Build vs. Buy in AI: What Enterprise Teams Are Getting Wrong With Eric Williamson

Eric Williamson is the Chief Marketing Officer at CallMiner, an AI-powered customer experience automation platform that analyzes customer interactions to uncover insights and improve service performance. In his role, he oversees global marketing across brand, demand generation, events, and growth strategy. Eric brings more than 20 years of experience across B2B technology, consumer marketing, agency leadership, and content strategy. In this episode… AI is changing the economics of customer service, but the real shift is not just replacing people with bots. Enterprise teams are being forced to rethink what they automate, what they build internally, and where outside platforms can still create value. When everyone can access powerful AI tools, how do companies decide what is worth building themselves? As a B2B technology marketing leader with expertise in AI, automation, brand strategy, and enterprise growth, Eric Williamson explains that the answer starts with intelligence. Companies need to understand which customer interactions are best suited for automation before they deploy AI agents at scale. Eric emphasizes that many teams underestimate the long-term cost of building AI tools in-house, especially when those tools need to match the depth, reliability, and insight of established platforms. The stronger approach is to start small, identify the right use cases, create a seamless handoff between AI and humans, and use customer interaction data to guide automation decisions. In this episode of the Revenue Engine Podcast, Alex Gluz talks with Eric Williamson, Chief Marketing Officer at CallMiner, about build-versus-buy decisions in AI and what enterprise teams often get wrong. Eric shares how AI agents are reshaping customer service, why SaaS pricing is moving toward consumption models, and what brand visibility means for B2B growth. He also touches on agency resourcing, LMO, and avoiding AI-generated content that lacks quality.

Matt Lyman is the Vice President of Marketing at Flosum, an enterprise Salesforce-native platform for DevOps, data protection, backup, security, and governance. With nearly 20 years of experience across demand generation, ABM, marketing operations, and B2B growth, he leads marketing strategy for technical audiences and helps translate complex products into clear, human-centered messaging. Matt previously held marketing leadership roles at Chef Software and LeanData and brings a people-first perspective shaped by his background in theater and community building. In this episode… Marketing to technical audiences exposes weak assumptions quickly. These buyers rarely respond to vague promises or generic campaigns. So how can marketers create marketing systems that earn trust, generate demand, and keep improving? Matt Lyman, a B2B marketing leader with expertise in demand generation, technical audiences, paid media, and community-led growth, explains that the answer starts with understanding the human behind every technical buying decision. Instead of treating messaging as a static brand exercise, teams should treat it like a hypothesis: test it, listen to feedback, and adjust based on what the market reveals. Matt emphasizes the importance of tailoring messages to executives and practitioners, choosing events based on audience fit, watching leading indicators before pipeline slips, and using AI to accelerate work without replacing human strategy. The result is a more focused marketing engine built around precision, context, and continuous learning. In this episode of the Revenue Engine Podcast, Alex Gluz talks with Matt Lyman, Vice President of Marketing at Flosum, about building effective marketing engines for technical audiences. Matt shares how technical buyers shape messaging, why event and paid media strategy require focus, and what leading indicators reveal about pipeline health. He also touches on AI, community building, and mentorship.

Catherine Solazzo is the Chief Marketing Officer at Appfire, a leading provider of software applications that help developers optimize their efficiency on platforms like Jira, Salesforce, and monday.com. With over 20 years of experience in marketing and digital transformation, Catherine has led high-performing teams at global tech giants and was recently recognized on the CRN Women of the Channel 2026 list. Under her marketing leadership, Appfire reaches over a million users every quarter through its technical documentation site. In this episode… Marketing today goes beyond just awareness, demand generation, or a polished campaign. It extends into the product experience, customer feedback, partner enablement, and every handoff that shapes revenue. So what does it really take to build a modern CMO mindset? According to Catherine Solazzo, a seasoned marketing leader with deep experience across developer ecosystems, the answer lies in thinking beyond the traditional marketing boundaries. She explains that elements like technical documentation, release notes, product pages, partner programs, and customer feedback are not secondary functions; they are critical touchpoints that help buyers understand, adopt, and expand with a product. Catherine emphasizes that by taking ownership of this entire journey, marketing teams can move faster, use data more effectively, and create a more cohesive go-to-market motion. In this episode of the Revenue Engine Podcast, Alex Gluz is joined by Catherine Solazzo, Chief Marketing Officer at Appfire, to discuss building a CMO mindset for modern marketing. Catherine explains the CMO+ model, how to align product and marketing, and why demand generation should go beyond lead volume. She also shares advice on partner enablement and creating repeatable operating models.

Alex Atkins is the VP of Growth and Operations at Sturdy.ai, an AI-powered customer intelligence platform that turns customer conversations across emails, chats, tickets, and calls into actionable insights for B2B teams. Drawing on a background in psychology, communications, marketing, business analytics, and growth, Alex helps teams better understand churn signals, retention risks, and expansion opportunities so they can act faster and more intelligently. In this episode… Customer churn is one of the most significant challenges in business, yet so many teams fail to pinpoint the exact reasons behind it. With all the data available, why do teams still miss the warning signs until it's too late? With experience spanning growth, operations, analytics, and customer intelligence, Alex Atkins brings a data-driven perspective to why teams often miss churn signals. He says the key to understanding churn lies in connecting the dots between seemingly disconnected signals. Alex points out that while teams often focus on isolated factors, churn is rarely caused by one issue. Instead, it's usually a combination of small, overlooked signals, like underutilization, executive changes, slow responses, or product confusion, that build over time. When teams miss those patterns, they end up reacting too late and lose retention opportunities that could have been saved with the right insights. In this episode of the Revenue Engine Podcast, Alex Gluz is joined by Alex Atkins, VP of Growth and Operations at Sturdy.ai, to discuss why customer churn is often misunderstood. Alex shares insights on why traditional health scores and NPS often miss the mark, how signal combinations can predict churn before it happens, and why dashboards are not enough without ownership and action. He also talks about how real-time customer intelligence can transform growth strategies, retention efforts, and expansion opportunities.

Nidhi Alexander is the Chief Marketing Officer and Executive Vice President at Hexaware Technologies, a global technology and business process services company. Nidhi brings a unique background in journalism, which shapes her approach to marketing as a blend of compelling storytelling and data-driven precision. At Hexaware, she focuses on positioning marketing as a direct driver of business growth, aligning brand strategy with measurable revenue outcomes. In this episode… Great marketing today isn't just about being seen, it's about being believed. But in a world flooded with AI-generated noise, how do you build trust while still moving at speed? For Nidhi Alexander, a seasoned marketing leader shaped by both storytelling and data, the answer is simple: Combine the emotional pull of narrative with the rigor of proof. Nidhi believes that marketing succeeds when it strips away fluff, focuses on real business outcomes, and backs every claim with measurable impact. It's this blend — what she calls becoming a "data-driven storyteller" — that turns marketing from a support function into a revenue driver. In this episode of the Revenue Engine Podcast, host Alex Gluz is joined by Nidhi Alexander, Chief Marketing Officer and Executive Vice President at Hexaware Technologies, to discuss building AI-led, human-perfected marketing strategies. Nidhi talks about aligning marketing with pipeline outcomes, balancing brand and demand, and using AI to drive efficiency. She also shares advice on governance, personalization, and scaling marketing impact globally.

Ben Chodor is CEO of CallRevu, an automotive technology company delivering AI-driven call analytics and communication solutions to thousands of dealerships across North America. Under his leadership, the company processes nearly 300 million calls annually, turning conversations into actionable insights. A seasoned entrepreneur with over 25 years of experience, Ben has built and scaled multiple SaaS businesses across media, healthcare, and communications, with a strong focus on innovation, data, and the customer experience. In this episode… Every SaaS company is racing to adopt AI, automate workflows, and scale faster than ever. But as technology accelerates, one question keeps surfacing: What actually drives growth when everything becomes automated? For Ben Chodor, a seasoned SaaS operator and longtime builder of data-driven businesses, the answer is clear: Technology alone isn't enough. He believes that while AI can enhance speed and insight, the real differentiator lies in combining data with human connection and service. Drawing from his experience processing hundreds of millions of customer interactions, Ben emphasizes that insights only matter if they lead to better conversations, decisions, and relationships. Ultimately, companies that balance automation with a human touch are the ones that sustain growth. In this episode of the Revenue Engine Podcast, Alex Gluz is joined by Ben Chodor, CEO of CallRevu, to discuss the evolving role of AI, data, and human connection in SaaS growth. Ben explains how AI is reshaping service and support, why data-driven marketing must go beyond vanity metrics, and how alignment across teams drives revenue. He also talks about adapting leadership as companies scale.

Parry Bedi is the Co-founder and CEO of Tingono, an AI-powered platform that helps SaaS companies improve retention and grow revenue by predicting churn and automating customer success workflows. Parry is a serial entrepreneur and former AI leader at Microsoft whose previous startup was acquired by Forrester. With deep experience in machine learning and enterprise software, he focuses on helping businesses turn data into actionable, scalable growth strategies. In this episode… AI didn't suddenly appear; it's been quietly reshaping how businesses think about growth for years. But now that it's everywhere, the real question is: Are companies actually using it to build smarter revenue engines or just layering it onto old systems? According to Parry Bedi, a seasoned AI leader who has spent over a decade working on machine learning systems, the shift comes down to understanding that AI is fundamentally probabilistic, not deterministic. He explains that instead of rigid if-this-then-that logic, AI operates on predictions and confidence levels, which opens the door to entirely new ways of making decisions and designing workflows. Rather than forcing AI into legacy processes, businesses need to rethink how work gets done so humans focus on strategic moments while AI handles scale. The result is not just efficiency, but a complete transformation in how revenue engines operate. In this episode of the Revenue Engine Podcast, Alex Gluz is joined by Parry Bedi, Co-founder and CEO of Tingono, to discuss how AI is reshaping revenue engines. They explore probabilistic versus deterministic systems, using AI to predict churn and drive retention, and why traditional SaaS workflows need a complete overhaul. Parry also shares advice on when to build AI in-house instead of investing in specialized tools.

Dhiraj Kumar is the Chief Marketing Officer at Dashlane, a global cybersecurity firm specializing in credential security for businesses and consumers. Under his leadership, Dashlane protects 25,000 businesses worldwide and millions of individual users, boasting high customer retention and a reputation for product innovation. With a background in engineering and leadership roles at companies like Facebook and PayPal, Dhiraj focuses on translating complex technology into customer-centric outcomes and advocating for more sophisticated, business-oriented conversations in cybersecurity. In this episode… Fear has long been the default language of cybersecurity marketing, but it doesn't always inspire action. When every message sounds like a warning, what actually moves buyers to do something about it? For Dhiraj Kumar, the answer is shifting from fear to control. Drawing on his experience leading marketing at high-growth tech companies, he explains that acknowledging risk isn't enough — marketers must also show customers exactly what they can do about it. The real impact comes from pairing awareness with clear, actionable steps that restore a sense of agency. Dhiraj explains that when done correctly, cybersecurity stops feeling like a constant threat and starts becoming a proactive advantage. In this episode of the Revenue Engine Podcast, host Alex Gluz is joined by Dhiraj Kumar, Chief Marketing Officer at Dashlane, to discuss how cybersecurity brands can build trust instead of relying on fear. They explore balancing risk awareness with empowerment, translating complex tech into business outcomes, and focusing demand generation on the right audience. Dhiraj also shares advice on leveraging customer advocacy and first-party data.

Matt Shephard is the Chief Revenue Officer at BatchData, a property and homeowner intelligence company providing real estate data solutions. Since joining BatchData in 2023, Matt has helped propel the company from $50,000 in ARR to capturing 9% market share within two years, all with a lean team. Previously, he spent nearly a decade at ZoomInfo (formerly DiscoverOrg), where he led teams closing major enterprise deals and developed deep expertise in data-driven sales.  In this episode… Most startups don't fail because of a lack of ideas — they fail because their revenue engine never quite clicks. So what does it actually take to scale a company from near-zero revenue into a meaningful market player in just a couple of years? According to Matt Shephard, a seasoned revenue leader who has helped scale high-growth tech companies, the key lies in clarity and focus early on. He explains that the first priority is identifying the right customer, building a product that truly fits their needs, and making the buying experience simple enough that switching feels easy. In practice, that meant redefining the ICP, reshaping the product offering, and simplifying the sales conversation to focus on outcomes instead of features. The result is a revenue motion that moves faster because every part of the system is aligned around the same customer and value proposition. In this episode of the Revenue Engine Podcast, Alex Gluz is joined by Matt Shephard, Chief Revenue Officer at BatchData, to discuss how to scale a startup and build a high-velocity revenue engine. They explore identifying the right ICP, simplifying sales for practical buyers, and aligning marketing and sales around shared accounts. Matt also shares advice on signal-based go-to-market strategies and why timing is becoming the most important advantage in modern sales.

Jenn Reichenbacher is the Chief Marketing and Customer Experience Officer at Stax Payments, a company that provides all‑in‑one payment technology and solutions for businesses. She leads the marketing, customer support, and account management teams to drive growth and engagement. Jenn has more than 30 years of experience in payments and performance marketing, with senior roles at companies like Paysafe, iPayment, and Cayan. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance and is active in industry associations focused on payments and merchant services. In this episode… In a world where technology is reshaping nearly every industry, the payments space is undergoing a massive transformation. What happens when companies start blending cutting-edge technology with customer-focused marketing? How does that change the way they engage with their clients and drive growth? Jenn Reichenbacher, an expert in fintech marketing and the customer experience, believes that embracing tech-driven solutions is the key to unlocking a future-proof payment system. She points out that the shift from traditional systems to online and SaaS-based models not only offers businesses more options but also enhances the customer experience. According to her, the future of payments will be defined by the seamless integration of technology with human-centered marketing strategies, ensuring that businesses can scale effectively while keeping the needs of their customers front and center. In this episode of the Revenue Engine Podcast, Alex Gluz is joined by Jenn Reichenbacher, Chief Marketing and Customer Experience Officer at Stax Payments, to discuss how technology is revolutionizing the payments landscape. They explore the role of AI in shaping marketing strategies, how customer-centric approaches are driving business growth, and the importance of storytelling in marketing.