33: Rethink customer experience orchestration with AI: Insights from Adobe Enterprise CMO Rachel Thornton

33: Rethink customer experience orchestration with AI: Insights from Adobe Enterprise CMO Rachel Thornton

Author: Alan B. Hart February 4, 2026 Duration: 20:57

How can marketing leaders deliver personalization at scale as content demands surge? How do brands protect discoverability as customers shift their search focus from SEO to answer engines and AI agents?  

At CES 2026, Alan Hart sat down with Rachel Thornton, Enterprise CMO at Adobe, to unpack the ways AI is reshaping customer experience orchestration and the content supply chain. Rachel explains that real personalization drives a major increase in content needs, and that AI can compress production cycles so teams can create, test and optimize large volumes of campaign assets faster than humans alone while staying consistent and on-brand across channels. The conversation then turns to generative engine optimization (GEO) and answer engine optimization (AEO) where Rachel notes discoverability is increasingly dependent on how brands show up in AI-driven search results and in the broader ecosystem of content beyond their own websites.  

Throughout the conversation, Rachel reinforces that making AI work requires coordinated change across data foundations, processes and skills, not just new tools. She also offers practical lessons for other CMOs on centering customer needs and building a culture of curiosity and experimentation, so teams keep learning as the marketing playbook evolves. 

 

In this episode, you'll learn: 

Ways AI enables personalization at scale  

Strategies to modernize the content supply chain  

How AI is shifting marketing and the adjustments marketers can make to stay discoverable  

 

Key highlights: 

[00:00] Introduction  

[01:00] A love of reading 

[01:40] Rachel's career path 

[02:50] Life as the Enterprise CMO 

[03:55How AI is changing the marketing role 

[06:05Content supply chain at its best 

[07:45Using AI to its full potential  

[09:20] Discoverability in the AI era 

[11:45Lessons for CMOs 

[13:20] Examples of companies doing marketing well  

[14:15An experience that defines you: Customer face time 

[16:05Advice to your younger self: It's not linear. Try new things! 

[16:45] A topic marketers need to learn more about: AI  

[17:40] What are you curious about: Robots 

[18:30] Largest opportunity to marketers today: "Everybody is a creator at heart" 

[19:50] CES trends: Embedded AI 

 

Resources mentioned:   

CES 

 

Follow the podcast:   

 

Connect with Rachel Thornton and Adobe: 

 

Connect with Alan Hart and Deloitte Digital:    

 


Hosted by Alan B. Hart, Marketing Beyond moves past the buzzwords and surface-level tactics to explore the real strategic decisions shaping modern business. Each episode features a candid, in-depth conversation with a chief marketing officer or a founder who has fundamentally changed how a brand connects with its audience. These aren't just success stories; Alan guides his guests into discussing the pivotal failures, the unexpected pivots, and the nuanced challenges that rarely make the keynote stage. You'll hear firsthand how leaders navigate the convergence of creativity, data, and technology in a rapidly shifting landscape. This podcast provides a rare, unfiltered look at the thinking behind major campaigns and business transformations, offering practical wisdom rather than just theory. For anyone curious about the human judgment and long-term vision required to build lasting brands, these discussions cut straight to the core. Listening feels like being a fly on the wall for a masterclass in strategic marketing, where the focus is always on what comes next.
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