Shows / The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX
Marketing technology, AI, and customer experience, explained by the people building it. Three times a week, Greg Kihlström interviews CMOs, product leaders, and martech executives from platform companies like Adobe, Braze, Qualtrics, Salesforce, and Optimizely, and brands like Marriott, Georgia-Pacific, Nestlé, and Zoom about what is actually working inside enterprise marketing organizations.
Each episode runs 20–30 minutes: one guest, one specific problem, no filler. Recent conversations cover…
Episodes
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#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…
- The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX
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…
- The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX
#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…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#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…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#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?…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#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…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#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…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#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…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#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…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#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…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#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…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#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…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#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…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#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…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#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…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#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…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#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…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#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…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#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…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#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…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#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…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#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…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#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…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#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…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#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…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#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…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#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…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#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…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#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…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#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…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#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…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#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…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#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…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#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…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#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…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#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…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#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…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#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…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#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 Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#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?…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#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…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#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?…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#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…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#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…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#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…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#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…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#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…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#790: Replay: Building stronger customer relationships using AI with Noah Zamansky, Stitch Fix
As the year wraps up, we are replaying some of our favorite conversations from 2025, including this one! AI can create immersive, human-centric experiences…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#789: Replay: What happens to your KPIs when both CLV and Customer Acquisition Costs rise? With Jamie Domenici, Klaviyo
As the year wraps up, we are replaying some of our favorite conversations from 2025, including this one! Customer lifetime value is a critical KPI, but with…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#788: Year-end review with Greg Kihlström, The Agile Brand
In this episode I’m going to do something a little different. As we wind down for the year, we’re going to be running some of our favorites from 2025 until the…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#787: Tray.ai's Stephen Stouffer on AI adoption and why marketers should care about the integration layer
Why are so many companies spending billions on AI, only to see their most ambitious projects stall out before they ever impact the customer experience? Agility…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#786: Thrad CEO Andrea Tortella on advertising in your conversational AI
What if the most valuable part of your next conversation with an AI wasn't the answer it gave, but the ad it served? Agility requires more than just adopting…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#785: Avaya CTO David Funck on building persistent memory of the customer with AI
What if every AI interaction with a customer built upon the last, instead of starting from scratch every single time, or at least having it feel that way?…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#784: Monday.com Global Creative Director Robbie Ferrara on clarifying the benefits of AI
What if the biggest risk in deploying AI isn't the technology itself, but how your team is able to understand its most significant benefits? Agility requires…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#783: Typeface CMO Jason Ing on the paradox of hyper personalization and brand consistency
What happens when your brand has a million different voices speaking to a million different customers? Is that the pinnacle of personalization, or is it just…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#782: Salesforce Marketing Cloud CMO Bobby Jania on the end of "Do Not Reply" marketing
What if the most damaging phrase in your marketing isn't a four-letter word, but three simple ones: "Do Not Reply"? Agility requires more than just moving…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#781: CommerceIQ CMO Sai Koppala on retailer resilience through intelligent operations
What if the biggest threat to your brand’s profitability isn’t the next tariff or supply chain disruption, but an outdated playbook that forces you to choose…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#780: Third-party partner experience and security with Haider Iqbal, Thales
What if the biggest threat to your brand’s agility and security isn't a competitor, but the welcome mat you lay out for your own partners? Agility requires not…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#779: Denodo CMO Ravi Shankar on why good data is critical to AI success
What if the multi-million dollar AI initiative you're championing is being silently sabotaged, not by a competitor, but by your own data infrastructure?…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#778: Intuit Mailchimp's Diana Williams on moving from fragmentation to holiday sales success
During the chaos of the holiday season, is it possible for small retailers to turn their fragmented customer data into a perfectly timed, personalized…