#781: CommerceIQ CMO Sai Koppala on retailer resilience through intelligent operations

The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström®: Expert Mode Marketing Technology, AI, & CX

The Agile Brand

Business, Marketing

5 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 8 December 2025

⏱️ 25 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

What if the biggest threat to your brand’s profitability isn’t the next tariff or supply chain disruption, but an outdated playbook that forces you to choose between raising prices on loyal customers or sacrificing your margins?Agility requires more than just reacting quickly to market changes; it requires the intelligence to anticipate them and automate the optimal response. Today, we're going to talk about how leading retail brands are navigating complex economic pressures like tariffs and inflation—not by resorting to the old tactics of deep discounts or across-the-board price hikes, but by deploying AI to create a more resilient and intelligent operation. We'll explore how AI is helping brands maintain pricing stability, turn insights from major shopping events into real-time strategy, and fundamentally shift teams from staring at dashboards to taking automated, margin-protecting actions. To help me discuss this topic, I'd like to welcome, Sai Koppala, CMO at CommerceIQ. About Sai Koppala Sai brings over 20 years of marketing and strategy experience. Before CommerceIQ, he was Chief Marketing & Strategy Officer at SheerID and held leadership roles at Apigee (acquired by Google) and SAP. He holds an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management and a Master's in Electrical Engineering from Arizona State University. Sai Koppala on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/koppala/ Resources CommerceIQ: https://www.commerceiq.com The Agile Brand podcast is brought to you by TEKsystems. Learn more here: https://www.teksystems.com/versionnextnow Catch the future of e-commerce at eTail Palm Springs, Feb 23-26 in Palm Springs, CA. Go here for more details: https://etailwest.wbresearch.com/ Connect with Greg on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregkihlstromDon't miss a thing: get the latest episodes, sign up for our newsletter and more: https://www.theagilebrand.showCheck out The Agile Brand Guide website with articles, insights, and Martechipedia, the wiki for marketing technology: https://www.agilebrandguide.com The Agile Brand is produced by Missing Link—a Latina-owned strategy-driven, creatively fueled production co-op. From ideation to creation, they craft human connections through intelligent, engaging and informative content. https://www.missinglink.company

Transcript

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0:00.0	The Agile brand.
0:03.0	Welcome to Season 7 of the Agile brand, where we discuss the trends and topics marketing leaders need to know.
0:15.0	Stay curious, stay agile, and join the top enterprise brands and MARTEC platforms as we explore marketing technology, AI, e-commerce, and join the top enterprise brands and Martec platforms as we explore marketing technology,
0:23.1	AI, e-commerce, and whatever's next for the Omnichannel customer experience.
0:27.9	Together we'll discover what it takes to create an agile brand, built for today and tomorrow,
0:32.1	and built for customers, employees, and continued business growth.
0:36.9	I'm your host, Greg Kilstrom, advising Fortune 1,000 brands on Martec, employees, and continued business growth. I'm your host, Greg Kilstrom, advising Fortune 1000 brands on Martec, AI, and marketing operations.
0:43.3	The Agile Brand Podcast is brought to you by Tech Systems, an industry leader in full-stack technology services,
0:49.3	talent services, and real-world application. For more information, go to T-E-K to teK systems.com. To make sure you
0:56.9	always get the latest episodes, please hit subscribe on the app you listen to podcasts on, and leave
1:01.7	us a rating so others can find us as well. And now on to the show. What if the biggest threat to
1:09.5	your brand's profitability isn't the next tariff for supply chain
1:12.7	disruption, but an outdated playbook that forces you to choose between raising prices on loyal
1:18.1	customers or sacrificing your margins. Agility requires more than just reacting quickly to market
1:24.0	changes. It requires the intelligence to anticipate them and automate the optimal
1:28.3	response. Today we're going to talk about how leading retail brands are navigating complex
1:33.1	economic pressures like tariffs and inflation, not by resorting to the old tactics of deep
1:38.1	discounts or across-the-board price hikes, but by deploying AI to create a more resilient and
1:43.6	intelligent operation.
1:45.3	We're going to explore how AI is helping brands maintain pricing stability, turn insights
1:50.1	from major shopping events into real-time strategy, and fundamentally shift teams from staring
1:55.6	at dashboards to taking automated margin-protecting actions.
	...

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