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

#805: Omnissa CMO Renu Upadhyay on balancing AI innovation with org chart disruption

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

The Agile Brand

Business, Marketing

4.9113 Ratings

🗓️ 30 January 2026

⏱️ 29 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

What if the biggest risk to your marketing AI strategy isn't the technology itself, but the org chart it's fracturing? Agility requires more than just speed; it demands a framework of trust and collaboration. When it comes to AI, this means your ability to innovate is directly tied to your ability to partner effectively across the organization, especially with IT and security. Today, we're going to talk about a critical tension point in the modern enterprise: Marketing is moving at the speed of AI, adopting powerful, often low-code tools to drive results. But this speed creates new complexities and risks, disrupting traditional roles and processes. Success is no longer just about having the best tech stack; it’s about forging a strategic partnership between the CMO and IT leaders to balance innovation with governance, and productivity with security. To help me discuss this topic, I'd like to welcome, Renu Upadhyay, Chief Marketing Officer at Omnissa. About Renu Upadhyay Renu Upadhyay is SVP & CMO at Omnissa, leading global marketing strategy, demand generation, product and solution marketing and brand to establish Omnissa as the leading digital work platform company. Renu is an experienced technology marketer with a deep understanding of products, industry, and customers spanning mobile, wireless networking and collaboration solutions across large and mid-size organizations. Prior to Omnissa, she served as vice president of Marketing for VMware’s End-user Computing (EUC) business. In that role, she led marketing strategy and was responsible for customer messaging, demand, content marketing, sales and technical enablement, and product pricing strategy. She oversaw marketing programs and campaigns for EUC’s comprehensive portfolio of solutions including employee engagement programs. Prior to VMware, Renu held senior product marketing roles at leading companies including Good Technology, Cisco Systems and AT&T Wireless. Renu Upadhyay on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/renuupadhyay/ Resources Omnissa: https://www.omnissa.com/ Take your personal data back with Incogni! Use code AGILE at the link below and get 60% off an annual plan: https://incogni.com/agile  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/ Drive your customers to new horizons at the premier retail event of the year for Retail and Brand marketers. Learn more at CRMC 2026, June 1-3. https://www.thecrmc.com/ Enjoyed the show? Tell us more at and give us a rating so others can find the show at: https://advertalize.com/r/faaed112fc9887f3 Connect with Greg on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregkihlstrom Don't miss a thing: get the latest episodes, sign up for our newsletter and more: https://www.theagilebrand.show Check 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

0:02.3

Welcome to Season 8 of the Agile Brand podcast.

0:10.1

This season we're going all in on expert mode

0:12.7

MARTEC, AI, and customer experience, talking with the people and

0:16.8

platforms behind the brands you know and love.

0:19.4

I'm Greg Kilstrom, your host, and I help

0:21.7

Fortune 1000 companies make sense of Martec, AI, and marketing ops. Hit subscribe or follow to make

0:28.1

sure you always get the latest episodes and leave us a rating so others can find us as well. And make

0:33.1

sure you check out our sponsor, Tech Systems, an industry leader in full-stack technology services,

0:38.3

talent services, and real-world application. For more information, go to teK-systems.com. Now let's dive in.

0:47.3

What if the biggest risk to your marketing AI strategy isn't the technology itself, but the org chart, it's

0:54.9

fracturing.

0:56.5

Agility requires more than just speed.

0:58.6

It demands a framework of trust and collaboration.

1:02.1

When it comes to AI, this means your ability to innovate is directly tied to your ability

1:06.5

to partner effectively across the organization, especially with IT and security.

1:11.6

Today we're going to talk about a critical tension point in the modern enterprise.

1:15.5

Marketing is moving at the speed of AI, adopting powerful, often low-code tools to drive

1:20.6

results, but this speed creates new complexities and risks, disrupting traditional roles and

1:26.1

processes. Success is no longer just about having the best tech stack.

1:30.2

It's about forging a strategic partnership between the CMO and IT leaders to balance

1:35.6

innovation with governance and productivity with security.

...

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