks of SitecoreAI and Salesforce, and how to write them into the programme from the first week.
The short version
- Content moves, and the experience logic is rebuilt. Sitecore lists workflow states, personalization rules, analytics data and custom modules or integrations as not migrated.
- Rebuild around what customers notice. Five tests cover it: the answer test, the Arabic test, the recognition test, the handover test and the change test.
- Run each test three times: on your current site as a baseline, at go-live as acceptance criteria, and every quarter after.
- Two of the five need CRM data. Put your Salesforce, service and Arabic content owners on the Sitecore programme board from the start.
- There is time to do this properly. Mainstream support for XP and XM 10.4 runs to the end of 2027, and extended support to the end of 2030.
What moves to SitecoreAI, and what gets rebuilt
SitecoreAI Pathway, Sitecore’s migration tooling, moves content in every language configured on your source site, one site at a time. Media library assets move with a separate migration tool. Most of what shapes the experience is rebuilt.
| Part of your estate | What happens | Decide before you rebuild it |
|---|---|---|
| Content, in every configured language | Migrated with Pathway, site by site | Which content customers still need, in both languages |
| Media library | Migrated with Sitecore’s XM-to-XMC migration tool | Which assets need Arabic versions, and which to retire |
| Workflow states | Not migrated, so rebuilt | Who approves what, in which language, and how fast |
| Personalization rules | Not migrated, so rebuilt | Which customer context matters, and with what consent |
| Analytics data | Not migrated | Capture your baseline before cutover |
| Custom modules and integrations | Not migrated, so rebuilt | Which systems the experience must reach: CRM, booking, payments and service |
| xDB data and email marketing content (XP) | Not migrated | Which customer data the website really needs |
Treat the rebuild as the moment to decide what the experience should do, because you are paying for it either way.
Five tests your customers would notice
Each test sets out what a customer would notice, how to run it on your current site, and what it asks of the platform. None needs special software. A spreadsheet, a few test profiles and a few hours per test are enough for the baseline.
1. The answer test
What the customer notices. They ask Google, ChatGPT, Copilot or Gemini about your fees, services, opening hours or eligibility rules, and the answer is right and comes from you.
How to run it. Take the 25 questions customers ask most, from Search Console, chat transcripts and contact-centre reasons. Ask each one in Arabic and English, in search and in the main AI assistants. Record whether your site is cited and whether the answer matches your own policy.
What it asks of the platform. Google says its AI features need nothing beyond the fundamentals: pages it can crawl, important content in text, internal links, and structured data that matches the visible page. In SitecoreAI, that means content modelled as structured types, pages rendered on the server, and schema built into components once so every page carries it. It is where our AI visibility work starts.
2. The Arabic test
What the customer notices. The Arabic site is as complete, fast and current as the English one, and reads as if it was written in Arabic.
How to run it. Compare the two languages on page count, the lag between publishing in English and in Arabic, on-site search results, form completion and page speed. Then ask a native editor to review the 20 pages that matter most.
What it asks of the platform. A bilingual content model, right-to-left components built and tested once, and translation workflows that use your brand terms. SitecoreAI brand kits now include a glossary for custom translation, which keeps names and terms consistent across languages. More in our guide to Arabic-first Sitecore.
3. The recognition test
What the customer notices. A returning customer sees content that reflects what they already have or have just done, and is not asked again for what you already know.
How to run it. Walk five real customer types through your main journeys with test profiles. Note where the experience changes for them today, and where it should.
What it asks of the platform. SitecoreAI’s built-in personalization works on conditions such as time, date, device, geography, visits, referrer and point of sale. Context held in your CRM, such as the products a customer holds or an open service case, needs a deliberate connection. Consent comes first: Sitecore’s Cloud SDK sets no cookies by default, and Sitecore advises initializing it only once a visitor consents. See moving personalization from XP to SitecoreAI.
4. The handover test
What the customer notices. When they move from the website to a call, a chat or a WhatsApp message, the person or agent they reach already knows what they were doing.
How to run it. Run three handovers end to end: a web form to the contact centre, a website chat to a human agent, and an abandoned booking or application to a callback. Time how long it takes the agent to see the web context, if they see it at all.
What it asks of the platform. The web journey has to land in Salesforce as a case, lead or timeline event that an agent can act on, whether that agent is a person or Agentforce. Sitecore Connect, Sitecore’s integration workbench built on Workato, covers simpler flows, and MuleSoft suits estates with many systems. Design it as one service journey, owned jointly by the digital and service teams.
5. The change test
What the customer notices. Offers, travel advisories, regulatory notices and seasonal campaigns for Ramadan, National Day or summer travel go live on time, in both languages.
How to run it. Time one real change from brief to live in Arabic and English, and count the hand-offs and developer tickets along the way.
What it asks of the platform. Reusable components, workflows rebuilt for two languages, and an editor marketers can use on their own. Page builder becomes the supported editing experience in SitecoreAI from 1 January 2027, when Experience Editor is deprecated. Agents in Agentic Studio can draft and adapt pages, but by default they do not know your tone of voice or brand guidelines, so set up brand kits first and keep a person approving what goes live. Our Agentic Studio guide covers the controls.
Run each test three times
A test run once is a snapshot. Run at three points, it becomes the way the programme is judged.
| Test | Before the move | At go-live | Every quarter after |
|---|---|---|---|
| Answer | Top questions cited correctly, in each language | No question that passed at baseline now fails | Add new questions as services change |
| Arabic | Gaps and publishing lag between the languages | Parity on every migrated journey | Native review of a sample of pages |
| Recognition | Which journeys change, and for whom | Agreed rules live, with consent working | Keep the rules that move results and retire the rest |
| Handover | Time for an agent to see the web context | Context visible in Salesforce for agreed journeys | Review with the service team |
| Change | Brief-to-live time in two languages | Marketers publish standard pages unaided | Track it in the release rhythm |
What changes in the programme plan
- Write the five tests into the business case and the statement of work as acceptance criteria, next to the technical milestones.
- Capture your analytics baseline before cutover, because analytics data does not migrate.
- Order the migration waves by customer impact. Start with the journeys that carry the most traffic and the most service calls, in both languages.
- Put CRM, service and Arabic content owners on the programme board from the first week.
- Give each test an owner after go-live, and make the quarterly test report part of the managed services contract.
How much time you have
Mainstream support for Sitecore XP and XM 10.4 runs to the end of 2027, with extended support to the end of 2030, and Sitecore released XP 10.5 in August 2026. For most Gulf estates, that is enough time to baseline the tests, fix what can be fixed on the current site, and plan the move in waves. Programmes get into trouble when the rebuild starts before anyone has agreed what it is for.
An example from aviation
EgyptAir shows the scope these tests cover. In October 2026, Sitecore announced that EgyptAir had chosen SitecoreAI to power its entire digital front end, including the main website, country sites and app content, as part of a wider programme, led by Arcsen, that brings Salesforce CRM into the same integrated system. A journey like that touches all five tests, from the first question a traveller asks an AI assistant to the moment they contact the airline. Read the EgyptAir story.
Five questions to ask a Sitecore partner
- Will you run these five tests on our current site before we sign?
- Who reviews the Arabic experience, and are they native speakers?
- Will one team deliver both the Sitecore and the Salesforce side of the journey?
- Which tests become acceptance criteria in the statement of work?
- How will you report the tests after go-live, and who owns each one?
For the full list, see our Sitecore partner RFP checklist.
Frequently asked questions
What does not migrate to SitecoreAI?
Sitecore’s Pathway guidance lists workflow states, personalization rules, analytics data and custom modules or integrations as not migrated, and advises rebuilding them in SitecoreAI. Sitecore’s developer documentation also lists XP items such as xDB data and email marketing content.
How should we measure a SitecoreAI migration?
By what customers notice. Five tests cover it: whether search and AI assistants answer from your content, whether Arabic matches English, whether the site recognizes returning customers, whether context reaches service agents, and how fast your team can change what customers see. Baseline them before the move, use them as acceptance criteria at go-live, and report them every quarter.
Do we need Salesforce to get value from SitecoreAI?
No. The answer, Arabic and change tests depend on Sitecore alone. The recognition and handover tests need customer data from a CRM, and Arcsen delivers Salesforce and Sitecore under one roof.
How much time do we have before XP support ends?
Mainstream support for XP and XM 10.4 runs to the end of 2027, with extended support to the end of 2030, and XP 10.5 was released in August 2026. That is enough time to baseline the tests and plan the move in waves.
Can we run the tests on our current Sitecore site?
Yes. All five can be baselined on XP or XM today. Our free Sitecore Health Check scores performance, AI-search visibility, content operations, and personalization and data, which covers most of the baseline.
Planning your move to SitecoreAI? Start with a baseline. Our free Sitecore Health Check scores your current estate in ten working days, including AI-search visibility, content operations and personalization, and the report is yours to keep. Or talk to our Sitecore team.
Sources
- Sitecore: Move to SitecoreAI with Pathway
- Sitecore documentation: Migrate a site to SitecoreAI
- Sitecore: Ongoing commitment to XP (support dates)
- Sitecore: Experience Platform 10.5 release notes
- Google Search Central: AI features and your website
- Sitecore changelog: Brand kit glossary for custom translation
- Sitecore documentation: Personalize in SitecoreAI
- Sitecore documentation: Cloud SDK cookies and consent
- Sitecore documentation: Introduction to Sitecore Connect
- Sitecore changelog: Experience Editor deprecation from 1 January 2027
- Sitecore documentation: Working with Agentic Studio
