Pega CFO and COO Ken Stillwell on AI budgets: the biggest cost is AI doing routine, rules-based work

The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX · Oct 8, 2026 · 27m

Ken Stillwell, CFO and COO at Pega, says most enterprise AI business cases fund a label rather than a specific capability — and that the gap shows up later, on the P&L. He and Greg Kihlström get into what financial discipline around AI actually looks like.

"AI" is not a budget category. A rules engine, a predictive model, and a system that acts on its own carry different costs, risks, and payback periods. Stillwell on making teams say which one they're asking for.

The benefit gets modeled; the operational change doesn't. Where AI business cases reliably break down, and what tells you a case…