Understanding AI and Customer Success with Gainsight CIO Karl Mosgofian

On the 33rd episode of Enterprise Software Innovators, hosts Evan Reiser (Abnormal Security) and Saam Motamedi (Greylock Partners) talk with Karl Mosgofian, CIO of Gainsight. Gainsight is an industry-leading customer success platform used by enterprise organizations to optimize the customer journey from beginning to end. In this conversation, Karl shares his thoughts on balancing the hype versus the reality of current AI capabilities, understanding opportunities presented by generative AI, and approaching AI integration as an enterprise team.

Quick hits from Karl:

On managing expectations between current enterprise AI and generative AI: “Some people are acting like AI was just invented, and it wasn't. Gainsight has had AI in our products for a long time. There are a lot of people out there who've been doing this for a long time, doing really effective stuff. But it's also true that OpenAI made a big breakthrough. LLMs are really different. They're doing some things that previous technologies couldn't do and it's super exciting, and it's going to have a big impact on the world. But the hype cycle is real.”

On optimism for the potential of generative AI: “It makes me think of Arthur C. Clarke's line, that ‘Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.’ And ChatGPT is maybe the most magical technology I have ever seen. So, in some ways I'm all in on the hype, in the sense that this is really an incredible technology that's capable of fantastic things. We're at ChatGPT 4, right? So what's ChatGPT 17 going to look like? Running on quantum computing. I mean, if this is what it is in the early stages, what's it going to look like in 5-10 years? I'm excited about it and it's adding a lot of value for a lot of people right now.”

On advice for utilizing new technology at the enterprise level: “The first thing I did was identify someone on my team and said, ‘I want you to be the AI person. I want you to be a focal point and run a center of excellence within my team, so that somebody is really on point.’ The danger of things like this, especially when anybody can go to ChatGPT, you've got all these different people in the organization, they're doing cool stuff, but nobody's talking to each other. There is no security or governance around it. It is just like the wild west. And a little bit of that is okay. I don't want to stop that and try to control everything, but in the modern world, the role of it more and more is actually not to be dictators, but facilitators and coordinators across the company.”

Recent Book Recommendation: Gödel, Escher, Bach by Douglas Hofstadter

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Enterprise Software Innovators is a show where top tech executives share how they innovate at scale. Each episode covers unique insights and stories that will help you succeed as a technology leader. Find more great lessons from tech leaders and enterprise software experts at https://www.enterprisesoftware.blog/

Enterprise Software Innovators is produced by Luke Reiser and Josh Meer.