The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX

Mike Kaput, Chief Content Officer at Marketing AI Institute, joins Greg Kihlström to unpack the gap between an AI pilot that demos well and an AI capability the enterprise can actually run on.
"AI strategy" describes very different things at different companies. Kaput on what he finds underneath the phrase once you start asking what the systems actually do, and who is accountable when they do it wrong.
The pilot-to-production gap is an operating problem, not a technology one. What changes about marketing operations, decision ownership, and oversight when execution moves to machines and the team's job shifts toward judgment.
Hours saved is not a business case. How more mature organizations connect AI work to outcomes a CFO recognizes — and how a marketing leader spots a brand becoming faster and less consistent at the same time.

About Mike Kaput
Mike Kaput is a recognized expert on marketing, content, and artificial intelligence. He is also a writer, speaker, and author. Mike currently serves as Chief Content Officer at Marketing AI Institute, where he uses marketing, content, and AI to grow traffic, leads, and revenue. Mike previously served in a marketing leadership role at HubSpot's first-ever partner agency.

Mike Kaput on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikekaput/

---------- Resources ----------

: marketingaiinstitute.com

The Agile Brand podcast is brought to you by TEKsystems. Learn more here: https://aglbrnd.co/r/2868abd8085a9703

Reach your customers with Reddit. Spend $500 in ad spend, get $500 back in ad credit! Learn more: https://advertalize.com/r/491818c79fb1873f

Enjoyed the show? Tell us more at and give us a rating so others can find the show at: https://aglbrnd.co/r/faaed112fc9887f3

Connect with Greg on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregkihlstrom

Don't miss a thing: get the latest episodes, sign up for our newsletter and more: https://aglbrnd.co/r/35ded3ccfb6716ba

Check out The Agile Brand Guide website with articles, insights, and Martechipedia, the wiki for marketing technology: https://www.agilebrandguide.com

The Agile Brand is produced by Missing Link—a Latina-owned strategy-driven, creatively fueled production co-op. From ideation to creation, they craft human connections through intelligent, engaging and informative content. https://www.missinglink.company
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Melissa Ryan, Senior Digital Marketing Manager at Federated Hermes, moved a global investment manager's website onto Optimizely and found the technology was the easy part. She joins Greg Kihlström at Opticon.
A migration surfaces the questions nobody had to answer before. Who owns a page, who signs off, and what finally gets retired all become unavoidable once the platform changes — and settling them is harder than the build.
Segmentation runs on self-declaration until it doesn't. Financial advisors, institutional investors, and individual investors need genuinely different content, and Ryan gets into the gap between what visitors tell you about themselves and what their behavior reveals.
"AI" hides two very different decisions. A tool that speeds up a human's draft is not the same commitment as a system that produces and ships on its own — Ryan on which one is realistically usable inside a regulated firm in the next year.

About Melissa Ryan
Melissa Ryan is Vice President and Senior Digital Marketing Manager at Federated Hermes, where she leads strategic digital initiatives that strengthen the firm’s global brand and advance key marketing objectives. She specializes in transforming business goals into scalable, data-driven solutions that improve efficiency, enhance stakeholder engagement, and drive innovation across digital channels. Melissa has extensive experience leading complex cross-functional projects and delivering executive-level insights that support strategic decision-making. She holds an MBA in Management from Point Park University and a BA in Media Communications and Social Science from the University of Pittsburgh.

Melissa Ryan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melissa-ryan-9a446411/

---------- Resources ----------

: https://www.federatedhermes.com/

The Agile Brand podcast is brought to you by TEKsystems. Learn more here: https://aglbrnd.co/r/2868abd8085a9703

We’re proud to be a media partner for #MAICON26 - Oct. 13-15! Learn how AI can power your marketing and business and help you grow smarter. Use code AGILE150 to save! https://aglbrnd.co/r/7fe458ced0f04658

Reach your customers with Reddit. Spend $500 in ad spend, get $500 back in ad credit! Learn more: https://advertalize.com/r/491818c79fb1873f

Chaser is the only Slack-native project management platform that helps teams turn messages into tracked tasks, automate follow-ups, and maintain team-wide visibility, without adopting another tool. Now integrated with Claude and other GenAI tools. Learn more at trychaser.com and use code AGILEBRAND for a 3-month free trial (normal trial is 14 days).

The most influential minds in software, AI, and engineering leadership will be at WeAreDevelopers World Congress North America, September 23-25 in San Jose. Learn more: https://aglbrnd.co/r/60a7299222a7bcf1

Start building your own apps with Replit and get $20 off. Learn more: https://aglbrnd.co/r/93531742a7625a20

Enjoyed the show? Tell us more at and give us a rating so others can find the show at: https://aglbrnd.co/r/faaed112fc9887f3

Connect with Greg on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregkihlstrom

Don't miss a thing: get the latest episodes, sign up for our newsletter and more: https://aglbrnd.co/r/35ded3ccfb6716ba

Check out The Agile Brand Guide website with articles, insights, and Martechipedia, the wiki for marketing technology: https://www.agilebrandguide.com

The Agile Brand is produced by Missing Link—a Latina-owned strategy-driven, creatively fueled production co-op. From ideation to creation, they craft human connections through intelligent, engaging and informative content. https://www.missinglink.company
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jim Rucinski, Solution Engineer at the International Fresh Produce Association, runs IFPA's entire digital experience with a team of two — personalization, content management, and platform support included.
He joins Greg Kihlström at Opticon to walk through what a constraint that tight actually forces you to decide.
A two-person team changes the question from what to build to what to refuse. Ruckinski on the test he applies when a request lands, and how much of the week is already claimed by maintenance before anything new gets considered.
Handing content tools to non-technical colleagues means handing out the ability to break consistency. What had to be standardized inside Optimizely's CMS and Content Marketing Platform before the organization could self-serve without the experience coming apart.
"AI" covers both a faster draft and a system that executes on its own — and a lean team can only absorb one of them. How Rucinski separates technology that removes work from technology that adds something new to supervise.

About Jim Rucinski
Jim Rucinski is the Solutions Engineer at the International Fresh Produce Association (IFPA), where he oversees the evolution of the organization’s enterprise digital ecosystem. A self-taught programmer with more than 30 years of software engineering experience, Jim specializes in turning operational friction into automated, reusable capabilities. Partnering with solution provider Perficient, he focuses on leveraging modern CMS architecture, GraphQL, and practical AI tools to run a global digital presence efficiently.

Jim Rucinski on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jim-rucinski-925004258/

---------- Resources ----------

: https://www.freshproduce.com/

The Agile Brand podcast is brought to you by TEKsystems. Learn more here: https://aglbrnd.co/r/2868abd8085a9703

We’re proud to be a media partner for #MAICON26 - Oct. 13-15! Learn how AI can power your marketing and business and help you grow smarter. Use code AGILE150 to save! https://aglbrnd.co/r/7fe458ced0f04658

Reach your customers with Reddit. Spend $500 in ad spend, get $500 back in ad credit! Learn more: https://advertalize.com/r/491818c79fb1873f

Chaser is the only Slack-native project management platform that helps teams turn messages into tracked tasks, automate follow-ups, and maintain team-wide visibility, without adopting another tool. Now integrated with Claude and other GenAI tools. Learn more at trychaser.com and use code AGILEBRAND for a 3-month free trial (normal trial is 14 days).

The most influential minds in software, AI, and engineering leadership will be at WeAreDevelopers World Congress North America, September 23-25 in San Jose. Learn more: https://aglbrnd.co/r/60a7299222a7bcf1

Start building your own apps with Replit and get $20 off. Learn more: https://aglbrnd.co/r/93531742a7625a20

Enjoyed the show? Tell us more at and give us a rating so others can find the show at: https://aglbrnd.co/r/faaed112fc9887f3

Connect with Greg on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregkihlstrom

Don't miss a thing: get the latest episodes, sign up for our newsletter and more: https://aglbrnd.co/r/35ded3ccfb6716ba

Check out The Agile Brand Guide website with articles, insights, and Martechipedia, the wiki for marketing technology: https://www.agilebrandguide.com

The Agile Brand is produced by Missing Link—a Latina-owned strategy-driven, creatively fueled production co-op. From ideation to creation, they craft human connections through intelligent, engaging and informative content. https://www.missinglink.company
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greg Heinz, Senior Director of Brand and Digital Strategy at Optimizely, led the company's rebrand — and he argues AI should amplify creative work rather than automate it away. Recorded live at Opticon 2026 in New York City.
A rebrand is repositioning, not a new logo. Heinz walks through the research behind Optimizely's brand evolution, the market signals that made the case internally, and what the company had to give up to make the new promise credible.
The line between amplification and authorship gets drawn on purpose. "AI" covers everything from a tool that speeds up a designer to a system that ships work with nobody in the authoring seat. Heinz on where he insisted a person stay in the seat, and why.
A brand is proven by behavior, not messaging. What had to change in product decisions, sales conversations, and the digital experience for the new positioning to be true — and what keeps the brand recognizable as one company as the volume of expression goes up.
Greg Heinz and Greg Kihlström also get into what changes when the first thing evaluating your brand is an AI system researching on a buyer's behalf rather than a person.

About Greg Heinz
Greg is a marketing manager with over fifteen years of professional experience in B2B software solutions and services, Healthcare, Sports and Entertainment. My goal is to help organizations achieve rapid growth through brand development and demand generation. I am a strong believer in creating amazing experiences and lasting impressions through UX design and storytelling.

Greg Heinz on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gjheinz/

---------- Resources ----------

Optimizely: www.optimizely.com
The Agile Brand podcast is brought to you by TEKsystems. Learn more here: https://aglbrnd.co/r/2868abd8085a9703

We’re proud to be a media partner for #MAICON26 - Oct. 13-15! Learn how AI can power your marketing and business and help you grow smarter. Use code AGILE150 to save! https://aglbrnd.co/r/7fe458ced0f04658

Reach your customers with Reddit. Spend $500 in ad spend, get $500 back in ad credit! Learn more: https://advertalize.com/r/491818c79fb1873f

Chaser is the only Slack-native project management platform that helps teams turn messages into tracked tasks, automate follow-ups, and maintain team-wide visibility, without adopting another tool. Now integrated with Claude and other GenAI tools. Learn more at trychaser.com and use code AGILEBRAND for a 3-month free trial (normal trial is 14 days).

The most influential minds in software, AI, and engineering leadership will be at WeAreDevelopers World Congress North America, September 23-25 in San Jose. Learn more: https://aglbrnd.co/r/60a7299222a7bcf1

Start building your own apps with Replit and get $20 off. Learn more: https://aglbrnd.co/r/93531742a7625a20

Enjoyed the show? Tell us more at and give us a rating so others can find the show at: https://aglbrnd.co/r/faaed112fc9887f3

Connect with Greg on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregkihlstrom

Don't miss a thing: get the latest episodes, sign up for our newsletter and more: https://aglbrnd.co/r/35ded3ccfb6716ba

Check out The Agile Brand Guide website with articles, insights, and Martechipedia, the wiki for marketing technology: https://www.agilebrandguide.com

The Agile Brand is produced by Missing Link—a Latina-owned strategy-driven, creatively fueled production co-op. From ideation to creation, they craft human connections through intelligent, engaging and informative content. https://www.missinglink.company
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When every employee can produce polished, on-brand-looking content in seconds, who actually owns the brand anymore?

Agility requires guardrails, not just accelerators. Moving fast is only an advantage if the organization is still moving as one recognizable company.

Today we're going to talk about the gap that opens up between how fast AI lets an organization produce and how well its brand actually holds together as that output scales. We'll explore:

- What really gets diluted when content creation is democratized — and how quickly that compounds
- Treating brand as infrastructure: building systems that guide AI-generated work rather than teams that police it after the fact
- Why investment in brand governance has to scale in lockstep with investment in AI tools

To help me discuss this topic, I'd like to welcome Meghan Gendelman, CMO of B2B at Canva.

About Meghan Gendelman
Meghan Gendelman is Chief Marketing Officer, B2B at Canva, where she leads global B2B marketing to help organizations turn visual communication into essential infrastructure for modern work.
Meghan’s previously led cross-functional teams across Marketing, Enablement, Customer Success, and Sales. Most recently, she served as GVP of Growth Marketing at Docusign, where she worked on category building and positioning the company to win the enterprise. Prior, Meghan spent nearly 13 years at Salesforce, where she held senior roles including CMO of Financial Services, SVP and Head of Marketing for the Americas, and SVP of Global Strategic Marketing.
A champion of inclusion, Meghan pioneered the first Women’s Summit at Dreamforce and is passionate about developing diverse, values-driven leaders. She lives in Northern California with her husband and two daughters.

Meghan Gendelman on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mgendelman/

---------- Resources ----------

Canva: canva.com

The Agile Brand podcast is brought to you by TEKsystems. Learn more here: https://aglbrnd.co/r/2868abd8085a9703

Reach your customers with Reddit. Spend $500 in ad spend, get $500 back in ad credit! Learn more: https://advertalize.com/r/491818c79fb1873f

Enjoyed the show? Tell us more at and give us a rating so others can find the show at: https://aglbrnd.co/r/faaed112fc9887f3

Connect with Greg on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregkihlstrom

Don't miss a thing: get the latest episodes, sign up for our newsletter and more: https://aglbrnd.co/r/35ded3ccfb6716ba

Check out The Agile Brand Guide website with articles, insights, and Martechipedia, the wiki for marketing technology: https://www.agilebrandguide.com

The Agile Brand is produced by Missing Link—a Latina-owned strategy-driven, creatively fueled production co-op. From ideation to creation, they craft human connections through intelligent, engaging and informative content. https://www.missinglink.company
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.