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#717: Understanding customers by simulating them first with Mike Taylor, Ask Rally
Is the most effective way to understand real human behavior to simulate it first? Agility requires a willingness to test ideas that sound strange at first—like…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#716: Streamlining brand partnerships with Alan Gould, Mutual Markets
What if building a brand partnership with a major entertainment property could happen in 5 minutes instead of 6 months—and drive 10x better results? What would…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#715: Increasing speed to insights with Sid Banerjee, Medallia
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…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#714: Keeping up with e-commerce evolution with Lena Moriarty, eTail and Worldwide Business Research
One thing is for certain: the world of e-commerce never sits still. But what should retailers be paying attention to now? Agility requires not only adapting to…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#713: Agentic AI that improves the customer experience, with Manisha Powar, Qualtrics
Agility requires more than just speed—it demands relevance and empathy, especially when AI is stepping in to play a bigger role in the customer experience…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#712: Compounding returns on your marketing campaigns with Chris O'Neill, GrowthLoop
If your marketing grew like a dividend-reinvestment plan, would you still let a quarterly target dictate every decision? Agility requires stacking returning…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#711: Making accessibility a priority with Make Paciello, AudioEye
The 35th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was July 26, so today's episode is a special one. Most companies obsess over SEO…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#710: Empowering Employees to Lead Meaningful Change from Within with Steven Malony, CEO of Belkin
How often do big, meaningful shifts inside a company actually start small? And more importantly, how do you avoid squashing them before they have a chance to…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#709: The state of CX and the value of hyperpersonalization with Adrian Swinscoe, Punk CX Podcast
Agility requires that brands have a fundamental understanding of why they’re doing things, and what customer expectations are, rather than chasing trends and…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#708: How commerce media is changing advertising with Eric Brackmann, Koddi
If you think commerce media is just a buzzword or a trend, think again. It’s reshaping the ad landscape—fueled by AI, first-party data, and sector-specific…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#707: Building ROI in the Creator Economy with Brit Starr, CreatorIQ
Agility requires marketing leaders to evolve from campaign-based thinking to relationship-based strategy—especially when working with creators who influence…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#706: Building more connected digital experiences with Eric Stine, CEO of Sitecore
If the web is no longer one-size-fits-all and instead geared towards segments of one, how do brands avoid creating a thousand disconnected experiences, and…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#705: What happens to your KPIs when both CLV and Customer Acquisition Costs rise? With Jamie Domenici, Klaviyo
Customer lifetime value is a critical KPI, but with customer acquisition costs rapidly rising, what can brands do to successfully build long-term value for the…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#704: Delivering personalization at scale with Yaniv Navot, Mastercard
With all the data at our fingertips, why do so many companies still struggle to deliver truly personalized experiences at scale? Agility requires being able to…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#703: How AI and Deep Learning is affecting advertising with Jaysen Gillespie, RTB House
Are we on the brink of advertising becoming too smart for its own good, or is Deep Learning finally getting us closer to what customers actually want? Agility…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#702: What it takes to keep customers loyal with Anna Convery, Verint
Does your brand deliver answers faster than your customer can send a text message? Agility in CX is about answering customers before they finish the thought…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#701: No-Code as a Strategic Weapon, with Aytekin Tank, Jotform
If your team spends half its days searching for documents and filling out spreadsheets you built years ago, how long will it be before your competitors…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#700: Winning and retaining the distracted consumer with Kelsey Chickering, Forrester
If your brand can’t hold a consumer’s focus for eight seconds, what makes you think you deserve nine? We are here at Forrester CX in Nashville, TN and hearing…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#699: Being real about synthetic personas with Narek Vandanyan, Prelaunch
Marketers spend a fortune trying to understand their audience, conducting surveys, focus groups, and market research—but what if they could just ask their…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#698: Staying customer-centric in the race to adopt agentic AI with Stephanie Liu, Forrester
We are here at Forrester CX in Nashville, TN and hearing all about the latest insights and ideas for brands to create better experiences for their customers…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#697: Building the total experience for customers with AJ Joplin, Forrester
Does your AI-based interface talk to customers the way a real person would or is it tech for tech’s sake? We are here at Forrester CX in Nashville, TN and…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#696: The network effect on CX of AI plus employees with Jay Pattisall, Forrester
If AI can amplify every employee’s reach ten-fold, how ready is your organization to harness that network effect? We are here at Forrester CX in Nashville, TN…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#695: Why Trust Is a Strategy, Not a Sentiment with Dana Bodine, Trustpilot
If nearly half of consumers spend more with brands they trust, why aren’t more companies making trust a core business strategy instead of just a tagline? To…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#694: What's your plan for Q5 this year, with Xavier de Baillenx from Ramdam
What if your most profitable campaign window isn’t Black Friday or Cyber Monday… but after the holidays, when everyone else is quiet? While most marketers are…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#693: Optimizing the post-click customer experience with Riikka Söderlund, Katana Cloud Inventory
What if your biggest customer experience problem isn’t your marketing… but your inventory spreadsheet? In the era of one-click checkouts, Prime delivery…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#692: The lifetime value of milliseconds in the customer experience with Jaxon Repp, Harper
Agility can often get framed as driving massive transformation—but sometimes it’s the milliseconds that matter. When every digital moment counts, small gains…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#691: Gaining agility and results with composable CMS, with Mark Wheeler from Storyblok
Is your CMS holding your creativity—and marketing growth—hostage? When speed and agility are everything, most marketing teams are still stuck in the slow…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#690: Focusing on long-term customer value using next best action with Tine Van Calster, Telenet
What if your most loyal customers are the ones you helped spend less? Agility in marketing isn't just about moving faster — it's about aligning brand…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#689: Building a culture of agility with Eugenie Lamprecht, Reka
Welcome to this episode, brought to you by Reka, a developer of industry-leading, multimodal, AI models that enable individuals and organizations to deploy…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#688: Building a Customer Brain and how it benefits customers and the business with Christian Nelissen, National Australia Bank
Agility at enterprise scale means building systems that not only make millions of micro-decisions, but also keep humans at the center — creating experiences…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#687: Customer Experience Design using Generative AI, with Tara DeZao, Pega
What if you could test drive your entire customer experience — before even writing a line of code? Agility isn’t just about reacting fast — it’s about thinking…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#686: Autonomous innovation using predictable AI agents with Peter van der Putten, Pega
What if your agentic AI could innovate autonomously—and still follow your business rules? Agility in the age of AI doesn't just mean speed. It means…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#685: Using AI in UX research, design, and testing with Jason Bowman, The Office of Experience
Agility requires finding ways to stay one step ahead of the competition, as well as in anticipating customers’ needs. So how does a brand maintain this speed…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#684: The founder of Reebok and CEO of Syntilay talk about AI-generated product design
When consumers can get AI-generated designs completely customized to their needs, what does this mean for the future of brands and the customer experience? I…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#683: Navigating the effect of AI on marketing jobs and the job market with Sue Keith, Landrum Talent Solutions
My guest today has been keeping us up to date with the current state of hiring for marketers on a quarterly basis, which has taken us on quite a roller coaster…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#682: Consequential AI and customer loyalty with Raj De Datta, CEO of Bloomreach
If brand loyalty is so critical, why does it feel like most companies are treating it like an afterthought by propping it up with outdated programs and hoping…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#681: Building a cohesive brand while personalizing every message with Emily Ward, Turnitin
With AI as an accelerant, marketing is evolving at a breakneck pace, and brands are being challenged to maintain authenticity while scaling globally. How do…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#680: Agile is about more than velocity, with Gabrielle Wieczorek
This show is brought to you by the Online Scrum Masters Summit, taking place virtually on June 17-19, with more information at…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#679: Growing a brand by focusing on the details that matter with Dominic Minogue, Dirty Water
There are a lot of great ideas for products and brands out there, but sometimes the difference between success and failure lies in getting the details right…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#678: AI gains emotional intelligence with Joshua Goldberg, Zenapse
Have you ever wondered why, despite having access to advanced AI tools, your marketing strategies still don’t hit the mark? Could it be that you’re focusing on…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#677: Why thought leadership is more important than ever with Benjamin Shapiro, host of the MarTech Podcast
If content rules, why does it feel like there are 100,000 royal families? In a world drowning in blog posts, videos, and AI-generated everything, content has…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#676: The consumer is no longer navigating the map—they are the map, with Ken Hughes, the King of CX
The consumer is no longer navigating the map—they are the map. Welcome to the era of the Blue Dot Consumer: always centered, always scrolling, and always…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#675: Being true to customers and your values with Phyllis Rothschild, CMO at Pete & Gerrys
Consumers today aren’t just buying products, or even experiences—they’re buying into values. As more people align their shopping habits with brands that…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#674: The continued evolution of e-commerce with Eitan Koter, Vimmi
With the rapid rise of shoppable video, AI-driven recommendations, and immersive technologies like AR and VR, are traditional e-commerce strategies becoming…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#673: Predictive and proactive customer experiences, with Vinod Muthukrishnan, Cisco
Customer expectations have skyrocketed—people now demand instant, personalized, and seamless interactions across every touchpoint. But are companies truly…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#672: What can we learn from teaching others about AI? Featuring Greg Shove, CEO of Section
AI is no longer just a tool—it’s reshaping business strategy, workforce morale, and even personal productivity. But are executives truly prepared to treat AI…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#671: Going national while staying true to your local roots with Jay Rushin, H&H Bagels
How do you take something that's iconically local and make it feel authentic—everywhere? That’s the challenge facing every regional brand trying to scale. When…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#670: Embracing Chaos to Get Better Results with Mark DeCarlo
We talk a lot about agility, and today, we’re going to talk about how lessons of agility can come from unexpected places - like the set of Seinfeld - where -…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#669: It's already time to start planning for the holiday shopping season with Carey Cockrum, Cella by Randstad Digital
Retailers are facing a rapidly evolving landscape where consumer expectations, AI advancements, and social media platforms like TikTok are redefining…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#668: The Five Levels of AI with Courtney Baker, Knownwell
As AI continues to evolve, how can marketing leaders ensure they’re staying ahead of the curve instead of simply keeping up with it? And how do you navigate…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#667: The Evolving Role of Visual Data in Construction with Marca Armstrong, Sensera
When you think of cameras in construction, do you see them as just security tools—or could they be the key to unlocking full jobsite intelligence? Joining us…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#666: Balancing AI-driven efficiency and responsibility with Pasquale DeMaio, Amazon Web Services
For many brands, AI is revolutionizing customer experience, but with increased adoption comes widespread concerns about job displacement, ethical risks, and…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#665: Developing strategies that cut through the omnichannel noise, with Arianna Vogel, Foursquare
With the increasingly complex omnichannel customer journey, it seems like attribution is getting harder than ever—do you know which of your marketing tactics…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#664: Tying CX outcomes to commercial goals with Markus Engel and Linzi Hindle at DHL
Recorded live at Medallia Experience in Las Vegas. Having a great customer experience is critical for many reasons, but some companies have had a hard time…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#663: AI in retail marketing with Uldis Baumerts, Bryj
As AI reshapes the retail advertising landscape, are you leveraging it as a competitive advantage, or are you at risk of being left behind in a data-driven…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#662: Making your returns strategy a competitive advantage with Katherine Lehman, ReturnBear
We are here at ShopTalk 2025 at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas and seeing and hearing all about the latest in retail, e-commerce, and more. How much are your…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#661: Creating a world-class student experience with Mike Milliron, IMG Academy
We are recording live at Qualtrics X4 in Salt Lake City and seeing and hearing all about how to create and enable amazing customer experiences. If the student…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#660: Enabling and accelerating customer experience improvements using AI with Isabelle Zdatny, Qualtrics
We are recording live at Qualtrics X4 in Salt Lake City and seeing and hearing all about how to create and enable amazing customer experiences. Today we’re…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#659: The current state of the job market with Sue Keith, Landrum Talent Solutions
This episode is brought to you by Landrum Talent Solutions, a national recruiting firm specializing in marketing and HR positions. We’ve talked about volatile…
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX#658: Winning retail by reducing customer frustration with Jean-Christophe Pitié, ContentSquare
We are here at ShopTalk 2025 at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas and seeing and hearing all about the latest in retail, e-commerce, and more. If customer…