Last May, Sitecore's Chief Operating Officer Eric Stine was promoted to CEO. He took the reins from Dave O'Flanagan, former CEO and founder of Boxever.
STINE- A executive that includes Stint as the Chief Revenue Officer of STINE-Qualtrics and Chief Revenue Officer of Skillsoft, Stine will become Sitecore CEO at a critical time for Digital Experience Platform (DXP) vendors. Generate AI restructures not only the marketing and commerce of Sitecore users, but also customer expectations. In the following interview, I discussed this and many other topics.
Editor's Note: This Q&A was edited for clarity and brevity.
How did the CEO transition come about?
Eric Stein: As a COO, it was such a gift to spend a year with customers, partners and teams, and running a business. Then last spring, when the board asked me to intervene as CEO, I was blown away. I think the reason I was asked is the function of the relationships that have been established as a COO leadership team with customers and partners. Work done in managed cloud and support business. The work we invested in the ecosystem. And most importantly, we help customers upgrade to a true SaaS-Native AI-first platform with XM cloud and SiteCore streams.
What is your mission as CEO?
Stein: There is a clear vision, mission, and strategy. We believe that digital experiences are powerful enough to connect the world, and we believe that they are perfect for creating experiences that feel personal and predictable, as they were created for you. Our mission is to help marketers by simplifying and shortening the distance between engaging content and commercial outcomes, and simplifying the way brands reach, engage, transform and serve customers.
We believe the rise of agent AI means that businesses must be SaaS-Native to truly unleash the power of agent AI embedded in their businesses. Large model updates, continuous improvements – all of them – claim to be on the next generation platform.
Explain how the Generation AI and Agent AI have changed Sitecore.
Stein: You have to start by acknowledging what AI has done to you as a marketer and technician. As an engineer, I force you to relear and rethink about work, organizational structure, cost structure, and how things are done. As a marketer, AI has changed the way traffic is.
When I read these articles about how traffic disappeared, I always roll my eyes a little. It was like a sudden call and I stopped using the internet. People are still using the internet. They are on social media. They get the answer. But the journey has changed. The shape of that traffic has changed and now, instead of using tools to pull that traffic to your front door, the content needs to be attractive enough and well-contextualized enough to be pushed where the audience is. Content should be contextualized in a way that can be found not only by keywords but also by signals.
So, how did AI change Sitecore? It changed us. AI has changed what Sitecore is doing in changing how marketers and developers experience the world. There is an AI that is not bolt-on. It's not scattered over it. It is fully embedded in the content lifecycle management workflow. That means [users can] Create brand recognition briefings and campaigns, design target markets, launch campaigns, pull assets, put them in market testing, put them in targets, and then perfect.
You talked about reduced traffic. Myths or not, how do DXP vendors (Sitecore, Adobe, Whomever) help marketers by considering how people see AI summaries and how to get to their website?
Stein: I have to be 100% clear – the traffic has absolutely disappeared, but the audience is still there. The journey is re-routed and you need to bring content to your customers in the way you are currently looking for and experiencing your brand. People are still on the internet. Rather than expecting the audience to appear for them, they shifted the responsibilities of marketers to reach their audience.
Therefore, we believe that our duty is to make it as simple as possible to break through it and to contextualize it.
How has marketers' roles changed due to the rise Configurable dxps?
Stein: The intersection of AI and complexity gives marketers the opportunity to streamline the technology and architecture of the stack and focus on what they do best.
Previously, Composable has shifted much of its work to marketers and developers to put together pieces. I think AI will help streamline how content will turn into commercial on the SaaS platform, allowing marketers to focus more on understanding the evolving nature of ICPs. [ideal customer profile] And the stories they need to tell to engage with them more effectively. You can go back to why a marketer became a marketer. I don't think a marketer took part in marketing to assemble technology components. People love their brands and wanted to create an attractive brand experience for their market, so they did it.
It's been a while since Sitecore acquired the company. How do you explain your acquisition strategy? Also, should we expect more acquisitions?
Stein: I think the most important thing is that we are focusing on corporate strategy. This is about making decisions that allow users to create an experience that is strong enough to connect people, allowing marketers to simplify the way they reach, engage, transform and serve their audience.
What matches the best agent-to-experience platform will become a candidate for consideration. Whether our growth comes organically or inorganic, it's really about keeping our promises to our customers.
Don Fluckinger is a senior news writer for Informa TechTarget. He covers customer experience, digital experience management and end-user computing. Do you have a tip? Please email him.
