Liz Miller

Colin Fleming, the ex-race car driver for Red Bull Racing and ex-Salesforce CMO has just added another ex- to his list...ex-ServiceNow CMO. Fleming took to LinkedIn to announce his departure and his gratitude to the SN community and executive leadership, fresh off the heels of a wildly successful Knowledge 26 event in Las Vegas. Within a couple of hours, he posted that he was joining OpenAI as its Chief Marketing Officer, Business.

This is, as Fleming noted, a swing for the fences kinda moment. His track record is one of those "Songs of CMO Glory" told about doing all the marketing things the academics would say couldn't possibly work, but do work in spectacular fashion. At Salesforce, he championed narrative transformation based on an understanding that B2B buyers still needed memorable moments, especially when most of those buyers are to constantly dreaming of new software tools to buy. At ServiceNow, he flipped the convention of "all demand, no brand" for B2B marketing strategies, instead focusing on making the narrative of ServiceNow durable and memorable by making the brand more about the customer and far less about the expected GTM lead machine.

While he's already taken Matthew McConaughey and Idris Elba out of play for a big brand campaign, OpenAI will be in for a much-needed jolt of Fleming energy as it readies for a much-rumored IPO where Wall Street will expect more Enterprise-driven profitability on the books than roadmap of promises. There's a big need for OpenAI to quickly further establish itself as a serious Enterprise grade brand with serious Enterprise grade leadership. While there is little doubt the impact OpenAI has had in disrupting the technology landscape, enterprise buyers are still unsure of the brand and the enterprise-ready offerings. That doesn't even begin to touch on the lasting questions CXOs have around security, governance and long-term viability.

This is a massive swing at bat...but, it's also a CMO role that demands someone to come in who just doesn't think like your average bear.

• Fleming's Departure Post: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/colinfleming_thank-you-servicenow-after-a-chapter-ugcPost-7465069428586680320-GLwL
• Fleming's OpenAI Arrival Post: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/colinfleming_earlier-today-i-shared-that-i-was-leaving-ugcPost-7465105851809292288-efe2

Sure, 8x8's recent reveal of Q4 FY26 momentum metrics show growth and promise for the global engagement and experience platform, but it's the boom in interest and adoption of the 8x8 Engage solution that caught my eye. While the 8x8 Platform as a whole focuses on integrating the contact center (CCaaS), unified communications (UCaaS) and communications platform as a service (CPaaS) into a single platform, the Engage solution was purpose built to deliver contact center capabilities to teams and workers that sit outside the contact center. These non-traditional seats still need everything from voice, meeting, messaging, and engagement, just not at the mass fire-power that the contact center demands. As their own release notes, "these are signals of adoption, not just interest."

It's also a signal that the market may want to note: customers want tools right-sized for utilization. While others try to squeeze opportunity from adjacent Customer Experience markets by trying to convince customers that their "end-to-end, holistic, comprehensive" solution somehow sits in the center of a Venn diagram where CCaaS and CRM collide, 8x8 is intentionally building solutions that are fit for purpose and right-sized for use. 300% adoption feels like a pretty clear signal they are on to something.

• Read the Release: https://www.investors.8x8.com/news-releases/news-release-details/8x8-reports-strong-q4-fy26-demand-ai-powered-cx-and

Not so long ago, in a galaxy only Wall Street pundits seem to understand, predictions boomed that Figma was dead. Or close to dead. Or on death's door. Or hanging out with death who was also hanging out with AI. But Figma co-founder and CEO took to social with a simple message: Figma is FAR from Dead. 46% YoY growth. Net dollar retention rate increased to 139%. Guidance? Yeah, that's up too.

But it's his closer: Design matters more than ever.

Yes Dylan. Yes it does.

• Check the Post: https://x.com/zoink/status/2055018215152234926
• Check the Earnings: https://s206.q4cdn.com/973901332/files/doc_financials/2026/q1/Figma-Q1-2026-Prepared-Remarks.pdf

While analysts called for his resignation, Pichai remained calm; he had been lying in wait for this moment for a decade.

I'm not sure what is more chilling about this line from a new Time Magazine story on Google: analysts calling for a CEO's resignation or the fact that the CEO had been lying in wait. Either way, this is an interesting read on Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai. Worth taking a look at what a magazine owned by a notably influential tech CEO has to say about the Time 100 list of most influential companies for 2026. Granted, I did NOT have Pichai and Hailey Bieber appearing on the same list for business influence on my 2026 bingo card, yet here we are. Recently, the AI race has been dominated by big loud voices saying big bombastic loud things to gain the attention of Wall Street. And for the most part, it has been a winning strategy. When looking at leaders like Pichai, it's easy for some to mistake kindness for weakness, when in truth, he was a strategic shark pretending to be asleep.

• How Sundar Pichai Pushed Google To the Front of the AI Race (Time Magazine)
• The Time100 Most Influential Companies for 2026 (Time Magazine)

Adobe has closed on its acquisition of Semrush. We initially got the nod in meetings during Adobe Summit 2026 that the approvals had come through but that it may take a couple weeks to formalize and finalize. That week was actually 5 business days. So nice to see tides roll faster than expected. While new conversations are booming around what AEO, GEO and SEO now mean, Semush and Adobe are smack in the center. If last week at Adobe Summit was any early indicator, this topic is a burning reason to shift from status quo strategies. Now the burden will be on marketing and communications teams to take a breath and really rethink their strategies by actually going back to marketing 101 basics: where do your paid, earned and owned efforts really make an impact. Time to say goodbye to the days of set-it-and-forget-it search. And time to stop putting PR, comms and perception management on the back burner.

• The News: https://news.adobe.com/news/2026/04/adobe-completes-semrush-acquisition
• HOT TAKE: Adobe Scoops Up Semrush to Expand Brand Visibility Play
• AEO, GEO, and What Happens as AEM Enters the Chat

AWS has unveiled a growing portfolio of AI-forward solutions under the product family umbrella of Amazon Connect. The name should sound familiar to CX watchers. Connect had been tied to the Contact Center solution that unified engagement and communications with a healthy dose of AI powered skills and insights that focused on how to better connect the needs and intentions of the customer with the demands and expectations on the people in the contact center from agent to supervisor. That focus...bridging processes between people...still sits at the heart of the Connect porfolio. The "OG Connect (OGC)" as I've come to call it, is now Amazon Connect Customer. Joining it is Amazon Connect Talent (a really slick high volume recruitment tool better connecting the needs of the candidate with the needs of the recruiter), Amazon Connect Health (breaking down the conversational gaps in the patient and provider experience) and Amazon Connect Decisions (a supply chain focused solution focused on decision velocity across the strategic optimization of supply chain operations.)

• https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/aws/amazon-connect-ai-business-set