Whether it’s replacing SDR teams, producing content, or cleaning up your CRM,
you can’t open LinkedIn without an opinion on how we should or should not be using AI in go-to-market functions.
It’s noisy out there and so I want to speak to the people leading the way to find out what’s actually working and where they see GTM going.
Kieran Flanagan is leading AI & GTM at Hubspot and is one of the industry’s most influential voices in this space. I spoke to him recently on the SaaS Revolution Show ahead of his upcoming “all signal, no noise” keynote at SaaStock Europe.
We discussed his journey from leading HubSpot’s inbound and PLG transformations to championing its AI-powered GTM initiatives, including: why integrating AI is essential for top performers, how HubSpot AI workflows drive 300–500% increases in booked meetings, and how startups can apply AI to GTM without breaking budget.
You can catch the full chat below, or read on for my key takeaways.
An exciting time for marketers?
“There’s people who want the new thing and people who like the old thing.”
Kieran sees himself as a problem solver first, above a marketer. This has seen him lead HubSpot through some major GTM shifts. First it was inbound marketing, then PLG, and now AI.
When he first used ChatGPT, he knew that it meant “seismic” change, even posting that “Google was in trouble” back in 2023.
Right now, HubSpot is running more experiments and pilots than ever before. While Kieran enjoys the chaos, he understands this transition isn’t for everyone:
“A lot of people are not going to enjoy this because it’s not very clear what your future career is. All careers are going to change quite drastically.”
Why top performers must integrate AI
Not everyone will embrace the change, but for Kieran (and many others I’ve spoken to) there is a new expectation:
“I don’t think you can be a top performer in the next 12 to 18 months unless you integrate AI into your workflow.”
The key is integration. The view that AI will replace all humans has already shifted.
Instead, future top performers will combine their human craft with AI as an assistant. Even OpenAI – once predicting AI could replace content creators – is hiring for a content strategist, acknowledging the need for human skills.
The challenges of adoption
With AI integration now table stakes, the challenge is driving adoption. Kieran explained most of the problems aren’t about whether the technology works, they’re about whether people actually use it. For many teams, AI feels like a threat to job security. Leaders may be excited by productivity gains, but the people asked to change their workflows often resist, wondering: “Am I just training the AI to do my work?”
Even when they are on board, getting people to change their behaviour is difficult. Partly now because off-the-shelf AI tools can often be “UX wrappers around prompts”, making them generic rather than specific to your company, team, and workflows.
New roles being created by AI
Like the internet and computer before it, AI isn’t just changing roles, it’s creating entirely new ones.
“It will disrupt some jobs, it might make some jobs obsolete… but it will also create many more new jobs. And I think that’s going to be interesting.”
Kieran pointed to AI trainers as an example. They didn’t exist two years ago but now companies need them to train agents for website sales, customer support, and upselling. Each agent requires specific training, continuous feedback, and refinement.
AI at HubSpot
When I asked about the AI projects driving results at HubSpot, Kieran was clear that it all starts with data:
“Your data layer really matters. Your data hygiene, the data quality, the quality of data sources, will really dictate a lot of the success you have around AI.”
He also advises taking time to perfect your prompts:
“One thing that I got wrong is that I’ve always been ‘if you can’t prove it, you should move on to something else’. Whereas the prompts that really started to work in terms of personalisation took us three to six months.”
The AI projects driving growth
- Personalisation workflows: HubSpot uses AI to tailor outreach and email campaigns based on fit and intent signals in their CRM. This has delivered between 300–500% more booked meetings.
- Digital avatars: Using a partner called OneMind, HubSpot tested avatars for early-stage sales conversations. To Kieran’s surprise, users responded well and they saw average engagement times of eight minutes. Close rates have improved too.
Advice for startups using AI on a budget
Big companies can afford to run dozens of pilots and even build custom AI solutions. But startups can’t.
If Kieran were building a startup GTM function today, this is where he’d start:
- Start with personalisation.
- Then look at support deflection.
- Next, use AI to free up your sales team for more consultative selling. Things like call prep, deal summaries, and CRM upkeep.
The goal should be 20-30% more productivity from existing resources before building custom solutions.
AI and content marketing
“AI will create content in the same way for you as it creates for me, as it creates for everyone.”
Content marketing is perhaps one of the most hotly debated topics when it comes to AI. Some advocate for complete outsourcing, others avoid it altogether.
Kieran lands somewhere in the middle. While models have improved a lot, he’d still never copy and paste content straight from an LLM.
Firstly because it’s easy to spot. Secondly because outsourcing too much to AI makes you lose some of your craft and critical thinking – or “it makes you dumber”.
In his view, good AI tools provide building blocks that humans craft into engaging content. As audiences seek human-led content, and AI-generated content gets louder, writing will be one of the most valuable skills you can have.
Hear more from Kieran at SaaStock Europe
“I’m going to give all signal, no noise. I’m going to give you AI use cases that you can just copy and paste, take home and start to do.”
I’m looking forward to learning more from Kieran on the SaaStock Europe stage in just a few weeks. He’ll be sharing how he’d build an AI-native GTM function now, where he’d make core bets, and how it’s been working at HubSpot.
You don’t want to miss this one.
