It came as no surprise when we released the 2024 State of the CIO that artificial intelligence loomed large on the CIO’s radar this year. In fact, with 80% of CIOs citing AI as their number one area of involvement this year (up from 55% in 2023), it’s toppled security from the top spot for areas that the CIO is being pulled into. (Hint: that doesn’t mean cybersecurity isn’t still consuming a major amount of the CIO’s time—we address how they’re balancing these priorities here.)��

I had lots of questions for Lee Rennick, Executive Director of CIO Communities at Foundry, on how CIOs are perceiving and preparing for an AI-heavy infrastructure in record time. During our conversation on how the findings of the 2024 State of the CIO were playing out in real CIOs’ day-to-day, we talked about the mixed feelings that they were having around bringing AI into the enterprise.

While Lee noted that many companies have been using AI for years, she spoke to the Generative AI phenomenon that we all experienced in 2023 as catalyzing a “democratization of AI” that stirred feelings of both excitement and hesitation at the tech leadership level. This tracked with some of the findings from Foundry’s inaugural AI Priorities Study, released in October of 2023, that found 1 in 4 tech leaders thought their organization was moving too quickly to deploy AI, and only 36% felt their data infrastructure was properly organized to enable AI in an effective way. 

A fundamental reset to the roadmap

To better understand how CIOs and senior tech leaders were tempering their own enthusiasm and cross-departmental pressure to implement AI tools with cautionary discretion, we looked to two of her CIO Leadership Live interviews.

In the first, , CTO of Opendoor, spoke with Lee about the possibilities for industry reinvention and disruption that AI will enable. Noting that Opendoor has embraced AI and machine learning (ML) to rethink everything from productivity and customer experience to the fundamentals of the real estate industry, Raji urges technology leaders to do the same. “It’s easy to get complacent,” she says, “but this is the time to reset.”

“Like the internet changed the way everything is done,” says Raji, “so too will AI. It’s time to rethink the vision, strategy, and roadmap. And this is not an incremental reset, it’s a fundamental reset.”

Advocating for data quality and due diligence 

While many CIOs, CTOs, and other tech leaders share Raji’s enthusiasm for AI and the possibilities it will bring, there is an undercurrent of caution and even apprehension amongst this same group surrounding the flood of new AI tools on the market. Lee’s February 2024 , CIO of OneFamily, touched on some of the common concerns that tech leaders are facing.

Graham highlights three key areas that he’s evaluating as AI infiltrates the enterprise. The first are considerations related to large language model (LLM) training, the content being output by these models, and the “appropriateness” of generated content designed for customer-facing applications. His second consideration is around data quality, noting that while data quality initiatives have been a major focus for years, AI is bringing a new sense of urgency around data hygiene to IT leaders being asked to implement these solutions. 

Third, Graham expresses concern around the AI solutions being sold themselves. “If you go to a conference right now, every niche vendor seems to have LLMs,” he says. But noting that this technology is still relatively new to market, “there’s a degree of [vendors] rushing in to say ‘we have something.’” 

In this landscape, Graham urges his peers to be “eyes wide open” in evaluating solutions. He says to ask of vendors, “what have they really built before they sell it to you at a premium”—is it truly sound and proprietary, or have they “wrapped one of these enterprise services in branding and content, and now the hard work begins in terms of safety, data quality, and how you implement it in your environment?”

Vendor responsibility in the age of AI

Though Raji and Graham’s interviews had different tones to them, the reality is that most CIOs and tech leaders find themselves on both sides of the fence when it comes to AI—they’re simultaneously excited about its potential to innovate and disrupt industries, while at the same time aware of the pitfalls of adopting this technology too early, or of being misled by branding and white labeling. 

In this light, the responsibility of vendors is enormous at this moment. As Lee and I wrapped up this segment, she stresses that organizations are still not out of the woods when it comes to modernizing legacy systems—a prerequisite for enabling AI effectively. For these IT leaders “dealing with legacy systems, looking at how to effectively move data into the cloud, and looking at public versus private cloud and hybrid options… there are still a lot of those discussions going on—and that’s where so many of them are requiring support from their vendors,” Lee says.

“The new overlay on all of that is Generative AI,” Lee continued. “Now [these IT leaders] really do need to have all of that in order, know what the strategy is, and start putting that into place so they can move to this next task which is creating better efficiencies, not just for their company but for their customers.”

There’s a key takeaway here for tech vendors, both within and outside of the AI space. As CIOs are being asked to quickly implement AI solutions, many also know that their existing data and infrastructure need an overhaul first for these solutions to benefit them. They’re excited about the future, but don’t mistake their excitement as falling victim to the AI hype. Now is the time to deliver value in the form of guidance, education, and personalized support. AI has positioned the CIO to lead their organization through a new vision for the future, and only trusted vendors will be asked to join them along their journey.

To learn more about how tech marketers can support CIO in the age of AI, check out the rest of this video series, and download the today.

John Gallant, enterprise consulting director for Foundry shares key findings from the Role and Influence of the Technology Decision-Maker research and what it means as far as opportunities for tech marketers 

and reach out to share your ideal customer profile – by company size, region, industry sector, etc. – so we can customize the results to to help you shape your marketing strategy. 

A technical CMO believes in the power of dissent

With all the information necessary to make educated purchase decisions right at their fingertips, the modern marketer has become sophisticated and savvy. Marketers need to acknowledge this as part of their strategy if they want to resonate with their customers and set themselves apart from their competitors. Operating in an environment of ultra-informed buyers, Beckley urges against throwing a ‘marketing spin’ on a product and instead wants his employees to simply speak to the merits of the solution. Beckley’s advantage as a technical CMO is that he can clearly explain the benefits of the Appian software and demonstrate to prospects how it fits into their business model.

Beckley advocates for a culture of dissent at work to navigate the frequent shifts in the technology industry and make appropriate business decisions. Encouraging your team to question and sometimes push back against new technology will enable them to empathize with consumers who do the same. With this adopted attitude, marketers and technology teams will be better equipped to steer their buying and selling efforts in the right direction, while prioritizing authentic product benefits. Despite the role of a marketing team, in part, being to build hype around a product, it is equally critical to be credible to customers by guiding them along their journey and assisting them in adopting new technology at the right time. By being honest about the state of the technology and straightforward about where a product will be best utilized, you can build invaluable trust and credibility with your customers.

Customer advocacy

Having successful customers explain how a product solves their business problems sets a company apart, especially in a saturated industry such as ����app���� technology. Formulating a customer advocacy program helps businesses break free from marketing echo-chambers and adopt a more customer-centric approach. When customers explain the value they see in an innovative product, they increase brand awareness, exposure, and drive organic demand. Potential clients trust the honest opinions of other customers, particularly as they become increasingly informed and presented with a surplus of options.

Appian boasts an impressive number of case studies, testimonials, and customer success stories on their website. It’s no surprise that Beckley recognizes the importance of customer advocacy and its critical role in Appian’s marketing strategy. He explains that technology does not matter if it fails to demonstrate value, and prospects need to envision themselves in the customer journey. These case studies not only provide mutual benefits for both clients and the business by showcasing innovative work but also serve to reinforce the culture of trust and credibility fostered by Beckley within Appian’s go-to-market strategy.

Remaining relevant 

The key to remaining relevant in an evolving industry begins with building a powerful engine for capturing the way work happens, utilizing the complexity of the real world. Having a product that is relevant in a common way establishes a strong foundation for helping companies navigate the expected and frequent shifts in the technology industry. One of the more recent and drastic shifts, the pandemic, presented challenges to businesses with manual processes and forced them to reassess their operations in a new way—everything had to go digital. This digital transformation accelerated the established timelines that marketers previously had and highlighted the unpredictability of the industry.

Another critical aspect of staying relevant is equipping all employees with the tools to envision how work can be improved. There is often a natural skepticism towards young leaders, but by growing up alongside clients, businesses can establish themselves as credible advisors and partners while transforming core elements of their own operations. Involving more individuals, including the youngest generation, in envisioning better ways to optimize processes enables businesses to serve customers more efficiently and deliver more effective solutions to the market. Trusting the people who form your organization and being optimistic about your workforce allows you to challenge preconceived notions of how work is traditionally conducted and how it should be done.

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����app���� Appian

Appian was founded by four individuals—Matt Calkins, Bob Kramer, Marc Wilson, and Michael Beckley—in McLean, Virginia, in 1999. This non-traditional tech startup journey has led to sustained success, leading to the company going public in 2017. Today, Appian is trusted by some of the world’s largest brands. With their Appian platform, Appian is redefining the process management and orchestration industry through innovative technology in low-code development and automation.

����app���� Michael Beckley

Michael is a founder of Appian, serving as the company’s Chief Technology Officer and currently acting as their Chief Marketing Officer. He drives the technical vision for the company, leads Appian’s product and solutions marketing teams, and oversees customer initiatives worldwide.

����app���� the CMO Perspective video series

The CMO Perspectives series spotlights industry-leading executives who are making a difference within the tech marketing landscape. Our host, Matt Yorke, Global Chief Revenue Officer of Foundry, delves into the latest marketing trends, providing peer insights for tech marketers.

ABM/Intent focus

Traditionally, Cisco focused on scaling rather than ABM. However, in the last year they have been transitioning into 1:few ABM models, and plan to dial up in FY23. Cisco leveraged intent data in forming their ABM approach and determined the top 100 accounts globally, regionally, and in specific “theaters” (clusters of countries) to gain insights on which accounts they need to influence in certain markets to “move that needle.”

Cisco’s strategy hinges partially on moving prospects along a matrix — focusing on high technology adopters that are relatively brand agnostic, or as Roffey defines them “transformational occasionals,” and on winning their loyalty to make them “transformational loyalists.” Through this categorization, marketing can not only target and escalate accounts that sales might otherwise overlook, but create new upsell and cross sell opportunities among buyers and existing customers that are eager to deploy new tech.

Role & influence of the technology decision-maker

In the , we learned that the average tech team includes 21 decision-makers. Cisco as a company can influence the technology decision-maker due to their incomparable scope. Therefore, it is pertinent for tools and processes to be put in place by marketing so that the Cisco sales team knows how to execute personalization at scale. With marketing using data to craft and deploy messaging aligned to various combinations of product and persona, Cisco allows the buying journey to be easier and more personal for the customers.

Measuring marketing’s influence beyond ROI

Cisco’s ‘CMO Dashboard’ allows the marketing team to articulate the value of their campaigns to other parts of the business. Roffey feels “what’s the ROI on this?” does not allow for progress made by the marketing team each month to be appreciated and understood. By sharing measurements and metrics, such as influence, average order value, time to close and significantly engaged with the sales team, Roffey looks to increase visibility into the importance of the marketing arm of Cisco beyond direct revenue attribution.

����app���� the CMO Perspectives video series:

The CMO Perspectives series spotlights industry-leading executives that are making a difference within the tech marketing landscape. Our host, Matt Yorke, Global Chief Revenue Officer of Foundry, dives into the latest marketing trends, providing peer insight for tech marketers.

The Events Intelligence Webinar Series is a bi-monthly digital program. It provides tech marketers with cutting-edge research on the latest trends in event marketing, tips on connecting with key IT decision-makers, and strategies to create meaningful connections at both digital and in-person events.

Episode 7

Industry experts Marci Maddox & Aly Pinder from IDC shared their ground-breaking market research. Unlock the power of data velocity and discover a new framework tech marketers can use to attract first-time customers, manage risk, and tap into the flexibility of your XaaS products.

Episode 6

Hear insider sales research about what over 600 IT decision-makers can teach us about creating demand generation strategies that work. Christopher Ritchie shares rare insight — the real sales tactics and data used by the world’s leading IT vendors.

Episode 5

Understand the biggest solutions your buyers will need in 2023, and the macro forces driving change in the market. From digital sovereignty to as-a-service pricing, get an evergreen look at what the next 1-5 years will bring for IT marketers.

Episode 4

This webinar built a combined, robust, and collaborative CMO and CIO relationship and examined how CMOs realize their path of optimizing data, analytics, and a sound MarTech stack.

Episode 3

What’s the best way to reach tech buyers when they want to be reached? How do IT executives field proposal packages from new prospective vendors? And how do you do all this while building relationships that foster trust?

Episode 2

For technology marketers, reaching CIOs requires both a personal touch as well as a deep understanding of which roadblocks can appear and how to overcome them. What’s the best way to build a relationship and foster trust, that also leads to meaningful sales and revenue?

Episode 1

Despite foundational market changes, event marketing initiatives continue to be among the most effective ways for businesses to reach their most important audiences. Listen in on an informative discussion between , Research Vice President, CMO Advisory Practices, IDC and , Vice President, Marketing Global Events, Foundry.

Rebuilding GoTo’s brand identity and go-to-market strategy

In February 2022, LogMeIn garnered attention when it announced a complete company overhaul with its rebrand to GoTo. Domenici, who “was brought on to bring change and clarity” to the company brand and portfolio, drove this change in a bold way in her first months onboard. Demonstrating to the CEO and board in her interview that the legacy brand and portfolio made it hard to understand what the company sold, stood for, and how they provided value, Domenici offered a marketing-led solution that would bring clarity, simplicity, and a clear value prop to the company.

During her first month in her role as CMO, Domenici sold the idea of the identity change to her board and led the rebrand to GoTo with a focus on reducing complexity. It was important to Domenici that each aspect of the transformation drive efficiency and spend as well. Much more than a name change, the almost year-long rebrand effort catalyzed a refreshed visual identity, go-to-market strategy, product portfolio, and complete digital transformation. By consolidating 13 brands, 16 websites and 18 products, the rebrand to GoTo simplified the company’s go-to-market strategy, allowing both their employees and customers to better understand the product portfolio and leverage GoTo’s offerings in a more efficient and lucrative way.

Reflecting on the rebrand & prioritizing corporate communication

In reflecting on the process and success of the rebrand, Domenici cited two related areas she sees as benefitting from heavy investment: a robust corporate comms strategy and sales enablement initiatives. She advises that guiding your own employees along the journey of a rebrand takes a lot of effort and thoughtfulness, and the more comfortable teams are with everything from the product portfolio to the brand identity to the reasons for change, the better the experience will be internally, in the market, and for customers throughout the buyer’s journey.

As a tip for those planning a transformation of any scale, Domenici says “I believe your whole company needs to be certified on your value prop—not just your sales team.”

Marketing’s role in customer experience

Domenici also knows the importance that having an intimate understanding of the overall customer experience plays in the role of the CMO. Over her career as a marketer, Domenici deliberately spent 3 years in a customer success role at Salesforce to gain first-hand experience on the end-to-end customer journey. A key takeaway from that role: the first 30-days are crucial in the buyers’ experience, and the more personalization present and deeper connections that are made will make for a more loyal customer and better business. Knowledge of the customer journey is crucial for marketing teams who proceed to manage the end-to-end lifecycle engagement.

Measuring brand health with intent

While brand health and impact can be challenging to measure, Domenici and her team are leaning into intent data to identify and understand indicators of success tied to the rebrand to GoTo. Her model looks at both quantitative and qualitative signals to learn what’s working and what’s not based on concrete datapoints. These signals, paired with first-party intent, are helping Domenici’s team craft increasingly personalized, effective messaging across marketing efforts and interactions across the customer lifecycle.

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����app���� the CMO Perspectives Video Series:
The series spotlights industry-leading executives that are making a difference within the tech marketing landscape. Our host, Matt Yorke, Global Chief Revenue Officer of Foundry, dives into the latest marketing trends, providing peer insight for tech marketers.

In this webcast, Heinrich Vaske, editorial director, and Peter Lauck, chief sales officer (both with Foundry’s Germany team), take a closer look at the priorities for this audience in their discussion of the German-specific results from Foundry’s annual global Security Priorities study. Watch to better understand what your customers are focused on, and what is important to them.

Given the importance this market, , Foundry’s global security brand helping technology and business leaders stay ahead of evolving threats and insights, has expanded into  Germany. Hear from Bob Bragdon, SVP and managing director of CSO worldwide, with a brand overview, and how you can leverage CSO’s channels to engage  this influential audience.

Subtitles are available in German and English

Webcast highlights:

• Understanding  priorities & challenges for CSOs in Germany
• Budget size and projections for future spending
• Risks of OT/IT environments specific to German market
• The role of cloud in security tools
• Evaluation of new security solutions

Presented by Andrea D’Amato, Chief Revenue Officer, Americas, Foundry, and John Gallant, Enterprise Consulting Director, Foundry, the two share the business goals driving data & analytics investments, who’s involved in the data & analytics purchase process, and the types of content and information sources they rely on to stay educated.

The discussion continues to outline what Foundry is doing to address this technology area editorially through out owned and operated media sites, what content is trending with these decision-makers, and ways in which Foundry can help marketers like yourself create more connections in this space.

Webcast highlights:

• Organizations are trying to get more value out of their data, and they’re doing so by refining their strategies and deploying new tools. Data & analytics is the #2 technology initiative expected to drive the most IT investment in 2022. (1:35)
• There’s a lot of fuel behind data & analytics initiatives. The top business drivers are to improve/automate internal business processes and to improve customer insight and engagement (3:45)
• Challenges getting in the way of data & analytics progress and success. Lack of appropriate skill sets leads the way due to the fact that the demand has grown into virtually every industry (5:11)
• Skills issues are perennial. The areas that are most in need at organizations are also the areas that provide the most opportunities for marketers – this webinar goes through where IT leaders need help. (7:45)
• 22 individuals are involved in the data & analytics purchase process. The webcast outlines who’s involved in each stage, from determining the business need to post sales engagement. (13:19)
• IT decision-makers rely on a wide variety of information sources throughout the technology purchase process. Marketers must understand what is needed and when. (18:47)
• �ձ𳦳�ԴDZ��Dz�����buyers are actively searching for data & analytics terms – it’s important to provide them with the relevant topics and articles that are resonating with their plans. (23:29)
• Foundry’s mix of intent data, lead generation and events products connect you with data-driven decision-makers where they are. Explore opportunities in this webinar. (26:22)

Digital transformation, velocity, and value of business relationships and people are critical for partner solutions success at Google Cloud. Aimee Catalano and her team thrive on teamwork and working strategically with partners and customers to achieve fast-paced growth for Google Cloud year over year. Foundry’s Global Chief Revenue Officer, Matt Yorke, sat down with Aimee to learn more about how her partner marketing insights and strategies can help other partner marketers achieve results. 

The Importance of Global Partner Marketing in an Organization

Aimee emphasizes the crucial role the partner marketing team plays at Google Cloud in driving year over year growth for the company, likening partner marketing to “full-spectrum marketing” in its end-to-end ownership of “the go-to-market strategy and marketing plan” for each partner. This includes everything from driving demand generation for partner campaigns and delivering customer success stories to the market. By lifting mindshare to develop unique and engaging partner experiences and the most innovative programs on the market, Google Cloud’s partner marketing strategies help keep their partners relevant in the highly competitive cloud market. 

Go-To-Market Strategy in a Post-Pandemic World

Despite Google’s status as a pioneer company of our digital world, the COVID-19 pandemic presented challenges of its own to Google Cloud’s partner marketing organization. The pandemic catalyzed what two years ago would have been decades’ worth of digital transformation, and Google had to pivot quickly in assessing their digital marketing best practices and adapt go-to-market strategies to the pandemic landscape.

While navigating the new digital landscape required rethinking time-tested strategies, Aimee notes that it paved the way for new and more effective marketing forums and channels—namely, the ability to host and promote broad-based and high-touch marketing programs virtually, which allows them to reach a greater audience. For example, Google’s annual Customer Conferences that once hosted tens of thousands of people around the world annually have been reimagined as hybrid forums — catering to both in-person and virtual customers and partners, and creating new opportunities to network, present, and engage audiences. 

Importance of DEI Initiatives

Aimee also notes that the pandemic brought Google and its partners together in a way previously unseen, which sparked the launch of a partner Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) group. “I’m really excited to see […] new programs to engage both our partners, but then with our partners to our customers, around important DEI programs, social impact projects, and how we’re really teaming together in some of the most important work out there together,” says Aimee. As DEI becomes central to both corporate conversations and operations, Matt Yorke notes these initiatives by Google are” bringing the scale that Google brings—and the resources—to help partners address DEI challenges.”

Advice for Partner Marketers 

When asked about top challenges for partner marketers to overcome, Aimee stressed the importance of finding and defining lanes. “Coopetition,” she says, is key, as there will always be situations where large partners work together and find aspects of their businesses overlapping. Partner marketing at its best finds the space where “1 + 1 = 3,” says Aimee, which requires savvy marketers to “navigate the more complex waters” of business overlap, where partners can best coexist in the spirit of innovation. 

����app���� the CMO Perspectives Video Series:
This series spotlights industry-leading executives that are making a difference within the tech marketing landscape. Our host, Matt Yorke, Global Chief Revenue Officer of Foundry, dives into the latest marketing trends, providing peer insight for tech marketers.