Exploring what AI means to CMOs in 2026
The CMO Council / Wise Marketer Interview Series features creative and impactful people from all corners of the marketing world – Founders, C-Suite executives, and influential voices in the community.
Today’s Guest is Michael Cichon, a B2B marketing executive with 20+ years in technology and cybersecurity, contributing to successful exits at Agari and ThreatMetrix. Most recently, as founding CMO at 1Kosmos, he built go-to-market strategy and demand generation programs that positioned the company for Series B funding.
Based in the Phoenix area, he focuses on brand strategy and revenue growth for emerging technology companies. He is currently associated with Moreland Associates, providing interim CMO services.
In his recent article “The Balancing Act: Brand Building vs. Demand Generation” published on the CMO Council website, Michael cites a recent report published by ON24 noting 87% of US-based B2B Marketers as already using AI tools, and most are pushing deeper into automation for content creation, segmentation, and outreach.
In this conversation, we explore the realities of AI adoption today and discover its best uses to accomplish objectives in the often-competing areas of brand building and demand generation. Our conversation explores the answers to this question and will lead you to an understanding of how to adopt AI for optimal results in B2B marketing.
Examining the pros and cons of AI tools today, Michael notes that “AI serves as a wonderful assistant, but it is not emotionally intelligent or empathetic and doesn’t do well managing the nuance that is so very common to Marketing and Sales engagements.” On the other hand, “AI excels at pattern recognition – things like spotting trends, identifying micro-segments, parsing through volumes of content to inform initial messaging frameworks. For advertising outreach, AI can quickly build segments based on geography, firmographics, demographics, news, hiring trends, personal details, and more. AI can even construct emails, call scripts, and short messages based on all of this context.”
His most astute caution may be this: “AI can’t read the room. Using AI for mass outreach raises concerns because every email, call, or social message interrupts someone's day. Scale without empathy becomes noise, and when the pattern repeats, automated tone-deaf messaging can create real brand damage. In their zeal to be heard, marketers can forget that on the other end of every outreach is a person who decides in seconds whether your message deserves their attention.”
We hope you enjoy this conversation with Michael Cichon.
Time Stamps for the Time Starved:
02:56 Michael's Background
04:34 Defining Marketing Efficiency
07:39 Emotional Loyalty & Brand Building
10:29 Storytelling & Brand Building
12:05 Greatest Impact of AI Today
15:03 Future of Agentic AI
16:34 Fragmented Data & AI
17:46 Where AI Goes Wrong
21:37 Using AI for B2B Demand Gen
23:09 Predicting AI Adoption Rates
25:19 Final Thoughts on AI and B2B Marketing
Additional Perspectives from Michael on Artificial Intelligence
- “AI serves as a wonderful assistant, but it is not emotionally intelligent or empathetic and doesn’t do well managing the nuance that is so very common to Marketing and Sales engagements.”
- “AI can’t read the room. Using AI for mass outreach raises concerns because every email, call, or social message interrupts someone's day. Scale without empathy becomes noise and when the pattern repeats, automated tone-deaf messaging can create real brand damage. In their zeal to be heard, marketers can forget that on the other end of every outreach is a person who decides in seconds whether your message deserves their attention.”
- “AI works best when it amplifies human judgment rather than replacing it. Use it for insights, efficiency, and scale. But keep humans in charge of the moments that matter—the creative decisions, the relationship building, the oversight that prevents automation from becoming alienation.”