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Artwork for The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström®: Expert Mode Marketing Technology, AI, & CX
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The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström®: Expert Mode Marketing Technology, AI, & CX

The Agile Brand

Marketing technology, AI, and customer experience, explained by the people building it. Three times a week, Greg Kihlström interviews CMOs, product leaders, and martech executives from platform companies like Adobe, Braze, Qualtrics, Salesforce, and Optimizely, and brands like Marriott, Georgia-Pacific, Nestlé, and Zoom about what is actually working inside enterprise marketing organizations.

Each episode runs 20–30 minutes: one guest, one specific problem, no filler. Recent conversations cover what changes when AI agents enter the discovery and purchase path, how to move past traditional A/B testing with reinforcement learning, closing the AI capability gap inside marketing teams, and where personalization stops paying off.

Who it's for: CMOs, VPs of marketing, martech and marketing operations leaders, and CX practitioners at enterprise brands and the platforms that serve them.

Greg Kihlström is an AI transformation advisor to leading brands, a martech futurist, a keynote speaker, and the author of over 25 books on marketing technology, including the Agile Brand Guide series. He has hosted The Agile Brand since 2019 — 900+ episodes, and highly rated across all podcast platforms.

New episodes drop at least three times a week. Follow the show so new episodes arrive automatically.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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  • 22 episodes
  • Updated Friday

Episodes22

Newest first
  • June 29 · 27 min

    Forrester's Gina Bhawalkar on building great CX with an AI-enabled workflow

    As generative and agentic AI promise to accelerate everything we do, are we at risk of becoming incredibly efficient at producing forgettable customer experiences? Today, we are here in Brooklyn at Forrester CX Forum East and we're going to talk about building better experiences with an AI-enabled design workflow. Specifically, we’ll cover: - Balancing the speed of AI with the intentional, human-led decisions required to craft exceptional experiences. - The role of a robust design system in scaling high-quality, AI-powered experiences consistently across the enterprise. - How to identify high-value AI use cases for your design workflow while maintaining responsible practices that build customer trust. To help me discuss this topic, I'd like to welcome, Gina Bhawalkar, Principal Analyst at Forrester. About Gina Bhawalkar Gina's research focuses on digital accessibility and experience design. Gina established and now leads Forrester’s coverage of the digital accessibility space and has a deep background and interest in the topic. She advises organizations on how to establish and scale sustainable accessibility practices and is an expert on the digital accessibility platform (DAP) market. Her research on accessibility has appeared in publications such as The Wall Street Journal and The Financial Brand, and she is a frequent speaker at accessibility events and podcasts. Gina’s other areas of expertise include inclusive and responsible design, design systems, personas, and measuring the impact of digital experience design improvements. Gina has over 20 years of experience as both a UX/CX practitioner and leader, with eight years in the financial services industry. Prior to joining Forrester, Gina was the director of customer experience research at Bank of the West, a subsidiary of BNP Paribas. There, she led the bank’s digital voice-of-the-customer program and conducted primary research to inform digital product development. Previously, Gina led the user experience and accessibility department at Scottrade, where she built the two disciplines from the ground up. Earlier in her career, Gina was a UX consultant at Perficient, leading design and research projects for clients in the financial services, agribusiness, utilities, insurance, and retail industries. She has also served as an accessibility consultant at both Criterion 508 and the Georgia Tech Research Institute. Gina holds bachelor’s degrees in psychology and computer science from Trinity University and an MS in human-computer interaction from the Georgia Institute of Technology, where her research focused on evaluating the accessibility of physical and digital products to people with disabilities. Gina Bhawalkar on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ginabhawalkar/ ---------- Resources ---------- Forrester: https://www.forrester.com 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 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 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 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  • June 26 · 33 min

    Forrester's Chuck Gahun on AI agents as decision makers in the buyer's journey

    What if your next customer isn't a person, but an AI agent acting on their behalf? And what if that agent is evaluating your brand on a purely logical, data-driven basis, completely devoid of the emotional hooks your marketing has always relied on? Agility requires not just adapting to changing customer behaviors, but also redefining who—or what—our customer even is. It demands that we build operational and strategic frameworks that can cater to both human emotional drivers and the cold, hard logic of machines. Today, we are at Forrester CX in New York City, and we're going to talk about a fundamental shift in the customer journey: the rise of the AI agent as an influential, and in some cases, decision-making persona. This isn't just about using AI in our marketing; it's about marketing to AI. We'll explore what it means when our brand's message needs to be optimized not just for human perception, but for machine interpretation and evaluation. To help me discuss this topic, I'd like to welcome Chuck Gahun, Principal Analyst at Forrester. About Chuck Gahun Chuck is a leader in Forrester’s Digital Business & Strategy practice serving business and digital executives. His research coverage includes content management systems (CMSes), product information management (PIM) systems, and commerce services and strategy for B2B and B2C companies. Chuck helps executives design strategies that deliver customer and business value by partnering with technology vendors and services providers. Chuck has 20 years of experience in content and commerce. He specializes in digital strategy, experience design, and technology initiatives in CMSes, e-commerce systems, digital asset management (DAM) systems, PIM systems, digital experience platforms (DXPs), and several others. He has led strategy and implementations for brands like Goldman Sachs, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Hilti, Marriott, AARP, and the Centers for Disease Control. Prior to joining Forrester, Chuck was a managing director and partner at Shift7 Digital (a Merkle company) and held senior management positions at ZS Medullan and Publicis Sapient. Chuck holds a BA in government and international politics and an MS in technology management from George Mason University. Chuck Gahun on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chuckgahun/ ---------- Resources ---------- Forrester: https://www.forrester.com 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 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 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.