The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström®: Expert Mode Marketing Technology, AI, & CX
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® is a podcast that explores expert-level marketing technology, AI, and customer experience. Each episode features insights from top brands and Martech platforms, focusing on strategies to build customer lifetime value and long-term business value. Host Greg Kihlström, a martech futurist and AI transformation advisor, discusses trends like AI adoption, first-party data, consumer privacy, and omnichannel CX. The show covers topics including brand strategy, content strategy, marketing operations, and advertising technology.
Episodes
Mavlers' Matt Kelly on Lifecycle Marketing in the AI Era
How many marketing leaders can confidently tell their CEO which specific AI use cases are actually driving revenue right now, and which ones are just running up the bill as experiments?Agility isn't just about adapting to new tech like AI. It's about building the solid data and operational models that let you connect those innovations directly to business growth.Today, we are here at CRMC 2026 in
Brillio's Kathleen Ulrich and Anuj Mathur on moving from personalization to agentic transformation
What if the future of marketing isn’t about creating better campaigns, but about designing intelligent agents that render campaigns obsolete?Agility requires not just adapting to new technologies, but fundamentally re-architecting our operating models to harness their potential. Today, we’re going to talk about the move from personalization to agentic experiences and what that means for enterprise
From CRMC: Phaedon's Jaclyn Wands on humanizing loyalty in an AI-driven world
As brands invest billions in AI to personalize the customer experience, are they inadvertently creating a more transactional, less human relationship with their most valuable customers?Agility requires not just the rapid adoption of AI-based solutions, but the wisdom to know when and how to apply them to enhance—without replacing—the human element of the customer relationship.Today, we're going to
Asana CMO Prachi Gore on realizing AI's true potential for marketing operations
What if the biggest risk of AI in marketing isn't about job replacement, but about creating more fragmented, siloed work?Agility requires more than just adopting new tools; it demands a fundamental rethinking of how teams collaborate and orchestrate work. When a technology like AI promises to accelerate individual tasks, true agility means ensuring that acceleration translates into collective mome
Vasion Chief Strategy Officer JD Carter on Building a responsive brand
To keep up in a changing market, are you building a responsive brand, or are you constantly playing catch-up?Agility requires more than just quick reactions; it demands a proactive understanding of evolving customer needs and emerging technologies. It also means building adaptable processes and systems that can flex with market demands.Today, we're going to talk about navigating the complexities
Mintegral's Phoena Pang on the new playbook for performance marketing
Is the relentless pursuit of measurable ROAS fundamentally at odds with building long-term customer trust in a privacy-first world?Agility requires marketers to move beyond legacy attribution models and embrace a more dynamic approach to measurement and monetization. This is especially true in the rapidly evolving mobile ecosystem, where the rules of engagement are constantly being rewritten.Today
Sitecore CMO Michelle BB on 25 years of marketing technology evolution plus what lies ahead
Twenty-five years ago, the goal was to build a website as a digital "single source of truth." In an era of AI agents and hyper-personalized realities, is the very concept of a single, universal brand "truth" now an obstacle to creating a truly relevant customer experience?Agility requires not just adopting new channels and technologies, but fundamentally rethinking the role of content and data in
Intuit Mailchimp's Head of Email Product discusses removing friction from martech
What's the hidden tax your organization pays every time a creative asset moves from a design tool to a marketing platform, and how can you shorten the time to gain important insights about how your campaigns perform?Agility requires more than just speed. It demands that we eliminate the friction between our systems and processes so teams can move from concept to customer with minimal translation e
Lean Startup author Eric Ries on building a brand for the long term
In an era of relentless pressure for quarterly growth, is it even possible for a large brand to stay true to its core mission, or is compromising a brand’s values just an inevitable part of achieving scale?Agility requires more than just reacting quickly to market changes. It requires a resilient, long-term mission that acts as a north star, ensuring that every pivot and experiment builds enduring
RGP Chief Strategy & Experience Officer Jennifer Jones on the human experience of digital transformation
What if the biggest obstacle to delivering a world-class customer experience isn't your technology or your strategy, but the very way your teams are structured and enabled to work?Agility requires creating an internal environment that can fluidly adapt to—and even anticipate—the needs of the external customer.Today, we're going to talk about: the often-overlooked foundation of successful business
Resident Expert: Bill Staikos on the CX landscape in 2026
As a leader, you often spend so much time on the strategies and tactics that keep your brand growing that it’s difficult to keep up with what’s going on in the background with the platforms and the companies behind them.That’s why I’m always glad to talk with our guest today, who is both focused on the business of CX as well as the business behind CX and the SaaS platforms driving so many customer
University of Phoenix Chief Strategy Officer Ruth Veloria on higher education and the workforce of the future
With the half-life of professional skills shrinking every year, is the traditional model of corporate learning and development fundamentally broken, and what role should employers play in the new era of continuous education?Agility requires a workforce that can adapt and acquire new skills as quickly as the market changes. This means the old models of education and professional development must be
MarketingOps CEO Mike Rizzo on Marketing Operations as a strategic driver of growth
Most leaders see Marketing Ops as the team that keeps the trains running on time, essentially the plumbers of the marketing department. But what if I told you they’re actually positioned to be the architects of your company’s most durable competitive advantage?Agility requires moving beyond the transactional nature of campaigns and technology. It demands building a durable, responsive ecosystem ar
Tealium's Zack Wenthe on the hidden challenge of AI-driven commerce
As you race to adopt AI-powered shopping experiences, are you creating a new data black box that will make your customer journey less understood, not more?Agility requires not just the speed to adopt new channels like generative AI, but the foresight to ensure these new touchpoints don't become blind spots in your customer journey. It demands that our data strategy evolves as quickly as our custom
#856: CRMC Keynote Speaker Kaihan Krippendorff on making sure your brand is a disruptor not disrupted
When you look at your five-year strategic plan, how much of it is dedicated to defending your current market share versus actively making it obsolete?Agility requires more than just reacting quickly to market shifts; it demands the foresight and structure to initiate those shifts yourself.This episode is brought to by CRMC. Drive your customers to new horizons at the premier retail event of the ye
#855: Fullstory President Jason Wolf on moving from observation to actively assisting digital customers
What's the bigger blind spot for most brands’ digital experience: knowing that a customer is struggling, or understanding why and being able to help them in that exact moment? Agility requires not just identifying customer friction quickly, but having the tools to resolve it in the moment. It’s about shortening the gap between insight and action to create better experiences, faster.Today, we're go
#854: PGA TOUR's Zach Carlson on creating an amazing fan experience
In an era dominated by high-definition home entertainment and endless digital distractions, what does it take to convince a fan that a live, in-person experience is not just worth their time and money, but is something they can't afford to miss?Agility requires not just having a plan, but building a system to listen and respond to your audience in real time. It’s about turning feedback from a retr
#853: Sköna CEO Jenny Sagström on design consistency in high-growth brands
In the race for B2B growth, we often prioritize speed over everything else. But what's the real cost when your brand starts to look like a collection of spare parts cobbled together by different teams?Agility requires a strong, foundational framework to enable speed without sacrificing coherence. It's about empowering teams to move quickly and independently, while still ensuring every customer tou
#852: Zoom Room CEO Mark Van Wye on agile dogs and agile brands
What if your most visible, most exciting product wasn't your real product at all, but was actually a Trojan horse for building a much deeper, stickier customer relationship?Agility requires more than just a willingness to change; it demands a deep understanding of what truly motivates your customer, allowing you to evolve your model in service of their emotional outcomes, not just their transactio
#851: CRMC Keynote Speaker David Avrin on customer loyalty and being easy to do business with
What if the key to customer loyalty isn't about creating memorable, delightful moments, but about being utterly forgettable in the best possible way?Agility requires more than just rapid campaign execution; it demands a deep-seated ability to re-evaluate and re-engineer core processes in response to shifting customer expectations.Today, we're going to talk about the powerful, and perhaps counterin
#850: Newell VP of E-commerce Tambi Younes on expanding the operational limits of ecommerce capabilities
What's the real cost of only having the bandwidth to focus on your top-performing products?Agility requires systems and processes that not only respond to change but also proactively manage complexity across an entire portfolio. It’s about creating the capacity to act on every opportunity, not just the most obvious ones.Today, we're going to talk about a critical breaking point for large consumer
#849: Siteimprove CEO Nayaki Nayyar on what it means to take a holistic view of digital experience
In the rush to implement AI across the customer experience, are we at risk of creating more digital barriers than we're breaking down?Agility requires a holistic view of the entire digital experience. It's the ability to see not just how individual channels are performing, but how they work together to serve every potential customer, inclusively and intelligently.Today, we're going to talk about w
#848: CRMC Keynote Speaker Paul Epstein on building deep connections for greater customer loyalty
What if your brand’s success wasn't dependent on a winning product or favorable market conditions, but on your ability to connect with customers on a human level, one story at a time?Agility requires moving beyond a reliance on market trends or product performance as the primary drivers of success. It demands a deeper, more resilient connection with customers, built on understanding their individu
#847: Acquia CMO Jennifer Griffin Smith on MarTech that delivers beyond the hype
Now that AI can generate endless content, what is the true strategic value of a human-led content strategy?Agility requires more than just adopting the latest tools; it demands a foundational strategy that allows you to integrate new capabilities without disrupting the core customer experience. This means being able to distinguish between a promising innovation and a distraction.Today, we're going
#846: Red Points' Daniel Shapiro on brand protection in a deepfake world
In an age of AI-powered deepfakes and sophisticated counterfeits, is your brand's core identity becoming more of a liability than an asset online?Agility requires moving beyond just building a brand to actively and continuously protecting its integrity in a digital landscape where threats evolve at the speed of AI. This isn't just a defensive tactic; it's a core component of maintaining customer t
#845: Bright Data Chief Product Officer Ariel Shulman on why access to real-time web data is critical in the age of autonomous AI
We talk endlessly about the power of AI models, but what happens when the public web data they rely on is incomplete, outdated, or just plain wrong?Agility requires not just reacting to market changes, but anticipating them by having a clear, real-time view of the world. This means having the infrastructure to see the digital landscape as it truly is, not just how it's presented in curated reports
#844: adMarketplace's John Nitti on GEO and the future of paid search
For over two decades now, many marketers have built their careers on mastering Google and paid search. What if the playbook you spent your entire career perfecting is about to become obsolete?Agility requires not just adapting to new technologies, but a willingness to fundamentally question and reimagine the foundational channels you've built your business on. It demands that we look beyond increm
#843: Pega's Matt Healy on the hidden costs of outdated technology
What if the biggest obstacle to your AI strategy isn't the algorithm, but the 20-year-old software your team is forced to use every day?Agility requires not just a willingness to adopt new strategies like AI, but also the courage to dismantle the legacy systems that hold your people and processes captive.Today, we're going to talk about the hidden costs of outdated technology. While many leaders a
#842: Braze Chief Product Officer Kevin Wang on how AI has forever changed product development
With AI promising to accelerate everything, is the most important role for a leader now to be the one who knows when to hit the brakes?Agility requires a balance between the rapid adoption of new technologies and the strategic wisdom to know which ones will actually deliver customer value. It's less about moving fast and more about moving in the right direction.Today, we're going to talk about how
#841: NiCE CMO Michelle Cooper on the most common mistake brands make with AI and CX
We've all been sold the dream of AI transforming the customer experience, but what if the most common approach is actually making it worse?Agility requires more than just implementing new technology; it demands a deep understanding of the human interactions that technology is meant to support. It’s about adapting your tools and processes to enhance human judgment, not just automate it.Today, we're
#840: Adobe's Hannah Elsakr on what happens after the hype: operationalizing AI at enterprise scale
Is generative AI on track to become the biggest productivity unlock for marketers since the internet, or will it forever be stuck in endless pilot projects and one-off experiments?Agility requires moving beyond isolated experiments and embracing the systemic redesign of core creative and marketing workflows. It's about building the operational muscle to not just adopt new technology, but to integr
#839: Medallia's Courtney Shealy on moving contact centers from cost center to strategic asset
What if your company’s most valuable source of competitive intelligence and brand insight isn’t a market research report, but your contact center?Agility requires more than just reacting to customer issues; it demands the ability to listen, understand, and act on the collective voice of the customer to proactively shape the business. This means transforming points of friction into opportunities fo
#838: BrandShield CEO Yoav Keren on the dark side of digital engagement
What if your biggest competitor this holiday season isn't another brand, but an army of AI-powered scammers stealing your customers and destroying your brand equity before you even know they exist?Agility requires not only building a brand that can pivot with market trends, but also one that can defend its value and customer trust against threats that evolve just as quickly.Today, we're going to t
#837: Domo Chief Design Officer Chris Willis on what to do about the trust deficit in enterprise AI
Imagine your biggest AI-powered marketing decision is challenged by your CEO or legal team. Could you, right now, defend both the outcome as well as how the AI arrived at that conclusion?Agility requires more than just speed; it demands the confidence to act on insights decisively. That confidence is impossible if the tools making the recommendations operate like an unexplainable black box.Today,
Balancing marketing at a global scale with cultural intelligence with Katherine Melchior Ray
As AI makes it easier than ever to reach a global audience, is it also making it easier to fail on a global scale?Agility requires more than just speed; it requires situational awareness. For global brands, this means having the cultural intelligence to understand the nuances of local markets and adapt your strategy in a way that builds trust, not erodes it.Today, we're going to talk about a criti
#835: Qualtrics' Jordan Harper on using synthetic panels to get real insight
What if the most honest and insightful feedback you could get about your customers didn't come from an actual customer at all?Agility requires not just the ability to pivot quickly, but the foresight to know *which way* to turn. That foresight is built on a foundation of deep, unbiased insights, which are becoming increasingly difficult to get through traditional means.We are in Seattle at the Qua
#834: Encore CEO Michael Gants on the importance of the paywall experience
What if the most expensive moment in your customer acquisition funnel is also your most ignored opportunity?Agility requires seeing a user’s “no” not as a final endpoint, but as a data point that signals a need for a different path. It demands that we pivot in real-time to offer alternative forms of value, rather than simply writing off the investment and the relationship.Today, we're going to tal
#833: Qualtrics' Ali Henriques on accelerating the speed to insights with synthetic research
What if the biggest risk to your next global campaign isn’t the market, but the months you’ll spend waiting for research to tell you what the market wants?Agility requires not just moving quickly, but making high-confidence decisions at the speed of the market. It demands that our ability to learn and validate is no longer the primary bottleneck to our ability to act.We are in Seattle at the Qualt
#832: Akeneo CEO Romain Fouache on building and maintaining trust while scaling up AI adoption
What if the biggest risk in the AI era isn't falling behind the technology, but getting ahead of your customers' trust?Agility requires a constant feedback loop between technological innovation and customer sentiment. It demands that we not only deploy new tools like AI, but also actively listen and adapt to how our customers are actually experiencing them.Today, we're going to talk about the deli
#831: CSG's Megan Lukitsch on radical simplicity in CX
What if the ultimate goal of customer experience isn't to create a memorable moment, but to deliver an outcome so seamless and intuitive that the customer doesn't remember the experience at all?Agility requires brands to pivot from building complex, memorable journeys to engineering simple, almost invisible pathways to customer outcomes.Today, we're going to talk about a counterintuitive but power
#830: Design Systems + Systems Thinking: How to Build a Design Language Your Whole Organization Can Actually Use
If your brand guide is a book of laws that everyone ignores, how do you create a shared belief that people both follow and actually want to embrace?Agility requires a shared understanding that’s more than a set of rules; it's a way of thinking that allows teams to make consistent decisions, even when they’re not in the same room.Today, we're going to talk about Design Systems and Systems Thinking,
#829: ActiveCampaign CEO Jason VandeBoom on AI as foundation versus feature
If you had to start your business over from scratch today, would you build it the same way, or would you build it entirely around an AI core?Agility requires more than just adapting to change; it demands a willingness to proactively dismantle what's working today in order to build what's necessary for tomorrow. It’s about challenging the very playbook that brought you success, especially when a fu
#828: From eTail: Building a long-term creator strategy with Wendy Wildfeuer from Motom
In a world of fleeting social trends, how do you build a creator strategy that drives measurable, long-term revenue instead of just chasing momentary spikes in engagement?Agility requires not just launching campaigns, but building systems that can learn and adapt in real-time based on actual consumer behavior and sales data.Today, we're going to talk about the evolution from influencer marketing t
#827: From eTail: Attentive CMO Keri McGhee on getting past AI hype to make the right strategic investments
We’re all being told to "embrace AI or be left behind," but what if the biggest risk isn't ignoring AI, but implementing it poorly and alienating the very customers we're trying to attract?Agility requires not just the speed to adopt new technologies like AI, but the wisdom to discern where they create genuine value versus where they simply add complexity. It’s about constantly testing, learning,
#826: From eTail: RTB House's Jaysen Gillespie on performance marketing in an era of signal loss and consumer uncertainty
WIth consumers increasingly skeptical of advertising, what's the real difference between a brand that's being genuinely helpful and one that's just being creepy?Agility requires brands to not just react to consumer behavior, but to anticipate it with smarter technology. It’s about shifting from broad assumptions to a nuanced understanding of intent, especially when economic uncertainty changes the
#825: From eTail: Zeta Global Chief Growth Officer Ed See on the expanding (and more demanding) role of the CMO
As a marketing leader, is your primary job to persuade human customers, or are you now preparing to negotiate directly with their AI agents?Agility requires marketing leaders to not only react to market changes, but to become the primary architects of that change within the enterprise. It’s about transforming the marketing function from a cost center into the accountable growth engine for the enti
#824: From eTail: Furniture.com CMO Dan Bennett on how to win the high-consideration purchase
What if the biggest friction point in your customer's journey isn't your checkout page, but the overwhelming paradox of choice you’ve intentionally created for them?Agility requires not just reacting to consumer behavior, but proactively re-architecting the entire purchase journey based on what the data tells you they *truly* need, even before they know it themselves.Today, we are here at eTail Pa
#823: Hostinger CEO Daugirdas Jankus on scaling from a local player to a global force
Agility requires a business to both react to market shifts while also building a foundational platform that allows it to scale globally without losing its local touch. It's about having the core infrastructure in place to seize opportunity, wherever it appears.Today, we're going to talk about the principles of scaling a business from a local player to a global force. We'll explore how the role of
#822: From eTail: NoFraud Head of CX Breanna Moreno on customer loyalty, post-purchase abuse, and the moments after a sale
Most brands are investing millions in creating seamless, generous customer experiences. But what if a small fraction of your customers are exploiting that generosity, forcing your best, most loyal customers to unknowingly pay an 'abuse tax' through higher prices or stricter policies?Agility requires moving beyond static, one-size-fits-all policies and embedding real-time intelligence into the mome
#821: From eTail: CommerceIQ's Himanshu Jain and Bill Schneider on delaying the gap between strategy and execution
What if the biggest bottleneck in your commerce strategy isn't the strategy itself, but the time it takes your team to actually perform the actions to execute it?Agility requires not just having the right insights, but also the operational capacity to act on them at the speed the market demands.Today, we're going to talk about a critical bottleneck many brands face: the delay between data-driven i
#820: From eTail: Stitch Fix's Noah Zamansky on bringing back the fun of shopping and integrating agentic AI into retail
Consumers aren’t lacking for choice. Instead, they’re usually drowning in a sea of options, and it’s up to brands to find ways to go beyond simply removing friction and bring back the joy in shopping. Adding AI, and agentic AI into the mix can unlock new opportunities, but also brings with it new challenges. We’re going to talk a little about all of it.We are recording here at eTail Palm Springs,
#819: Recurrent CEO Andrew Perlman on the role of traditional media companies when there are 1.1 billion active content creators
With over a billion creators projected to be active in the next decade, is the traditional distinction between a brand, a publisher, and a creator in need of an updated definition?Agility requires not just reacting to new platforms, but fundamentally rethinking who creates your content and how you build an authentic community around it. It's about moving from a campaign mindset to an ecosystem min
#818: Informatica's CMO Jim Kruger on data as the foundation for innovation
What if the biggest barrier to your AI-powered future isn't the algorithm, but the state of your data from five years ago?Agility requires more than just fast decision-making; it demands a foundational trust in the data that fuels those decisions. It’s about having the right information, accessible and reliable, to pivot not just your campaigns, but your entire strategy.Today, we're going to talk
#817: Canva's Emma Robinson on the power of visual communication in B2B marketing
With B2B marketers drowning in data and automation, have we forgotten that our buyers are still human beings who are moved more by compelling visuals than by another line on a spreadsheet?Agility requires not just the speed to react, but the insight to know what to react with. It demands a seamless connection between creative ideation and performance data, allowing teams to not only launch campaig
#816: Shipt's Courtney Owumi on achieving and demonstrating CX ROI
What if your most persistent customer complaint wasn't a flaw to be fixed, but a key that could unlock an entirely new business model?Agility requires not just the ability to pivot, but the organizational courage to act on customer insights—even when those insights challenge your most fundamental business assumptions. It’s about being willing to dismantle something that works in order to build som
#815: CIBC's Stephanie Leheta on moving from silos to enterprise scale CX
What happens when you tie a quarter of every employee’s variable compensation not to sales targets, but to customer experience metrics?Agility requires more than just speed; it demands a shared purpose that translates into a unified system for listening, learning, and acting at an enterprise scale. It's about connecting every function of the business to the client's reality in real-time.Today, we
#814: United Rentals' Alyse Fuller on driving real impact without being overwhelmed by data
What if one of your most valuable CX analysts isn't even a person?Agility requires not just collecting data, but closing the gap between insight and action at scale. This means empowering every level of the organization, from the frontline to the C-suite, with the right information at the right time to make smarter, faster decisions.Today, we're going to talk about moving beyond the score. We'll e
#813: Big Game Ads Recap: Zappi CMO Nataly Kelly shares the winners and losing advertisers
Did your brand just spend $7 million on a 30-second ad that alienated or ignored half its potential audience?Agility requires a willingness to challenge long-held assumptions—like the idea that a celebrity and a massive budget are all you need for a winning Super Bowl ad. It demands that brands move from gut feelings to data-driven insights to understand what truly resonates with their audience.To
#812: Capillary Technolgies' Jim Sturm on customer loyalty as enterprise strategy
In a world without third-party cookies, is your customer loyalty program your most valuable asset, or your biggest missed opportunity?Agility requires a fundamental shift from viewing loyalty as a transactional rewards program to embracing it as a dynamic, data-driven engine for the entire customer experience. It demands that brands are able to listen, predict, and adapt to customer needs in real
#811: Sesimi CEO Andy Baker on connecting marketing strategy with frontline execution
Is your brand's biggest vulnerability a traditional competitor, or your organization’s inability to execute your strategy consistently across every single customer touchpoint?Agility requires more than just a fast-moving central team. It requires creating a resilient system that empowers distributed teams to execute flawlessly while adapting to local needs.Today, we're going to talk about that cri
#810: Bynder's Luke Roberts on brand and content governance in a 1:1 omnichannel world
What if the biggest threat to your brand’s integrity isn't a competitor, but the sheer volume of unmanaged, ungoverned, and untraceable content your own teams are creating every single day?Agility requires more than just speed; it demands a solid foundation of control and intelligence. It's the ability to create, adapt, and deploy content at the pace of the market without sacrificing governance, c
#809: Jacquard Chief Product & Growth Officer Toby Coulthard on sounding verifiably human in an AI world
As every brand rushes to adopt generative AI, what if the greatest competitive advantage is no longer about speed and scale, but about sounding uniquely, verifiably human?Agility requires moving beyond the hype of new technology to strategically apply it for true differentiation. It’s about being smart and selective, not just fast.Today, we're going to talk about a paradox at the heart of modern m
#808: Resident Expert: Bill Staikos on the market activity in 2025 MarTech & CX platforms and what 2026 will bring
As a marketing leader, you often spend so much time on the strategies and tactics that keep your brand growing that it’s difficult to keep up with what’s going on in the background with the platforms and the companies behind them.While agility requires a flexible technology stack, it also requires a leadership mindset that can distinguish market noise from genuine strategic opportunity, and filter
#807: AI21 Labs CMO Sharon Argov on navigating promise vs. reality with AI adoption
With every board member and CEO demanding a generative AI strategy yesterday, how much of the conversation is about creating real business value versus simply not being left behind?Agility requires more than just speed; it demands a fundamental shift in how we approach problem-solving and storytelling, especially when a technology like AI re-writes the rulebook.Today, we're going to talk about the
#806: NiCE Cognigy VP of Marketing Alan Ranger on agentic customer service
We've spent years trying to make our chatbots sound more human, which is great. But what if the larger goal should have also been to make them as useful as possible while we’re at it?Agility requires more than just adopting the latest technology; it demands a fundamental rethinking of customer engagement, moving from reactive responses to proactive problem-solving.Today, we're going to talk about
#805: Omnissa CMO Renu Upadhyay on balancing AI innovation with org chart disruption
What if the biggest risk to your marketing AI strategy isn't the technology itself, but the org chart it's fracturing?Agility requires more than just speed; it demands a framework of trust and collaboration. When it comes to AI, this means your ability to innovate is directly tied to your ability to partner effectively across the organization, especially with IT and security.Today, we're going to
#804: GenLayer CEO Albert Castellana on AI's accountability gap
When an AI agent makes a decision that costs your company millions in a lawsuit, who do you fire?Agility requires both the speed to adopt new technologies like AI agents, as well as the foresight to build the guardrails that prevent that speed from driving your brand off a cliff.Today, we're going to talk about the hidden crisis brewing behind the AI revolution: the accountability gap. As companie
#803: Apollo.io CMO Marcio Arnecke on agentic Go-To-Market approaches
For years, we've heard about AI transforming software development. But what if that same level of agentic, AI-driven collaboration could be applied not just to writing code, but to writing your entire go-to-market playbook?Agility requires that your go-to-market teams operate at the speed of insight, not at the speed of manual data entry and fragmented workflows. This means empowering them with to
#802: eTail's Lena Moriarty on e-commerce in the year ahead
What happens when your best customer is no longer a person, but an AI agent acting on their behalf?Agility requires not just adapting to new technologies, but fundamentally rethinking the customer journey when those technologies change the very definition of a customer. It demands a proactive stance on what’s next, rather than a reactive one.Today, we're going to talk about the seismic shifts happ
#801: Brandlight CEO Imri Marcus on GEO, AI browsers, and the new search experience
For the last two decades, marketers have lived by the decisions one company has made and the experience customers have with that company’s search bar (and in many cases, browser). But what happens when Google is dethroned by an AI?Agility requires not just adapting to new channels, but fundamentally rethinking the entire customer discovery journey when the rules are rewritten overnight. It’s about
#800: Five9 VP of CX Jenn Edwards on building great customer experience when behavior shifts
When 62% of your customers are making decisions based on deals and discounts, is investing in premium customer experience a luxury you can still afford, or is it the only thing that can actually save you?Agility requires brands to move beyond seasonal planning and into a state of continuous listening. It’s about having the insight and infrastructure to pivot your customer experience strategy in re
#799: ISM President Dave Simon on maximizing retail media network investments
Retail Media Networks are generating billions of dollars, but not all brands benefiting from them equally.Agility requires more than just shifting budgets to the newest channel; it demands a fundamental rethinking of how internal teams collaborate and how technology is applied to the unique environment of retail.Today, we're going to talk about the nuanced reality of Retail Media Networks. They re
#798: Phill Agnew of the Nudge Podcast on the psychology of successful marketing and CX
In a world obsessed with Martech optimization and AI, is the most overlooked competitive advantage simply understanding how the human brain actually works?Agility requires more than just adapting to new technologies; it requires a deep, empathetic understanding of the timeless human behaviors that drive customer decisions.Today, we're going to talk about the intersection of marketing and human psy
#797: Vitam CMO Lisa Avvocato on AI's Growing Role from Search to Transaction
With AI like ChatGPT now handling the customer journey from search to potentially the entire transaction, are we about to witness the end of the brand website as the primary point of conversion?Agility requires not just reacting to new technologies like AI, but proactively redesigning the core operating model of the marketing organization. It demands a shift from mastering a set of fixed channels
#796: Shutterstock's Allison Sitzman on how to counter the marketing impact gap
What if I told you that for every new dollar you’ve added to your marketing budget in the last two years, your actual impact on customers has gone down?Agility requires moving beyond the muscle memory of simply increasing ad spend. It demands a continuous reassessment of what truly connects with customers and a willingness to pivot creative strategy based on real-time cultural and emotional insigh
#795: Resident Expert: Novi CEO Kimberly Shenk on how agentic AI changes buyer's journey
This episode is brought to you by Novi. Novi is the infrastructure powering brand growth in AI commerce. By connecting brands, certification bodies, and major retailers, Novi ensures verified product data is accurate, consistent, and surfaced where shoppers and AI models search, turning credibility into authority, visibility, and conversion. Learn more at noviconnect.com As we look ahead to the ne
#794: LiveRamp CMO Jessica Shapiro on building brand trust while automating at scale
With AI poised to generate nearly infinite content, personalization, and experiences, is the single most important thing marketers should be focused on actually something that can’t be automated at all?Agility requires not just adopting new technologies, but knowing when and how to double down on timeless human principles. It’s about integrating the power of AI without losing the soul of the brand
#793: PAN Communications CMO Mark Nardone on 2026 predictions and staying ahead of GEO
What if the foundation of your digital strategy, your corporate website, is becoming less important than the conversations happening about your brand in places you don't control?Agility requires a fundamental shift in mindset, moving beyond just broadcasting your message on owned channels to actively shaping the narrative across an entire ecosystem you don't fully control.Today, we're going to tal
#792: Replay: Increasing speed to insights with Sid Banerjee, Medallia
As the year wraps up, we are replaying some of our favorite conversations from 2025, including this one!What could your CX teams do to strategically move your brand forward if they weren’t tethered to dashboards?Agility requires CX teams to move beyond reactive reporting and embrace proactive insight delivery. In an era where insights are instantly available through conversational AI, the strateg
#791: Replay: Lovesac CEO Shawn D. Nelson on building a resilient brand in an uncertain world
As the year wraps up, we are replaying some of our favorite conversations from 2025, including this one!What if bankruptcy, a global financial crisis, and other hurdles along the way aren’t the end of your brand, but instead a way to help you define what it truly is?Agility requires a willingness to experiment and adapt, not just in your technology stack, but also in your organizational structure
