Lee Salisbury

expert panel

Internal communication is easy to treat as a housekeeping function—something that happens after leadership has made the real decisions. But the way those decisions are explained can shape whether employees understand the direction, trust the people setting it and know what their own role is. According to a spring 2026 survey by Gallup, employees who strongly agree they trust their organization’s leadership are 3.7 times as likely to be engaged, yet just 20% of U.S. employees place themselves in that group.Those numbers suggest that successful internal communication is about more than just getting information out in a timely fashion. And there’s evidence leadership teams in many organizations are struggling to convey their plans and perceptions about the current environment and their vision of the path forward. The American Psychological Association’s 2025 Work in America survey found that upper management consistently reported more positive views of organizational change and their work experience than frontline workers and individual contributors did. Bridging that gap requires leaders to understand how employees are actually experiencing change, then frame their messages so they’re received and understood as intended.Marketing leaders spend their days translating complex ideas into messages that work for distinct audiences, so they’re well positioned to spot communication problems inside the business, too. Below, members of the Senior Executive CMO Think Tank, with expertise spanning brand storytelling, customer engagement, digital marketing and more, share internal communication mistakes business leaders should address and how marketing expertise can help.

expert panel

For years, search marketing has been built around a familiar goal: earn enough visibility to get a customer to click. AI-generated search results are changing that equation. For example, a 2025 analysis found that Google users clicked traditional search results in just 8% of visits when an AI summary appeared, compared with 15% when it didn’t—suggesting brands may have fewer opportunities to speak for themselves on their own turf.When an AI system becomes the layer between a company and a prospective customer, brand reputation isn’t shaped only by what the company publishes. The system may synthesize information from a range of sources, and that synthesis isn’t guaranteed to be accurate. Widespread problems, from speculative answers to fabricated links, have been found with the ways generative search tools retrieved and cited source material. For CMOs, that makes the broader information ecosystem surrounding a brand a more immediate marketing concern, since an incomplete, outdated or inaccurate answer can influence perception before a customer ever reaches the company’s website—if they reach it at all.As AI changes how customers discover and evaluate companies, marketing leaders need to rethink what it takes to earn authority when they may not control the first—and sometimes only—description a buyer sees. Below, members of the Senior Executive CMO Think Tank, a curated group with expertise in brand storytelling, digital advertising and the rise of AI in marketing, discuss how CMOs can approach brand authority, message consistency and reputation in an AI-mediated search environment.

expert panel

AI has become deeply embedded in day-to-day work, but the productivity payoff isn’t automatic. A 2026 Stanford survey of global executives found that about 70% of firms are actively using AI, yet the same survey found more than 80% of firms reported no impact on productivity over the previous three years. For marketing leaders under constant pressure to leverage AI to move faster and accomplish more, that gap is troubling enough. But they also have to navigate an additional challenge: keeping AI from diluting or damaging their brand’s voice.Efficiency isn’t just about producing something faster. Especially when it comes to marketing, AI should free people to spend more time on work that benefits from human judgment, creativity and connection. That’s an outcome that aligns with what workers themselves say they want from workplace AI: a collaborative relationship where they retain agency and oversight, rather than having AI encroach on the parts of their work that require human judgment.Members of the Senior Executive CMO Think Tank are experienced marketing leaders with expertise spanning brand storytelling, digital advertising, customer engagement, influencer marketing and the growing role of AI in marketing. Here, they discuss ways marketing teams can inadvertently create more friction with AI and share practical approaches for using the technology to make work simpler, clearer and more valuable instead.

expert panel

A rising conversion rate is the kind of metric that can make a leadership team feel good about growth. Customers are moving through the funnel more efficiently, acquisition costs may be improving and marketing can point to a clear return on investment. But there’s a critical question hiding behind those results: Is the business actually creating more demand, or simply getting better at converting the demand that was already there?That distinction matters because efficiency can improve even as a company’s future growth potential weakens. A business can become highly effective at reaching people who already know the brand, have an existing need or are close to making a purchase without expanding the pool of potential customers. Research from the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising reinforces the importance of balancing short-term sales activation with longer-term brand building, noting that sustained investment can contribute to growth over time.For marketing leaders, the challenge is to make that difference visible inside the organization. Members of the Senior Executive CMO Think Tank bring deep experience in brand storytelling, digital advertising and customer engagement to this challenge. Here, these marketing leaders explore how to tell if a business that is turning interest into revenue today is also creating the conditions for more customers to enter the market tomorrow.

expert panel

expert panel

For CMOs and agency leaders, a lean team may no longer be a temporary state—a rough quarter or short hiring freeze—but the new normal. Many organizations are remaining cautious about adding headcount, and the broader U.S. labor market continues to reflect a “low-hire, low-fire” environment in which employers are holding teams relatively steady rather than expanding quickly.At the same time, the demands placed on marketing teams haven’t become any lighter. CMOs are still expected to support growth, strengthen customer relationships, build brands and keep pace with rapidly changing technology. And many marketing leaders are being asked to do all this not only with small teams but also with limited funds. In Gartner’s 2026 CMO Spend Survey, 56% of respondents said their budgets aren’t big enough to fully deliver on 2026 strategies, and 54% reported insufficient resources.  That combination—small teams and tight budgets—leaves marketing and agency leaders with an important question: When capacity is limited, which work truly deserves the team’s attention? The answer can’t simply be to squeeze more activity out of fewer people. When additional hires may or may not be coming, effective prioritization means making deliberate trade-offs, protecting the work that creates the most value, and getting comfortable with leaving some worthwhile ideas undone.Members of the Senior Executive CMO Think Tank are a curated group of experienced marketing leaders with expertise in brand storytelling, digital advertising, customer engagement and leading lean teams. Here, they share lessons CMOs and agency leaders can use to set sharper priorities, make better use of limited capacity, and keep lean teams focused when future hiring remains uncertain.