Executive Roundtable: AI Community-Led Growth (AI-CLG)

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Julia Nimchinski: Welcome to the show mark organ. We are for a real treat here

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Julia Nimchinski: great hosting, you mark organ founder and CEO of Aloqua and influitive.

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Julia Nimchinski: and it’s now category. Not how’s life?

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Mark Organ: Life is great, and it’s even better because I’ve so much enjoyed the content that you’ve had. This is your best summit yet, Julia

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Mark Organ: and I have learned a lot. And you can really, just you can see just how much more sophisticated everyone is becoming about AI and how it’s used for go to market. It’s so exciting to be here.

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Julia Nimchinski: Pleasure hosting you before we start off. Just I know this is, gonna be a community and AI session. I cannot think of a better person than you to host it. You build many communities, many categories. Why are you excited about this.

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Mark Organ: That’s a great question. Well, yeah. I’ve believed for a long time that community is really the best way to go to market.

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Mark Organ: and it’s for a few reasons. But

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Mark Organ: one of them is actually highlighted in the last interview is is just how much better the experience is

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Mark Organ: for participants to be surrounded by

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Mark Organ: their like-minded peers. It’s such a better experience than a typical marketing and sales experience, and if there’s a long time thesis I have for go to market. It’s experience of the buyer wins. And that’s part of our job as go to market architects is to build great experiences for buyers, and I think community absolutely does. That community also is effective throughout the entire buying cycle. The whole funnel

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Mark Organ: from, you know, generating awareness all the way through to driving success and and advocacy. I can’t think of really anything else

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Mark Organ: that we do in go to market that has that much potential impact as what communities can do. And I believe the future really is. Companies are going to be community, for the best companies are actually going to be community led and community 1st in terms of how they go to market. So

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Mark Organ: that’s why I’m excited about it. And yeah, like, I wrote, I did write a book on it here. The messenger is the message about that idea, and interviewed a number of great people that have believed in the same thing and executed on that idea and excited about this panel. We have, because we have a bunch of people here that believe the same thing and are done a great job in executing on this idea of using communities to drive or go to market.

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Julia Nimchinski: Awesome.

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Julia Nimchinski: Let’s open it up.

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Julia Nimchinski: The stage is yours. Stood.

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Mark Organ: Yeah, let’s do it. Why don’t we have a quick intro of everyone like 30 seconds on who you are and why you’re excited about community led growth.

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Mark Organ: Hey? We’ll start with. Let’s start with Nick.

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Nick “Mehtaphysical” Mehta: Yeah, hey? Nick made a CEO of gainsight really excited for 3 reasons. Super. Inspired by everything mark does. Number 2. Very passionately built our whole company at gainsight around community, like in our own business events, online, etc. And then number 3, we got into the online community software space. So I learned a lot that way, too.

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Mark Organ: Awesome. Thank you, Nick. Lisa, how about? Let’s go with you.

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Lisa Sharapata: Hey? Yeah, I’m Lisa Sharapada and 2 time Cmo, and I’ve been in the marketing world for a couple of decades now and back to what you originally started with. Mark. What I’ve seen is without a community. You’re a commodity. That’s something I truly believe in the best experiences win. And so the more you can bring people together around your brand the the better.

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Mark Organ: Well, said Lee Hong.

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Lihong Hicken: Hi, this this is Lee Hong Hickam I’m building. They said. They said that I owe we are AI Conversational Survey and interview company. Well, I’m loving the AI Led growth community here because it’s very.

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Lihong Hicken: very forward thinking about crazy idea about how we can use AI to advance and also wanted to see if people are more willing to share how they can use AI in the go to market space. So very happy to be here. Thank you.

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Mark Organ: That’s great. Mark stews.

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Mark Stouse, Proof Analytics: Hey, there, I’m Mark stews. I’m the CEO of proof analytics.ai.

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Mark Stouse, Proof Analytics: And I’m you know, I’m really excited to see how AI

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Mark Stouse, Proof Analytics: takes the community movement and transforms it and makes it very credible

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Mark Stouse, Proof Analytics: improves the overall experience which really is in is indivisible from the credibility of the community. So peer to peer is suffering right now. So in that regard. So I think that that this is gonna be really interesting to watch how AI improves that. And then the ascertain ability of the community movement and its impact on go to market and then on the business. That’s the other piece that I’m personally excited about.

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Mark Organ: Awesome. And finally, we have Aj.

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AJ Gandhi: Yeah. Hi, everybody. I’m Aj Gandhi, I’m a operating partner that focuses on go to market in private equity but portfolio companies. I work with about 50 companies anywhere from 10 million to 500 million arr and community is a big deal for our companies. And I sort of see community in in 3 different areas.

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AJ Gandhi: First, st for portfolio companies. They tend to be very focused with a very specific ideal customer profile of 2 to 3,000 accounts that they’re really going after. And they’re specialized businesses like service supply chain people who run childcare centers, folks who run inventory management and e-commerce. So there isn’t natural kind of real world communities that exist at scale. So community is critical and finding a way to.

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AJ Gandhi: you know, operationalize that, you know in virtual channels is key. But I think there’s often an issue of

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AJ Gandhi: just you know, getting to scale such that the community actually stays active and doesn’t become a ghost town, so really excited to be a part of this discussion and involve a couple of other communities. But I’ll save that for later.

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Mark Organ: Awesome. That’s great. What a great panel we have love to start, maybe at the top, maybe a little more high level like what’s what do you think are a couple of the greatest opportunities in go to market that communities offer that maybe are overlooked out there? People really aren’t seeing it, but are some of those most important benefits or opportunities that we could be pointing our communities to do?

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Mark Organ: Anyone could jump in who has a.

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AJ Gandhi: I’m happy to start Mark. I actually think that there’s just

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AJ Gandhi: a lot of niche business problems that exist out there. And there are people who kind of live in isolation of how do I get senior executives in my company to care more about this issue so it could be. You know this just sort of describing some of the companies. I work with 3rd party risk management. So managing all your suppliers, service supply chain managing spare parts for large manufacturing companies. You know, these are actually

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AJ Gandhi: huge business issues. But you don’t have a collection of people that can kind of come together and oftentimes to try to solve their own problems. But what they’re also really trying to do is they’re trying to get more recognition for the importance of their business issue, and they don’t want to be sold to as much as they want. But what they do want is the ability to engage with peers and figure out how they’re you know, addressing these problems. So I think that’s the opportunity that community has.

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Mark Organ: Yeah, that speaks to the importance of experience and and trust

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Mark Organ: there, which I think a lot of companies really do make that up.

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Mark Organ: Who else.

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Mark Stouse, Proof Analytics: You know, I would just stand on the shoulders of that last comment you just made, and say that

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Mark Stouse, Proof Analytics: all the research says that AI is outstripping

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Mark Stouse, Proof Analytics: peer to peer expertise right?

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Mark Stouse, Proof Analytics: If only because human beings are limited in how much they can see and understand of the entire network.

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AJ Gandhi: And.

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Mark Stouse, Proof Analytics: And so the ability to

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Mark Stouse, Proof Analytics: come alongside the community at large and individual members of that community and give them better information than they otherwise would have gotten more reliable information and also to based on the way conversations are going to anticipate.

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Mark Stouse, Proof Analytics: And then the information that’s really gonna be necessary.

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Mark Stouse, Proof Analytics: You know, one of the things that AI really is. And there’s it’s a lot of things. Okay. But one of them is, it’s a giant bullshit detector

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Mark Stouse, Proof Analytics: right, and that will only increase.

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Mark Stouse, Proof Analytics: And so, having an AI moderator, that kind of says, Hey, that was a really good comment. And you can take that one to the bank. But you know, in a really super nice way, maybe you need to kind of rethink

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Mark Stouse, Proof Analytics: your position over here is gonna be really important.

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Mark Organ: Right? Yeah. And I will speak. Speak a little bit of how AI and humans interact in sort of the communities of the future, too. So that’s great.

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Mark Organ: Lisa.

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Lisa Sharapata: Oh, I just wanna kind of go back to the part, though, where, like I joined the community to learn from my peers, I can ask, chat, gpt, or percolate, or any of the How do you do this? But it’s really great to be able to troubleshoot something with someone who’s been through it before brainstorm things and bounce something off of other people. So

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Lisa Sharapata: I mean, what I can see happening is you’ve got this community, and maybe AI is helping aggregate. Hey? Here’s a group of people who are having these challenges.

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Lisa Sharapata: Let’s create a circle around that. Let’s bring that to the forefront, so they can have a discussion. Maybe it’s taking notes. Maybe that goes into a repository later that people can go back through and find but I don’t. What I don’t want to lose is like the chance to actually talk to someone who’s been there and have them

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Lisa Sharapata: like troubleshoot with me in real time.

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Nick “Mehtaphysical” Mehta: Yeah.

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Mark Stouse, Proof Analytics: I agree, I just would say that it’s a multiplayer experience, right? And AI, one of the big players going forward, and there’s no avoiding that it just is.

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Lisa Sharapata: And it can enrich it right? And I think that’s like, that’s where I see AI really helping.

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Mark Organ: Yeah, you’re gonna jump in there.

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Nick “Mehtaphysical” Mehta: Yeah, sure. And then, and really, at least, I like what you said about like AI is opportunity to suggest who you should connect with, and I thought something you said upfront was so spot on should definitely be like on a bumper sticker of like, you know, if you’re not investing community or commodity or something. I probably got it slightly wrong.

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Lisa Sharapata: A lot of community here. Yep.

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Nick “Mehtaphysical” Mehta: Yeah, I love that. And I think that answering mark your question. Just opportunities to go to market, I think. Tied to what Lisa said one of them, is differentiation for sure, like.

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Nick “Mehtaphysical” Mehta: you know, software is a commodity, right? Like it just is you go into. And if you all have used replit before. But even if you’re not a programmer, just go on replet, and you can say, Build me this app and it will build you an app. It’s like me. It’s just magic, right? But what it can’t do is help you like you’re saying, Lisa, like, Give you that forum to meet other people that are going through the same challenges. And the second thing mark to this opportunities for go to market

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Nick “Mehtaphysical” Mehta: is making communities less transactional. So like the example I was gonna use was like field events, right? So if we call them field events, I think John Miller would sing experiences, not events. If we call them field events. And then we say, you know what we have field event. It’s for pipeline generation. We can’t have more than 10% of the audience be customers

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Nick “Mehtaphysical” Mehta: right? That’s actually like that is. And I get why? Cmo, say that because they’re on a traditional like very short term pipeline target. And then you have the end of the vet. You said. How much pipeline do we generate?

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Nick “Mehtaphysical” Mehta: That’s like, I mean, literally, thousands and thousands of events have gone through that cycle. But I think it’s very short term oriented versus we’re doing an event to connect people together. Of course, we’re gonna measure metrics. But we believe fundamentally that part of our jobs connect people together and part of our value prop is that community.

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Mark Organ: Right? Yeah, no. Well, said, this maybe leads to the next question, which what are the key? Challenges that you see in terms of how to make these communities operate to their full potential in order to generate, go to market benefits. And this is actually why I was so excited about this panel, because I really do believe that AI in a number of ways has an ability to

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Mark Organ: solve some of the issues of why we don’t have every single b 2 b company in the world having a community, I think AI solves some of that, but love to hear from you on on the bottlenecks or challenges. Maybe we’ll start with Li Hong.

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Lihong Hicken: I actually wanted to address like when Lisa, saying, like people go to the community, wanted to interact with other peers who have been there. But I would say, people, you know, if they have trouble or troubleshoot, they more

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Lihong Hicken: wanted to talk to people and help themselves think of a solution themselves rather than other people feed them. The solution or what worked for them. So I’ve seen, like, you know, they say you have a problem today, you need to solve. But the peers who are available

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Lihong Hicken: may not have the right expertise, or the people who have the right. Sp don’t have the time and the benefit with the AI is that you can actually say, pretend you are a Buddha, that you know this. I read your book about not reacting, and I have this trouble like, I have this negative things, you know. Let’s talk through things out. I think, you know, because AI has the huge amount of personalization.

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Lihong Hicken: a huge amount like also real time 24, 7, and speak multiple language. I can ask it in my native language. It adds a lot of value to the experience, the user experience of the community members, because it’s all time anytime going on, but in terms of like engaging the community to

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Lihong Hicken: make a community better or more contributing to yourself. It’s like

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Lihong Hicken: one thing is like, you know, getting the feedback, getting the voice heard in the community. So oftentimes in the community. You hear some of the active members talking a lot, and then the other ones are more silent. So you know, you gather feedback through the normal surveys and polls. You get a number of X number of people like AI for sales, but you don’t know the why. So I think AI will be able to bring out a lot of the more. Why? Because in today’s world there’s a lot of misunderstanding. There’s a lot of different opinions.

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Lihong Hicken: It helps bring out the why of like, why do you have this opinion and seek

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Lihong Hicken: understanding and actually can solve one of the biggest problem in the Us. Is like people are fighting this like, if we know more about the why and where, why they are coming up with this situation, then maybe there will be less fighting and more understanding, and make the community even better. So just my 2 cents in addressing, like Lisa, your opinion about AI and the community. I think it. I’m pretty optimistic. I think it will move to a better position if we use AI correctly.

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Mark Stouse, Proof Analytics: Yes.

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Mark Organ: Oh.

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Mark Organ: so how do we make these? How do we make these communities more effective? I know from my experience in in building

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Mark Organ: sort of revenue focused go to market communities. A lot depended on the skill of the community manager and the energy of that person. There’s a lot to do. And this is where I see the value of automation. And AI

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Mark Organ: I’d love to hear from from you folks in terms of, you know, challenges to making these communities full like maximally successful. And what we need to do in order to address them

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Mark Organ: like, pick somebody.

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Mark Stouse, Proof Analytics: I think it. I think it just really it a lot of it. I mean, if you talk to people that are active in communities.

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Mark Stouse, Proof Analytics: They will baseline the performance of the community, certainly by the moderation, right, but also about the quality of the participation

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Mark Stouse, Proof Analytics: right? The problem that everyone is coming into right now. And it’s broad based across many different industries

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Mark Stouse, Proof Analytics: is that

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Mark Stouse, Proof Analytics: things are moving so fast, so such high velocity change such volatility in the environment that what was once known okay is not exactly known today, right?

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Mark Stouse, Proof Analytics: And so the value of AI is kind of an eye in the sky. Super moderator

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Mark Stouse, Proof Analytics: of communities is going to be really key because it’s gonna bring a cohesive view of information. Not just one person or 2 people or 3 people’s primary viewpoint.

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Mark Organ: Right?

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Mark Organ: Yeah, that’s super interesting point around, you know. Really sort of creating a super moderator, you know, who, armed with so much more information about an insight about what’s really going on in the community. So I think that’s exciting.

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Mark Stouse, Proof Analytics: I mean, I’ll give you a real life example real fast. I’ve had a meeting with Linkedin right? They estimate that 2 thirds of the content on any given day is factually incorrect. That’s a huge issue in that community, right? So the ability to separate wheat from chaff helps everybody.

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Mark Organ: Right.

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Lihong Hicken: I can see a potential, amazing use case like, imagine we have a super. Nick Mehta, right, Nick, you are one of the best community creators. Even when you’re on the stage, you just

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Lihong Hicken: light up the audience and stuff. But we can’t have you 24, 7 amazing. Imagine we make a female version of you like A AI community manager. But, sings Taylor Swift. Right.

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Lihong Hicken: you know, have your energy, your charminess. It would be fun. It’s the best of both worlds where you can have the personalization the instant

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Lihong Hicken: connection

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Lihong Hicken: with the super with the AI, the model after someone who’s really good at a player, and then you also have the personal touch, maybe in the offline conferences where you can meet in person. But I think I think

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Lihong Hicken: any community that’s good. I haven’t seen a community that is only digital and no in person. That work while work. Well, I don’t know. That’s just. I haven’t seen. I don’t know if AI can change that. I want to hear other people’s thoughts. It’s like, Do you think

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Lihong Hicken: you know?

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Lihong Hicken: Yeah, the old school of engaging? Yeah.

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Lisa Sharapata: Oh, go ahead! Nick!

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Nick “Mehtaphysical” Mehta: Yeah. Well, I was only gonna respond to like. The 1st part of what you said is the most dystopian view of AI I’ve ever heard is the that AI Nick, that sings songs that definitely very.

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Lihong Hicken: Suit.

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Nick “Mehtaphysical” Mehta: Very scary future. We should definitely regulate AI if that’s what’s gonna happen. But on on like, why do communities fail? And how does AI fit into this, like, you know? Clearly. And I think other folks have said this too. This issue where a community becomes a ghost town is a major problem. Right? Like this is where you know, we have community software and the customers that are not successful. It’s largely because the community becomes a ghost town.

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Nick “Mehtaphysical” Mehta: And I think part of that is actually like, historically. And there might be solutions. Folks here on the panel have, like most executives, don’t go to communities online. They just don’t. Except for Linkedin, they’ll go on Linkedin. But besides that, they won’t go anywhere. And so I think there’s this issue where communities are very good for practitioners, unlike communities. But they’re not as good for executives. And is there something

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Nick “Mehtaphysical” Mehta: in the future that could use AI to be more effective for executives. And then final comment to make for Mark. I think you’re right about Linkedin having lots of spurious content. And

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Nick “Mehtaphysical” Mehta: if all the content on a commute like Linkedin is AI generated. It will just become a nightmare. Nobody will want to read it, because it’ll just look like a different kind of spam, and I can already. I don’t know if you guys can tell, but I can see a chat gpt authored posts on Linkedin. You can tell. Still like that they were written by AI,

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Nick “Mehtaphysical” Mehta: and so I don’t have the answer. But I do think in a world where AI is writing everything. What happens like? Do we actually still want to engage with it? So I’ve asked questions. I don’t have good answers here, but it’s what I’m thinking about.

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Mark Organ: Yeah, no really interesting point. And and I’ll challenge the idea that executives won’t come to community and actually, executives do come to your communities. Nick, I’ve been to.

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Nick “Mehtaphysical” Mehta: In person. So I meant online community.

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Mark Organ: Yeah, no online. Yeah. I know for sure. In in person, I’ve been to a number of your events. But so you know, we created a whole bunch of communities that included, including some that were only only had sea level people in there. And and I think the reason why, and I think the reason why they worked probably speaks to what we need to do with AI and and with the design of our communities. And

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Mark Organ: actually John Miller had 3 great points in terms of where the marketing of the future is going, and echo the same ones. One experiences 2 relationships, 2. Originality. So if my experience, if you create a community, that where the experience is great, where people are going to form new relationships, and they’re going to hear something original. You will get people to go there online or offline.

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Mark Organ: But that’s hard to do. How do you create great experiences with original content and allow people to form relationships like that requires exceptional design. I think, firstly, in order to do that.

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AJ Gandhi: Mark, have you? Have you seen examples of where people have done that successfully with AI because you go through those 3 elements that you just highlighted. None of those feel naturally kind of virtual or AI driven.

1026
02:52:24.730 –> 02:52:26.900
AJ Gandhi: you know, experience.

1027
02:52:27.491 –> 02:52:32.770
AJ Gandhi: The second, I think you said relationships. And then the 3rd was kind of originality.

1028
02:52:33.900 –> 02:52:35.489
AJ Gandhi: How do you do that with AI?

1029
02:52:36.070 –> 02:52:37.829
AJ Gandhi: I can tell you how you do in the real world.

1030
02:52:37.830 –> 02:52:45.310
Lisa Sharapata: Actually, John’s point was that that is the places that AI won’t transform.

1031
02:52:45.310 –> 02:52:46.220
AJ Gandhi: I see.

1032
02:52:46.220 –> 02:52:47.620
Lisa Sharapata: First, st yeah.

1033
02:52:48.132 –> 02:52:49.670
AJ Gandhi: Which I agree.

1034
02:52:49.670 –> 02:52:58.719
Mark Organ: May be helpful, though, like there may be, I think AI may be an adjunct to, perhaps help with originality that may help with, but but I think.

1035
02:52:59.101 –> 02:53:12.819
Lisa Sharapata: The managers time to be more creative and create more original experiences because they’re not doing all the administrative work and not having to onboard, everybody and and all the you know, kind of stuff that’s

1036
02:53:13.523 –> 02:53:20.100
Lisa Sharapata: takes up a lot of time right now. So yeah, I mean, I think AI again, can like totally make it

1037
02:53:20.270 –> 02:53:29.650
Lisa Sharapata: take make communities better in a lot of ways. But I just, I keep going back to like the original reason why people would join a community.

1038
02:53:29.770 –> 02:53:38.790
Lisa Sharapata: and the form needs to follow function like people want to belong. They want to learn from their peers. They’re looking to network. So how do you make that better? And

1039
02:53:38.950 –> 02:53:42.340
Lisa Sharapata: I don’t think you can totally swap out like

1040
02:53:42.400 –> 02:53:51.090
Lisa Sharapata: a a human generated AI to to do that. In a lot of communities. There might be some that that’s the right thing.

1041
02:53:51.090 –> 02:54:14.979
Lisa Sharapata: like I just saw Jocko from winning by design, and he’s got this new like sales. Bot. It’s him, and can engage like a person. And I think like that’s great in sales, and most people don’t want to talk to an actual person until they’re in the final stages of of buying, anyway. But, like in the community part, most people are joining that

1042
02:54:15.070 –> 02:54:32.289
Lisa Sharapata: for for the camaraderie and for the community to actually work. There has to be contribution from like both sides. So yeah, I mean, I think it’s just. It’s fascinating to consider the options. But I still think it’s got to go back to like, why do people join?

1043
02:54:32.500 –> 02:54:35.259
Lisa Sharapata: They want the experience of belonging.

1044
02:54:35.260 –> 02:54:38.319
Mark Stouse, Proof Analytics: So to that, to that very point, right?

1045
02:54:38.530 –> 02:54:57.490
Mark Stouse, Proof Analytics: There’s a lot of research on this that indicates that that while people join communities for many different reasons, including camaraderie and all that stuff that we all appreciate right, that their participation in a professional community is usually about de-risking something

1046
02:54:58.100 –> 02:55:16.239
Mark Stouse, Proof Analytics: right? They’re going out to everybody and saying, Hey, I’m thinking about XY. Or Z. Right, has anybody experienced this? Has anybody encountered the the risks? How am I likely to get bit here, you know, stuff like that. Right? That’s a big part of this.

1047
02:55:16.470 –> 02:55:23.030
Mark Stouse, Proof Analytics: And that’s where the reliability of the whole community experience becomes so critical

1048
02:55:23.480 –> 02:55:33.990
Mark Stouse, Proof Analytics: because it’s not just a social club, right? It’s not your local right. It has a purpose for existing. So I think that we can’t lose sight of that.

1049
02:55:33.990 –> 02:55:42.579
Nick “Mehtaphysical” Mehta: I think one thing, Mark, and just what I’ve seen, because I I understand what you’re saying. It’s it’s a good point, like, you know if you go and read it, and you’re trying to solve a problem.

1050
02:55:42.650 –> 02:56:04.820
Nick “Mehtaphysical” Mehta: you get a lot of random answers that might not be accurate. So your Point’s valid, and if you go on Reddit, you’ll see tons of people are there just to like find other people that are like them, like, I’m a big believer of part of communities belonging. So I don’t think everyone that goes to community, at least in our experience, is there to solve a problem? I think some are like what you said is right. I think.

1051
02:56:04.820 –> 02:56:07.440
Mark Stouse, Proof Analytics: No, I I’m here

1052
02:56:07.800 –> 02:56:16.279
Mark Stouse, Proof Analytics: right. I mean, I’m just saying, though, that if you look at the at how pressed the average person is in their time schedule.

1053
02:56:16.480 –> 02:56:17.310
Mark Stouse, Proof Analytics: Right?

1054
02:56:17.760 –> 02:56:42.080
Mark Stouse, Proof Analytics: They’re if they have to choose between real life, social environments, right? And something digital. They’re gonna probably go to a bar or something like that, right? They’re gonna have a good time. And and but if they have a specific question that they’re trying to de-risk, they’re going to go to what they believe is a locus of expertise, and they’re gonna try and get the answer right.

1055
02:56:42.240 –> 02:56:53.270
Nick “Mehtaphysical” Mehta: I think the last part I agree with. I think I the thing again. I think it’s always an and not an or but I think the 1st part I don’t think is universally true. I I mean, I think you can just see it like

1056
02:56:53.270 –> 02:57:15.869
Nick “Mehtaphysical” Mehta: you know, younger folks where they don’t go to bars like they don’t want to. They go on Reddit, and discord and trick Tiktok, and that’s their whole life. We can decide debate in a separate form. If that’s good or bad, that’s not the point. It’s that like, you know, there’s a reason why so many people on Reddit, and I’ll admit, like for me. Sometimes those online interactions are nice. They’re like you get to. Just

1057
02:57:15.930 –> 02:57:28.810
Nick “Mehtaphysical” Mehta: you get your answers, talk to people, etc. And so I. What I’ve just found is belonging in community is a big part of it. Problem solving is also a big part of it, like there’s. And I think you’re saying that, too. It’s an and.

1058
02:57:29.100 –> 02:57:33.830
Mark Stouse, Proof Analytics: Yeah, I am. I am very much saying that. I do think, though, that if you’re the Cfo.

1059
02:57:33.950 –> 02:57:38.439
Mark Stouse, Proof Analytics: And you’re under pressure, you’re going to start asking questions about how much

1060
02:57:38.610 –> 02:57:44.899
Mark Stouse, Proof Analytics: of the community existence is to make people feel good as opposed to sell.

1061
02:57:45.200 –> 02:57:45.850
Nick “Mehtaphysical” Mehta: Good point.

1062
02:57:45.850 –> 02:57:49.280
Mark Organ: And the truth is, is, you need both right. If people don’t.

1063
02:57:49.280 –> 02:57:49.670
Mark Organ: This

1064
02:57:49.670 –> 02:58:00.939
Mark Organ: sense of belonging, they’re they’re not going to join. They want to join something bigger than themselves. They want to feel like they’re contributing, and if they do feel good, then you may get more activity from them. And I think that’s why.

1065
02:58:00.940 –> 02:58:01.520
Lihong Hicken: Hmm.

1066
02:58:01.520 –> 02:58:15.529
Mark Organ: Why you’re you’re both right. And that was sort of a foundational idea for me behind, behind influitive. But I’d love to get more back into like AI and and design. So we, in order to have a community that works very well.

1067
02:58:15.650 –> 02:58:23.480
Mark Organ: you need to have great design. We talked about experiences. We talked about original content. We talked about being able to form real relationships.

1068
02:58:23.490 –> 02:58:49.770
Mark Organ: That’s what makes communities truly exceptional and drive results. And and AI may be helpful for that. But you need great humans and great design. Where can AI really play a potentially transformational role? And what can’t it do like? What do we will. What will we need the humans to do and step up to do.

1069
02:58:53.080 –> 02:59:07.479
Lihong Hicken: I’ll jump in, I think, like Nick mentioned, like a lot of online community, becomes a graveyard because it’s not engaging. But if you think about going to an online community as like part of your job like.

1070
02:59:07.480 –> 02:59:32.370
Lihong Hicken: it’s going to be hard to convince yourself to go in there and engage, and then maybe on the day you have problems. So if we can add some more like personalization and interest. So let’s say you go to a Cfo club, where sure you you know at work you’re a Cfo. But also, maybe you like to play golf, or maybe you like to go skiing right? So I think AI helps. We can use AI to get a more

1071
02:59:32.390 –> 02:59:54.700
Lihong Hicken: personalized information about the members, interests and hobby. And and then we can have a Cfo group who like to do golf and who live in West Coast, and that that will maybe enhance. Maybe we can organize a better event with a small group, you know, face to face meeting. So that way it becomes like it’s our community is like.

1072
02:59:54.880 –> 02:59:59.230
Lihong Hicken: it’s kind of bad like. Sometimes you can’t separate work and life. But

1073
02:59:59.400 –> 03:00:16.679
Lihong Hicken: this, this is how one of the ways you can engage. People like this is their interest. They love engaging with the people who are similar careerly interest in a life stage. So that’s my take on like how AI can help.

1074
03:00:16.680 –> 03:00:21.980
Mark Organ: Yeah, yeah, use it. Use it to increase engagement, like whisper in the moderator’s ear. Say, try this. I think that’s cool.

1075
03:00:22.140 –> 03:00:27.760
Lisa Sharapata: Yeah, I would even add, like personalization and curated content. And

1076
03:00:28.040 –> 03:00:36.079
Lisa Sharapata: you know, back to like, once you learn about that person when they come in. They’re filling out a form. They’re giving you a lot of information. And I feel like today

1077
03:00:36.120 –> 03:01:03.870
Lisa Sharapata: that might go in their profile. But it’s not really being utilized in a way that’s really gonna make their experience better, you know, help curate an experience for them within the community that’s really valuable. And then on the flip side of that, you know, you might have internal webinars or circles or discussion groups, and I mentioned this, but I see it all the time where there’s a great conversation, and it it just it dies on the vine. It’s it’s this one

1078
03:01:03.880 –> 03:01:30.019
Lisa Sharapata: isolated thing that happens when that could be something that then starts populating. A content repository or resource hub for people. And if you’ve got one person running the community, there is just like no way they can do all that. But if you’ve got AI helping, you know, curate all that and put it into like usable use cases, I think it will really start to enrich

1079
03:01:30.180 –> 03:01:31.629
Lisa Sharapata: the experience.

1080
03:01:31.630 –> 03:01:33.790
Mark Organ: I agree, slam dunk. That’s great.

1081
03:01:34.630 –> 03:02:00.649
AJ Gandhi: Yeah, I think the hybrid helps a lot. I mean, I’ve I’ve run a bunch of conferences. I I run roundtables for our Cmos Cros Ccos in our portfolio, and you know whether the frequencies, you know a conference every 6 months or a round table every 4 weeks. There’s all this engagement that spikes up, but then there’s no way to continue the conversation, and there’s not enough

1082
03:02:00.940 –> 03:02:03.619
AJ Gandhi: what my experience is. There’s just not enough

1083
03:02:04.200 –> 03:02:21.549
AJ Gandhi: kind of engagement that the online community, you know, maintains its momentum. It’s what was just being sure by by Lisa, it’s it’ll spike for a while, but you generally don’t have enough volume in there that you’ve got a community moderator who’s gonna

1084
03:02:21.750 –> 03:02:31.150
AJ Gandhi: be responding to it. And if you don’t get that immediate response. Then you’re less motivated to post. And so I’ve got a community of 500 executives within my firm

1085
03:02:31.260 –> 03:02:41.189
AJ Gandhi: and the online community. You know, we’re more ghost town land. Even though we do 25 you know, roundtable or best practice sessions per year.

1086
03:02:42.890 –> 03:02:43.790
Nick “Mehtaphysical” Mehta: I think that’s a good.

1087
03:02:43.900 –> 03:02:45.160
AJ Gandhi: Can help. Moderate.

1088
03:02:45.720 –> 03:03:14.710
Nick “Mehtaphysical” Mehta: It’s a really good point. Because, Adrian, because I’ve been to your events and they’re awesome. And like the online, even for us, we’ve tried different executive online Cco type communities. And I think part of it is very simple. What you said. It’s the end, the number of people, because the great thing about Linkedin is, they’re just so many people. So even if most people aren’t active enough, people are active. And if there’s enough people active, then you have a desire to go, you know, engage. We all know how social networks work. Right? And so I think this is the problem. 500 person community.

1089
03:03:14.740 –> 03:03:17.890
Nick “Mehtaphysical” Mehta: especially if it’s executive. You’re not going to get engagement.

1090
03:03:17.980 –> 03:03:19.230
Nick “Mehtaphysical” Mehta: So that’s it. That’s.

1091
03:03:19.494 –> 03:03:37.209
AJ Gandhi: The probably the smallest community that I see active would be the Cmo coffee talk, and that’s about 5,000 people in the community. And but and they meet every week. And what I I think Matt Hines has really done a great job of that I don’t know that he’s using AI yet, but that would. That would be an interesting conversation to have with Matt.

1092
03:03:37.610 –> 03:03:55.349
Lisa Sharapata: It’s funny I actually started that with Matt. When I was at 6 cents and it started as a Cmo breakfast tour. We had 8 cities, and the last 2 were Boston and New York and Covid hit. And we went online

1093
03:03:55.610 –> 03:04:08.370
Lisa Sharapata: and the rest is history. But I think what really has helped is 6 sense has done also a good job of like when they’re in Austin for the Forrester event. They have a

1094
03:04:08.520 –> 03:04:34.829
Lisa Sharapata: Cmo experience within their bigger vip experience. There, you know, there’s always a a component of that in person. And so they’ve got this consistency in this engagement, and they’ve done a good job of like marrying up some, you know, in person components of that with online. And it’s consistent. And there’s just it’s.

1095
03:04:35.020 –> 03:04:40.899
Lisa Sharapata: you know, they’re they’ve just kept the cadence going. So they’ve got the engagement.

1096
03:04:42.050 –> 03:04:50.660
Mark Organ: Yeah, no. And I think that’s probably an area where AI, I think, can help the most is driving consistent engagement, just multiplying the ability to engage

1097
03:04:51.213 –> 03:05:11.770
Mark Organ: you know, multiple folks at once. So that’s a great case study. And speaking of case studies, it’d be great to hear success story that you guys have had, either for your own company or for any of your customers in terms of some fabulous business value that communities have generated.

1098
03:05:12.050 –> 03:05:23.859
Mark Organ: And you know whether or not you used AI. I know AI is still relatively new in terms of how we’re applying it for for community. I know that one that comes to mind for me. I just actually just went skiing with

1099
03:05:24.390 –> 03:05:38.360
Mark Organ: with Freddie from Octa. And he, he told me, is that his communities actually was one of the key things that helped him go public before his competitors. And one of the reasons why is that his community members actually designed

1100
03:05:38.410 –> 03:05:45.030
Mark Organ: some award-winning ads for the company that frankly, to this day I can’t understand them because they’re for network engineers.

1101
03:05:45.070 –> 03:06:11.050
Mark Organ: but it just speaks to the power of what you can get your customers to do, you know, and in some ways, maybe your customers might understand you better than your own marketing department. But that was that was a big success story. I was very excited to hear it, but love to hear from you guys in terms of success stories and the business value, or like, what was the problem that you had? And then, how did community help solve that problem? What kind of metrics came out of it?

1102
03:06:11.190 –> 03:06:20.080
Mark Stouse, Proof Analytics: We have a, we have a client actually, that has done something really super bad. Ass, really. It has given

1103
03:06:20.280 –> 03:06:29.750
Mark Stouse, Proof Analytics: their community a mission of improving an Llm about the topic that everyone is focused on right?

1104
03:06:30.577 –> 03:06:57.439
Mark Stouse, Proof Analytics: And so the community actually not only gets to contribute, but to memorialize their contributions right, and they have gamified the conf, the contribution, frequency and quality, and all this kind of stuff. And so there’s kind of a leaderboard, and you know all that kind of thing. And so in this, rather, you know, delineated space right? They have really created the the authority

1105
03:06:57.560 –> 03:07:03.970
Mark Stouse, Proof Analytics: right? On that particular topic, and co-authored by the community.

1106
03:07:05.080 –> 03:07:06.710
Mark Organ: That’s awesome. That’s a great story.

1107
03:07:08.150 –> 03:07:10.580
Mark Organ: Then let’s jump in here with a big success story.

1108
03:07:14.190 –> 03:07:39.319
Nick “Mehtaphysical” Mehta: I can. I could share a couple briefly. So gong, like, you know, we work with them, and they have a great. Everyone knows gong right? And so they’ve got a great community of sales professionals across different levels. And what I love about what they’ve done. There’s a woman named Nisha Bakshi. If she, if you’re on Nisha, shout out to you, but she runs their community, and what they’ve done is created community as like an integrated

1109
03:07:39.320 –> 03:07:59.349
Nick “Mehtaphysical” Mehta: customer. Destination versus a 1 off kind of thing that’s 1 of the challenges people have with communities is they’re often to the side so effectively like, there’s a support portal, there’s somewhere to get help and documentation. There’s a take place to take training and like gong is integrated that really nicely, and so they have tons of like. I was just looking at the stats like

1110
03:07:59.350 –> 03:08:10.879
Nick “Mehtaphysical” Mehta: they have 12,000 active users. They’ve they’ve got like massively higher upsell for people that use community. So they do a great job. And then we for our own business, we’ve built a really nice community. That’s

1111
03:08:10.880 –> 03:08:35.849
Nick “Mehtaphysical” Mehta: that’s very focused on product, feedback and product interaction. And I think that’s 1 of the other things. Mark that you know all about, which is community for advocacy versus community for self service support versus community for connection. And in our case, it’s really community for product related feedback and issues what you might call like your classic community, but one of the things that’s really cool. I remember seeing this post where

1112
03:08:35.850 –> 03:08:57.890
Nick “Mehtaphysical” Mehta: the person said, it’s like a kind of multi time gain Site Operations person, he said. This community makes me feel less alone. I was like, Oh, tug at the heartstrings that’s so sweet. And there’s there’s an interesting element there where it’s technical people, they’re trying to solve problems. But they also feel belonging like. So it’s kind of a nice. And to what Mark has been saying, and Lisa and others.

1113
03:09:03.380 –> 03:09:07.064
Mark Organ: Awesome any anyone else on that?

1114
03:09:08.490 –> 03:09:23.179
Mark Organ: yeah, no. The product product use cases are actually really powerful. I think it’s 1 of the under leveraged aspects of communities is using it for insights in terms of how to go to market. Better, how to build a product. Better

1115
03:09:23.760 –> 03:09:33.730
Mark Organ: anyone else in terms of big go-to-market success. Anybody using it to get prospects and customers together. Anyone using communities to drive a better

1116
03:09:34.070 –> 03:09:38.400
Mark Organ: prospect experience. Because I I think that’s a big opportunity

1117
03:09:38.540 –> 03:09:56.970
Mark Organ: that I really don’t see enough companies doing. I envision in the future where companies are going to drive people to their community instead of a website or a landing page because it’s more trusted. And it’s a better experience for people. Is anyone doing anything like that?

1118
03:09:57.330 –> 03:09:59.769
Lisa Sharapata: It that weather without AI mark.

1119
03:10:00.418 –> 03:10:05.789
Mark Organ: Yeah, I mean, with or with or without, I mean again, I think I think AI is still pretty young.

1120
03:10:05.790 –> 03:10:07.880
AJ Gandhi: Yeah. But I like what you guys, right, let me go.

1121
03:10:07.880 –> 03:10:08.440
AJ Gandhi: Okay.

1122
03:10:08.800 –> 03:10:09.350
Mark Organ: Yeah.

1123
03:10:12.120 –> 03:10:34.519
AJ Gandhi: When I was at Salesforce. This is one of the key plays. you know, this is around like 2,010. Where cios were still wary of the cloud, and so we had a team. Ross Piper and Simon Mulcahy, who built a CIO roundtable program, and it was a big roadshow

1124
03:10:35.101 –> 03:10:37.700
AJ Gandhi: all throughout the world where you get.

1125
03:10:37.820 –> 03:10:56.149
AJ Gandhi: you know, 12 to 18 cios around a table. You’d make sure there’d be a handful of customers and a bunch of prospects, and they’re just experience sharing. And it just the the biggest thing in community that I’ve seen when you do these kinds of executive type round tables and sort of think tanks is you accelerate the buyer’s journey.

1126
03:10:56.640 –> 03:11:01.099
AJ Gandhi: And so we’re we’re doing that with a number of our companies in our portfolio. Right now.

1127
03:11:01.220 –> 03:11:26.859
AJ Gandhi: I mentioned the Service Supply Chain Company. And so, yeah, we’re just following that formula and and taking it to top 5 cities, and it works super well. I think the the 6th sense formula that they’re running right now with Matt Hines for Cmo. Coffee talk works super. Well, also, it’s not an explicit 6 sense community, but 6th senses. Influence and engagement is all over it. So it just has become

1128
03:11:27.230 –> 03:11:41.689
AJ Gandhi: a natural extension, but because you have an external party that’s running it and does it in authentic way. You know, people feel comfortable in the community, and it just sort of again naturally draws people to the success brand. It accelerates the buyer’s journey.

1129
03:11:44.470 –> 03:11:45.880
Lihong Hicken: Well, I’ll share my

1130
03:11:46.000 –> 03:12:07.670
Lihong Hicken: my perspective on the startup perspective, because most of companies who have a community are already at scale, or have a large volume of customers, you can have the brand effect. So if you are a startup, and then how do you engage with community like you don’t have enough resources to create your own community. So for us, we were like, well.

1131
03:12:07.760 –> 03:12:25.569
Lihong Hicken: that’s not bite up too much. Then what we can do instead of building another graveyard community. Why don’t we join active, engaging community and be an active member of that? So I’ve I’ve identified 2 community that I personally will pretty actively engaged. Well, one of them is this AI

1132
03:12:25.570 –> 03:12:38.660
Lihong Hicken: that grows Julia’s Hsc. Community because everyone here is very AI focused, willing to embrace new technology and a lot of them are go to market leaders who want to get new AI techs. So I

1133
03:12:38.660 –> 03:12:44.689
Lihong Hicken: I you know, ever since Julia reached out to me a couple months ago we’ve been active in the community.

1134
03:12:44.700 –> 03:12:59.789
Lihong Hicken: And then another group of community that for startup that we often hang out is in product hunt. So if you look at product, hunt the top 10 product hunt every day is AI products. So it’s full of AI enthusiasts who

1135
03:12:59.790 –> 03:13:28.450
Lihong Hicken: is excited about, how do we make the generate AI or AI technology more applicable and make it, you know, new softwares, a new system that replace existing non-AI products. So we’ve been dedicated to do like a 2 potter hunt every year. So that’s the maximum amount they allow you to do so kind of engage with our audience every time we roll out new product based on the feedback. And they actually, if you are trying to get product feedback Nick, like

1136
03:13:28.450 –> 03:13:48.399
Lihong Hicken: product, people are really good at giving product feedback, really, really solid, like, in a period of one week of like crazy lunch, you get tons that you would spend months a year together. So accelerate your growth really? Well. So I’m saying that community is a very powerful tool.

1137
03:13:48.540 –> 03:13:56.920
Lihong Hicken: Even if you are a startup, you don’t have the resources to build your own community. Let’s attached to an existing vibrant community and be an active member. There.

1138
03:13:57.590 –> 03:14:25.089
Mark Organ: Yeah, no, I think that’s right. I mean, I think startups should all invest in community, even if they have their own. They have their own community. It may not be powerful in the beginning, but there’s a greater community, as you put it, that your your perspective customers and customers are everywhere. They’re on Linkedin, their product hunt. They’re on Reddit. And how do you connect all of those together? And maybe in the future AI has a role to play there, and sort of stitching together that greater community.

1139
03:14:25.440 –> 03:14:43.690
Lisa Sharapata: I was. Gonna say, I’ve tried to kinda growth hack that a little bit in a couple of communities, and you can have AI like listening in, let’s say, a slack channel and be listening for the kinds of problems that your your organization can help solve. So

1140
03:14:43.850 –> 03:15:11.470
Lisa Sharapata: I was trying to get like our account executive set up to be, you know, listening for what’s going on, and be able to pounce in, and then the whole idea would be well, hey? We’ve got another customer. Who’s in that community? Can can we have them jump in and like help advocate and answer that question. So it’s not salesy. But it’s it’s a lot. But I think AI is something that can help with that. But then I think it loses its authenticity

1141
03:15:11.560 –> 03:15:23.479
Lisa Sharapata: as a community, too. And so you’ve got to be really careful, like how much of that’s going on, because I think if I was a community owner I would not want that going on so.

1142
03:15:23.480 –> 03:15:30.020
Mark Organ: Yeah. Well, that’s a that’s a great segue to to what I think. Maybe one of the most valuable parts of our

1143
03:15:30.170 –> 03:15:33.599
Mark Organ: talk today, which is, where is AI

1144
03:15:33.790 –> 03:15:58.169
Mark Organ: overhyped with respect to what you know. And I think today and again, I keep saying AI, but there’s multiple types of AI, as we as we know, which we haven’t even got into yet. But where is AI kind of overhyped in terms of what it will actually deliver? And I mean, every technology always has overhyped somewhere, you know. Remember the segway that was supposed to take over all of transportation.

1145
03:15:59.360 –> 03:16:22.589
Mark Organ: But then, where is it underhyped? And even the Segway has taken over a lot of city tours. For example, a lot of people now use it for that. But where you know, where have we just scratched the surface of what AI is capable of doing? I mean, specifically, within communities love to get your takes on that. I got to start with Mark Stews. I know it’s something you think about a lot. Talk about a lot.

1146
03:16:22.780 –> 03:16:29.409
Mark Stouse, Proof Analytics: Yeah, I think there’s a lot of evidence that says that AI all 4 types, not just Gen. AI

1147
03:16:29.700 –> 03:16:33.850
Mark Stouse, Proof Analytics: are overhyped at the ground level.

1148
03:16:34.010 –> 03:16:37.569
Mark Stouse, Proof Analytics: in other words, at the tactical level, at the.

1149
03:16:37.800 –> 03:16:46.839
Mark Stouse, Proof Analytics: you know, kind of like daily life and work level. It’s overhyped right, I think, where it is dramatically underestimated

1150
03:16:46.990 –> 03:16:50.760
Mark Stouse, Proof Analytics: is at the network effect or systemic level.

1151
03:16:51.300 –> 03:16:54.380
Mark Stouse, Proof Analytics: I think one of the clearly one of the great

1152
03:16:55.223 –> 03:17:03.069
Mark Stouse, Proof Analytics: maybe even the most powerful contributions that AI will bring to business over the next, say, 3 or 4 years. Tops

1153
03:17:03.340 –> 03:17:08.320
Mark Stouse, Proof Analytics: is unprecedented levels of transparency and accountability

1154
03:17:08.660 –> 03:17:16.559
Mark Stouse, Proof Analytics: in every area of it. Right? It stuff will either be known or be knowable right? And

1155
03:17:17.220 –> 03:17:21.310
Mark Stouse, Proof Analytics: I don’t think any of us are really totally prepared for that reality.

1156
03:17:22.970 –> 03:17:27.160
Mark Stouse, Proof Analytics: But it’s kind of shrinking the zone of

1157
03:17:27.850 –> 03:17:35.920
Mark Stouse, Proof Analytics: what is ambiguous. Right? It’s gonna it’s gonna be a lot less room to maneuver in some areas

1158
03:17:36.020 –> 03:17:41.010
Mark Stouse, Proof Analytics: of life and work. And then in other ways. It’s it’s gonna open up new vistas that

1159
03:17:41.350 –> 03:17:44.370
Mark Stouse, Proof Analytics: are kind of difficult for us to even imagine right now.

1160
03:17:46.010 –> 03:17:48.620
Mark Stouse, Proof Analytics: But I think it’s really it’s all happening

1161
03:17:48.740 –> 03:17:54.960
Mark Stouse, Proof Analytics: so fast that that may also be one of the things that’s truly underestimated

1162
03:17:55.480 –> 03:18:00.850
Mark Stouse, Proof Analytics: is just what a sharp knife this is.

1163
03:18:00.960 –> 03:18:07.469
Mark Stouse, Proof Analytics: and how quickly it it moves through operations. It’s just it’s pretty amazing.

1164
03:18:09.700 –> 03:18:13.549
Mark Organ: So again, what you think is underhyped is the

1165
03:18:13.963 –> 03:18:20.030
Mark Organ: I guess zeroing in on what is really knowable and what it’s not knowable. Who knows what they’re talking about, who doesn’t know what they’re talking.

1166
03:18:20.030 –> 03:18:27.289
Mark Stouse, Proof Analytics: I don’t. I don’t think a lot of people are thinking about it in that way right now, like the big systemic ramifications of it.

1167
03:18:27.560 –> 03:18:35.092
Mark Stouse, Proof Analytics: I mean, like one of the one of the really interesting things that actually, I’m getting ready to launch a business on is

1168
03:18:35.640 –> 03:18:41.000
Mark Stouse, Proof Analytics: The convergence between the transparency and accountability of AI,

1169
03:18:42.470 –> 03:18:48.060
Mark Stouse, Proof Analytics: the judgment or the ruling 2 years ago in Delaware. That’s just now

1170
03:18:48.290 –> 03:18:59.860
Mark Stouse, Proof Analytics: filtering through that broadened out fiduciary duty from just where it had been in the board level, and CEO CIO or Cfo to all officers and their directs

1171
03:19:00.110 –> 03:19:18.430
Mark Stouse, Proof Analytics: personal liability, and not just like, did you intend to do something bad. But did you fail to mitigate risk appropriately, and then the increase in shareholder, particularly active shareholder, but broader than that. Lawsuits, right? So the the

1172
03:19:19.090 –> 03:19:32.820
Mark Stouse, Proof Analytics: The convergence of those forces is going to be really profound, because until AI came along there wasn’t really an Enforcement mechanism and fiduciary duty had a really high bar.

1173
03:19:32.980 –> 03:19:34.140
Mark Stouse, Proof Analytics: but no more.

1174
03:19:35.880 –> 03:19:36.430
Lihong Hicken: And

1175
03:19:37.100 –> 03:19:56.769
Lihong Hicken: I can add some sense here. So since we launched our AI Conversational survey, I’ve organized several surveys, one for Julia, for AI. Go to market teams. People’s opinion about tools, one for Jonathan AI. Go to market. He sells AI courses. So

1176
03:19:56.960 –> 03:20:03.070
Lihong Hicken: what I see with this this, I think AI is very dramatic.

1177
03:20:03.610 –> 03:20:14.429
Lihong Hicken: There’s a big gap in between. So on the upper end, people are very hype about this advancement. All this potential. But in the application part is pretty.

1178
03:20:14.710 –> 03:20:19.779
Lihong Hicken: It’s it’s not like as there’s there’s a lot of room to catch up.

1179
03:20:19.800 –> 03:20:49.359
Lihong Hicken: So, for example, what I typically see is, people are talking about. Well, how do you envision AI in transforming your go to market strategy in 12 months? Okay, I can tell you. AI is very good at automating routine tasks, making the human manual work more efficient. So it’s really good at improving efficiency. But it’s not yet in terms of impacting your decision making strategy site. So that part is, there’s a gap there. The second gap is like.

1180
03:20:49.360 –> 03:20:52.879
Mark Stouse, Proof Analytics: You’re talking about. You’re talking about Gen. AI, right.

1181
03:20:52.880 –> 03:20:53.630
Lihong Hicken: It’s generally I.

1182
03:20:53.630 –> 03:20:58.539
Mark Stouse, Proof Analytics: Analytical causal. Right? All that stuff is all about decision making.

1183
03:20:59.280 –> 03:21:19.849
Lihong Hicken: That’s right, that’s right. But I’m still talking about in the application size of go to market leaders that, in their opinion, in their opinion they are using AI just to improve efficiency. Not as much for making decisions which there’s a huge opportunity for you, because there’s a gap. There’s things people haven’t done

1184
03:21:20.349 –> 03:21:35.879
Lihong Hicken: what another gap I would see from the survey results is that when we asked, how confident are you in in using AI in your daily job. What I found overwhelmingly. C-level execs are the most confident.

1185
03:21:36.060 –> 03:21:51.350
Lihong Hicken: and then the individual contributors are the least confident. So there is a big gap in terms of like, you know, who’s more willing to use that? And then, you know, a group of people still trying to catch up on what what needs to be used.

1186
03:21:51.630 –> 03:21:56.385
Lihong Hicken: And then the 3 thing, I think, in terms of underwhelming part is that the

1187
03:21:57.760 –> 03:22:22.339
Lihong Hicken: this is part of where AI is overhyped. It’s like AI cannot replace your business. The business is still the same. If you’re a Saas. Business is still your Saas business. AI is just one of the tools that maybe you don’t need to raise as much money, because you can run a business more efficiently. But there’s also problem with entry barrier to entry for the market is a lot lower. Now, now you have a lot more competitors. So

1188
03:22:22.340 –> 03:22:29.109
Lihong Hicken: it’s not like AI, solve everything. It’s it’s similar. What I see is similar to like when we adopt

1189
03:22:29.250 –> 03:22:57.609
Lihong Hicken: the cloud, when we adopt the mobile. Now we we adopt. The AI is still the same shit. Right? You just have to. It’s a tool. It’s not like a Holy Grail. You you get AI. You do that. You still need a strategy to driven and use this tool right away. So those are the 3 things you know from, you know this reading about a couple 100. So we respond. I was kind of surprised. But and then I think about it’s like, Okay, that makes sense, you know, makes sense. It’s

1190
03:22:57.610 –> 03:22:59.199
Lihong Hicken: sorry, but makes sense.

1191
03:22:59.200 –> 03:23:15.039
Mark Organ: Yeah, it really is true. My observation of just how technology is adopted like the old technology almost never goes away. I mean, apparently radio advertising had its hit its all time high, you know, last year the telegraph didn’t get abolished till like a decade ago.

1192
03:23:15.431 –> 03:23:40.420
Mark Organ: If you look at like how the military works, like the same units that were used in ancient history, infantry, and cavalry, I guess, replaced by tanks, but artillery still the same right. You keep adding things, but you just the goal is to figure out how it all kind of works together. And my guess is, AI is similar. Is that in some ways transformative, but in other ways not transformative at all. Because you’re right. It’s still, it’s still a business.

1193
03:23:40.747 –> 03:23:46.289
Mark Organ: So I think that’s really interesting comment. Someone else jump in on underhyped and overhyped AI and communities.

1194
03:23:46.290 –> 03:23:47.120
AJ Gandhi: So

1195
03:23:47.430 –> 03:23:57.205
AJ Gandhi: well, okay, I was gonna make a broader comment, Mark. So I’ll just make it quickly look. I think the way to think about it is in. In a business you still have the same use cases and business processes.

1196
03:23:57.700 –> 03:24:03.700
AJ Gandhi: just the question is, what role can AI play? And in some places they can automate, for example.

1197
03:24:04.291 –> 03:24:33.979
AJ Gandhi: you know, in handling customer support, it can handle a lot of manual work at other places. It’s about augmentation, hey? I’m gonna be able to do content. And I actually gonna be able to personalize it more to the industry, the persona, maybe the company, and even the individual person. So that’s a huge augmentation. But that same objective, that same business process, that same use case still exists. You’ve just got a new tool, just like you get a mobile phone or a cloud the cloud, or even like a car that actually made you much more effective. It’s

1198
03:24:34.120 –> 03:24:56.860
AJ Gandhi: doing that work. And so I don’t know. That’s the way I think about AI. The the one challenge I have is the guys on a Cro call earlier this week 100 cros! And the conversation was about, how’s it going in 2025 to kick off the year? The whole conversation was about AI. It wasn’t about differentiation and positioning. It wasn’t about ideal customer profile wasn’t about sales, rep effectiveness, expanding.

1199
03:24:56.860 –> 03:24:57.650
Lihong Hicken: New Customers.

1200
03:24:57.650 –> 03:25:01.330
AJ Gandhi: Value selling. Everyone’s just talking about AI tools. I’m like.

1201
03:25:01.330 –> 03:25:02.900
Lihong Hicken: You guys are involved.

1202
03:25:03.010 –> 03:25:03.600
AJ Gandhi: That that was.

1203
03:25:04.370 –> 03:25:10.079
Lihong Hicken: It’s a honeymoon phase of the AI, right? It’s a honeymoon phase. We’re still here. It will go.

1204
03:25:10.080 –> 03:25:24.189
Mark Organ: Lot of, I mean, when I started Eloqua around 2,000, you know, everybody was talking about the Internet and websites and whatnot. But you know, the most effective companies were actually hanging back and thinking, Well, what’s this thing really for?

1205
03:25:24.832 –> 03:25:42.039
Mark Organ: And and I guess that’s kind of what I was getting at with the the, you know, underhyped. Maybe part of this is what’s the AI really for? What is its unique advantage? And how does it really, you know, how does it really transform.

1206
03:25:42.040 –> 03:25:48.790
Mark Stouse, Proof Analytics: I think I think that that one of the things that’s really important about that is that

1207
03:25:49.070 –> 03:25:59.760
Mark Stouse, Proof Analytics: it’s a very rare functional person, meaning a in some function in the company who knows enough about AI to be able to correctly apply it.

1208
03:26:00.150 –> 03:26:00.650
Mark Organ: Hmm.

1209
03:26:00.650 –> 03:26:01.340
Mark Stouse, Proof Analytics: Right.

1210
03:26:01.570 –> 03:26:07.299
Mark Stouse, Proof Analytics: And the problem also is, it’s kind of like, if you ever taken calculus right.

1211
03:26:07.590 –> 03:26:13.299
Mark Stouse, Proof Analytics: If you get sick and you miss 2 classes. You are screwed right?

1212
03:26:13.880 –> 03:26:16.200
Mark Stouse, Proof Analytics: Because you are so far behind.

1213
03:26:16.490 –> 03:26:35.509
Mark Stouse, Proof Analytics: and the steps build on steps right? And so this is the classic tension in a lot of companies is that if they don’t get moving with it with people who really know what the heck they’re talking about, they’re gonna be too far behind the the ball before they finally wake up. Right?

1214
03:26:35.760 –> 03:26:44.089
Mark Stouse, Proof Analytics: And that’s a and then that involves risk on their part. Right? And so there’s this great tension.

1215
03:26:44.320 –> 03:26:52.720
Mark Stouse, Proof Analytics: particularly in. I’m saying this loosely. Okay, in an Eps driven business environment. Right?

1216
03:26:53.850 –> 03:27:04.159
Mark Stouse, Proof Analytics: that’s a that’s a challenge for a lot of business leaders, right? Because it’s expensive to do AI, and to move ahead quickly. So

1217
03:27:04.730 –> 03:27:08.709
Mark Stouse, Proof Analytics: that’s some of the real life aspects of it.

1218
03:27:10.050 –> 03:27:21.999
Lisa Sharapata: Think it’s your you know your classic hype cycle right and right now everyone is myself included, blown away by the possibilities and just trying to wrap your head around.

1219
03:27:22.160 –> 03:27:36.049
Lisa Sharapata: What is, what is the capability? And then I’m seeing people just throw AI agents at things. That’s where I’m like back to your point, Aj, of what is the real, the business case you’re trying to solve

1220
03:27:36.270 –> 03:27:38.940
Lisa Sharapata: with this. And what would the appropriate

1221
03:27:39.100 –> 03:27:45.740
Lisa Sharapata: solution be? And where does AI fit into that. But until people really understand the full power and potential

1222
03:27:46.010 –> 03:27:49.909
Lisa Sharapata: of it, I don’t think we’re gonna have those answers. It’s gonna take time.

1223
03:27:50.540 –> 03:27:51.286
Nick “Mehtaphysical” Mehta: I’ll I’ll

1224
03:27:51.900 –> 03:28:00.880
Nick “Mehtaphysical” Mehta: I’ll chime in and I and I think there’s a lot of good points being made. But just for fun I’ll red team the the whole group. AI is

1225
03:28:01.910 –> 03:28:07.189
Nick “Mehtaphysical” Mehta: overhyped nowhere. Generative ad is overhyped nowhere, and it’s underhyped everywhere.

1226
03:28:07.230 –> 03:28:34.820
Nick “Mehtaphysical” Mehta: And again I’m the extreme Kool-aid drinker in the rabbit hole probably will never get out of the rabbit hole. You’ll call. Call me to check on me every now and then, and probably on Chat Gpt, or Claude, or something. But it’s, I think, a couple of things. I just wrote down a few points. There’s no doubt it’s the fastest evolution of progress in the history of humanity. Nothing has ever moved this fast. So if you follow a trend line, it is insane. I mean, just read Altman’s

1227
03:28:34.820 –> 03:28:38.340
Nick “Mehtaphysical” Mehta: Post right? They’re constantly like, you know, basically.

1228
03:28:38.390 –> 03:29:01.240
Nick “Mehtaphysical” Mehta: we have to go a little slower because we have to be careful. You read Dario for anthropic. He’s worried like these are the folks that are working on it at the forefront. They wouldn’t be slowing down if they didn’t think this thing was so transformative. I think that like, when I look at what’s going to happen in b 2 b, just for me, I think a lot of this comes down to, how can we play like

1229
03:29:01.330 –> 03:29:02.750
Nick “Mehtaphysical” Mehta: chess?

1230
03:29:02.910 –> 03:29:31.690
Nick “Mehtaphysical” Mehta: Many moves ahead. And that’s very hard, you know. Actually, I looked on online like, if you play chess, 10 moves ahead the number of possibilities, 10 to the 30th power, which is like in unimaginable for a human. But if you play chess like even 4 or 5 moves ahead. It’s a lot of possibilities. And so what’s multi moves ahead look like in this conversation? Well, AI will help people generate content and communities a lot of the content on a community will be AI generated, it will largely be from other content.

1231
03:29:31.850 –> 03:29:35.349
Nick “Mehtaphysical” Mehta: It’ll be authoritative, but it won’t be that authentic.

1232
03:29:35.470 –> 03:30:03.440
Nick “Mehtaphysical” Mehta: What do, I think could happen potentially, who knows? Is more in person, like basically more interest in authentic communication, because everything else could be fake when I say, Fake, that’s not accurate. Everything else could be artificial. And so, like the analogy some people have used which I think is really interesting is AI surpassed humans in chess many, many years ago. You guys mostly know that right? But people still play chess

1233
03:30:03.840 –> 03:30:05.510
Nick “Mehtaphysical” Mehta: because it’s fun.

1234
03:30:05.620 –> 03:30:18.079
Nick “Mehtaphysical” Mehta: And there’s another human across the board. I’m not coming this analogy. Other other people came up with this, by the way. And so I think there’s some version of this which is like community will exist in offline forums because we want to meet other people.

1235
03:30:18.420 –> 03:30:39.300
Nick “Mehtaphysical” Mehta: But I on online, we have to rethink it because everything’s gonna be spam. It’s a lot like you were saying, Lisa, about all the agents. Right? So you know, agents for sales. Right? We’re building agents for Cs. But if all the agents are communicating with customers, and if the customer has an agent as a vendor management agent or procurement agent, or whatever

1236
03:30:39.300 –> 03:30:54.669
Nick “Mehtaphysical” Mehta: what is actually happening, there’s no human on either side of the equation, you know. So I don’t think these are 5 years away. I think these are like very soon. And so that’s why, I think we have to get really thinking about these problems. Hence the chess analogy.

1237
03:30:54.980 –> 03:30:56.560
Mark Stouse, Proof Analytics: So, Nick, I gotta ask.

1238
03:30:56.560 –> 03:31:00.419
Mark Organ: Bring it all home. Hey, Julie, are we? Are we good? Or what’s when? When.

1239
03:31:00.420 –> 03:31:02.050
Nick “Mehtaphysical” Mehta: Oh, we’re up on time, huh?

1240
03:31:02.050 –> 03:31:10.840
Julia Nimchinski: Phenomenal conversation. Thank you so much, Mark, Nick, Lisa, Mark Lee, Hong, and Aj. Let’s do a quick round of shameless plug.

1241
03:31:10.980 –> 03:31:18.119
Julia Nimchinski: Just promotions. Mark, let’s start with you. Where do our people go? Is it category? Not? Where do we support your work?

1242
03:31:18.790 –> 03:31:35.130
Mark Organ: Yeah, so www, dot category nos.com. That’s my website. You can find me a lot on Linkedin, probably the most at Mark Oregon and love to interact with you, especially anything around communities. And AI. It’s top of mind for me right now.

1243
03:31:35.880 –> 03:31:38.730
Julia Nimchinski: Our pleasure. Nick, how about you?

1244
03:31:38.730 –> 03:31:44.370
Nick “Mehtaphysical” Mehta: insight.com find me on Linkedin, and then we hung, has built an AI version of me as well as is what you said, right?

1245
03:31:44.860 –> 03:31:46.880
Nick “Mehtaphysical” Mehta: Yeah. So check that out.

1246
03:31:47.753 –> 03:31:52.050
Mark Organ: Taylor swift version of that’s pretty funny.

1247
03:31:52.050 –> 03:32:02.020
Lihong Hicken: I’m just trying to, because you talk about Taylor swift songs all the time. I was just like, Can we have a Nickna version to sing Taylor Swift songs. Oh, it’s pretty funny.

1248
03:32:03.980 –> 03:32:12.949
Lisa Sharapata: I’m still waiting on my AI version. I’ll have to talk to you about that offline. So Linkedin is the best place to engage with me.

1249
03:32:13.640 –> 03:32:14.520
Julia Nimchinski: Aj.

1250
03:32:14.680 –> 03:32:29.542
AJ Gandhi: Yeah, sure. So, Linkedin. But I I actually have a invitation. Only executive community for go to market executives and Bcpe people. It’s Gtm leaders, society.com. And we host

1251
03:32:31.268 –> 03:32:36.451
AJ Gandhi: really high end experiences of like on the Casse dinners, big paella events.

1252
03:32:37.385 –> 03:32:40.629
AJ Gandhi: for senior executives to connect in real life.

1253
03:32:41.880 –> 03:32:43.079
Julia Nimchinski: He’s saying mark.

1254
03:32:43.690 –> 03:32:53.029
Mark Stouse, Proof Analytics: Mark stews proof analytics you can find me all over Linkedin. I tend to focus mainly on causal AI as well as

1255
03:32:53.460 –> 03:33:00.959
Mark Stouse, Proof Analytics: its implications for executive level and other levels of decision making. Right? So that’s where I tend to concentrate.

1256
03:33:02.500 –> 03:33:07.299
Julia Nimchinski: Thank you so much, and Leehan will see you, I think, in 2 h or so.

1257
03:33:07.300 –> 03:33:33.029
Lihong Hicken: In 2 h. Yeah. Yeah. So again, best way to reach me is linking. But I’m also active in slack channel with Hses. So if you usually at at the end. If people say, Hey, can I get a copy of the surveys? I’ll I’ll ping me. I’ll post it there, or ping me on linking on that. So in about 2 HI will an hour and a half. I’ll show you what your voice said.

1258
03:33:33.220 –> 03:33:34.817
Lihong Hicken: what they said.