The State of AI - Fall '23
A year after ChatGPT’s release, the tech world has changed drastically. What are the biggest surprises we've seen this year, and what are Kraig and Emma's predictions as we head into 2024?
Hi everyone and welcome to our fall 23 pipeline summit. My name is Mora Rivera
and the CMO here
at Qualified and we have a really great show planned for you today. So thank
you for taking the time
to join us. This is a special edition of pipeline summit because today we're
going to be focusing
on all things AI. We're nearing the one year anniversary of when chat GPT took
the market by
storm and generative AI capabilities are putting the hands of nearly everybody.
So we thought what
better time to get together and talk about how it's helping us as revenue
leaders and how we can
embrace AI to move the needle from a pipe gen perspective. So it's been a crazy
year. I think
we can all agree we've seen some really truly innovative technology emerge and
we're really
lucky because today we have some of those products represented in our speaker
lineup. We have a great
great group of speakers and thought leaders joining us today. We're going to
hear from leaders all
over the tech space including leaders from brands who have been doing AI for
far more than a year
with thought leaders from companies like GitLab and Workday. It's going to be
incredible.
So we're going to start the day with our state of AI segment. This is where we
look back on this
past year and we make our predictions for where AI is going in 2024. Then we're
going to sit down
for our CMO round table segment. So we're going to be talking with marketing
leaders about how
they're thinking about integrating AI into their MARTech stack where it's
helping them from an
efficiency standpoint and how they're thinking about budget and strategic
planning from an AI
perspective as we go into 2024. After that, we have a great conversation about
how much
alignment between marketing and engineering has had to happen this past year.
There's been such
an influx of innovation and these are two teams who have had to be closer than
ever before and how
do you forge that relationship? Then we're going to go into one of our favorite
segments which is
pipeline power hour. So we have two tracks for pipeline power hour today. We
have a sales track
in a marketing track and we're going to have 10 different speakers talk about
how AI has impacted
their world and how they're using it to be a better seller and a better market
er. Then we're
going to come back together and we're going to have a really fantastic
discussion called the
revenues leaders guide to trust and safety in AI. Now we're going to have two
experts in tech
policy and regulation come together and help us identify where we need to be
most careful when
it comes to the development and marketing of our AI products. And then we're
going to end the day
with one of our new shows that we've launched this past quarter which is GTM AI
and we're going to
look at how different AI technologies work and how you can use them together in
your go-to-market
motion to be more efficient and grow pipeline faster. And this is a segment
where we really look
under the hood and we look at real product demos and what AI products have come
to market.
So you don't want to miss that segment. It's going to be a great couple of
hours together.
Thank you so much for joining. Please hop in the chat, engage with each other.
It's going to be
a really fun show and let us know what you're most excited to hear about today.
See you soon.
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Welcome everyone to Pipeline Summit Fall 23. I'm Craig Swenzer, founder and CEO
of Qualified.
And today in the studio I'm joined by a very special guest Emma Cholwin, the C
MO of Workday.
Welcome to Pipeline Summit, Emma. Thank you so much for inviting me. It's my
pleasure.
Well, we share a background in terms of marketing executive leadership at Sales
force. I was there
for seven years and you were there for nine. Obviously, a lot of experience in
marketing
enterprise software. But you have just made this job to be the CMO of Workday
in just the last four
or five months. So we're going through a crazy period of time. It is incredibly
different,
difficult to market and sell enterprise software right now. What have the last
four months been
like for you? Well, I'm lucky in the fact that it's been challenging times for
many, but at work
day we've seen continued momentum and growth just because of the relevancy of
where we are right now
in the market. And we've seen exponential growth, especially out in the regions
in Amia. So there's
never been a more relevant time for Workday, especially in challenging times
when there's
economic pressure, how you manage your people and your money is really critical
. So, you know,
it's a like kind of in a very privileged position right now. You are. In fact,
the system of record
for human resources, the system of record for financials and more and 18,000
employees you guys
have had just an absolutely killer year. But here we are at Pipeline Summit.
And I think what
everybody wants to know as we kick off this conversation is for CMO at one of
the world's
largest enterprise software companies with 700 folks in the marketing
organization,
where does Pipeline rank for you in terms of your list of priorities?
I don't have to think about that for longer than a nanosecond. It's pretty much
top of the list.
For me, you know, if you don't as a marketeer help the organization to create
quality pipeline
that converts to ACV, there really, there really is no business. So it's really
critical. And I feel
like marketers have had to become a hybrid of a chief market officer to have
those insights and
foresight has to predicting the future of the organizations being so close to
the customer.
And also, you know, kind of hybrid chief revenue officer as well, because it's
really our
joint responsibility with the sales organization to ensure that not only do we
create that pipe
through our demand generation efforts, but we helped to progress, mature, close
, and then build
advocates for the brand for the future. So I take that responsibility very,
very seriously.
There is nothing more frustrating than going into a quarterly business review,
or, you know, an e-com leadership meeting where sales are marketing and
presenting the health of
the business. And, you know, the numbers might not be there from an ACV
perspective. And marketing
come in with all green across the slide saying, yes, we've hit our MQL and
stage two pipe number.
If it doesn't transpire to ACV and you don't have that quality, then our work
for sure isn't done.
So, you know, we really are joined at the hit with our partners in sales and we
have very much
aligned business scores and priorities. So that really helps to gain that trust
and be trusted
advisors to them and the business as well. It's really critical. Yeah, ACV is
so critical. I think
that is really great advice for everyone out there who's a VP of marketing or
demand-gen professional.
You can't show up to the QBR and have all green dots on your slide if your
company's not hitting
the revenue targets. And so I think you said it really well. I'm part CMO,
Chief Marketing Officer.
I'm part Chief Market Officer. I'm part Chief Revenue Officer. And you have to
be joined at the
hip with your sales organization today if you don't control those functions.
And so to that end,
marketers need to be more data-driven than probably ever in the history of our
profession.
And you said something that really struck me as we were getting ready for this
conversation.
You said marketers need to go from mad men to math men or from mad women to
math women.
How do you think about that blend between the art and the science of marketing?
Yeah, I mean, it's a great analogy and I take it very seriously into heart. So
using the creative
side of my brain when I'm thinking about refreshing the brand or creating a
corporate narrative
and using that scientific part of my brain and really understanding the data
and the math behind
the ROI and the impact of our work, because that's more critical than ever. And
really being able to
use those insights and the data to inform the decisions that we make, what's
working and what's
not. I put a dollar in here, I get $15 out. That's more critical than ever,
especially as budgets
are tend to be shrinking. But the expectation of the impact of the business is
still growing.
And it's not generally, budgets aren't generally in line with the revenue
growth goal. So for me,
that blend of art and sciences is really critical. When I started out in
marketing 28 years ago,
it was really just the creative side of my brain that I used. And the
measurement of success was
do the execs in the organization like it? Yes, great. We've won. And I'll be
hitting our revenue
goals collectively, but there was no way to track marketing's actual impact to
the success of the
business. Now we have so much data, in fact, overwhelming amounts of data at
our fingertips
to really help us inform. And I've really, over the years, adapted my brain to
be much more
on the science side. And when I'm looking at insights into what's working and
what's not. And
then I use my creative side of my brain to tell a story, what the insights
telling me. And you know,
as marketers, we have to be the best storytellers, telling magical stories that
inspire
even when you're presenting back on the health, the business is really critical
Both externally and internally, you know, some of us are out there and you
might be thinking,
you know, I've got a $10 million pipe target. And some of us might be out there
and you might be
thinking, I've got $100 million pipe target. You've got a multi-billion dollar
five-point target.
Don't remind me.
And it's not just one market that you serve. You were mentioning about how your
exponential
growth is happening in multiple geographies around the world. How do you think
about using kind of
the math part of your brain and what the ROI is telling you to motivate and
figure out how you're
going to spend money differently in these different regions?
Well, whether you're a, you know, a smaller organization that has a 10 million
pipe target,
or whether you're a large enterprise with a $6 billion pipe target, I've
managed both of those
scenarios, it's all relative and it's equally as challenging but exciting, I
think, whatever
the size of your business. But, you know, as you grow, you know, I try not to
think too much of a
B being on the end of it rather than the M. But we all face the same challenges
and it's all making
sure that we're investing in the right areas to yield the biggest return. We
can't treat emerging
markets the same as we can. Mature markets, we can't treat smaller emerging
businesses and
mid-market, the same way that we would market to large enterprises. So, and
even by industry,
it's very different. So, you really have to use the data that's available to
you to inform the
decisions based upon the markets, the buyers, the industries that you serve. So
, one size certainly
doesn't fit all. Well, you know, an interesting aspect to all of our jobs in
this era and the
reason that we even called this show and we're kicking it off here together,
Pipe Line Summit AI
is none of us could have predicted as CMOs and marketing leaders one year ago
today. None of
us could have predicted the 12 months that would be ahead. Not only did you see
and we're part of
transforming Salesforce, one of the most successful enterprise software
companies of all time,
but now you've just joined as CMO of Workday. What's your perspective as a CMO
leading a
phenomenal enterprise software company on how AI is changing how we think as
marketers and
how we need to be thinking about maybe leveraging it for Pipe Line Generation
or other marketing?
Yeah, that's a great question. I mean, 2023 has seen such an explosion of AI.
Like you said,
no one could have predicted this. And I think even in the last six months, it
accelerated even
further. It's the biggest transformation, I would say, since the evolution of
the cloud,
which is quite a statement, but I believe it to be true. But I also see such
great opportunities
with AI giving us the opportunity to predict, get more insight. For example,
with our customer base
at Workday, leveraging AI really helps me to better understand what products
and technology
are being leveraged by our customers. What's the next best product that we can
then market
as a solution to address their pain points? And from a prospect or future
customers, as I like
to call them, perspective, we can use propensity to buy data to really inform
getting the right
message to the right person at the right time in their journey based upon the
data and the analysis
that AI has enabled us to access. Maybe this one-to-one personalization at
scale that we've
been talking about for decades is actually just around the corner. In what a
major shift, I think
cloud computing obviously was a transformational movement for CMOs. And now we
have AI. As you look
to the next 12 months, what challenges do you face as a CMO? Is it brand and
how you're going to shift
the positioning of the company? Is it internal getting the house in order? What
are your priorities
and some of your challenges? Well, I think being a new CMO in a company,
it's also ensuring that we have the right skills, the right talent, the right
people in the right
places. I've been very lucky with the team I've inherited. They're an amazing
group of
marketers, so that makes my life a hell of a lot easier. But it's really
keeping up with the market
trends and ensuring that we're as relevant as we can be. I'm lucky again in the
fact that
workday has never been more relevant. AI and ML is not something new to us. It
's been
embedded deep into our platform for over a decade. So in a really showcasing
the stories about how
we can address the pain points of our customers, how finance and HR leaders,
they need to make
decisions quickly. They need to be efficient. They need to go to market with
speed. And luckily,
the AI tools from workday provide them with opportunities to automate writing
job descriptions,
creating growth plans for their employees, statements of work. So taking out
the
administration all kind of drudgery work to enable executives and all of our
customers and prospects
to really work on what's essential for their day to day jobs. I feel like we're
, our technology is
not replacing humans. It's enabling them to be better at their jobs. I'm
excited about that.
Yeah, that's one of the questions I wanted to ask you, because every business
has been
transforming this year, trying to figure out, what does this mean for my
company? How do we need to
message differently? How do I need to reposition? How do I need to retool and
skill up my sales
organization? But this is something that you guys have been doing now for more
than a decade. And in
particular, I kicked this off saying workday manages the employee master record
for a company's
in workday, right? The financial records of a company are in workday. So this
is, it's not
something you can kind of mess around with. And so as far as, are you more on
the bleeding edge of
pushing where AI goes in your technology? Or are you more on the trustworthy
side of the spectrum
as you bring your customers into this kind of new frontier? That's another
great question. And I
feel like it's again, a blend of the two, like we want to be at the cutting
edge of innovation.
The good news is we're not having to play catch up. You know, as I said, what
this has been part
AI and ML has been embedded into our technology for a long, long time. So our
customers feel very
safe and kind of with a trusted enterprise for them right now. So I feel very,
very confident
about that. But we always want to be, you know, keep reinventing, be ahead of
the curve is an
organization. You know, innovation is one of our values, but also is trust. So
being a trusted
partner to our customers, to our employees and also to the wider workday
ecosystem is really
important. For example, we have just created and launched the workday AI
marketplace where
we're pulling together, we'll prove an entrusted AI and ML apps accessible in
the workday ecosystem
so that we can really make sure that responsible AI is a priority as well for
our customers and
prospects. Well, I think something that's most of our audience would really
like to hear from you
about is where is it all going? Oh my goodness. Where's it all going? With your
decades of experience
as a marketing executive at some of the world's greatest enterprise technology
companies,
talk to us about what you see in the future. Counter-year 2024, what's ahead
for all of us?
Well, I can't say that I'm got a crystal ball and I can predict the future. I
have
much. I would love that to be one of my superpowers. But some advice I would
give is make sure that
you are future-proofing your marketing organization. Make sure you have, as I
said, the right people
with the right skills in the right places doing work that fuels their souls
because it's all
of our responsibilities to build the next generation of CMOs to ensure that
they are doing their
soul work and they get the opportunities to grow and thrive within the
organization. And then I
just really believe that there is so much opportunity available to us right now
. AI is not going anywhere,
it's just going to evolve. So really leverage the insights and the data that's
accessible to you
to really drive your decision-making with that little sprinkle of gut-feel
creativity in there
as well. I truly don't believe there's a more exciting time to be in marketing.
There's no more exciting time to be in marketing in technology than right now.
And I think you said
it perfectly. As we open this pipeline summit, what we want to do is we're
trying to share stories
and perspectives and best practices on how to be successful in the next 12
months. And you said
we're trying to build the next generation of great CMOs and marketers. Emma, I
want to thank you
for being here at Pipeline Summit today. I really appreciate it. Have a great
day. Thank you.
Thank you so much.
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