Episodes  · Season 4  · Episode 49  · 28 min

Martin Kihn: Agentic AI Is Already Here

Martin Kihn, SVP of Strategy at Salesforce Marketing Cloud, on why agentic AI represents the most significant platform shift for marketers since mobile and video, why Salesforce Data Cloud enables the post-cookie audience strategy, and why the hybrid agent-human future Marc Benioff described is not coming but already present.

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 ·  The Business of Marketing  · S4 E49  · 28 min
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"Marc Benioff said he will be part of the last generation of CEOs managing an all-human workforce. The hybrid agent-human future is here."

The Conversation with Justin Cooke

Why agentic AI is the biggest platform shift in marketing and why the hybrid agent-human future is already operational

Martin Kihn's career has moved from screenwriting to management consulting to analytics to product strategy, passing through MTV, Warner Brothers, Booz & Co, and seven books along the way. He is now SVP of Strategy at Salesforce Marketing Cloud, where his focus is on how Marketing Cloud, Data Cloud, and increasingly agentic AI work together to enable the next generation of marketing.

In this conversation Kihn explains why agentic AI is being adopted more slowly in marketing than in other functions because marketing is genuinely more complex, what the post-cookie paradigm for ad execution looks like through first-party audience building in Data Cloud, and why Salesforce founder Marc Benioff's quote about being part of the last generation of CEOs managing an all-human workforce captures something real about where enterprise technology is going.

Key Takeaways

  • Agentic AI is the most significant platform shift in marketing since the internet. Marc Benioff is right that the hybrid agent-human workforce is already here.
  • Post-cookie paradigm: build first-party audiences in Data Cloud, push them to walled gardens for campaign execution. That is the new standard.
  • Marketing adopts agentic AI more slowly because it is genuinely more complex. Creative judgement and cultural sensitivity do not automate easily.
  • My entire career did not exist when I was in college. The internet barely existed. Embrace the fact that the map does not exist yet.
  • Seven books, screenwriting, consulting, analytics, product strategy. The combination of analytical and creative thinking is marketing's most distinctive skill.

Topics Covered

  1. 01 Why agentic AI is the most significant shift in marketing since the internet
  2. 02 The post-cookie paradigm: building first-party audiences in Data Cloud and activating on walled gardens
  3. 03 Why marketing and advertising are more complex to automate than other enterprise functions
  4. 04 The hybrid agent-human workforce: what it looks like and why it is already operational
  5. 05 Career lessons from moving between entertainment, consulting, analytics, and technology strategy

Key Exchanges

05
01 Tell us about Salesforce Marketing Cloud and Data Cloud.

Marketing Cloud is the leading marketing cloud, mainly focused on one-to-one communications with known customers. Data Cloud is a CDP, customer data platform. You build a first-party audience in Data Cloud and send it to the walled gardens, Facebook, Google, Amazon, Snap, LinkedIn. They do a match and run a campaign. That is the post-cookie paradigm for ad execution.

Kihn describes the technical architecture of modern audience-based advertising.

02 Tell me about agentic AI.

Marc Benioff said he will be part of the last generation of CEOs managing an all-human workforce. The hybrid agent-human future is already here. Agentforce is Salesforce's agentic AI. Marketing is adopting it more slowly than other functions because marketing is actually more complex. It is not fully automatable. But it is changing.

Kihn is careful to both validate the significance and acknowledge the genuine complexity.

03 What has your non-linear career taught you?

My entire career did not exist when I was in college. In fact, the internet did not exist. Well it just started. I went from screenwriting to consulting to analytics to product strategy. What I love about marketing is it combines psychology with technology and data. Not many professions let you combine left brain and right brain like that.

A career shaped by comfort with ambiguity and the combination of analytical and creative skills.

04 What does the post-cookie world look like for marketers?

The transition from cookies to first-party data is already underway. Marketing Cloud is a major source of demand for Facebook, Google, Amazon. You build the audience. You push it to the walled garden. They match it. That is the new paradigm. First-party data is the foundation and the CDP is what makes it usable across channels.

Kihn makes the technical accessible with a clear sequence.

05 What excites you most looking forward?

Agentic AI. I just wrote a book called Agent 4 about it. The question is where does human judgement end and where does agent execution begin? I think in marketing we are going to spend the next several years working that out. It is the most interesting problem in the field right now.

The book gives Kihn an unusual depth of thought on the topic.

S4 E49Season & Episode
28 minDuration
7 Books written by Martin Kihn including the most recent on agentic AI
1 Most important shift happening now: the hybrid agent-human marketing organisation

"My entire career did not exist when I was in college. In fact, the internet did not exist."

Hear Martin on
The Business of Marketing
Season 4 Episode 49 28 min
Apple Podcasts→ Spotify→ Martin's full profile→ Martin on LinkedIn→
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Lightly edited for readability.

Host Tell us about your area of Salesforce.

Kihn Marketing Cloud is the leading marketing cloud for one-to-one communications with known customers. Data Cloud is a CDP. You build a first-party audience and push it to the walled gardens. Facebook, Google, Amazon. They match it and run a campaign. That is the post-cookie paradigm.

Host Tell me about agentic AI.

Kihn Marc Benioff said he will be part of the last generation of CEOs managing an all-human workforce. The hybrid agent-human future is here already. Marketing is adopting it more slowly because marketing is genuinely more complex to automate. But it is changing. Agentforce is Salesforce's answer.