Why the Best CMOs Think Like Operators, Not Marketers With Meagen Eisenberg
February 17, 2026
In this episode of Future of Marketing, hosts Mada Seghete and Ethan Smith sit down with Meagen Eisenberg, CMO of Samsara, to unpack what it actually takes to build an AI-native marketing team. Meagen shares how marketing deployed live AI agents across marketing ops, web, field marketing, growth, PR, creative and more. The conversation goes beyond tools into culture, accountability, and why creativity and human connection still matter more than ever.
Most marketing teams are “using AI.” Very few are actually operationalizing it.
In this episode of Future of Marketing, hosts Mada Seghete and Ethan Smith are joined by Meagen Eisenberg, CMO of Samsara, to break down how she rebuilt her marketing org around AI agents and what changed as a result.
Meagen shares exactly how her team deployed 13 live AI marketing agents (with 26 more on the way) to replace expensive SaaS tools, automate 50% of marketing ops tickets, and enable a flat team to drive significant growth in pipeline. The real story isn’t the agents themselves - it’s the operating model behind them. AI adoption didn’t happen organically; it was enforced through training, internal hackathons, performance reviews, and a culture that made daily AI usage non-negotiable.
The conversation tackles the uncomfortable tradeoffs leaders now face: when to build vs. buy, how much technical skill marketers really need, and why AI doesn’t eliminate creativity - it removes the production work that held it back. Meagen also explains why she still believes intimate in-person dinners outperform webinars, how Samsara tracks LLM visibility using Lighthouse, an internally built AI tool, and why pipeline per marketer is a key productivity metric.
This episode is a practical blueprint for CMOs and marketing leaders who want AI to move the business, not just the slide deck.
What You'll Learn:
- How Meagen operationalized AI across 95% of her marketing team without waiting for perfect tools
- Why Samsara built 13 internal AI marketing agents (and the real cost of build vs. buy decisions)
- How to get non-technical marketers using AI confidently with no-code tools
- Why pipeline per employee is the metric that can expose whether AI is actually working
- How Samsara tracks and competes for visibility inside LLMs in real time
- What marketing actually automates away and why creativity becomes more valuable
- Why in-person dinners beat webinars in an AI-saturated world
- How to interview and hire for AI-era problem solving, not static skills
About the Hosts:
Mada Seghete is the CEO and co-founder of Upside, a next-gen revenue intelligence platform for B2B leaders. Previously co-founded and was CMO of Branch, helping scale to $100M+ revenue. Cornell Engineering graduate with Masters and MBA from Stanford. Partner at XFactor Ventures investing in women founders and organizes yearly retreats for 100+ women founders.
Ethan Smith is Founder and CEO of Graphite, a premium Vertical AI Growth Agency that helps companies like Webflow, Notion, MasterClass, and Captions drive sustainable revenue growth via SEO, content, and AEO (Answer Engine Optimization). Ethan is also an adjunct professor at IE Business School.
About the Guest
Meagen Eisenberg is the Chief Marketing Officer at Samsara, where she leads brand, demand, product marketing, and go-to-market strategy helping customers improve safety, efficiency, and sustainability of their operations. A proven operator and builder, Meagen has helped scale companies across every stage contributing to over 23 successful exits, including IPOs and acquisitions and is known for pairing execution discipline with forward-looking strategy.
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