Exploring what AI means to CMOs in 2026
The CMO Council / Sensible Marketer Interview Sequence options inventive and impactful individuals from all corners of the advertising world – Founders, C-Suite executives, and influential voices locally.
At present’s Visitor is Michael Cichon, a B2B advertising government with 20+ years in expertise and cybersecurity, contributing to profitable exits at Agari and ThreatMetrix. Most just lately, as founding CMO at 1Kosmos, he constructed go-to-market technique and demand era applications that positioned the corporate for Sequence B funding.
Based mostly within the Phoenix space, he focuses on model technique and income progress for rising expertise firms. He’s presently related to Moreland Associates, offering interim CMO companies.
In his latest article “The Balancing Act: Model Constructing vs. Demand Technology” revealed on the CMO Council web site, Michael cites a latest report revealed by ON24 noting 87% of US-based B2B Entrepreneurs as already utilizing AI instruments, and most are pushing deeper into automation for content material creation, segmentation, and outreach.
On this dialog, we discover the realities of AI adoption right this moment and uncover its greatest makes use of to perform targets within the often-competing areas of name constructing and demand era. Our dialog explores the solutions to this query and can lead you to an understanding of learn how to undertake AI for optimum leads to B2B advertising.
Analyzing the professionals and cons of AI instruments right this moment, Michael notes that “AI serves as an exquisite assistant, however it isn’t emotionally clever or empathetic and doesn’t do properly managing the nuance that’s so quite common to Advertising and marketing and Gross sales engagements.” However, “AI excels at sample recognition – issues like recognizing tendencies, figuring out micro-segments, parsing by volumes of content material to tell preliminary messaging frameworks. For promoting outreach, AI can rapidly construct segments based mostly on geography, firmographics, demographics, information, hiring tendencies, private particulars, and extra. AI may even assemble emails, name scripts, and quick messages based mostly on all of this context.”
His most astute warning could also be this: “AI can’t learn the room. Utilizing AI for mass outreach raises issues as a result of each electronic mail, name, or social message interrupts somebody’s day. Scale with out empathy turns into noise, and when the sample repeats, automated tone-deaf messaging can create actual model injury. Of their zeal to be heard, entrepreneurs can neglect that on the opposite finish of each outreach is an individual who decides in seconds whether or not your message deserves their consideration.”
We hope you take pleasure in this dialog with Michael Cichon.
Time Stamps for the Time Starved:
02:56 Michael’s Background
04:34 Defining Advertising and marketing Effectivity
07:39 Emotional Loyalty & Model Constructing
10:29 Storytelling & Model Constructing
12:05 Best Affect of AI At present
15:03 Way forward for Agentic AI
16:34 Fragmented Knowledge & AI
17:46 The place AI Goes Unsuitable
21:37 Utilizing AI for B2B Demand Gen
23:09 Predicting AI Adoption Charges
25:19 Ultimate Ideas on AI and B2B Advertising and marketing
Extra Views from Michael on Synthetic Intelligence
- “AI serves as an exquisite assistant, however it isn’t emotionally clever or empathetic and doesn’t do properly managing the nuance that’s so quite common to Advertising and marketing and Gross sales engagements.”
- “AI can’t learn the room. Utilizing AI for mass outreach raises issues as a result of each electronic mail, name, or social message interrupts somebody’s day. Scale with out empathy turns into noise and when the sample repeats, automated tone-deaf messaging can create actual model injury. Of their zeal to be heard, entrepreneurs can neglect that on the opposite finish of each outreach is an individual who decides in seconds whether or not your message deserves their consideration.”
- “AI works greatest when it amplifies human judgment fairly than changing it. Use it for insights, effectivity, and scale. However hold people in control of the moments that matter—the inventive selections, the connection constructing, the oversight that forestalls automation from turning into alienation.”
