Budgeting and Measuring ROI for AI Tools

#288 AI in Marketing | In this episode, Dave is joined by three B2B marketing leaders: Sara Ajemian, Head of Brand & Communications at SOCi, Jennifer Delevante-Moulen, CMO at Knak, and Tara Robertson, CMO at Bitly. Together they share real-world perspectives on how AI is actually shaping marketing teams today—what’s working, what’s not, and how leaders are adapting.

Dave and the panel cover:

• The most overhyped AI use cases in B2B marketing (and where human nuance still wins)
• Real success stories, including building an AI-powered content research engine, scaling global localization, and using AI to make creative teams more data-driven
• How CMOs are personally using AI as a strategic thought partner for board prep, customer insights, and team coaching

Whether you’re experimenting with new tools or figuring out how to bring AI into your strategy, this conversation gives a grounded look at what B2B marketing leaders are really doing today.

Timestamps

• (00:00) - – Intro
• (03:08) - – Meet the panel: SOCi, Knak, Bitly
• (07:08) - – Has AI met or missed expectations?
• (11:53) - – The most overhyped AI use cases
• (15:08) - – Why human nuance still matters in personalization
• (20:08) - – The imposter syndrome of AI adoption
• (23:08) - – The power of AI with memory
• (25:48) - – Best AI use cases from the panel
• (31:43) - – Scaling global localization with AI
• (34:43) - – Training brand teams to be more data-driven
• (38:43) - – How CMOs personally use AI in their workflow
• (42:43) - – Using AI as a strategic thought partner
• (46:43) - – Coaching teams with AI feedback loops
• (48:43) - – The frustrations of iteration and tool updates
• (52:43) - – Is leadership pushing AI adoption?
• (56:43) - – Budgeting and building a modern AI-enabled tech stack
• (59:43) - – Final takeaways and closing

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Today's episode is brought to you by Knak.

Email (in my humble opinion) is the still the greatest marketing channel of all-time.

It’s the only way you can truly “own” your audience.

But when it comes to building the emails - if you’ve ever tried building an email in an enterprise marketing automation platform, you know how painful it can be. Templates are too rigid, editing code can break things and the whole process just takes forever. 

That’s why we love Knak here at Exit Five. Knak a no-code email platform that makes it easy to create on-brand, high-performing emails - without the bottlenecks.

• Frustrated by clunky email builders? You need Knak.
• Tired of ‘hoping’ the email you sent looks good across all devices? Just test in Knak first.
• Big team making it hard to collaborate and get approvals? Definitely Knak.

And the best part? Everything takes a fraction of the time.

See Knak in action at knak.com/exit-five. Or just let them know you heard about Knak on Exit Five.

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Thanks to my friends at hatch.fm for producing this episode and handling all of the Exit Five podcast production.

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