Jason Maynard begins his tenure as Qualtrics CEO, positioning AI and experience management as central to building trust in a shifting enterprise landscape.
Qualtrics has a new chief executive — and a renewed emphasis on trust in the age of artificial intelligence.
On his first day in the role, Jason Maynard addressed employees with a message that framed his arrival not as a routine leadership change, but as a response to a pivotal moment in enterprise technology.
“I’ve had a front-row seat to some of the biggest shifts in our industry,” Maynard wrote in a companywide note. “Right now we’re in the middle of the largest I’ve ever seen.”
Maynard, who has spent three decades in enterprise software as a founder, Wall Street analyst and operating executive, argued that artificial intelligence is reshaping how organizations serve customers, engage employees and make decisions. In that context, he said, understanding human experience becomes more—not less—critical.
“In a world increasingly shaped by AI, the ability to understand the human experience and act on what matters in context is crucial,” he wrote. “That’s why I’ve joined Qualtrics.”
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Experience as Infrastructure
Qualtrics, which pioneered the experience management category, has long positioned itself as the system of record for customer and employee sentiment. Maynard suggested that the company’s founding premise — that experience data drives performance — is now becoming foundational to business strategy.
“Qualtrics invented experience management,” he wrote. “It’s rare to lead a company that created its category. And rarer still to join at a moment when that category is becoming fundamental to business success.”
For Maynard, the connective tissue is trust.
“Trust is the currency of success for every organization, government and institution,” he wrote. “Trust is built through authentic experience.”
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Listening Before Leading
Maynard credited former and interim leaders — including Ryan Smith, Zig Serafin, Jim Whitehurst and Mark Gillett — for building the company’s foundation. But he emphasized that his early priority will be listening.
“The best advice I ever got when I joined NetSuite was simple: start by listening,” he wrote. “So that’s what I’m doing.”
In the coming weeks, he said, he plans to meet with customers, partners and employees to understand what is working and where the company can deliver greater value.
The note strikes a measured tone for a company navigating both leadership transition and a broader technological upheaval. As AI accelerates automation across industries, Maynard’s thesis is clear: organizations that fail to understand the human side of transformation will struggle to sustain trust.
“This is an exciting time to be at Qualtrics,” he wrote. “And I can’t wait to get started.”
In an era defined by algorithms, Qualtrics’ new leader is staking his tenure on a simple proposition: experience — and the trust it builds — remains the ultimate competitive advantage.
