120 AI Use Cases Later: How Meagen Eisenberg Scaled Samsara’s Marketing with AI

In this episode of AI’ve Got Questions, Stacey sits down with Megan Eisenberg, CMO of Samsara, to unpack how she’s turned AI from a vague mandate into real momentum across a 230-person marketing organization.

Megan shares how she set clear expectations for AI usage, gave her team permission to experiment, and created the conditions for real innovation, without waiting for a perfect playbook. From internal hackathons and AI “power hours” to building in-house tools that track how Samsara shows up in LLMs, this conversation goes deep on what’s actually working.

You’ll hear how Samsara’s marketing team is:

• Driving productivity and speed with AI-native workflows
• Rethinking SEO and PR in a world dominated by LLMs
• Automating ABM campaigns that used to take weeks to build
• Creating a culture where experimentation, curiosity, and learning are rewarded

This episode is a must-listen for CMOs and marketing leaders who know they need to embrace AI but aren’t sure where to start, especially inside larger, more complex organizations.

Transcript

Stacey Epstein (00:29)
Today on the show, I am thrilled to have my friend Megan Eisenberg. We go way back. Honestly, I don’t even remember how far back. Multiple jobs ago, multiple advisory board conferences. Our careers have definitely intertwined over the years, and I’ve always had a ton of respect for you and the work you’ve done. You’ve had multiple CMO roles and are currently the CMO at Samsara.

Megan Eisenberg (00:48)
Thank you.

Stacey Epstein (00:54)
I’m really excited to talk about how you’re leveraging AI, but let’s start with you. Tell our listeners a little more about your journey and how you got to Samsara.

Megan Eisenberg (01:04)
Sure. I’ve been at Samsara for just over a year now. I was really excited by the opportunity and the team here, and it’s been a great journey so far.

Stacey Epstein (01:15)
That’s awesome. Congratulations. We’ve talked a bit during your journey, so it’s great to hear the update. But let’s jump right in and talk about AI. You joined a public company, not a small startup, and you took over a big team. What was your mindset when you first arrived? Did you immediately think about infusing AI?

Megan Eisenberg (01:39)
Yes. We’re heavy technology users. We probably use 40 or 50 different marketing tools, and even more on the sales side. Whenever I start somewhere new, I always hire a strong technologist. That’s incredibly important to me. We brought that person in as we were building out the team, and then a few months later things really heated up around AI.

I joined in August, but by December or January it became very clear that if we wanted to develop the marketing team, they needed to deeply understand how to use AI. Not just for productivity, but for workflows, efficiency, and time savings across the board.

So I sat down with my leadership team and said, “What do we need to do to transform the team so we truly understand and adopt this?” And back in January, which feels like forever ago in AI time, I set a very clear expectation. During performance reviews, you couldn’t get the highest rating unless you could show how you were using AI, the results you were seeing, and talk fluently about it.

Stacey Epstein (02:41)
In the world of AI, January really is way back.

Megan Eisenberg (02:59)
Exactly. The second thing was giving the team permission to play and have fun. Our CEO is very forward-thinking about AI and made a lot of tools available across the company, ChatGPT, Gemini, Notebook LM when it launched, and the ability to experiment with new tools.

I told the team that in four months we’d have a half-day session where anyone managing two or more people would present their org chart, the AI-native tools their team was using, and what they had built. They would go person by person. It wasn’t a forcing function so much as a carrot, almost like a hackathon.

As we got closer to that day, I started seeing people really building things. That session was incredible. We had over 120 use cases. And not just basic copy generation. The team built real systems. For example, we built an in-house tool we call Lighthouse that tracks how we show up in LLMs. Every day it runs 300 prompts, analyzes sentiment and ranking, and flags gaps.

If we’re cited incorrectly, the comms team jumps in to fix it. If we’re missing content, the content team builds FAQs and listicles to close the gap. We run it twice a day and learn constantly.

We’re also seeing the impact. Traditional SEO is flattening as LLMs cannibalize search, but we’re now hearing in Gong calls, “I searched ChatGPT for best dash cam and you came up.” That’s been huge.

Stacey Epstein (04:54)
Totally.

Megan Eisenberg (05:11)
We’ve also adjusted how we write press releases, using a more FAQ-style format. The results have been amazing. We’re cited far more often, even without using Business Wire. We publish on our site and it gets pulled directly into citations.

Another example from that half-day session was an agentic workflow the team built for ABM campaigns. What used to take two to three weeks to build a microsite now takes under 30 minutes. It pulls data from Salesforce, selects relevant case studies, applies branding guidelines, uses Perplexity for research, and builds the page automatically.

Across the team, events, field marketing, content, everyone is building. Events teams are generating briefing docs in minutes instead of days. Field marketing is creating instant prospect dossiers for sales. It’s been incredible to watch.

We also run a bi-weekly AI power hour. About 70 people join, and we build live. We load branding guidelines into Gemini, generate decks from meeting notes, and make sure everyone is comfortable using these tools.

Leading by example matters too. I read AI newsletters every morning and share tools with the team. When trends like the doll challenge popped up, I built one myself, figured out the prompt, animated it, and shared it in Slack. I told the team, “Here’s what I did, now show me yours.” It made it fun and personal.

Stacey Epstein (07:37)
I remember that.

Megan Eisenberg (08:00)
More recently, I wanted to try vibe coding. I was jet-lagged in London and decided to build an app. Every time I travel, I look for a Lagree or reformer studio and a protein shake nearby. So I built an app where you enter an address and it shows nearby studios, distances, booking links, and protein spots.

I learned a lot. At first the data was fake because I hadn’t connected real APIs. Then I had to set up a Google developer account, mapping APIs, budgets, all of it. When Cloudflare went down, my app broke and I had to troubleshoot the stack.

I can’t write code from scratch, but now I can read it, adjust it, and design around it. The prompts have to be incredibly literal. I learned when to use AI for design and when to bring in tools like Figma instead.

I shared all of this with my team to show that if I can do it, anyone can. And this is a skill marketers need. If you can’t talk about AI tools, you won’t be competitive in the job market.

We now have 26 AI-native tools on top of our existing stack. We’ve kept headcount flat and in some cases reduced backfills because the leverage is real.

Stacey Epstein (11:38)
I feel like I could just sit back and let you talk the rest of the time. Your enthusiasm is so palpable. One reason I started this podcast is because CMOs know they need to use AI, but there’s no blueprint. It came so fast.

What you’re doing, saying “let’s just do it,” pulling the team together, making it fun, letting them teach you, that’s powerful. It takes pressure off the CMO and builds culture. I remember your doll post and thinking, “Okay, I need to do that too.”

We forget that AI is fun. There’s pressure, yes, but no playbook. And your culture is more powerful than the mandate itself.

Megan Eisenberg (13:50)
Absolutely. When someone shares an AI win in Slack, the team celebrates it. That energy fuels more experimentation. I’m competitive, and pace matters. Time and speed are our advantage. If we innovate faster, we win.

It also helps with hiring. Candidates want to work on teams investing in their growth. We ask what tools they’re using. Some companies have locked everything down, so candidates experiment at home. Curiosity is what I’m looking for.

All these tools have free versions. Anyone with a computer can start learning.

Stacey Epstein (16:20)
I love that. And I want to dispel a myth. People assume small startups are more advanced with AI, but you’re a large public company with a massive team.

How big is your marketing team?

Megan Eisenberg (16:57)
About 230.

Stacey Epstein (17:03)
Exactly. This proves big companies can move fast too. You don’t need all the answers. You just need to start.

Megan Eisenberg (18:08)
Agreed. Leadership expectation matters. Our CEO reinforces this in all-hands, teams showcase their work, and we reward adoption. Regardless of size, it’s about mindset.

Stacey Epstein (19:22)
Quick question on your tech partner. Do they sit in marketing or IT?

Megan Eisenberg (19:42)
This role is VP of Marketing Technology, Systems, Operations, and Websites. They manage engineers and analytics and have always embraced new tech. I’ve always believed a strong MarTech stack is a competitive advantage.

This year has been especially dynamic with so many new tools. Everyone on the team demos and evaluates tech. It’s a shared responsibility.

Stacey Epstein (20:57)
What’s your take on build versus buy?

Megan Eisenberg (21:10)
If a vendor wants to charge $100k and we can build it in two weeks, we build it. If it’s reasonably priced and they’ll handle edge cases and maintenance, we buy. I avoid building too many mission-critical tools we’d have to maintain long-term.

Stacey Epstein (21:42)
That makes sense. I could keep going, but I promised to keep these episodes tight. I’d love to have you back. Your enthusiasm and leadership around AI are inspiring. Thank you so much for joining.

Megan Eisenberg (22:10)
Thank you for having me.