The Marketing Share
Running a marketing department requires expertise in many domains, from branding, media and positioning to demand generation, sales enablement, and much more. As a business leader or a new department head, you may be an expert in one or more marketing areas but usually not all of them. The Marketing Share aims to close this gap.
Co-hosts Barb VanSomeren and Alec Cheung are experienced marketing leaders who have been down the path of learning on the fly while managing a marketing team. They interview domain experts and ask the right questions so business leaders can learn what they need to know to run marketing.
The Marketing Share
How AI Is Reshaping the Role of the CMO with Kate Johnson (Ep 59)
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AI is reshaping marketing as we know it, and its impact is reaching the CMO role.
In this episode of The Marketing Share, our co-hosts Alec Cheung and Barb VanSomeren talk with Kate Johnson, CMO at Dscout, about her transition from VP of Marketing to CMO, and why that shift looks very different today than it did even a year ago.
Kate dives into her experience as a first-time CMO in the era of AI, and how this new technology is reshaping everything at once: how teams operate, how products are built, how fast companies move, and how marketing shows up in the business.
If you're stepping into a leadership role or already in one, this episode offers a grounded look at what’s actually changing behind the scenes, and what it takes to keep up.
Timestamps
00:00 Introduction, Alec and Barb
02:00 Kate Johnson’s journey from VP of Marketing to CMO
05:40 What surprised her most about becoming a CMO
10:00 How AI is changing marketing, products, and customer expectations
13:00 AI inside the marketing team: faster product cycles, new bottlenecks
16:00 Using AI tools in real workflows (automation, research, sales enablement)
20:00 Decision-making as a CMO when you’re not the expert
24:00 Hiring for new roles and evaluating talent outside your experience
28:00 What she had to let go of moving into the CMO role
36:00 Navigating brand messaging in an AI-driven market
40:00 Final thoughts and where to connect with Kate
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Connect with our guest:
👉Kate Jhonson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kateathmer/
👉 Sign up to be a Scout and get paid to participate in research! https://www.dscout.com/participate-in-research-studies
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Want to be a guest on The Marketing Share Podcast? Send us your bio and proposed interview topic to marketingsharepodcast@gmail.com, and our Podcast Manager will get back to you.
Want to connect with Alec and Barb to talk all things marketing and how they can help you leverage the marketing wing of your organization?
Connect with Alec here
Connect with Barb here
Connect with Cinthya, Podcast Manager, here
Cheers.