By Gertrude Van Horn, SVP & CIO, Cien.ai “A compelling strategy isn’t enough. It’s the action, execution, and accomplishment that make it real.” – Gertrude Van Horn, SVP & CIO, Cien.ai From Vision to Measurement Traditionally, the fourth quarter is a time for exercises in strategy and vision — those sweeping plans we craft diligently […]
By Rob Kall, CEO & Co-Founder, Cien.ai “An Agent without data is not really an Agent, but just a lame duck…” – Rob Kall, CEO & Co-Founder, Cien.ai Everyone Talks About AI Agents, But What Makes AI Agentic? First came the wave of excitement around GenAI — chatbots, content generation, andassistants. But in recent months, […]
By Gertrude G. Van Horn, CIO & SVP, Cien.ai The Future Of Work The workplace has always evolved in tandem with technology, but the pace of change today is unprecedented – unlike anything we’ve seen before. Just as electricity and the internet redefined industries in the past, Agentic AI is reshaping how organizations are structured, how […]
By Rob Kall, Co-Founder & CEO, Cien.ai “The best way to avoid being hacked is to ensure there is nothing to hack.” – Rob Kall, Co-Founder & CEO, Cien.ai Problem: CRM Integrations as a New Attack Surface Companies are more nervous than ever about data security—and rightfully so. New breaches are reported almost daily. While […]
By Gertrude G. Van Horn, SVP & CIO, Cien.ai Introduction At Cien.ai, many of our Business Development and Growth executives are based in Dallas, Texas, where you’ll often hear the phrase, “All hat and no cattle.” It’s shorthand for someone who talks a big game but doesn’t deliver. Until recently, much of the conversation around […]
By Gertrude G. Van Horn, SVP & CIO, Cien.ai “Stop reporting. Start performing. Most GTM teams are saddled with dirty data, and insights stay buried in slide decks. Agentic AI gives you the ability to take action so the next step is already underway – but ONLY if you’ve elevated data accuracy, quality and trust!” […]
By Rob Kall, CEO & Co-founder, Cien.ai “Simple can be harder than complex.” — Steve Jobs “There’s a lot here… where do I even start?” When we launched the Cien GTM Suite three years ago, the most common feedback was:“Wait… you can give me clean, actionable GTM insights from our messy CRM data?” It wasn’t […]
By Gertrude G. Van Horn, SVP & CIO, Cien.ai After 30 years as an IT executive—including 20 as a CIO—I didn’t just want to watch the AI wave. I wanted to be part of it. I wanted a seat at the table. That’s why I joined Cien.ai. – Gertrude G. Van Horn, SCP & CIO, […]
By Gertrude G. Van Horn, SVP & CIO, Cien.ai Unsung Founders of the Digital Frontier We talk a lot about tech founders—but rarely about the pioneers who were building transformational technology around the dot-com boom, especially women. Rarer still? A woman doing it from Texas, not Silicon Valley. Margot Lebenberg Carter —was one of them. At just 27, she helped lay […]
By Rob Kall, Co-Founder & CEO, Cien.ai “If all you ever measure is total pipeline value, you’re reading the X-ray without noticing the fracture.” – Rob Kall, CEO, Cien.ai Why We’re Talking About This For many revenue leaders, pipeline reports look healthy on the surface — big numbers, upward trends, and colorful stage charts. But […]
By Gertrude G. Van Horn, SVP & CIO, Cien.ai “An intelligent system built on bad data is just a faster, more confident mistake-maker.” – Spend Matters, August 2025 The Problem: Beautiful Dashboards, Rotten Foundations According to Gartner, up to 60% of AI projects will fail by 2026. Not due to algorithmic flaws or lack of […]
By Rob Kall, Co-Founder & CEO, Cien.ai “Our sales team organization was out of control with 5 different seller roles. Using data tosimplify was critical.” – Mid-Market CRO Are You Overthinking Your Sales Org—or Not Thinking Enough? One of the most common interventions during a GTM strategic review is reorganizing thesales team. But getting it […]