Salesforce already owns more CRM customers than anyone else. On March 10, it argued that the contact center should be next.

The company launched Agentforce Contact Center, a platform that natively combines voice, digital channels, CRM data, and AI agents in a single architecture. The pitch is straightforward: contact centers built on disconnected systems cannot operationalize agentic AI at scale, and Salesforce — with its unified platform — can solve that problem in a way that point solutions and legacy CCaaS vendors cannot.

The Problem It’s Solving

Most enterprise contact centers are, beneath the surface, an archaeology project. Years of layered additions — telephony platforms, digital messaging tools, CRM integrations, AI add-ons — have created service operations that can technically support omnichannel engagement but routinely lose context when customers switch channels or when AI interactions escalate to a human agent.

The customer, of course, experiences none of those system boundaries. They experience one conversation with a company. The context loss is invisible to them until something goes wrong — and then it’s very visible.

“Customers don’t experience a voice system, a digital system and a CRM separately,” said Kishan Chetan, EVP and GM of Agentforce Service at Salesforce. “They experience one interaction with a company. Salesforce’s goal is to treat those systems as a single service nervous system so both AI and human agents operate with the same context.”

That framing — voice, AI, and CRM as a single nervous system rather than three integrated products — is the core of what Salesforce is selling.

Also Read: Your Rebrand Is Failing. Have You Tried Listening?

What Early Customers Are Finding

The platform is already in production with a small group of early adopters, including Savant Systems, Compass Working Capital, Ferguson, and PAM Hotels. Their experience offers a ground-level view of where the value actually shows up.

At Compass Working Capital, a nonprofit that previously ran separate applications for email, text, and phone — each with its own data model and workflow — the shift to a unified platform is expected to eliminate significant manual overhead. Currently, coaches on the team spend up to 30 minutes entering notes after each appointment. Compass estimates that automating call summaries and structured data entry could recover roughly 6,000 staff hours per year.

Savant Systems, which supports smart home installations where every environment is different — different devices, different subscriptions, different integrations — is using the platform to automatically surface case context before agents engage with a customer. The company is also exploring AI-driven escalation detection to identify service issues that require faster intervention before they become complaints.

Also Read: Marketing That Predicts, Not Reacts

Why Salesforce, Why Now

The launch reflects what Chetan described during a media briefing ahead of the announcement as a broader convergence between the CRM market and the contact center-as-a-service market. Customer demand for proactive, personalized, consistent service across every channel is pushing the two categories toward each other — and Salesforce is positioning itself as the natural consolidation point.

The competitive logic is blunt. If an enterprise is already running Salesforce as its system of record for customer relationships, adding a contact center layer that lives natively inside that system eliminates an entire category of integration risk. The alternative — connecting a third-party CCaaS platform to Salesforce — is precisely the fragmentation problem the platform is designed to solve.

Whether Agentforce Contact Center can displace established CCaaS vendors with deep telephony expertise and long enterprise contracts is the open question. But Salesforce is not entering this market without leverage. It has the customer relationships, the CRM data layer, and now the platform architecture. The CCaaS incumbents have been warned.

The post Salesforce’s Agentforce Just Entered the CCaaS War appeared first on MartechView.

For years, AI in retail was framed as an efficiency play: better inventory forecasting, smarter demand planning, faster ticket resolution. It was about reducing costs, shaving seconds off handle times, and streamlining back-end systems.

That era is over.

Today, AI sits much closer to the revenue engine. It influences how customers discover products, how they interact with brands, how issues are resolved, and, increasingly, whether they return. In retail, travel, and hospitality, where loyalty is fragile and competition is relentless, customer experience is no longer a support function; it is a core function. It is a strategy.

Few executives have observed that shift from both the operational and technological sides as closely as Michael Klein, Director of Retail, Travel & Hospitality Product Marketing at Talkdesk. Before moving into enterprise CX technology, Klein spent more than three decades in retail merchandising and leadership roles, including time with Adobe and Williams-Sonoma.

That background, he says, fundamentally shapes how he evaluates enterprise software.

“I’ve spent more than three decades in retail,” Klein said. “My background in retail merchandising keeps me focused on how technology actually improves the customer experience and drives real business outcomes. It’s never been about leveraging technology just for the sake of it.”

In merchandising, every decision — from assortment planning to store layout — is tied to measurable results. Klein brings that same lens to AI.

“AI is a strong example,” he said. “When applied well, it helps increase average order value, drive repeat purchases and improve retention.”

In other words, the question is not whether AI is impressive. It is whether it sells more sweaters, books more rooms, or deepens loyalty.

“At Talkdesk, we’re focused on using it where it truly makes a difference for retailers and their customers,” he added.

The Persistent Myth of the Demographic Customer

Retailers have more customer data than ever before. Yet, paradoxically, many still design experiences around broad assumptions.

“One of the biggest misconceptions is that everyone in a demographic bucket behaves the same way,” Klein said. “That Gen X shops one way, Millennials another, and Baby Boomers another.”

The reality, he argues, is messier.

“If it were that clean, personalization would be easy,” he said. “But I’ve seen plenty of Baby Boomers who are perfectly comfortable booking travel online and plenty of younger customers who want to speak to a person when something goes wrong.”

The mistake, he suggests, is building customer journeys around stereotypes rather than behavior. Digital-first consumers are not defined by age alone; they are defined by context, urgency, and preference at any given moment.

Designing around assumptions creates friction. Designing around actual signals creates loyalty.

From Cost Center to Growth Engine

Perhaps the most profound shift underway is the redefinition of the contact center.

For decades, contact centers were treated as overhead — necessary to resolve complaints, but disconnected from growth. AI is changing that calculus.

“From a customer standpoint, AI makes it easier to self-service when they want to,” Klein said. “That convenience drives satisfaction — and satisfied customers tend to spend more.”

Self-service is not about removing human interaction; it is about giving customers control. When done well, automation reduces frustration and accelerates resolution.

For brands, the internal impact is just as significant.

“AI frees up contact center teams to focus on higher-value work,” Klein said. “Whether that’s helping design a room, building a wardrobe, or solving a complex issue. Those are real revenue-driving conversations.”

By removing friction in knowledge access, documentation, and agent training, AI shifts human effort toward consultative interactions — the kinds of conversations that build trust and increase basket size.

At its best, automation does not replace people. It elevates them.

Why So Much “AI-Powered CX” Falls Flat

In a market saturated with “AI-powered” claims, differentiation often dissolves into jargon. Klein has spent years translating complex enterprise technology into language retailers actually understand — and he is blunt about what works.

“Great marketing and complex jargon just don’t mix,” he said. “Instead of relying on technical words that only developers or product managers use, brands should drop the IT acronyms and language that’s too deep in the weeds.”

Retailers do not buy platforms. They buy outcomes.

Plain language, he argues, forces vendors to clarify their value proposition. If a product cannot be explained without abstraction, it likely lacks practical grounding.

Separating Real AI From Marketing Noise

Klein is equally pragmatic about the current AI moment. Not all AI is new — and not all of it is transformative.

“We first need to be clear about which AI we’re talking about,” he said.

Retailers have long used predictive models to forecast inventory, optimize distribution, and manage replenishment. Those systems quietly shape customer satisfaction by ensuring products are in stock.

“That has a direct impact on product availability and customer satisfaction,” Klein noted.

More recently, generative and agentic AI have begun to deliver tangible value in marketing and service environments — drafting content, assisting agent,s and streamlining workflows.

Where the narrative drifts into hype, he says, is in the idea of full automation.

“We’re a long way from AI taking over everything,” Klein said. “Human oversight still matters, and consumers will want the choice between automation and a real person depending on the situation.”

The future, in his view, is hybrid — not robotic.

The Context Problem

If there is one area where brands consistently misstep, it is context.

With so much data available, companies often mistake volume for insight.

“The key to designing better experiences is relying on context signals, like timing and intent, coupled with history and preference,” Klein said.

Without context, personalization becomes misdirection. A customer who once purchased a gift for a relative may be permanently misclassified, leading to irrelevant recommendations.

“Imagine you visit a store for the first time to buy a present for your grandmother,” he said. “If the retailer caters your experience based only on your first visit, your experience won’t serve your current needs.”

The difference between intelligent personalization and awkward irrelevance often comes down to whether brands understand why a purchase occurred — not just that it did.

The Hardest Part of Modernization

Enterprise modernization is rarely blocked by technology alone.

“The biggest hurdle brands encounter is not doing anything for fear of disrupting operations,” Klein said.

Legacy systems may be aging, but they are stable. Change introduces uncertainty.

“The next hurdle is weeding out bad data,” he added. “And the third is dealing with people who are stuck in their old ways or too protective of their territory.”

Transformation demands both technical cleanup and cultural shift. It requires encouraging teams to experiment, test openly, and share ownership across departments.

Without that alignment, even the best technology stalls.

The Metrics That Will Matter Next

As AI becomes embedded in CX systems, traditional metrics such as handle time and surface-level satisfaction scores may lose their primacy.

“In the next few years, customer lifetime value, recency, and frequency will become key metrics to monitor,” Klein said, particularly in retail and hospitality.

Those measures capture relationship strength rather than transaction speed. They reflect whether AI is driving durable loyalty rather than short-term efficiency.

In that sense, the next phase of AI in customer experience is not about the volume of automation or technological sophistication. It is about commercial impact.

For Klein, that is the through line connecting his merchandising past to his product marketing present. Technology is not the hero of the story. The customer is.

And in a competitive landscape where switching costs are low and expectations are high, the brands that treat customer experience as a growth lever—not a service line item—will be the ones that endure.

The post Retail’s AI Reckoning Is About Revenue — Not Robots appeared first on MartechView.

In the theater of global commerce, the “steady state” has vanished. As we move toward 2026, marketing and customer experience (CX) are no longer just growth departments—they are the front lines of corporate survival.

Innovation that once took years now happens in weeks. To navigate this velocity, intuition is insufficient; leaders require a compass forged from hard-earned wisdom rather than hype. We are already seeing this shift in Agentic CX, where AI moves from answering questions to proactively solving problems, and in the rise of Data Dignity, where privacy is treated as a core brand value.

At MartechView, we have convened a council of the industry’s most rigorous minds to provide that roadmap. From consolidating the fragmented tech stack to the emergence of hyper-local predictive modeling, these visionaries are laying the blueprints for what comes next.

As we introduce our 2025 Expert Contributors, we recognize these leaders as the stewards of a new era. Their insights remind us that while our tools are undergoing a radical metamorphosis, the objective remains timeless: to serve the customer with precision, empathy, and integrity.

The list follows below.

Adam Greco, Product Evangelist, Hightouch

Adam Greco is a Product Evangelist at Hightouch, where he champions Composable CDP and AI Decisioning. With a profound background in digital analytics, he’s recognized for authoring the definitive book on Adobe Analytics and founding the free Search Discovery Education Community. Greco empowers companies to extract maximum value from their digital data, continually pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in the field.

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Alex Abbott, Operatinalising Conversation Creation, Supero

Alex Abbott created the Conversation Operating System, an AI-powered method to solve the B2B pipeline crisis affecting most companies today. With over three decades of sales experience spanning three continents, Abbott has built and transformed businesses, leading them to multi-million-dollar success. A health enthusiast, golf lover, and proud dog dad to six Miniature Dachshunds, he now lives in Portugal, sharing his expertise through his community, “Walking Digital Corridors.” 

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Alexandra Caceres, Growth and Influencer Marketing Specialist, Metricool

Alexandra Caceres is a Growth and Influencer Marketing Specialist at Metricool, where she drives strategic partnerships and digital growth initiatives. With a strong foundation in social media and content strategy, she has held multiple roles at Metricool, including US Marketing Manager and Social Media Manager. Caceres also brings over four years of experience from Honeypot Social, where she led campaigns across diverse industries. She is passionate about brand storytelling and creator collaboration, blending creativity with data to deliver impactful marketing results.

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Bill Schneider, VP of Product Marketing, CommerceIQ

Bill Schneider is the VP of Product Marketing at CommerceIQ, bringing over two decades of expertise in product marketing, communications, and AI-driven commerce solutions. Renowned for pioneering agentic AI and data-integrated strategies, he helps leading brands unlock automation, maximize profitability, and win competitive shelf share in e-commerce. Schneider’s insights regularly inform the commerce industry through research, benchmarking, and expert analysis, driving smarter performance for CPG leaders. He is recognized across the sector for his analytical rigor and forward-thinking leadership in the transformation of retail media.

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Bob Walczak, CEO and Founder, MadConnect

Bob Walczak is the CEO and Founder of MadConnect, where he leads the charge in redefining platform-to-platform connectivity for the AdTech and MarTech industries. A visionary with over 20 years of experience, he has a proven track record of scaling high-tech startups and managing global product divisions for industry giants like WPP’s GroupM. Recognized as a pioneer in mobile advertising, Walczak previously built PubMatic’s mobile business into a $100 million revenue stream and founded Ringleader Digital, creator of the first comprehensive mobile ad server.

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Brian Burke, VP of Product, AtData

Brian Burke is VP of Product at AtData, a pioneer in email address intelligence and data security solutions. With over 20 years of experience in product management and software development, he leads product strategy for marketing solutions focused on email validation, identity resolution, and profile enrichment. Burke’s expertise helps marketers build actionable customer profiles, reduce fraud, and enhance data quality while ensuring compliance with privacy regulations. His leadership drives innovation in real-time email behavior analysis, boosting marketing ROI and combating email fraud.

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Bridget Reidy, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Exelon

Bridget Reidy serves as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at Exelon, where she oversees information technology, corporate and information security, real estate, transportation, and supply operations for multiple utilities, including ComEd, PECO, and Pepco. With a career spanning leadership roles in supply chain, customer operations, and legal services, she has been instrumental in driving operational excellence and sustainable supply chain initiatives. Reidy previously held senior public service roles in Chicago, including Deputy Chief of Staff to Mayor Richard M. Daley and COO of the Chicago Housing Authority. She is recognized for her strategic approach to security, infrastructure, and corporate governance in the energy sector.

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Bryan Cheung, Chief Executive Officer, Liferay

Bryan Cheung is a co-founder of Liferay and served as its Chief Executive Officer for nearly two decades, leading the company from its bootstrap beginnings to a nine-figure global enterprise. Under his leadership, Liferay evolved into a premier open-source provider of digital experience platforms, trusted by organizations like NASA and Airbus. A graduate of UC Berkeley with a degree in Computer Science, Cheung recently transitioned to the role of Chief Marketing Officer, where he continues to steer the company’s strategic vision and global business development. He is a recognized advocate for “pragmatic innovation,” focusing on how technology can solve real-world business challenges while contributing social value.

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Bryan Hernandez, Director, Client Partners, RTB House

Bryan Hernandez is a Director of Client Partners at RTB House, where he leverages deep-learning technology to drive digital performance for global brands. With over 13 years of experience in the AdTech ecosystem, he has built a reputation for surpassing revenue targets through sophisticated performance marketing strategies and high-level client management. Prior to his role at RTB House, Hernandez held pivotal positions at industry leaders such as SteelHouse and Sizmek, where he specialized in navigating the complexities of programmatic advertising and cross-channel growth. His career is defined by a commitment to data-driven storytelling and helping clients master the shift from traditional digital buying to AI-powered optimization.

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Carlos Gil, Fractional CMO and Growth Strategist, Gil Media Co.

Carlos Gil is a former Brand Evangelist and U.S. Market Leader at GetResponse and current Fractional CMO and Growth Strategist of Gil Media Co. with nearly two decades of experience helping global brands and startups drive growth through innovative, ROI-focused marketing. A bestselling author of The End of Marketing and LinkedIn Top Voice, Gil is known for blending old-school strategy with modern digital tools. He’s a sought-after speaker at global events like SXSW and SMMW and a master of turning bold storytelling into revenue-generating campaigns. Gil is a connector at his core, empowering brands to stand out and scale with authenticity.

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Chris Bretschger, Managing Partner, Bastion Agency

Chris Bretschger is Managing Partner at Bastion Amplify, a full-service digital marketing agency. With over 20 years of integrated marketing experience, he has led brand development, data-driven campaigns, and analytics strategies for major clients, including Mazda, Adidas, and Kia. Chris combines creativity with technical insights in SEO, SEM, social media, and content marketing to deliver measurable results. Beyond marketing, he is passionate about mentoring teams and sailing, embodying a spirit of leadership and innovation.

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Chris Chib, Founder and CEO, BlueFin Solves

Chris Chib is the Founder and CEO of BlueFin Solves, where he helps organizations navigate the intersection of digital transformation and operational strategy. With a career rooted in solving complex business challenges, Chib is a recognized voice on how companies can move beyond the “speculative” phase of technology to build practical solutions. These AI-driven systems enhance both employee productivity and the customer experience. In his recent contributions, Chib has emphasized the “new rules of business adaptation,” arguing that AI’s actual value lies in its ability to extend human capability rather than replace it. He advocates for a strategic shift toward “predictive agility,” helping brands move from reacting to market shifts to anticipating them through smarter data modeling and ethical governance.

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Chris Gladwin, Founder and Executive Chairman, Ocient

is the Founder and Executive Chairman of Ocient, a leader in hyperscale data analytics. A serial entrepreneur with a legendary track record in the storage and data sectors, he previously founded Cleversafe, which he scaled into a dominant force in object storage before its acquisition by IBM for $1.3 billion. His career is defined by a relentless focus on solving “impossible” data problems for the world’s largest enterprises. A graduate of MIT, Gladwin holds hundreds of patents and is a central figure in the Chicago tech ecosystem.

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Christopher Morse, Vice President of Platform Partnerships, Alliant – The Audience Company

Christopher Morse is the Vice President of Platform Partnerships at Alliant – The Audience Company, where he sits at the vital intersection of data providers, adtech platforms, and media agencies. With over 15 years of experience in the data and digital advertising space, Chris has built a career on transforming complex consumer data into actionable audience solutions for high-growth brands. Throughout his tenure at Alliant and previous leadership roles at firms like Stirista and Windfall, Morse has been a key architect in the shift toward privacy-conscious, data-driven targeting. His expertise lies in navigating the evolving cookieless landscape and developing strategic alliances that allow marketers to reach high-value audiences with precision across the programmatic and social ecosystems.

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Daniel Baven, CEO and Co-Founder, Noahs

Daniel Baven is the CEO and Co-Founder of Noahs, a food-tech pioneer building what he calls the “Spotify of Food.” A Danish-trained chef turned entrepreneur, Daniel is redefining the food economy by deploying digitized, modular smart-kitchens into high-traffic hubs like service stations and supermarkets, allowing retailers to stream culinary brands directly to consumers. Before launching Noahs, Baven founded Lucky 13 Sandwich in Thailand, scaling it to over 20 locations before returning to Denmark to solve the infrastructure challenges of the modern food industry. His vision treats culinary IP as a digital asset, enabling great food brands to scale globally through a network of licensees. Today, he leads a 40-person team dedicated to bridging the gap between traditional retail and the emerging digital food marketplace.

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David Joosten, Co-founder and President, GrowthLoop

David Joosten is the Co-founder and President of GrowthLoop, a pioneering composable CDP leveraging the data cloud and AI to revolutionize marketing. With a passion for empowering marketers, he’s dedicated to transforming teams into agile experimenters by removing data friction and unlocking insights from first-party data. Joosten’s entrepreneurial spirit, combined with his experience advising major brands and background at Google, drives his commitment to building intelligent, data-driven customer journeys.

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David Raab, Former Founder, CDP Institute

David Raab is the Founder of the CDP Institute and the expert who coined the term “Customer Data Platform” in 2013. A leading authority in marketing technology and analytics, he helps organizations navigate the evolving landscape of customer data, personalization, and privacy. Raab is known for his clear-eyed insights on the role of CDPs in an AI-driven world and continues to shape the conversation on how brands use data to drive meaningful engagement. Through the CDP Institute, he empowers businesses to make smarter tech decisions and unlock the full value of their customer data.

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Dean de la Peña, VP of Identity, Data Strategy and SaaS, Resonate

Dean de la Peña is a highly experienced VP of Identity, Data Strategy, and SaaS at Resonate. He is known for building outstanding teams and scaling technology and AI companies. With over 16 years of success, he played a key role in Mastercard’s $600M acquisition of Applied Predictive Technologies. He champions the combination of human empathy with data-driven analytics to uncover the truth, demonstrating a strong track record of driving significant revenue growth and client profitability.

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Deborah Knight, Customer Success and Experience Coach, Founder, Kaptive CX

Deborah Knight is the Customer Success and Experience Coach and Founder of Kaptive CX, leveraging over two decades of expertise to craft compelling customer experiences and drive growth. She excels at developing high-performance strategies and boasts a proven track record in customer retention, evidenced by her global impact on Doctify’s customer strategy. Knight is also passionate about coaching and helping teams take ownership of financial metrics, thereby thriving while implementing scalable digital-first initiatives that enhance engagement and efficiency.

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Edward Barnfield, Partner, Abu Dhabi, Wallis

Edward Barnfield is a Partner at Wallis, a leading communications firm serving the Middle East, North Africa, and Southwest Asia. With over 20 years of experience in corporate communications, he specializes in crisis management, strategic advisory, and media relations. Barnfield is known for his ability to craft clear, reliable narratives that resonate with diverse audiences and navigate complex regional dynamics. His expertise helps global tech brands manage reputation in fast-evolving environments.

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Eleanor Hecks, Editor-in-Chief, Designerly Magazine

Eleanor Hecks is Editor-in-Chief of Designerly Magazine, where she champions thoughtful design and editorial innovation. With a career spanning editorial leadership and digital content strategy, Hecks focuses on creating authentic, user-centric stories that engage creative professionals and marketers alike. She is passionate about privacy, personalization, and the evolving role of marketers in a data-conscious world.

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Elizabeth Maxson, CMO, Contentful

Elizabeth Maxson is Chief Marketing Officer at Contentful, driving brand strategy and product marketing for one of the leading content platforms. With extensive experience in agile marketing, AI composability, and creative innovation, Maxson spearheads initiatives that align marketing with customer-centric digital transformation. She is recognized for blending creativity and technology to accelerate business growth and deliver seamless customer experiences.

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Filippo Gramigna, Co-CEO, Onetag

Filippo Gramigna is the Co-CEO of Onetag, where he leverages over 20 years of international leadership experience to drive the evolution of programmatic advertising. A multidisciplinary expert, Filippo has navigated the full spectrum of the digital media ecosystem, holding pivotal roles across major publishers, global AdTech firms, and agencies to drive high-efficiency commercial results. His career is defined by a consultative approach to business development, blending deep expertise in partnerships and marketing with a sharp focus on product innovation. At Onetag, he leverages a vast global network to deliver tech-driven solutions that prioritize transparency and performance. Gramigna is recognized for his ability to rapidly scale complex projects, turning emerging digital trends into concrete economic value for brands and media owners alike.

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Gavin Sweeney, Chief Revenue Officer, CarTrawler

Gavin Sweeney is Chief Revenue Officer at CarTrawler, leading the trading, data science, and insights teams at this leading B2B technology provider for global car rental and mobility solutions. With a background in economics and digital marketing, Sweeney has over a decade of experience driving commercial performance and strategic growth in the travel and gaming sectors. He excels in leveraging data-driven analytics and market insights to optimize partner car hire propositions and revenue.

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Gianluca Ferruggia, General Manager – B2B Marketplace and Media Growth, DesignRush

Gianluca Ferruggia is the General Manager at DesignRush, a leading B2B marketplace that connects businesses with verified agencies. With a decade of experience, he’s an expert in B2B marketplaces known for building projects from inception and driving significant growth, including a 3,200% revenue increase for DesignRush. Ferruggia oversees all aspects of operations, content, digital marketing, SEO, finance, and sales, leading a team of 130 employees while also contributing editorially to Forbes Councils.

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Greg Zakowicz, Former Sr. Ecommerce Expert, Omnisend

Greg Zakowicz is a former Senior E-Commerce Expert at Omnisend, where he helps brands accelerate growth through customer-centric marketing strategies. With deep experience across B2B and DTC, Zakowicz is recognized for translating data-driven insights into actionable campaigns that drive engagement and revenue growth. He’s a trusted voice in the e-commerce space, frequently sharing expertise on automation, retention, and omnichannel marketing. Passionate about brand-building and employee-first leadership, Zakowicz brings both strategic vision and hands-on know-how to the digital marketing world.

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Guru Hariharan, Founder and CEO, CommerceIQ

Guru Hariharan is the CEO of CommerceIQ, a company that specializes in AI-powered retail solutions, helping brands enhance their e-commerce performance and profitability. He brings extensive leadership experience in product innovation, AI integration, and go-to-market strategy for retail and consumer tech companies. Hariharan focuses on empowering brands with intelligent automation to close sales gaps and optimize supply chains in a rapidly evolving digital marketplace.

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Guy Marion, CMO, Chargebee

Guy Marion is the Chief Marketing Officer at Chargebee, a role he’s held since April 2023, following his tenure as General Manager of Chargebee Retention (formerly Brightback, which he founded). A revenue-focused SaaS leader, he boasts extensive experience in growing Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) from $0M to $150M. Marion specializes in defining unique go-to-market strategies, building world-class teams, and accelerating revenue through diverse sales channels, with expertise spanning marketing, product, growth, and sales functions across various SaaS domains.

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Heidi Bullock, CMO, Tealium

Heidi Bullock is the Chief Marketing Officer at Tealium, where she drives go-to-market strategy and revenue growth across the customer lifecycle. A seasoned SaaS marketing leader, she brings deep expertise in demand generation, ABM, and product marketing. Bullock has led high-performing teams across SDR, enablement, and digital strategy, delivering measurable impact through data-driven campaigns. She’s a passionate advocate for customer-centric marketing and a recognized expert in platforms like Marketo, 6Sense, and SFDC.

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Irina Shamkova, Chief Product Officer, Intermedia Cloud Communications

Irina Shamkova is the Chief Product Officer at Intermedia Cloud Communications, where she leads the company’s end-to-end product strategy across its UCaaS, CCaaS, and cloud business application offerings. With over two decades at Intermedia, she has played a pivotal role in expanding its AI-powered communication platform and forging key partnerships, including a global alliance with NEC. Shamkova is known for building high-performing product teams and championing innovation through strategic acquisitions and internal initiatives, such as Women of Intermedia. Her leadership continues to shape how businesses connect and collaborate in today’s digital-first world.

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Isabelle Zdatny, Head of Thought Leadership for XM Institute, Qualtrics 

Isabelle Zdatny is the Head of Thought Leadership at the Qualtrics XM Institute, where she serves as a primary architect of the Experience Management (XM) discipline. A Certified Customer Experience Professional (CCXP), Zdatny specializes in translating complex human behaviors into actionable business strategies, helping organizations bridge the gap between customer expectations and operational reality. At the XM Institute, she leads the production of industry-standard research and frameworks that empower leaders to improve both customer and employee experiences (CX and EX). Beyond her research, Isabelle is a sought-after speaker and advisor, recognized for her ability to simplify the evolving XM landscape into precise, high-impact blueprints for corporate success.

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James Evans, Senior Director, Head of AI, Amplitude

James Evans serves as Director and Head of AI at Amplitude, where he leads AI strategy and product development for the customer analytics platform. His expertise lies in designing and scaling AI solutions that enhance product intelligence, customer insights, and data-driven decision-making. Evans is recognized for advancing the role of machine learning in transforming how companies understand user behavior and optimize digital experiences.

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Jane Qin Medeiros, GM/EVP – Brand and Content, Informa TechTarget

Jane Qin Medeiros serves as GM/EVP of the Brand and Content Solutions Group at Informa TechTarget, where she leads initiatives that help B2B brands navigate complex marketing landscapes. With deep expertise in content strategy and demand generation, she focuses on bridging insights and execution to drive measurable impact for clients. She frequently shares thought leadership on effective B2B marketing strategies and navigating the “dark funnel.”

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Jason Swartz, VP, Advanced Advertising, New Business, And National Sales, New York Interconnect

Jason Swartz is Vice President of Addressable Television and Digital at New York Interconnect, where he drives innovation in precision-targeted advertising across linear and streaming platforms. With extensive experience in programmatic TV and digital media, Swartz helps brands harness data-driven strategies to reach audiences more effectively. He regularly contributes insights on the evolving landscape of streaming and addressable advertising.

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Jeff Kaplan, CEO, TARA Media Strategies

Jeff Kaplan is the CEO and Co-Founder of TARA Media Strategies (formerly Popsycle Digital), a data-driven performance marketing agency. With 25 years of experience, he’s an award-winning marketing professional with deep expertise in direct marketing, sales, and management. A self-proclaimed “data geek,” Kaplan is passionate about leveraging insights to help companies reach their full potential and achieve their client goals in the ever-evolving omnichannel marketing ecosystem.

Article: Jeff Kaplan on AI, Ad Fraud, and the Future of Media Buying

Jennifer McAdams, Fractional CMO, Marketing Advisor, Principal, Beecher Hollow Group

Jennifer McAdams is a seasoned marketing executive with over two decades of experience driving growth at leading enterprise software companies. Most recently, as Chief Marketing Officer at Xactly, she has held senior roles at Vista Equity Partners, Progress, and SAP SuccessFactors, where she led high-impact demand generation and go-to-market initiatives. Known for building scalable marketing engines and aligning cross-functional teams, McAdams brings deep expertise in B2B SaaS, digital strategy, and revenue marketing.

Article: Marketing in 2025: Shifts, AI, and Gen Z

Joey Petracca, COO and Co-Founder, Chicory

Joey Petracca is the Co-founder and COO of Chicory, a leading contextual commerce advertising platform. He has been instrumental in the company’s growth since its inception in 2012, helping to transform recipe content into commerce media for CPG brands, retailers, and publishers. Joey’s expertise lies in the future of grocery and food technology innovation, focusing on how data strategies can empower marketers to drive growth. He oversees product and engineering, and plays a key role in the conception, development, and positioning of Chicory’s advertising solutions.

Article: What If Your Favorite Recipe Could Shop for You?

Josh Johnson, Area VP of Sales – Identity and Data Solutions, Dun & Bradstreet

Josh Johnson is Area Vice President of Data Licensing at Dun & Bradstreet, specializing in helping marketers unlock the power of unified customer profiles. With expertise in data strategy and analytics, Jonson focuses on enabling businesses to bridge data silos and drive smarter, more personalized marketing decisions. He frequently shares insights on how accurate, connected data fuels measurable growth.

Article: Blurring Boundaries: Why Marketers Need Unified Profiles

Justin Choi, Founder and CEO, Nativo

Justin Choi is the Founder and CEO of Nativo, where he leads the company in redefining native advertising through innovative, AI-driven solutions. With a strong background in ad tech and digital media, Choi focuses on leveraging agentic AI to transform how brands engage audiences and optimize campaigns. He is a recognized thought leader in the intersection of AI and advertising.

Article: Is Agentic AI Turning Ads into On-Demand Services?

Katie Spurkeland, Director of Product Marketing, Partnerize

Katie Spurkeland is Director of Product Marketing at Partnerize, where she drives strategies to unlock growth through partnerships and mobile engagement. With expertise in tracking, analytics, and performance marketing, Spurkeland helps brands maximize revenue and optimize partner-driven campaigns. She frequently shares insights on how data and technology power modern partnership marketing.

Article: Unlocking Mobile Growth: Why Tracking Powers Partnerships

Kevin O’Malley, Co-Founder, AdDaptive

Kevin O’Malley is the Co-Founder of AdDaptive Intelligence, a leading account-based advertising platform he started in March 2010. He has been instrumental in building a company focused on bridging offline and online data to optimize B2B advertising campaigns. His vision ensures that transparent analytics helps B2B marketers reach key accounts and decision-makers effectively. Under his leadership, AdDaptive has remained self-funded, driving continuous profitability and expansion in the ad tech industry.

Article: Why Marketers Need a Data Diet in the Age of AI Overload

Lee Hammond, Customer Data Strategy and Solutions, KLH

Lee Hammond is an accomplished marketing technology professional who previously served as an industry principal at the Marketing Data Cloud Practice in Hakkoda. In that role, he specialized in helping companies build modern marketing technology stacks on top of Snowflake’s Data Cloud. His expertise lies in customer data activation, having also optimized MarTech stacks at Universal Music Group to unify fan data and personalize experiences. Currently, as a Customer Data Strategy and Solutions consultant at KLH, Hammond continues to guide organizations toward a warehouse-first approach for their customer data, offering strategic recommendations and solutions.

Article: Is Your CDP a Dinosaur in a Composable World?

Lisa Sharapata, VP AI & GTM Strategy, Metadata

Lisa Sharapata is the VP of AI & GTM Strategy at Metadata, where she leads the transformation of modern marketing through AI-driven digital advertising. A seasoned B2B leader with over 20 years of experience, Lisa has built her career at the intersection of brand strategy and demand generation, helping companies move away from manual, repetitive tasks toward high-impact, automated business growth. Prior to joining Metadata, Sharapata held executive leadership roles at companies such as 6sense and Aprimo, where she became a prominent voice in the movement for “customer-centric” go-to-market strategies. She is widely recognized for her ability to align marketing and sales teams under a unified, data-driven vision, ensuring that technology serves as a bridge to deeper buyer engagement rather than just a tool for volume.

Article: Ghost Signals: Why Bad Data is Sabotaging Your GTM Strategy

Liz Carter, CMO, Reputation

Liz Carter is a highly experienced Chief Marketing Officer at Reputation, a leader in software technology and services. With a robust background in the SaaS industry, she has hands-on experience navigating IPO processes, acquisitions, and integrations for both venture-backed and PE-backed businesses. Carter is skilled in various facets of marketing, including corporate communications, branding, demand generation, and multi-channel strategies. She is also a dedicated Board Member at Razing the Bar, supporting underserved youth populations.

Article: “Your Brand Is What Barbara Says It Is”: Liz Carter on the Feedback-Fueled Future of Marketing

Maor Sadra, CEO & Co-founder, INCRMNTAL

Maor Sadra is the CEO and Co-Founder of INCRMNTAL, where he is pioneering a new era of marketing measurement through causal data science. An AdTech veteran with over 20 years of experience, Maor previously held executive roles at Applift and Inneractive, where he managed large-scale international business development and mergers and acquisitions. At INCRMNTAL, Sadra has developed a platform that measures the “true value” of ad spend across digital and offline channels without relying on user-level tracking. A vocal advocate for transparency, he specializes in replacing flawed attribution models with real-time, algorithmic insights that prove the actual impact of marketing investment.

Article: Big Spikes, Small Truths: The Myth of Promo-Day Performance

Marcelo Parravicini, Chairman and CEO, Cygnus Marketing Communications Inc.

Marcelo Parravicini is Chairman and CEO of Cygnus Marketing Communications Inc., where he leads strategies to enhance operational efficiency and optimize enrollment systems. With extensive experience in marketing operations and client-focused solutions, Parravicini helps organizations implement scalable frameworks that drive measurable results. He frequently shares insights on the intersection of marketing strategy and operational execution.

Article: Why Enrollment Systems Fail Without an Operational Blueprint

Marianna Mankle, SCMS, Siege Media

Marianna Mankle is an SCMS at Siege Media, a prominent agency specializing in SEO, content marketing, and digital PR. With a strong passion for storytelling, she focuses on harnessing this “superpower” to help companies achieve their marketing and SEO goals. Mankle brings a solid background in content creation, strategy, editing, and project management, previously serving as a Senior Content Marketing Specialist and Content Strategist. She leverages her expertise to craft compelling narratives that resonate with audiences and drive organic growth.

Article: Why Sales Teams Can’t Afford to Skip AI Training

Mateusz Jędrocha (MJ), Chief Product Officer, Adlook

Mateusz Jędrocha is the Chief Product Officer at Adlook, where he leads the development of next-generation, cookieless advertising solutions. A dynamic leader with a rare blend of commercial and technical expertise, Jedrocha has spent over a decade at the forefront of the programmatic ecosystem, specializing in privacy-first brand growth and high-performance automation. Before joining Adlook, he held key leadership roles at Yieldbird, where he mastered the complexities of revenue optimization and yield management for global publishers. Today, Jedrocha is a central figure in the shift toward “Deep Learning” in AdTech, helping brands navigate the transition to a privacy-centric internet while maintaining the precision and scale required for modern marketing.

Article: Is Advertising Finally Trading Hype for Clarity?

Matt Blumberg, CEO, Markup AI

Matt Blumberg is the CEO of Markup AI, where he applies nearly three decades of experience to scaling disruptive technology businesses. A seasoned serial entrepreneur, Matt has been at the helm of internet-based companies since 1995, spanning sectors including martech, analytics, cybersecurity, and recruitment. Throughout his career, Blumberf has navigated a diverse array of business models, including SaaS, AI, and marketplaces, in both B2B and DTC environments. At Markup AI, he focuses on leveraging artificial intelligence to streamline and automate complex workflows, helping modern enterprises operate with greater speed and precision.

Article: Can AI Fix the “Workslop” It Created?

Nadjya Ghausi, CMO, SearchStax

Nadjya Ghausi is Chief Marketing Officer at SearchStax, where she leads initiatives to help brands engage the search-first consumer. With deep expertise in search technology, digital marketing, and customer experience, Ghausi focuses on enabling marketers to deliver relevant, data-driven experiences. She regularly shares insights on optimizing search strategies in an evolving digital landscape.

Article: Marketers, Are You Ready for the Search-First Consumer?

Natalie Severt, Marketing Director, Intelligent Relations

Natalie Severt is a dynamic Marketing Director at Intelligent Relations, specializing in AI public relations and SaaS. With over 8 years in SEO management and 11 years in content management, she’s an expert at crafting and executing comprehensive marketing and PR strategies that drive brand awareness, traffic, leads, and ultimately, sales. Severt excels at integrating diverse marketing channels—including social media, email, and product marketing—to achieve impactful results and has a proven track record of boosting organic traffic and conversion rates.

Article: What Do AI-Driven News Feeds Mean for PR?

Natasha Desai, Vice President, Product & Engineering, Doceree

Natasha Desai is the Vice President of Product & Engineering at Doceree, bringing over a decade of experience driving innovation across healthtech, edtech, and advertising. A dynamic leader with a flair for data-driven strategy and cross-functional collaboration, she’s led product teams at Microsoft, Xandr, and CanFigureIt. Desai blends creativity and precision—on and off the clock—as a longtime Doonya Bollywood dance instructor. She’s passionate about building products that are as joyful as they are impactful.

Article: AdTech 2025: AI and Data Drive Marketing’s Future

Pavel Yurovitskiy, Chief Strategy Advisor & Chairman of the Board, KIT Global

Pavel Yurovitskiy is the Chief Strategy Advisor & Chairman of the Board at KIT Global, having previously served as CEO for nearly three years. He is dedicated to guiding the company’s long-term vision and global expansion into new markets, focusing on AI-driven campaign execution, first-party data solutions, and real-time analytics. Yurovitskiy’s approach is driven by bold thinking and data-informed strategies, building impactful partnerships and fostering a culture of diversity, excellence, and innovation within the multicultural team.

Article: AI Transparency: The Next Competitive Advantage

Peo Persson, Co-Founder, DanAds

Peo Persson is the Co-founder of DanAds, a global leader in white-label self-serve ad tech platforms empowering publishers and brands to streamline direct advertising. With a sharp focus on infrastructure software and first-party data solutions, Persson brings over a decade of entrepreneurial and digital strategy expertise. He co-founded Hybris Empire, supporting bold innovators shaping the next tech era. Based in Sweden with strong ties to New York, Persson is passionate about building scalable, user-centric platforms that transform media monetization.

Article: 2025 Ad Trends: AI, Regulation, and Social Media Shifts

Priya Gill, CMO, Iterable

Priya Gill is the CMO of Iterable and former Vice President and Head of Global Marketing at SurveyMonkey, leading a 95+ person team across all marketing functions. Reporting directly to the CEO, she’s focused on strengthening market position and driving revenue for both self-serve and enterprise businesses. With a strong background in product marketing, web strategy, and global experience, including significant roles at Box, Gill is adept at driving incremental revenue through strategic launches and business transformations across diverse global markets.

Article: AI in Marketing: Balance Tech with Human Touch for Impact

Rebecca Peel, Senior Digital PR Account Director, Tank

Rebecca Peel is Tank‘s Senior Digital PR Account Director, leading strategic campaigns that deliver powerful media impact for brands. With nearly a decade of experience spanning digital PR, content, and communications, she’s known for securing top-tier coverage and building meaningful media relationships. Prior to Tank, Peel held senior roles at Hallam and Proactive International PR, driving growth for clients across tech and lifestyle sectors. Her storytelling roots trace back to journalism, where she sharpened her eye for news and narrative.

Article: Cracking the PR Code: Why Your Best Stories Are Hiding in Your Data

Richard Hanscott, CEO, Esendex

Richard Hanscott is the CEO of Esendex and Commify, leading a global portfolio of business messaging brands trusted by over 45,000 businesses. With over two decades of leadership experience across telecom, digital marketing, and enterprise communications, he’s known for driving growth, transformation, and customer-centric innovation. Prior to Commify, Hanscott was CEO at Yell, where he spearheaded its shift to a leading digital services provider for SMBs. He is passionate about making business communication brilliant, scalable, and impactful across markets.

Article: WhatsApp for Business: Beyond Messaging to Customer Engagement

Ron Kaufman, Chief Executive Officer, Uplifting Service

Ron Kaufman is the CEO of Uplifting Service and a globally recognized authority on the psychology of service excellence. Voted the world’s “#1 Customer Service Guru” for five consecutive years, Kaufman has spent decades helping organizations such as Singapore Airlines, Microsoft, and Changi Airport develop self-sustaining service cultures that drive both profit and human well-being. As the author of the New York Times bestseller Uplifting Service, Kaufman advocates for a radical shift in how businesses view “service”—moving it from a department to a core cultural value. His work focuses on transforming service into a competitive advantage, helping leaders navigate a hyper-competitive landscape where customer loyalty is the only true currency of growth.

Article: Why ‘Customer-Centricity’ is the Wrong Question (and What Leaders Should Ask Instead)

Ron Levac, Chief Innovation Officer, Spectrio

Ron Levac is the Chief Innovation Officer at Spectrio, where he leads the effort to bridge the gap between digital strategy and physical retail environments. With a career dedicated to the evolution of “responsive technology,” Levac specializes in leveraging IoT sensors and real-time shopper analytics to transform static stores into hyper-relevant, data-driven experiences. As a former leader at InReality, Levac has a deep pedigree in helping brands and retailers decode in-store behavior to maximize revenue and optimize marketing spend. Today, he oversees Spectrio’s innovation roadmap, focusing on implementing the technical efficiencies and cutting-edge methodologies that allow modern organizations to remain competitive in a rapidly shifting omnichannel landscape.

Article: Is the Store the Next Big Media Channel?

Ross Lewis, Partnerships and Ecosystem Strategy, IPinfo.io

Ross Lewis leads Partnerships and Ecosystem Strategy at IPinfo.io, where he is architecting the next generation of data distribution. A modern sales professional with a focus on long-term relational value, Lewis specializes in building scalable programs that integrate IPinfo’s industry-leading intelligence into diverse global channels. His work is centered on the “omnichannel data” approach—ensuring that high-fidelity IP data is accessible and actionable across all platforms and ecosystems. By designing a distributed network of partnerships, Lewis helps businesses leverage location and network insights to power everything from cybersecurity and fraud detection to hyper-localized marketing experiences.

Article: Adtech’s New Secret Weapon: The IP Signal

Ruchika Batra, Director of Content Marketing & SEO, Birdeye

Ruchika Batra is the Director of Content Marketing & SEO at Birdeye, where she drives strategic content initiatives to fuel demand generation and elevate customer experience. With deep expertise in SaaS marketing, she blends content strategy, SEO, and product messaging to deliver business impact and sales enablement. Batra is known for crafting high-conversion content journeys that resonate with B2B audiences. Outside of work, she channels her creativity into whimsical ceramic pottery.

Article: AI, Storytelling and Trends: Ruchika Batra on Content Marketing

Sai Koppala, CMO, CommerceIQ

Sai Koppala is Chief Marketing Officer at CommerceIQ, where he drives strategies to optimize retail operations and maximize e-commerce growth. With expertise in data-driven marketing, omnichannel retail, and AI-powered commerce solutions, Koppala helps brands navigate complex retail environments and improve performance. He frequently shares insights on modern retail trends and extended sales strategies.

Article: Is Longer Better? The Truth About Extended Retail Sales

Sarita Fernandes, VP of Product Management, Avaya

Sarita Fernandes is the VP of Product Management for the Avaya Infinity Platform, where she is architecting the product strategy for the next generation of customer experience. A veteran of the SaaS and cloud communications sector, Fernandes brings over 15 years of expertise in navigating the complex intersection of high-scale technology and human-centric brand strategy. Her career is defined by an ability to transform sophisticated product capabilities into clear, impactful go-to-market successes. At Avaya, she focuses on the “new era of CX,” helping global enterprises move beyond transactional support to build deep, meaningful connections through integrated communication ecosystems and intelligent automation.

Article: Connection Is the New Currency of Customer Experience

Scott Brinker, Analyst and Advisor, Chiefmartec

Scott Brinker is an analyst and advisor at Chiefmartec, renowned for his expertise at the intersection of marketing, technology, and strategy. He helps organizations navigate the evolving martech landscape, offering insights on integration, innovation, and industry trends. Brinker is widely recognized for his thought leadership on the future of marketing technology and its impact on business growth.

Article: Is MarTech Headed for a Great Merger or Splintered Future? Scott Brinker Has Thoughts

Stamatis Astra, Co-Founder and Chief Business Officer, Intelligent Relations

Stamatis Astra is the Co-Founder and Chief Business Officer at Intelligent Relations, an AI-powered PR firm, where he focuses on product definition and market growth. He’s an expert at taking startups from inception to exit, leveraging AI to help clients secure media coverage, build online presence, and drive conversions. Beyond his entrepreneurial ventures, Astra is also a Venture Partner in private equity, investing in SaaS, IoT, and life-enriching applications, and co-hosts “Grecian Echoes,” a talk show on WNTN-1550 AM.

Article: Can AI in Retail Win Trust Before It Loses Customers?

Ted McNulty, VP of Sales, AdDaptive Intelligence

Ted McNulty is the Vice President of Sales at AdDaptive Intelligence, where he leverages over 20 years of experience to lead high-velocity revenue growth in the AdTech space. A specialist in scaling B2B organizations, McNulty is widely recognized for his ability to build high-performing sales cultures, famously driving a previous organization’s revenue from under $10 million to over $70 million. At AdDaptive, Ted focuses on the intersection of offline and online data, helping brands and agencies execute precise Account-Based Marketing (ABM) at scale. His expertise lies in navigating the complexities of the B2B buyer journey, ensuring that sophisticated data insights translate into measurable business outcomes and long-term client partnerships.

Article: The Canaries of Marketing’s AI Revolution

Thomas Vladeck, Co-Founder and Co-CEO, Recast

Thomas Vladeck is the Co-CEO and Co-Founder of Recast, a marketing science platform that leverages Bayesian statistics and high-performance computing to automate marketing mix modeling (MMM). A practitioner at the intersection of statistics and causal inference, Tom built Recast to solve the “wasted spend” problem, providing brands with near-real-time visibility into the performance of both online and offline channels. Before co-founding Recast, Vladeck founded Gradient Metrics, a quantitative market research firm that provides data-driven strategies for global giants like Amazon, Nike, and McKinsey. An alumnus of Wharton and the London School of Economics, he has also served as an adjunct professor at Columbia Business School, where he specializes in applying state-of-the-art data science to address real-world business challenges.

Article: Marketing Measurement Isn’t a Science — But It Can Be

Tilman Harmeling, Staff Strategy & Market Intelligence, Usercentrics

Tilman Harmeling is a leading voice in data privacy and strategy at Usercentrics, where he serves as Staff Strategy & Market Intelligence. With a career rooted in the intersection of finance, data analytics, and privacy, Harmeling specializes in navigating the technical and business complexities of global regulations like the GDPR and the Digital Markets Act (DMA). He is a pioneer of “Privacy-Led Marketing,” an approach that transforms compliance into a competitive advantage by prioritizing user trust and consent as core brand values. Harmeling is a sought-after speaker at major industry events, including OMR, DMEXCO, and PrivSec Global, and is recognized for his expertise in consent-based marketing, opt-in optimization, and the role of AI in preference management.

Article: How to Win Holiday Sales Without Losing Public Trust

Timm Chiusano, Author, Park & Fine Literary and Media, Creator, Night

Timm Chiusano is an author, creator, and former executive with over 20 years of experience at companies like ABC Sports, ESPN, and Charter Communications. He recently transitioned to focus on his purpose: empowering others to do their best work by being their best selves. A respected leader, Chiusano blends the art and science of marketing to drive dynamic business initiatives, excelling in P&L management, process development, and cross-platform marketing. His first book, HOW TO GET ADDICTED TO APPRECIATION, is set for publication in 2026.

Article: Why Brands Must Build Parasocial Bonds, Not Just Content

Timothy Hughes, CEO and Co-Founder, DLA Ignite

Timothy Hughes is the CEO and Co-founder of DLA Ignite, a pioneer in social selling and digital business transformation. With over eight years at the helm, he has helped global organizations modernize their sales and marketing strategies for the virtual era. A sought-after speaker and top-ranked thought leader, Hughes is also a content creator, RevOps advocate, and instructor featured by ThePowerMBA. His mission is to help businesses shift from analog to digital with measurable, people-led impact.

Article: The Shocking Truth About Your Sales Connections (and Why It’s Killing Deals)

Tomer Felach, Lead Fraud Analyst, DoubleVerify

Tomer Felach is Lead Fraud Analyst at DoubleVerify, specializing in digital media integrity and brand safety. With deep expertise in fraud detection, AI-driven analytics, and online advertising, Felach helps organizations identify and mitigate risks in digital campaigns. He frequently shares insights on emerging threats and maintaining trust in the digital advertising ecosystem.

Article: AI Is Fueling a Surge of Low Quality Recipe Sites

Toussaint Celestin, Principal, AI Product & Industry Marketing, Talkdesk

Toussaint Celestin is the Principal of AI Product & Industry Marketing at Talkdesk, leading the go-to-market strategy for AI-powered customer experience solutions. He crafts compelling product narratives, drives analyst relations, and champions industry social campaigns. With deep expertise in GenAI, LLMs, and conversational AI, Celestin has spearheaded successful product launches that enhance brand-customer interactions. He is recognized for his innovative and collaborative approach to marketing, as well as for shaping the future of CCaaS through his thought leadership.

Article: Elevating CX: How GenAI Bridges Legacy Systems and Innovation

Tyler Loechner, VP of Platform Growth, Pixalate

Tyler Loechner is Vice President of Platform Growth & Research at Pixalate, where he leads initiatives to advance programmatic advertising quality and transparency. With expertise in digital media analytics, fraud prevention, and platform growth strategies, Loechner helps brands and platforms make data-driven decisions to optimize performance. He frequently shares insights on trends shaping the programmatic and ad-tech ecosystem.

Article: Ad Fraud’s Evolving Game: Is Your Platform Ready?

Vanessa Horwell, Chief Strategy Officer, THINKINK

Vanessa Horwell is the Chief Strategy Officer and founder of THINKINK, a specialist communications firm she established over 19 years ago. With a deep passion for brand storytelling, she helps trailblazing companies in sectors such as aviation, hospitality, and retail enhance their visibility and drive tangible business outcomes through integrated PR and marketing programs. Horwell is an expert strategist and problem solver, leveraging her extensive international market knowledge and strong relationships with media and analysts across three continents to craft compelling narratives and impactful campaigns.

Article: Vanessa Horwell Cuts Through B2B Blah With Bold Clarity

Weston Clarke, Director, Product Management, Amplitude

Weston Clarke is a data-driven and customer-obsessed Director of Product Management at Amplitude, where he is actively defining the digital analytics category. With a background spanning computer science and consulting at Accenture, Clarke brings a wealth of experience from building early-stage products at UberEats and launching buy-side revenue products at Redfin. He excels at making product analytics a team sport, focusing on areas like reporting, content organization, and integrations to enhance collaboration.

Article: Personalization: How to Know Your Users’ “Why”?

Will Post, Vice President, Growth (Sales & Partnerships), Measured

Will Post is the Vice President of GTM (Sales and Partnerships) at Measured, bringing a strong track record of success in B2B sales and marketing. He excels at forging C-Level relationships, creating best-in-class marketing solutions, and optimizing strategies to drive client business. With diverse experience across CPG, financial services, and automotive sectors, Post is a proven leader focused on deepening partnerships and generating significant ROI.

Article: Are B2B Marketers Finally Moving Beyond Last-Click?

The post MartechView 2025 Contributors: Shaping the Future of Marketing appeared first on MartechView.

The contact center has historically been measured by speed: how quickly a call is answered, how short a handle time can be and how efficiently an inquiry can be deflected. But speed alone no longer wins loyalty. In today’s experience economy, the metric that matters most is not time saved, but connection earned.

Customers no longer just want resolution; they want recognition. They expect to be understood and supported in ways that reflect who they are, what they value and what they have experienced with your brand before. Connection — the ability to make sure customers are heard, understood and valued — is becoming the defining factor that separates brands that thrive.

This shift mirrors broader cultural and technological changes. As AI tools flood the market, customers are encountering more automation than ever before. Yet even as interactions grow more digital, the desire for human connection deepens. The next era of customer experience involves leveraging technology to support people, enabling them to connect more meaningfully with one another.

From Speed to Connection

Contact centers have long been optimized for efficiency. Faster meant better. However, automation designed solely for speed often strips away empathy, leaving customers feeling like they are just a ticket in a queue instead of a person in a conversation. The new era of CX requires a different approach, one that shifts the focus from containment to connection. It is not just about ending the conversation more quickly; it is about enriching it. Every moment of engagement becomes an opportunity to strengthen trust, deepen loyalty, and drive long-term growth.

Connection begins with context, which transforms data into understanding. It allows organizations to meet customers where they are — across voice, chat, or digital channels — without asking them to repeat themselves or start over each time they switch platforms.

With the introduction of the Model Context Protocol (MCP), the way connections are created inside the contact center is fundamentally transformed. MCP is an emerging interoperability standard that securely links AI systems with enterprise data, providing a universal language for context sharing. When embedded into customer engagement platforms, MCP allows AI to act as a real-time collaborator for both customers and agents. It can recall a customer’s recent purchases, understand their sentiment, recognize a service pattern, or even anticipate their needs before they articulate them, all while maintaining data security and compliance.

Building Loyalty by Empowering Agents

When businesses use context to build a connection, loyalty follows naturally. A customer feels valued when a canceled flight is proactively rebooked before reaching out for assistance. A patient recognizes being heard when their healthcare provider recalls the details of their last appointment without prompting—these moments of connection compound into lasting relationships.

This is the essence of “connection as currency.” Every positive interaction adds value to the relationship. The brands that win tomorrow will be those that invest in that currency today.

With AI and MCP, the contact center is evolving from a cost center focused on transactions into a connection center that powers lasting relationships. AI gives human agents instant insights and suggested actions while handling routine tasks in the background. Human agents, in turn, can focus on the creative, emotional and complex interactions that only people can deliver. Employees feel more empowered and customers feel more connected, creating a shared sense of value that drives loyalty and growth.

Connection Across the Enterprise

The power of connection extends far beyond the contact center. The same principles apply across the enterprise. Sales teams can better understand customer intent, marketing teams can personalize outreach and IT teams can ensure data flows securely between systems. With MCP standardizing how context is shared, every department speaks the same language, grounded in a real-time understanding of the customer journey. That unity of data and intent accelerates innovation and unlocks new value for the business.

None of this matters without trust. As enterprises embrace open AI frameworks, they must prioritize governance, transparency and control. MCP was designed with this in mind. Every data request follows defined access rules and audit logs, ensuring visibility into how information is used. Customers are increasingly aware of how their data powers the experiences they receive. When organizations demonstrate accountability and care in how they handle data, trust becomes the bridge that sustains connections over time.

The Human Dividend

Technology will continue to evolve rapidly, but as our tools become increasingly advanced, the importance of our humanity will only grow. The future of CX is not about humans versus machines. It is about humans and machines working together to create experiences that feel both intelligent and deeply personal.

That is the heart of connection as the new currency. It is not measured in clicks, calls, or resolution times, but in relationships built over time—relationships that are remembered, valued and chosen again and again.

Leaders have a choice: either keep chasing efficiency metrics that no longer inspire loyalty or invest in connections that compound in value. The organizations that make that shift now will be the ones defining the customer experience standard for the next decade.

The post Connection Is the New Currency of Customer Experience appeared first on MartechView.

MartechView’s third edition brings together a diverse lineup of industry leaders, innovators, and sharp minds shaping the future of marketing, AI, data, and customer experience. From C-suite executives to analysts and thought leaders, these contributors share actionable insights on navigating complex digital landscapes, harnessing AI-driven solutions, and driving measurable growth. 

Whether it’s modern retail, programmatic advertising, content strategy, or unified customer data, this edition highlights expertise that blends creativity, technology, and strategy. Explore perspectives that decode emerging trends, reveal operational best practices, and illuminate how businesses can thrive in a rapidly evolving marketing and technology ecosystem.

Bill Schneider, VP of Product Marketing, CommerceIQ

Bill Schneider is the VP of Product Marketing at CommerceIQ, bringing over two decades of expertise in product marketing, communications, and AI-driven commerce solutions. Renowned for pioneering agentic AI and data-integrated strategies, he helps leading brands unlock automation, maximize profitability, and win competitive shelf share in e-commerce. Schneider’s insights regularly inform the commerce industry through research, benchmarking, and expert analysis, driving smarter performance for CPG leaders. He is recognized across the sector for his analytical rigor and forward-thinking leadership in the transformation of retail media.

Article: How CPG Leaders Used AI to Boost Prime Day Sales

Brian Burke, VP of Product, AtData

Brian Burke is VP of Product at AtData, a pioneer in email address intelligence and data security solutions. With over 20 years of experience in product management and software development, he leads product strategy for marketing solutions focused on email validation, identity resolution, and profile enrichment. Burke’s expertise helps marketers build actionable customer profiles, reduce fraud, and enhance data quality while ensuring compliance with privacy regulations. His leadership drives innovation in real-time email behavior analysis, boosting marketing ROI and combating email fraud.

Article: Is Your Email List Truly Clean?

Bridget Reidy, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Exelon

Bridget Reidy serves as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at Exelon, where she oversees information technology, corporate and information security, real estate, transportation, and supply operations for multiple utilities, including ComEd, PECO, and Pepco. With a career spanning leadership roles in supply chain, customer operations, and legal services, she has been instrumental in driving operational excellence and sustainable supply chain initiatives. Reidy previously held senior public service roles in Chicago, including Deputy Chief of Staff to Mayor Richard M. Daley and COO of the Chicago Housing Authority. She is recognized for her strategic approach to security, infrastructure, and corporate governance in the energy sector.

Article: Is Securing Utility Communications Possible Beyond Consumer Apps?

Chris Bretschger, Managing Partner, Bastion Agency

Chris Bretschger is Managing Partner at Bastion Amplify, a full-service digital marketing agency. With over 20 years of integrated marketing experience, he has led brand development, data-driven campaigns, and analytics strategies for major clients including Mazda, Adidas, and Kia. Chris combines creativity with technical insights in SEO, SEM, social media, and content marketing to deliver measurable results. Beyond marketing, he is passionate about mentoring teams and sailing, embodying a spirit of leadership and innovation.

Article: Using Behavioral Data to Drive Authentic Customer Relationships in a Digital World

Dean de la Peña, VP, Identity, Data Strategy and SaaS, Resonate

Dean de la Peña is a highly experienced VP of Identity, Data Strategy, and SaaS at Resonate. He is known for building outstanding teams and scaling technology and AI companies. With over 16 years of success, he played a key role in Mastercard’s $600M acquisition of Applied Predictive Technologies. He champions combining human empathy with data-driven analytics to uncover truth, demonstrating a strong track record in driving significant revenue growth and client profitability.

Article: How is AI Reshaping MarTech for a Privacy-First Future?

Edward Barnfield, Partner, Wallis

Edward Barnfield is a Partner at Wallis, a leading communications firm serving the Middle East, North Africa, and Southwest Asia. With over 20 years of experience in corporate communications, he specializes in crisis management, strategic advisory, and media relations. Barnfield is known for his ability to craft clear, reliable narratives that resonate with diverse audiences and navigate complex regional dynamics. His expertise helps global tech brands manage reputation in fast-evolving environments.

Article: The New Rules of Crisis Communication: Lessons from Global Tech Brands

Eleanor Hecks, Editor-in-Chief, Designerly Magazine

Eleanor Hecks is Editor-in-Chief of Designerly Magazine, where she champions thoughtful design and editorial innovation. With a career spanning editorial leadership and digital content strategy, Hecks focuses on creating authentic, user-centric stories that engage creative professionals and marketers alike. She is passionate about privacy, personalization, and the evolving role of marketers in a data-conscious world.

Article: Can Marketers Personalize Without Invading Privacy?

Elizabeth Maxson, CMO, Contentful

Elizabeth Maxson is Chief Marketing Officer at Contentful, driving brand strategy and product marketing for one of the leading content platforms. With extensive experience in agile marketing, AI composability, and creative innovation, Maxson spearheads initiatives that align marketing with customer-centric digital transformation. She is recognized for blending creativity and technology to accelerate business growth and deliver seamless customer experiences.

Article: Agile Marketers Win: Elizabeth Maxson on AI, Composability and Creativity

Gavin Sweeney, Chief Revenue Officer, CarTrawler

Gavin Sweeney is Chief Revenue Officer at CarTrawler, leading the trading, data science, and insights teams at this leading B2B technology provider for global car rental and mobility solutions. With a background in economics and digital marketing, Sweeney has over a decade of experience driving commercial performance and strategic growth in travel and gaming sectors. He excels in leveraging data-driven analytics and market insights to optimize partner car hire propositions and revenue.

Article: Can AI Finally Fix the Travel Planning Mess?

Guru Hariharan, CEO, CommerceIQ

Guru Hariharan is CEO of CommerceIQ, a company specializing in AI-powered retail solutions to help brands improve ecommerce performance and profitability. He brings extensive leadership experience in product innovation, AI integration, and go-to-market strategy for retail and consumer tech companies. Hariharan focuses on empowering brands with intelligent automation to close sales gaps and optimize supply chains in a rapidly evolving digital marketplace.

Article: The Treat Economy: How Small Luxuries Boost Retail Returns

James Evans, Director, Head of AI, Amplitude

James Evans serves as Director and Head of AI at Amplitude, where he leads AI strategy and product development for the customer analytics platform. His expertise lies in designing and scaling AI solutions that enhance product intelligence, customer insights, and data-driven decision-making. Evans is recognized for advancing the role of machine learning in transforming how companies understand user behavior and optimize digital experiences.

Article: James Evans on Amplitude’s Bold AI Vision and Strategy

Jane Qin Medeiros, GM/EVP – Brand and Content Solutions Group, Informa TechTarget

Jane Qin Medeiros serves as GM/EVP of the Brand and Content Solutions Group at Informa TechTarget, where she leads initiatives that help B2B brands navigate complex marketing landscapes. With deep expertise in content strategy and demand generation, she focuses on bridging insights and execution to drive measurable impact for clients. She frequently shares thought leadership on effective B2B marketing strategies and navigating the “dark funnel.”

Article: Is Your B2B Strategy Lost in the Dark Funnel?

Jason Swartz, Vice President of Addressable Television and Digital, New York Interconnect

Jason Swartz is Vice President of Addressable Television and Digital at New York Interconnect, where he drives innovation in precision-targeted advertising across linear and streaming platforms. With extensive experience in programmatic TV and digital media, Swartz helps brands harness data-driven strategies to reach audiences more effectively. He regularly contributes insights on the evolving landscape of streaming and addressable advertising.

Article: Streaming Ads Enter a New Era of Precision

Joshua Johnson, Area Vice President, Data Licensing, Dun & Bradstreet

Joshua Johnson is Area Vice President of Data Licensing at Dun & Bradstreet, specializing in helping marketers unlock the power of unified customer profiles. With expertise in data strategy and analytics, Jonson focuses on enabling businesses to bridge data silos and drive smarter, more personalized marketing decisions. He frequently shares insights on how accurate, connected data fuels measurable growth.

Article: Blurring Boundaries: Why Marketers Need Unified Profiles

Justin Choi, Founder and CEO, Nativo

Justin Choi is the Founder and CEO of Nativo, where he leads the company in redefining native advertising through innovative, AI-driven solutions. With a strong background in ad tech and digital media, Choi focuses on leveraging agentic AI to transform how brands engage audiences and optimize campaigns. He is a recognized thought leader in the intersection of AI and advertising.

Article: Is Agentic AI Turning Ads into On-Demand Services?

Katie Spurkeland, Director of Product Marketing, Partnerize

Katie Spurkeland is Director of Product Marketing at Partnerize, where she drives strategies to unlock growth through partnerships and mobile engagement. With expertise in tracking, analytics, and performance marketing, Spurkeland helps brands maximize revenue and optimize partner-driven campaigns. She frequently shares insights on how data and technology power modern partnership marketing.

Article: Unlocking Mobile Growth: Why Tracking Powers Partnerships

Marcelo Parravicini, CEO, Cygnus Marketing Communications Inc.

Marcelo Parravicini is CEO of Cygnus Marketing Communications Inc., where he leads strategies to enhance operational efficiency and optimize enrollment systems. With extensive experience in marketing operations and client-focused solutions, Parravicini helps organizations implement scalable frameworks that drive measurable results. He frequently shares insights on the intersection of marketing strategy and operational execution.

Article: Why Enrollment Systems Fail Without an Operational Blueprint

Nadjya Ghausi, CMO, SearchStax

Nadjya Ghausi is Chief Marketing Officer at SearchStax, where she leads initiatives to help brands engage the search-first consumer. With deep expertise in search technology, digital marketing, and customer experience, Ghausi focuses on enabling marketers to deliver relevant, data-driven experiences. She regularly shares insights on optimizing search strategies in an evolving digital landscape.

Article: Marketers, Are You Ready for the Search-First Consumer?

Sai Koppala, Chief Marketing Officer, CommerceIQ

Sai Koppala is Chief Marketing Officer at CommerceIQ, where he drives strategies to optimize retail operations and maximize e-commerce growth. With expertise in data-driven marketing, omnichannel retail, and AI-powered commerce solutions, Koppala helps brands navigate complex retail environments and improve performance. He frequently shares insights on modern retail trends and extended sales strategies.

Article: Is Longer Better? The Truth About Extended Retail Sales

Scott Brinker, Analyst & Advisor, Chiefmartec

Scott Brinker is an analyst and advisor at Chiefmartec, renowned for his expertise at the intersection of marketing, technology, and strategy. He helps organizations navigate the evolving martech landscape, offering insights on integration, innovation, and industry trends. Brinker is widely recognized for his thought leadership on the future of marketing technology and its impact on business growth.

Article: Is MarTech Headed for a Great Merger or Splintered Future? Scott Brinker Has Thoughts

Tomer Felach, Lead Fraud Analyst, DoubleVerify

Tomer Felach is Lead Fraud Analyst at DoubleVerify, specializing in digital media integrity and brand safety. With deep expertise in fraud detection, AI-driven analytics, and online advertising, Felach helps organizations identify and mitigate risks in digital campaigns. He frequently shares insights on emerging threats and maintaining trust in the digital advertising ecosystem.

Article: AI Is Fueling a Surge of Low Quality Recipe Sites

Tyler Loechner, VP of Platform Growth & Research, Pixalate

Tyler Loechner is Vice President of Platform Growth & Research at Pixalate, where he leads initiatives to advance programmatic advertising quality and transparency. With expertise in digital media analytics, fraud prevention, and platform growth strategies, Loechner helps brands and platforms make data-driven decisions to optimize performance. He frequently shares insights on trends shaping the programmatic and ad-tech ecosystem.

Article: Ad Fraud’s Evolving Game: Is Your Platform Ready?

The post Edition 3: Sharp Minds Decoding Tech’s Next Wave appeared first on MartechView.

NiCE announced the successful closing of its acquisition of Cognigy, a recognized leader in enterprise-grade conversational and agentic AI, following receipt of all required regulatory approvals. This brings together two AI industry leaders, each with a proven track record of market leadership, innovation, and customer impact to accelerate AI adoption in customer experience across the front and back office.

By bringing together Cognigy’s AI and NiCE’s award-winning CXone Mpower CX AI platform, organizations of all sizes will transform how they deliver AI-powered customer experience. Cognigy conversational and agentic AI will be enriched with NiCE’s purpose-built CX AI models leveraging decades of CX intelligence, making agents smarter, deployments faster and outcomes more impactful. With this unified power, organizations can scale agentic and conversational AI at speed across CXone Mpower, delivering seamless, intelligent experiences across every customer touchpoint, from the contact center to enterprise-deep workflows.

Both NiCE and Cognigy are leaders in their respective categories for Gartner, Forrester and IDC. Their trusted, third-party-validated capabilities come together to drive AI-first customer experience. To ensure customers have the most flexibility and seamless access to these capabilities, Cognigy will be available both as part of the unified CXone Mpower platform and as a standalone offering.

“This accelerates our vision for AI-first customer experience,” said Philipp Heltewig, former CEO and co-founder of Cognigy and now General Manager, NiCE Cognigy and Chief AI Officer. “With NiCE, we’re expanding our reach and joining forces with the leader in cloud CX to redefine what’s possible, all while continuing to serve our customers as a trusted partner for innovation, speed, and enterprise-grade AI.”

Scott Russell, CEO, NiCE, said, “With the completion of this acquisition, we are bringing together two AI market leaders to redefine the future of customer experience. Together, we are accelerating AI adoption and value realization for global enterprises by delivering one of the industry’s most powerful and comprehensive customer experience platforms leveraging CX models and agentic and human agents powered by decades of CX purpose-built data and insights. We are committed to delivering connected, seamless and intelligent customer experiences around the world.”

The post NiCE Acquires Cognigy to Advance AI-Driven CX appeared first on MartechView.

Natterbox, the AI-powered contact center provider, launches AI Assistants and AI Agents—part of its dynamic AI workforce fully integrated into the world’s #1 CRM. These are designed to cut call queues, reduce costs, and free up human agents to focus on higher-value interactions that drive loyalty and growth.

The AI Assistants can handle up to 70% of routine customer queries such as answering frequently asked questions or checking order statuses, while AI Agents go further by completing end-to-end tasks like processing refunds, scheduling appointments, and cancelling orders, all without human intervention.

This powerful combination helps businesses scale support without increasing headcount; delivering faster, smarter service across voice, SMS, and WhatsApp.

Key benefits:

• Eliminate queues: AI Assistants and AI Agents ensure that customers do not have to wait until a human agent is available before their call is answered. AI Assistants act as an instant first point of contact for customers and will escalate any queries that cannot be resolved immediately.
  
• Intelligent escalation: The AI can be trained to identify cues from customers such as keywords or emotional signs to know when to pass to a human agent to avoid a negative customer experience. When a query is escalated, it is automatically routed to a specialized human agent with a summary of the query, ensuring customers do not have to repeat themselves.
  
• Empower human agents: AI Assistants and AI Agents handle repetitive FAQs and time-consuming tasks such as updating passwords without human input. This empowers human agents to focus on solving more demanding and intricate cases.
  
• Provide 24/7 customer service: AI Assistants and AI Agents enable businesses to offer round-the-clock customer support without paying out of pocket for out-of-hours human agents.

Neil Hammerton, CEO and Co-Founder at Natterbox, said: “This is a critical shift in the contact center industry. Human agents should not be wasting time and talent answering basic questions and resetting passwords. This is both expensive and demoralizing.

“With AI Assistants and AI Agents, the AI workforce does what it does best: handle repetitive, resource-intensive queries so that human agents can focus on delivering real value to customers.”

AI Assistants and Agents from Natterbox, can be trained using as little as a website or PDF, allowing companies to get started quickly without requiring a data transformation project. Thanks to an intuitive workflow drag-and-drop set up, businesses can easily integrate AI Assistants and AI Agents into existing routing frameworks without the need for resource-intensive reconfigurations. 

Early adopters such as We Buy Any Home are already seeing positive results, using AI Assistants to qualify leads and free up teams for more complex queries.

“By integrating the AI Agents into our existing Natterbox platform, we’ve been able to answer and successfully handle 1,000 more customer calls every month. This has been a massive driver of business and has helped us optimize our customer service from end-to-end.

“Natterbox’s advanced technology ensures that our agents can focus on more complex, value-driven tasks and that our customers do not have to wait before their call is answered. This has empowered us to drop our overflow answering service which was previously costing us a huge amount.

“We’ve also seen the benefits of using Natterbox for tracking customer queries with all call information automatically logged into our CRM, saving our agents from manual data entry and guaranteeing accessible and up-to-date information. We’re only at the beginning of our journey with Natterbox but I cannot wait to leverage their solutions to continue to deliver seamless and valuable support across the business.”

AI Assistants and AI Agents build on Natterbox’s growing suite of AI-powered solutions which includes AI Advisor, a solution that automates post-call summaries, updates CRM records and delivers live coaching insights to agents and their managers.

The post Natterbox AI Boosts Contact Centers appeared first on MartechView.

MartechView brings together a powerhouse roster of marketing innovators, data strategists, and AI pioneers who are redefining the future of customer engagement. From composable CDPs to privacy-first strategies and breakthrough personalization, this edition’s contributors represent a dynamic cross-section of leaders pushing marketing technology to new heights.

They unpack the changing face of customer experience in an omnichannel world, challenge the status quo on data strategies, and explore how AI is transforming every facet of marketing—from campaign execution and media buying to content creation and customer insights. Whether you’re navigating data clouds, scaling personalized experiences, or reimagining engagement, these expert perspectives offer the strategies, inspiration, and foresight to help you thrive in an increasingly complex, AI-powered marketing ecosystem.

Adam Greco, Product Evangelist, Hightouch

Adam Greco is a distinguished Product Evangelist at Hightouch, where he champions Composable CDP and AI Decisioning. With a profound background in digital analytics, he’s recognized for authoring the definitive book on Adobe Analytics and founding the free Search Discovery Education Community. Greco empowers companies to extract maximum value from their digital data, continually pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in the field.

Article: Adam Greco on the Future of CDPs: AI, Data Activation, and the Composable Revolution

David Joosten, Co-founder and President, GrowthLoop

David Joosten is the Co-founder and President of GrowthLoop, a pioneering composable CDP leveraging the data cloud and AI to revolutionize marketing. With a passion for empowering marketers, he’s dedicated to transforming teams into agile experimenters by removing data friction and unlocking insights from first-party data. Joosten’s entrepreneurial spirit, experience advising major brands, and background at Google drive his commitment to building intelligent, data-driven customer journeys.

Article: David Joosten Reveals AI and Data Blueprint for Privacy-First Marketing

Dean de la Peña, VP, Identity, Data Strategy and SaaS, Resonate

Dean de la Peña is a highly experienced VP of Identity, Data Strategy, and SaaS at Resonate. He is known for building outstanding teams and scaling technology and AI companies. With over 16 years of success, he played a key role in Mastercard’s $600M acquisition of Applied Predictive Technologies. He champions combining human empathy with data-driven analytics to uncover truth, demonstrating a strong track record in driving significant revenue growth and client profitability.

Article: From Buzzword to Breakthrough: Can AI Finally Deliver True Personalization?

Deborah Knight, Director, Kaptive CX

Deborah Knight is the Director of Kaptive CX, leveraging over two decades of expertise to craft compelling customer experiences and drive growth. She excels at developing high-performance strategies and boasts a proven track record in customer retention, evidenced by her global impact on Doctify’s customer strategy. Knight is also passionate about coaching and helping teams take ownership of financial metrics and thrive while implementing scalable digital-first initiatives for enhanced engagement and efficiency.

Article: What Does Modern Customer Experience Look Like in 2025?

Gianluca Ferruggia, General Manager, DesignRush

Gianluca Ferruggia is the General Manager at DesignRush, a leading B2B marketplace that connects businesses with verified agencies. With a decade of experience, he’s an expert in B2B marketplaces known for building projects from inception and driving significant growth, including a 3,200% revenue increase for DesignRush. Ferruggia oversees all aspects of operations, content, digital marketing, SEO, finance, and sales, leading a team of 130 employees while also contributing editorially to Forbes Councils.

Article: What the Latest Marketing Stats Reveal About Your Brand

Guy Marion, Chief Marketing Officer, Chargebee

Guy Marion is the Chief Marketing Officer at Chargebee, a role he’s held since April 2023, following his tenure as General Manager of Chargebee Retention (formerly Brightback, which he founded). A revenue-focused SaaS leader, he boasts extensive experience in growing Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) from $0M to $150M. Marion specializes in defining unique go-to-market strategies, building world-class teams, and accelerating revenue through diverse sales channels, with expertise spanning marketing, product, growth, and sales functions across various SaaS domains.

Article: Is Smart Monetization the New Product Differentiator?

Jeff Kaplan, CEO, TARA Media

Jeff Kaplan is the CEO and Co-Founder of TARA Media Strategies (formerly Popsycle Digital), a data-driven performance marketing agency. With 25 years of experience, he’s an award-winning marketing professional with deep expertise in direct marketing, sales, and management. A self-proclaimed “data geek,” Kaplan is passionate about leveraging insights to help companies reach their full potential and achieve their client goals in the ever-evolving omnichannel marketing ecosystem.

Article: Jeff Kaplan on AI, Ad Fraud, and the Future of Media Buying

Joey Petracca, COO and Co-founder, Chicory

Joey Petracca is the Co-founder and COO of Chicory, a leading contextual commerce advertising platform. He has been instrumental in the company’s growth since its inception in 2012, helping to transform recipe content into commerce media for CPG brands, retailers, and publishers. Joey’s expertise lies in the future of grocery and food technology innovation, focusing on how data strategies can empower marketers to drive growth. He oversees product and engineering, and plays a key role in the conception, development, and positioning of Chicory’s advertising solutions.

Article: What If Your Favorite Recipe Could Shop for You?

Kevin O’Malley, Co-Founder, AdDaptive

Kevin O’Malley is the Co-Founder of AdDaptive Intelligence, a leading account-based advertising platform he started in March 2010. He has been instrumental in building a company focused on bridging offline and online data to optimize B2B advertising campaigns. His vision ensures that transparent analytics helps B2B marketers reach key accounts and decision-makers effectively. Under his leadership, AdDaptive has remained self-funded, driving continuous profitability and expansion in the ad tech industry.

Article: Why Marketers Need a Data Diet in the Age of AI Overload

Lee Hammond, Customer Data Strategy and Solutions, KLH

Lee Hammond is an accomplished marketing technology professional who previously served as an industry principal at the Marketing Data Cloud Practice in Hakkoda. In that role, he specialized in helping companies build modern marketing technology stacks on top of Snowflake’s Data Cloud. His expertise lies in customer data activation, having also optimized MarTech stacks at Universal Music Group to unify fan data and personalize experiences. Currently, as a Customer Data Strategy and Solutions consultant at KLH, Hammond continues to guide organizations toward a warehouse-first approach for their customer data, offering strategic recommendations and solutions.

Article: Is Your CDP a Dinosaur in a Composable World?

Liz Carter, CMO, Reputation

Liz Carter is a highly experienced Chief Marketing Officer at Reputation, a leader in software technology and services. With a robust background in the SaaS industry, she has hands-on experience navigating IPO processes, acquisitions, and integrations for both venture-backed and PE-backed businesses. Carter is skilled in various facets of marketing, including corporate communications, branding, demand generation, and multi-channel strategies. She is also a dedicated Board Member at Razing the Bar, supporting underserved youth populations.

Article: “Your Brand Is What Barbara Says It Is”: Liz Carter on the Feedback-Fueled Future of Marketing

Marianna Mankle, Associate Content Marketing Manager, Siege Media

Marianna Mankle is an Associate Content Marketing Manager at Siege Media, a prominent agency specializing in SEO, content marketing, and digital PR. With a strong passion for storytelling, she focuses on harnessing this “superpower” to help companies achieve their marketing and SEO goals. Mankle brings a solid background in content creation, strategy, editing, and project management, previously serving as a Senior Content Marketing Specialist and Content Strategist. She leverages her expertise to craft compelling narratives that resonate with audiences and drive organic growth.

Article: Why Sales Teams Can’t Afford to Skip AI Training

Natalie Severt, Marketing Director, Intelligent Relations

Natalie Severt is a dynamic Marketing Director at Intelligent Relations, specializing in AI public relations and SaaS. With over 8 years in SEO management and 11 years in content management, she’s an expert at crafting and executing comprehensive marketing and PR strategies that drive brand awareness, traffic, leads, and ultimately, sales. Severt excels at integrating diverse marketing channels—including social media, email, and product marketing—to achieve impactful results and has a proven track record of boosting organic traffic and conversion rates.

Article: What Do AI-Driven News Feeds Mean for PR?

Pavel Yurovitsky, CEO, KIT Global

Pavel Yurovitsky is the Chief Strategy Advisor & Chairman of the Board at KIT Global, having previously served as CEO for nearly three years. He is dedicated to guiding the company’s long-term vision and global expansion into new markets, focusing on AI-driven campaign execution, first-party data solutions, and real-time analytics. Yurovitsky’s approach is driven by bold thinking and data-informed strategies, building impactful partnerships and fostering a culture of diversity, excellence, and innovation within the multicultural team.

Article: AI Transparency: The Next Competitive Advantage

Priya Gill, Vice President and Head of Global Marketing, SurveyMonkey

Priya Gill is the Vice President and Head of Global Marketing at SurveyMonkey, leading a 95+ person team across all marketing functions. Reporting directly to the CEO, she’s focused on strengthening market position and driving revenue for both self-serve and enterprise businesses. With a strong background in product marketing, web strategy, and global experience, including significant roles at Box, Gill is adept at driving incremental revenue through strategic launches and business transformations across diverse global markets.

Article: AI in Marketing: Balance Tech with Human Touch for Impact

Stamatis Astra, Co-Founder and Chief Business Officer, Intelligent Relations

Stamatis Astra is the Co-Founder and Chief Business Officer at Intelligent Relations, an AI-powered PR firm, where he focuses on product definition and market growth. He’s an expert at taking startups from inception to exit, leveraging AI to help clients secure media coverage, build online presence, and drive conversions. Beyond his entrepreneurial ventures, Astra is also a Venture Partner in private equity, investing in SaaS, IoT, and life-enriching applications, and co-hosts “Grecian Echoes,” a talk show on WNTN-1550 AM.

Article: Can AI in Retail Win Trust Before It Loses Customers?

Timm Chiusano, Author, Park & Fine Literary and Media, Creator, Night

Timm Chiusano is an author, creator, and former executive with over 20 years of experience at companies like ABC Sports, ESPN, and Charter Communications. He recently transitioned to focus on his purpose: empowering others to do their best work by being their best selves. A respected leader, Chiusano blends the art and science of marketing to drive dynamic business initiatives, excelling in P&L management, process development, and cross-platform marketing. His first book, HOW TO GET ADDICTED TO APPRECIATION, is set for publication in 2026.

Article: Why Brands Must Build Parasocial Bonds, Not Just Content

Vanessa Horwell, Chief Strategy Officer, THINKINK

Vanessa Horwell is the Chief Strategy Officer and founder of THINKINK, a specialist communications firm she established over 19 years ago. With a deep passion for brand storytelling, she helps trailblazing companies in sectors like airline/aviation, hospitality, and retail improve their visibility and drive real business outcomes through integrated PR and marketing programs. Horwell is an expert strategist and problem solver, leveraging her extensive international market knowledge and strong relationships with media and analysts across three continents to craft compelling narratives and impactful campaigns.

Article: Vanessa Horwell Cuts Through B2B Blah With Bold Clarity

Weston Clarke, Director, Product Management, Amplitude

Weston Clarke is a data-driven and customer-obsessed Director of Product Management at Amplitude, where he is actively defining the digital analytics category. With a background spanning computer science and consulting at Accenture, Clarke brings a wealth of experience from building early-stage products at UberEats and launching buy-side revenue products at Redfin. He excels at making product analytics a team sport, focusing on areas like reporting, content organization, and integrations to enhance collaboration.

Article: Personalization: How to Know Your Users’ “Why”?

Will Post, Vice President, GTM (Sales and Partnerships), Measured

Will Post is the Vice President of GTM (Sales and Partnerships) at Measured, bringing a strong track record of success in B2B sales and marketing. He excels at forging C-Level relationships, creating best-in-class marketing solutions, and optimizing strategies to drive client business. With diverse experience across CPG, financial services, and automotive sectors, Post is a proven leader focused on deepening partnerships and generating significant ROI.

Article: Are B2B Marketers Finally Moving Beyond Last-Click?

Also Read: Edition 1: Sharp Minds Decoding Tech’s Next Wave

The post Edition 2: Sharp Minds Decoding Tech’s Next Wave appeared first on MartechView.

Krisp, the leader in AI-powered voice technology, announced today the launch of its real-time Voice AI Platform for call centers. Unveiled at CCW Vegas, the new platform offering marks a turning point in how contact centers equip their agents with AI by providing access to AI Noise Cancellation, AI Accent Conversion, AI Live Interpreter for speech-to-speech translation, and AI Agent Assist tools in one seamless solution.

Today’s contact center teams are under increasing pressure to deliver high-quality interactions while balancing complex customer expectations, rapid automation, and shrinking margins. With access to a single streamlined platform, Krisp empowers agents with the tools to work faster, speak clearly, and support customers worldwide without losing the human touch or compromising on security, latency, or voice quality. The platform also provides access to Krisp’s best-in-class noise cancellation engine and voice isolation while backed by enterprise-grade security, privacy, and scalability.

“We’re not launching a product, we’re launching a new standard,” said Davit Baghdasaryan, CEO and Co-Founder at Krisp. “This platform goes beyond another AI tool used in contact centers. Krisp is transforming human agent performance in contact centers by empowering agents with the technology to overcome key barriers to high-quality service. With the best real-time voice AI tech in the world, support for global teams, and a price point no one can match, this is how contact centers move forward.”

Platform users will also gain access to Krisp’s latest AI Accent Conversion updates, which now support five Latin American English accents that represent approximately 85% of Spanish speakers across the major dialect groups in Latin America, including Mexican and Central American, Caribbean Spanish, and Andean Spanish/Neutral Standard Spanish.

Also Read: David Joosten Reveals AI and Data Blueprint for Privacy-First Marketing

The new Voice AI Platform provides access to the following features with recent updates:

• AI Accent Conversion v3.5: Support for three accent packs, including Latin American English (new), Indian English, and Filipino English, with its latest model, v3.5, delivering industry-leading phoneme precision, voice clarity, and natural-sounding speech.
• AI Live Interpreter: Bidirectional speech-to-speech translation for 80+ languages, with real-time bi-lingual transcription shown to the agent for more productive conversation handling.
• AI Agent Assist: Full call lifecycle, AI-powered Knowledge Chat with answers based on call context and centralized knowledge base for agents, and after-call summaries with follow-up actions, call statistics, and performance feedback.
• AI Noise Cancellation: Bidirectional background voice and noise cancellation for unmatched call clarity on both sides of the call.

The post Krisp Unveils Real-time Voice AI for Call Centers appeared first on MartechView.

8×8, Inc., the industry’s most integrated Platform for CX that combines Contact Center, Unified Communication, and CPaaS APIs, today announced that the strong desire for personalized, AI-powered self-service engagement options and channels is driving increased customer interactions across 8×8 CPaaS APIs. As a result, 8×8 CPaaS API customer interactions increased more than 43% year-over-year as of the fiscal year 2025 third quarter ended December 31, 2024.

“Customers today expect to be able to interact with their brands of choice across their channel of choice – whether that’s voice, messaging, or video. Now, more than ever, it’s important that brands are agile and able to provide the engagement options that customers are looking for,” said Stephen Hamill, General Manager, CPaaS at 8×8, Inc. “A huge push in this area is AI-driven self-service options. 8×8 CPaaS APIs are fueling AI utilization in companies by supporting AI-powered chatbots via WhatsApp and SMS, as well as voice-based talk bots, allowing customers to really choose the “when,” “where,” and “how” when it comes to customer engagement.”

Organizations have turned toward 8×8 CPaaS APIs to power customer engagements across multiple touchpoints. Year-over-year business operational highlights as of December 31, 2024, the end of 8×8’s FY25 Q3, included:

• The total number of 8×8 CPaaS API customer interactions in the third quarter grew over 43% across messaging, voice, and video channels, compared to FY24 Q3.
• The total number of interactions reached almost half a billion per month in December 2024, an increase of 59% compared to December 2023.
• SMS interactions increased 41% and grew over 26% quarter-over-quarter from FY25 Q2 to Q3.
• Average customer onboarding time was reduced to one day.

Also Read: Oracle’s Adtech Exit: A Ripple Effect on the Industry

Recent 8×8 CPaaS API enhancements in FY25 include:

• Voice Bots for Billing and Payments: 8×8 voice bots streamline billing by automating payment reminders, debt negotiations, and more, reducing manual labor costs. Organizations can boost responsiveness through number anonymization, follow up with SMS, and by capturing every interaction with call recording and speech recognition.
• Silent Mobile Authentication for CPaaS Customers: Provides a seamless method of mobile verification, allowing users to verify phone numbers with just one click and without manual input. Instead of receiving and entering a code, users are automatically verified based on their network IP. This approach enhances security and delivers a smoother experience when accessing mobile services or applications.
• WhatsApp Integrations and AI-Powered Chatbots: 8×8 WhatsApp messaging capabilities are now natively integrated into customer engagement platforms CleverTap and MoEngage, enabling seamless and efficient communication. Additionally, businesses can leverage AI-powered chatbots on WhatsApp to automate interactions, enhance response times, and deliver personalized support at scale.
• Seamless and Secure Authentication with Verif8: A next-generation authentication solution designed for effortless security and compliance. With self-service multichannel OTP authentication via SMS, Viber, and voice, businesses can enhance user verification while minimizing friction. Featuring 43 pre-built localized message templates, self-onboarding, and flexible Sender ID options, Verif8 streamlines authentication while maintaining the highest standards of security.

8×8 CPaaS APIs power essential business functions like authentication and fraud prevention, marketing and communications, customer support, and operations. With omnichannel messaging—including SMS, messaging apps, voice, and video interaction—it serves as a key enabler of business communications and customer experience in an ever-evolving digital transformation. It is a core component of the 8×8 Platform for CX, which seamlessly unites contact center, unified communications, and CPaaS APIs to help organizations connect customers and teams globally, empowering CX leaders with AI-powered performance and insights to make smarter decisions, delight customers, and drive lasting business impact.

Also Read: The Role of Product Analytics in Shaping Business Decisions

Caution Concerning Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements including those related to our CX transformation, CPaaS API growth, and new 8×8 CPaaS API product enhancements. Readers are cautioned that such forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual events or our actual results to differ materially from those expressed in any such forward-looking statements. Readers are directed to 8×8’s periodic and other reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for a description of such risks and uncertainties. These risks could reduce the growth of our CX business and contact center momentum which could impact our revenues and profitability. 8×8 undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements.

The post 8×8 CPaaS API Interactions Surge 43% on AI Demand appeared first on MartechView.