Ashish Seth

MIT’s recent report found that 95% of enterprise AI pilots fail to deliver ROI, with value trapped in workflows, slow scaling, and misplaced bets in sales and marketing instead of back-office and integration wins. But these are symptoms, not the root cause. The real issue is strategic misalignment, as oftentimes organizations don’t clearly define the kind of bet they’re making. At the core, every pilot is a capital allocation and risk management decision. Pilots fail without clarity on the business angle, hypotheses, and go/no-go criteria. To address this, I’ve developed The Pilot Strategy Framework™, a structured approach to categorizing AI pilots based on their strategic intent and business impact. 1️⃣ Validation pilots - validate feasibility before scaling and committing further resources. 2️⃣ Internal adoption pilots - phased rollout of AI within departments, inside existing workflows, to see if it can unlock ROI. This can often signal market readiness to customers, competitors, investors, and the industry overall. 3️⃣ Customer-facing pilots - test whether existing customers will adopt new AI capabilities and whether it’s commercially safe to scale. 4️⃣ Legacy integration pilots - answer if AI can unlock value in legacy systems. 5️⃣ New product pilots - test whether additional AI offerings can be introduced; offerings that are core or adjacent to our current products and generate new ROI. Each pilot is a bet: upfront decide how much capital to risk, what value it’s meant to unlock, tradeoffs to consider, and the conditions under which you’ll scale or stop. Ultimately, it's about prioritizing the one(s) that provide the most enterprise value. Which pilot types is your organization running, and how are they moving the needle on your business outcomes? I am currently talking to leadership teams to apply this framework to drive clarity and ROI; if your organization is navigating similar questions, I'd be happy to connect. #productstrategy #aistrategy #aitransformation

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AI Is Rewriting the Rules of Go-to-Market (GTM) As someone who’s spent years aligning strategy, systems, and outcomes across product, engineering, and GTM teams — this article by Dave Birckhead really hits home. In his latest Full-Stack Growth post, “Why AI Requires a New Kind of GTM Role and Org Structure,” Birckhead explains why traditional functional silos — marketing ops, sales ops, customer success ops — can’t keep pace in the AI era. AI doesn’t thrive in isolation. It thrives on shared context, unified data, and connected workflows. Most enterprise AI projects fail not because the models are weak, but because the systems they live in are fragmented. The takeaway: AI value is created when organizations reimagine entire workflows that span the customer journey — using AI as connective tissue, not as point solutions. Birckhead makes a compelling case for a new leadership role: Head of GTM Systems — the orchestrator of data, tools, and AI workflows across marketing, sales, and customer success. The payoff? ✅ Faster innovation ✅ Higher ROI on AI investments ✅ Seamless customer experience ✅ Shared measurement across the funnel Just as SaaS created Marketing Ops and RevOps, the rise of AI now demands GTM Systems Leadership — a discipline that connects, aligns, and scales the way growth truly happens. 📖 Full article here: https://lnkd.in/gU2fa5Jn By Dave Birckhead, Full-Stack Growth (Oct 14, 2025) #AI #GoToMarket #ProductOperations #GTMSystems #RevOps #DigitalTransformation #Leadership #Strategy #Innovation #FutureOfWork #OperationalExcellence #ProductManagement #SalesOps #MarketingOps #CustomerSuccess #B2BLeadership

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Sierra partnered with Curative to build their AI voice agent that's creating faster, better experiences for members and providers while freeing up their team to focus on what matters most: building deeper relationships

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Enterprise onboarding is still shockingly manual. Decks. Emails. Checklists. CC chains. The best teams are moving onboarding into the product itself and treating invites as a first-class system, not an afterthought. Speed to multi-stakeholder adoption is becoming a real competitive edge.

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𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗔𝗜 𝗴𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗾𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗶𝘀𝗻’𝘁 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗮𝗿𝗿𝗶𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝘁 𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗽𝗿𝗶𝘀𝗲 𝗯𝗼𝗮𝗿𝗱𝘀. 𝗜𝘁’𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗿𝗶𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗻 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗻𝗲𝗿 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗼𝗼. I’ve spent 20 years working with the channel – at Jitterbit, MuleSoft, EMC. The pattern I’ve seen is consistent: the partners who build durable client relationships are the ones who get ahead of the next board question before the client has to ask it. Right now, that question is: how do we adopt AI without losing control of costs, governance, and the systems we’ve already invested in? Maicell (formerly ConnectPlaza) was built to give partners a direct answer to that question. An integration platform that connects what clients already have, extends it with AI where it makes sense, and keeps everything governed and auditable from day one. No forced migration. No new vendor dependency. No governance bolted on after the fact. Witold Kepinski covered the full story on Dutch IT Channel. Link in comments. If you’re a partner working through AI adoption conversations with your clients – worth a read.

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In the realm of systems integration, the debate often centers on the choice between One Integrated system versus two disparate systems. The consensus among my clients overwhelmingly favors the simplicity and efficiency of One Integrated system, albeit with a crucial caveat – it must work seamlessly. My journey of addressing clients' business challenges has propelled me into a prominent role as a leading benefit broker, distinguished not by selling insurance but by offering solutions. A prevalent issue faced by many clients is the disjointed nature of having separate Benefit Admin and Payroll/Human Capital Management (HCM) systems. The fragmentation caused by multiple systems not only confuses employees but also poses risks to data security and integrity. Such inefficiencies can burden HR and Finance Professionals, diverting their attention from strategic business priorities. The key to resolving these challenges lies in leveraging Benefit Technology expertise, in tandem with Benefit Knowledge, Compliance Support services, Employee Education, and Responsiveness. These elements are pivotal in assisting HR and Finance leaders in navigating the complexities of their back-office operations effectively. Have you found yourself grappling with a "Free" Benefit Admin System provided by your broker, leaving you to navigate its integration with your HCM system independently? There exists a more streamlined approach, and I am here to guide you towards it. Hilb Group Hilb Group | Managed Payroll Solutions ADP

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Big day for the Gong team! 🔥 Today, we announced Gong Missions – our new product launch cadence designed to help customers better understand, explore, and prepare for what’s coming next at Gong. The first mission launching today is 🚀 Mission Andromeda 🚀 – and it’s packed with powerful updates built to help revenue teams execute smarter, move faster, and stay aligned as they grow. Here’s what’s included in this mission: ✨ Gong Enable – AI role-plays grounded in real customer conversations ✨ Gong Assistant – always-on conversational guidance across revenue workflows ✨ Account Boards – a unified view of active accounts to keep teams aligned ✨ Account Console – deeper account insights for coordinated execution ✨ Gong MCP Support – AI interoperability across your revenue stack Huge shoutout to the Gongsters behind the scenes who helped fuel this launch, from early orbit to liftoff. 🚀 Really excited to see these capabilities roll out starting now and over the coming months. Strap in… this is only the first mission. Lots more to come! See more: https://lnkd.in/gNk2_7zd

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Twilio's Jake Kanter talked to CX Today about how that small and medium-sized businesses share the builder mindset that defines Twilio and it's important to harness their power. Read more: https://bit.ly/4jNSo1e

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Enterprise software sales isn’t about speed. It’s about alignment. When frontline users, IT, finance, and the C‑suite are aligned, deals move, commits are made. When they aren’t, no amount of pressure fixes it.

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The latest episode is live, and this one is fantastic. I sat down with Eric Gilpin, President, GTM of G2, a leader who’s spent over two decades scaling teams, navigating change, and driving growth in some of the most competitive technology markets in the world. What makes Eric stand out is how he thinks about people, performance, and presence. In this conversation we went beyond tactics and hit on: Being strong at work without losing your presence at home Work demands a lot. But the cost of absence, in relationships, in moments, in memory, isn’t on any spreadsheet. Why alignment with your spouse matters more than “balance” It’s not a 50/50 scorecard, it’s shared intention and honesty about what really matters. What “being present” requires, not just physically there, but mentally and emotionally engaged, even when everything else claws for your attention. The real talk on AI Will AI replace us? Maybe parts of what we do. But the parts of leadership no model can replicate are exactly what matter most going forward. Listening to understand, not to respond That might be the most underrated leadership skill in the age of speed. This episode is about the humanity beneath the headlines and what leaders need to actually thrive in the chaos of work, tech, and life. If you’re thinking about the future of work, AI, or how to show up better in the places that matter most, give this one a listen. 🎧 Youtube: https://lnkd.in/e4nrDEAu

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𝗦𝗮𝗮𝗦𝗽𝗼𝗰𝗮𝗹𝘆𝗽𝘀𝗲: 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘔𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘼𝙋𝙄-𝙁𝙞𝙧𝙨𝘵 𝘉𝘢𝘤𝘬𝘦𝘯𝘥 𝘌𝘯𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 The "per-seat" SaaS model is facing a major evolution. This February, we’ve seen over $𝟭 𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗼𝗻 in market fluctuations as investors react to a new reality: autonomous agents like Claude Cowork. When AI handles tasks that once required a team of human users, charging per "seat" no longer captures the value delivered. For engineers, this isn't just a business shift—it’s a move toward API-First Backend Engineering. We are no longer building workbenches for humans; we are building Business Execution Engines for agents. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗔𝗣𝗜-𝗙𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝗠𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗲: - 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗔𝗣𝗜 𝗜𝗦 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁: In an agentic world, your primary "user" carries a token, not a mouse. We must design the API contract—using MCP (Model Context Protocol) or rigid OpenAPI specs—before the UI. If an agent can’t discover your logic, your product is invisible. - 𝗔𝗿𝗰𝗵𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 "𝗛𝘆𝗽𝗲𝗿-𝗨𝘀𝗲𝗿": AI agents execute at machine speed, not human speed. This mandates absolute rigor in idempotency, concurrency control, and distributed locking. These are no longer "best practices"; they are the system's life support. - 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗟𝗲𝗱𝗴𝗲𝗿 𝗼𝗳 𝗢𝘂𝘁𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲𝘀: As "headcount" pricing fades, the backend must evolve into an immutable ledger. Our engineering goal is now to programmatically prove and bill for verifiable business outcomes. The "SaaSpocalypse" is a return to backend engineering foundations. Read the full technical breakdown: https://lnkd.in/gmRKpCSg #SaaSpocalypse #BackendEngineering #APIFirst #SaaS #SystemDesign #AI #MCP #OBR

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