Birdeye

The Agentic CMO

A Marketing , Business and Technology podcast

About the show

AI is changing how customers discover, evaluate, and choose brands. Marketing leaders need a new playbook. Hosted by Dave Lehman, President and COO of Birdeye, The Agentic CMO features conversations with CMOs, growth executives, and industry leaders navigating the shift to AI-driven marketing and AI search. Each episode explores how modern marketing teams are using AI to improve customer experience, increase visibility, strengthen brand trust, personalize engagement, and drive revenue growth. Topics include: AI search and discoverabilityMarketing automationMulti-location and franchise growthCMO and CRO alignmentAI-powered personalization Whether you lead marketing for a startup, franchise, or enterprise brand, The Agentic CMO delivers practical insights on building growth in an AI-first world.

Newest episodes

EP25—The AI Enablement CMO: Tori Begg on Turning AI Adoption Into Business Impact

Nov 12, 2026 31 min

AI adoption takes more than handing employees a new tool. It takes the right training, workflows, and strategy to turn experimentation into real business impact. Tori Begg, Head of AI Programs at V Digital Services and Co-Founder of Mind and Machine, joins Dave to discuss AI implementation, employee enablement, workflow automation, and building internal AI agents. She also explores how AI is changing online discovery and why businesses should automate predictable tasks so people can focus on customer relationships, strategy, and higher-value work. Subscribe to The Agentic CMO for more conversations with marketing and business leaders exploring how AI is changing the way organizations operate, serve customers, and grow.

EP24 —The Search-to-Revenue CMO: Ash Shah on Using AI to Anticipate Customer Behavior

Nov 5, 2026 32 min

How can marketers get ahead of what customers want before launching their next campaign? Ash Shah, CMO at Canopy, joins Dave to discuss how his team uses AI, synthetic customer profiles, and predictive creative testing to make smarter marketing decisions. He also shares how customer conversations, intent signals, and location-level performance data can help teams identify opportunities, improve marketing investment, and focus on business impact. Subscribe to The Agentic CMO for more conversations with marketing leaders exploring how AI is changing the way businesses grow. Subscribe to The Agentic CMO for more conversations with marketing and business leaders exploring how AI is changing the way organizations operate, serve customers, and grow.

EP23 —The Reputation-Driven CMO: Doug Zarkin on Winning Consumer Trust in the AI Era

Oct 29, 2026 33 min

How do brands earn consumer trust when AI is changing the way people discover businesses? Doug Zarkin, CMO and author of Moving Your Brand Out of the Friend Zone, joins Dave to discuss why reputation, customer feedback, and brand experience matter more than ever. They explore how AI is influencing consumer discovery, how marketers can use AI to work smarter, why meaningful KPIs matter more than endless dashboards, and when to build versus buy technology. Doug also shares his approach to making every customer feel like the only customer and why human connection remains essential in an increasingly AI-driven world. Looking for a good read? Find Doug’s book here Subscribe to The Agentic CMO for more conversations with marketing and business leaders exploring how AI is changing the way organizations operate, serve customers, and grow.

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All episodes

EP25—The AI Enablement CMO: Tori Begg on Turning AI Adoption Into Business Impact

Nov 12, 2026 31 min

EP24 —The Search-to-Revenue CMO: Ash Shah on Using AI to Anticipate Customer Behavior

Nov 5, 2026 32 min

EP23 —The Reputation-Driven CMO: Doug Zarkin on Winning Consumer Trust in the AI Era

Oct 29, 2026 33 min

EP22 — The Customer-First CMO: Amanda Cole on Rethinking Marketing in an AI-Driven World

Oct 22, 2026 26 min

AI is changing the way customers discover brands and make purchasing decisions. Amanda Cole, CMO at Bloomreach, joins Dave Lehman to discuss how AI agents are reshaping customer discovery, why reviews and external brand perception matter more than ever, and how marketers can prepare their websites and digital experiences for an agentic world. They also explore AI-driven personalization, evolving marketing team structures, and how to scale AI without creating unnecessary complexity. Subscribe to The Agentic CMO for more conversations with marketing and business leaders exploring how AI is changing the way organizations operate, serve customers, and grow.

EP21 — The Resourceful CMO: Gaurav Verma on Turning AI Into Marketing Results

Oct 15, 2026 29 min

How can marketing leaders turn AI experimentation into real business results? Gaurav Verma, CMO at Kenerika, joins Dave Lehman to discuss building effective AI workflows, training agents, verifying outputs, and helping teams adopt AI without sacrificing quality or human judgment. They also explore how AI is changing search and customer discovery and what it takes to build an AI-native marketing operation. Gaurav shares more of his approach in his book, The Agentic AI Marketing Leader Playbook: Designing the AI-Native Marketing Operating System. The Agentic AI Marketing Leader Playbook Subscribe to The Agentic CMO for more conversations with marketing and business leaders exploring how AI is changing the way organizations operate, serve customers, and grow.

EP20 — The Agentic Brief: AI Agents Are Coming for Your To-Do List

Oct 8, 2026 21 min

AI agents are starting to do more than answer questions. They're taking action. In our first Agentic Brief, Dave Lehman and Justin Meredith explore how new AI agents are changing the way marketers work, from managing calendars and email to researching options, completing tasks, and connecting information across platforms. They also look ahead to what happens when these agents become part of the customer journey, and why businesses will need to make their websites and digital experiences accessible to AI. Looking for more information on Viewpoint Dallas? Learn more here. Continue the conversation in our next webinar, AI Agents Are Your Next Customers: Is Your Business Ready? Register here Subscribe to The Agentic CMO for more conversations with marketing and business leaders exploring how AI is changing the way organizations operate, serve customers, and grow.

EP19 — The B2B Reset CMO: Kelly Hopping on Rethinking Marketing in the Age of AI

Oct 1, 2026 25 min

Kelly Hopping, CMO at 6sense, joins Dave to explore how AI is forcing B2B marketers to rethink the way they approach growth. From the limitations of pipeline-focused measurement to the rise of AI-driven buying journeys, Kelly shares why marketers need to rethink where they invest, what they automate, and how they structure their teams. She also gets into how 6sense is using AI internally, where automation creates real leverage, and why strategy and human judgment still matter. Subscribe to The Agentic CMO for more conversations with marketing and business leaders exploring how AI is changing the way organizations operate, serve customers, and grow.

EP18 — The Practical AI Marketer: David Magrini on Turning AI Into Business Value

Sep 24, 2026 28 min

AI is moving quickly, but that doesn't mean marketers need another tool every time a new capability comes along. David Magrini, Founder & CEO of Volute Group, joins Dave to talk about taking a more practical approach to AI. They discuss how consumers are discovering brands through AI, why data and technology foundations matter, when to optimize an existing marketing stack instead of replacing it, and how AI can help marketers work more effectively. David also shares his perspective on the balance between AI and human expertise, why marketers need to understand enough about their technology and data to challenge the answers they're given, and how to make AI a meaningful part of everyday marketing without chasing every new bell and whistle. Subscribe to The Agentic CMO for more conversations with marketing and business leaders exploring how AI is changing the way organizations operate, serve customers, and grow.

EP17—The Content-First CMO: Caitlin Bigelow on Building Brands in a Decentralized World

Sep 17, 2026 21 min

Caitlin Bigelow, CMO of Blazell, joins Dave this week to explore how marketing is changing as customer discovery becomes increasingly decentralized. From Google and websites to YouTube, LinkedIn, Reddit, reviews, and AI platforms, customers are gathering information from more places than ever. Caitlin shares why brands need to build more surface area across channels, how individual voices can build trust, and how marketers can decide where to focus their efforts. They also discuss using AI to scale marketing without sacrificing quality, Caitlin's journey from feeling intimidated by AI to vibe coding and building her own tools, and why human judgment and "taste" matter more as AI makes content creation easier. If you missed Birdeye View, you can now watch it on-demand. Visit birdeye.com/view to register and unlock this year's sessions. Subscribe to The Agentic CMO for more conversations with marketing and business leaders exploring how AI is changing the way organizations operate, serve customers, and grow.

EP16 — The Birdeye PreVIEW: Eleni Edon and Justin Meredith on What's Next in AI Marketing

Sep 3, 2026 30 min

Birdeye View is one week away. In this special episode of The Agentic CMO, Dave Lehman is joined by Eleni Edon, Director of Product & Customer Marketing, and Justin Meredith, Digital Marketing Manager, to break down everything on the agenda for Birdeye View 2026. They preview sessions with leaders from Google, Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, Dave's Hot Chicken, Globe Life, PennyMac, and more, covering the shift from AI agents to AI coworkers, agentic search, brand visibility on ChatGPT and Gemini, and how highly regulated industries are approaching AI adoption. Whether you're leading marketing, operations, or customer experience for a multi-location brand, this episode is your guide to getting the most out of the event. Register for Birdeye View, our annual user conference, happening September 9–10! It's virtual and completely free. Save your spot today: https://birdeye.com/view/ Subscribe to The Agentic CMO for more conversations with marketing and business leaders exploring how AI is changing the way organizations operate, serve customers, and grow.

EP15 — The Demand Generation CMO: Carole Lawson on Marketing Beyond the Funnel

Aug 27, 2026 22 min

The traditional marketing funnel is changing. As customers move between Google, ChatGPT, social platforms, websites, and other AI-powered experiences, marketers can no longer think about discovery and demand as a simple linear journey. In this episode of The Agentic CMO, Carole Lawson, Co-Founder & Chief Data Officer at MarketStorm, explains how AI is changing customer behavior and why marketers need to rethink how they generate and capture demand. She shares why brands need to look beyond Google, how every customer interaction can contribute to trust and discovery, and what marketers should consider as AI becomes a bigger part of the customer journey. Carole also shares how her team is using AI to improve marketing workflows and why successful AI adoption requires clear outcomes, experimentation, and human accountability. Register for Birdeye View, our annual user conference, happening September 9–10! View is virtual and completely free. Hear from leaders at Google, G2, Yelp, and Birdeye customers on what’s next with AI, including practical strategies and real-world ways to put AI to work. Save your spot today: https://birdeye.com/view/ Subscribe to The Agentic CMO for more conversations with marketing and business leaders exploring how AI is changing the way organizations operate, serve customers, and grow.

EP14 — The AI Transformation CMO: Dave Steer on Building Teams That Work With AI

Aug 20, 2026 18 min

AI is changing how customers discover brands and how marketing teams work, but successful transformation takes more than adopting new tools. In this episode of The Agentic CMO, Dave Steer, CMO at Webflow, shares his approach to building teams that work with AI rather than simply around it. He explains how AI is changing customer discovery, why answer engine optimization is making marketing more integrated, and how leaders can think about the right balance between human expertise and AI capabilities. Dave also shares how he's approaching AI transformation at Webflow, including building trust within teams and using AI as a thought partner designed to challenge his thinking. Register for Birdeye View, our annual user conference, happening September 9–10! View is virtual and completely free. Hear from leaders at Google, G2, Yelp, and Birdeye customers on what’s next with AI, including practical strategies and real-world ways to put AI to work. Save your spot today: https://birdeye.com/view/ Subscribe to The Agentic CMO for more conversations with marketing and business leaders exploring how AI is changing the way organizations operate, serve customers, and grow.

EP13 — The No-Shortcut Marketer: Cameron LiButti on Building for the New Era of Search

Aug 13, 2026 29 min

There is no magic button for AI search. In this episode of The Agentic CMO, Cameron LiButti, Founder of Bidview Marketing, explains why the shift to AI-powered customer discovery doesn't mean abandoning the fundamentals of marketing. Instead, marketers need to understand how customers search, build trust through reviews and other signals, and consistently create the experiences and content that help businesses get discovered. Cameron also shares how his team is using AI to analyze competitors, monitor websites, measure visibility, and automate marketing workflows. This conversation offers a practical look at what marketers should prioritize as search evolves, and what they should stop chasing. Don’t forget to join us for Birdeye View, our free virtual event taking place September 9–10 focused on how AI agents are reshaping marketing, operations, and customer experience for multi-location brands. Ready to register for View 2026? https://birdeye.com/view/ Subscribe to The Agentic CMO for more conversations with marketing and business leaders exploring how AI is changing the way organizations operate, serve customers, and grow.

Ep12—The Agentic Marketing Playbook: Dave Lehman on the New Rules of Marketing

Aug 6, 2026 16 min

After interviewing 11 CMOs, founders, and AI leaders, Dave Lehman steps behind the mic to share the biggest themes shaping the future of marketing. In this solo episode of The Agentic CMO, Dave explains why AI hasn't changed the fundamentals of great marketing, but it has transformed how marketers execute and how customers discover businesses. He explores answer engine optimization (AEO), AI search, trust signals, reviews, and the marketing systems that help teams move faster without sacrificing quality. If you're leading marketing for a multi-location business, this episode offers a practical framework for preparing your team for the next wave of AI. Subscribe to The Agentic CMO for more conversations with marketing and business leaders exploring how AI is changing the way organizations operate, serve customers, and grow.

EP11—The AI Foundations Leader: How Tim Shea Is Building Smarter Marketing Systems

Jul 29, 2026 24 min

AI isn't replacing great marketers. It's amplifying the ones who already understand their business. In this episode of The Agentic CMO, Tim Shea, Founder & CEO of Latticework Insights, explains why the biggest obstacle to AI adoption isn't choosing the right model. It's building the right data foundation. He shares why marketers need to align on metrics before they automate workflows, how AI and human intuition work best together, and why experimentation has become one of the most valuable skills in modern marketing. If you're trying to separate AI hype from practical strategy, this episode offers a realistic roadmap for building AI into your organization without losing sight of what actually drives growth. Subscribe to The Agentic CMO for more conversations with marketing and business leaders exploring how AI is changing the way organizations operate, serve customers, and grow.

EP10 — The Outcome-Driven CMO: How Birdeye’s CMO Deepak Bahree Is Moving Beyond AI Hype

Jul 23, 2026 15 min

The AI conversation has shifted. It's no longer about choosing between ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, or the latest model. It's about building AI systems that actually deliver business results. In this episode of The Agentic CMO, our own CMO, Deepak Bahree, shares why marketers need to stop focusing on AI models and start focusing on outcomes. He explains how AI is reshaping customer discovery, why local trust signals matter more than ever, and how multi-location businesses can build connected AI workflows that generate measurable growth. If you're trying to understand where AI marketing is headed next, this episode provides a practical framework for moving beyond experimentation and into execution. Subscribe to The Agentic CMO for more conversations with marketing and business leaders exploring how AI is changing the way organizations operate, serve customers, and grow.

EP09 - The AI Systems Builder: How Dom Garrett Is Turning Marketing Into an Operating System

Jul 16, 2026 25 min

Dom Garrett doesn't just use AI. He's building his marketing organization around it. As SVP of Marketing & Communications at Diamond Residential Mortgage Corporation, Dom shares how AI has become his team's operating system, helping automate workflows, summarize meetings, prototype new ideas, and scale marketing across distributed teams without adding headcount. In this episode, he explains why AI-powered customer discovery is changing local marketing, how he approaches the build versus buy decision for AI tools, and why the marketers who experiment today will have the biggest advantage tomorrow. Subscribe to The Agentic CMO for more conversations with marketing and business leaders exploring how AI is changing the way organizations operate, serve customers, and grow.

EP08 - The Agentic CMO Whisperer: How Adam Dorfman Is Preparing Brands for AI Discovery

Jul 9, 2026 27 min

Adam Dorfman has spent nearly two decades helping brands stay ahead of search, from the early days of SEO to today's AI-powered discovery engines. In this episode, he explains how customer journeys are evolving across ChatGPT, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews, why strong SEO is the foundation for success in AI search, and what multi-location brands need to do to stay visible. He also shares why marketers shouldn't stop at using AI for content generation, but should start building their own AI-powered tools to better understand what's possible in the next era of marketing. Subscribe to The Agentic CMO for more conversations with marketing and business leaders exploring how AI is changing the way organizations operate, serve customers, and grow.

EP07 - The Lean AI Operator: How Melissa Stiles Runs Marketing for 500+ Storage Locations

Jul 1, 2026 17 min

Melissa Stiles, Chief Growth Officer at Storage Asset Management, oversees marketing for more than 500 self-storage locations across 100+ brands, giving her a front-row seat to how AI is changing customer acquisition at scale. In this episode, she shares why AI-driven traffic is converting at twice the rate of paid search, the foundational SEO strategies that matter more than ever in the age of ChatGPT, and how her team is using AI to turn data into faster, smarter marketing decisions without losing the human touch that customers expect. Subscribe to The Agentic CMO for more conversations with marketing and business leaders exploring how AI is changing the way organizations operate, serve customers, and grow.

EP06 - The Human-First Growth Leader: How Robert D'Annibale Is Scaling Care With AI

Jun 25, 2026 20 min

Rob D'Annibale has watched patients begin their search for addiction treatment in ChatGPT and Gemini instead of Google, and at Crossroads, one of the largest national providers of medication-assisted treatment, with 100+ locations across nine states. In this episode, he explains why trust, not volume, is becoming the deciding factor in how AI engines surface healthcare providers, how centralizing patient reviews gives his team a real-time competitive edge, and why responsible AI adoption means lifting the administrative burden off clinicians without ever removing the human touch. Subscribe to The Agentic CMO for more conversations with marketing and business leaders exploring how AI is changing the way organizations operate, serve customers, and grow.

EP05 - The AI-First Executive: How Michael DeHaven Is Reimagining Customer Experience

Jun 18, 2026 15 min

Michael DeHaven, Chief Systems & Digital Officer at Removery, has spent his career at the intersection of technology, digital experience, and marketing, and he believes the AI revolution will reshape every part of how companies operate. In this episode, he explains why leaders must challenge long-held assumptions about team structure, workflows, and customer experience if they want to stay relevant in an AI-first world. Subscribe to The Agentic CMO for more conversations with marketing and business leaders exploring how AI is changing the way organizations operate, serve customers, and grow.

EP04 - The AI Amplifier: Michael Toth on AI, Growth, and the Future of Multi-Brand Marketing

Jun 11, 2026 15 min

Michael Toth is helping Sun Auto Tire & Service navigate AI at enterprise scale, overseeing growth and strategy across more than 600 locations and 30+ brands. In this episode, he shares why AI should be viewed as an amplifier rather than a replacement, how his team is using call intelligence to uncover revenue opportunities, and why the fastest path to AI success often comes from maximizing the technology partners you already have. Subscribe to The Agentic CMO for more conversations with marketing and business leaders exploring how AI is changing the way organizations operate, serve customers, and grow.

EP03 - The Agentic Growth Leader: How Chad Palmer Is Navigating the AI Gold Rush

Jun 4, 2026 14 min

United Franchise Group Chief Growth Officer Chad Palmer has watched AI reshape how franchise owners and consumers discover businesses, and he’s helping his teams stay ahead of the shift. In this episode, he shares why AI-driven search is already changing lead generation, how his team is building agentic workflows internally, and why the companies that adopt AI fastest will have the biggest competitive advantage. Subscribe to The Agentic CMO for more conversations with marketing and business leaders exploring how AI is changing the way organizations operate, serve customers, and grow.

EP02 - The AI-Native Marketing Leader: Steve Estevez on Building an AI-Native Marketing Team

May 28, 2026 16 min

Steve Estevez has watched AI change how patients find and choose their dermatology provider, and he's built his marketing team around it. In this episode, he shares why LLM traffic converts better than anything else he's seen, and why getting your data structured is the only thing that actually matters before any of it works. Subscribe to The Agentic CMO for more conversations with marketing and business leaders exploring how AI is changing the way organizations operate, serve customers, and grow.

EP01 - The AI-Driven CMO: How Melissa Cameron Is Winning the Local Search War

May 28, 2026 17 min

Melissa Cameron has been quietly building one of the most AI-forward marketing operations in self-storage, and in this episode she breaks down exactly how. From rethinking paid media budgets to containing 46% of inbound calls with voice AI across 1,050+ properties, she gets into what's actually working. Subscribe to The Agentic CMO for more conversations with marketing and business leaders exploring how AI is changing the way organizations operate, serve customers, and grow.

Welcome to The Agentic CMO

May 22, 2026 1 min

AI is changing how customers discover, evaluate, and choose brands. Marketing leaders need a new playbook. Hosted by Dave Lehman, President and COO of Birdeye, The Agentic CMO features conversations with CMOs, growth executives, and industry leaders navigating the shift to AI-driven marketing and AI search. Each episode explores how modern marketing teams are using AI to improve customer experience, increase visibility, strengthen brand trust, personalize engagement, and drive revenue growth. Topics include: AI search and discoverabilityMarketing automationMulti-location and franchise growthCMO and CRO alignmentAI-powered personalizationWhether you lead marketing for a startup, franchise, or enterprise brand, The Agentic CMO delivers practical insights on building growth in an AI-first world. Subscribe to The Agentic CMO for more conversations with marketing and business leaders exploring how AI is changing the way organizations operate, serve customers, and grow.

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EP25—The AI Enablement CMO: Tori Begg on Turning AI Adoption Into Business Impact

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Podcast details

Created by: Birdeye
Status: Active
Latest episode: Nov 12, 2026
Episodes: 26
Release period: Weekly
Avg. episode length: 22 min
Explicit: No
Language: English

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