Product and growth teams are under pressure: reps spend most of their time not selling, marketers juggle every stage of the funnel at once, and new products struggle to even be seen as LLMs start deciding who shows up.

Nicholas Holland, SVP of Product & Head of AI at HubSpot, explains how AI-assisted teams are already changing that—and what happens to teams that don’t adapt.

In this episode you’ll learn:

➤ How AI is cutting wasted sales time and turning calls into structured insights.

➤ Why “AI Engine Optimization” (AEO) matters more than SEO for visibility in an LLM-driven world.

➤ How “vibe marketing” moves from messy brainstorm to campaign, asset, and one-to-one personalization.

➤ Why every individual needs an AI assistant, and every team needs its first agent, within 12–18 months.

➤ The risks of treating AI as optional instead of rethinking how your team works.

If you’ve wondered how marketing, sales, and product roles will actually change in the next two years, this conversation makes it concrete.

—-------

This is episode 42 of the Design of AI Podcast.

Follow us on Substack and LinkedIn to get even more AI product strategy content.

And please make sure to rate this podcast if you find it valuable. Your podcast ratings and comments are the best way to influence which topics we cover in future episodes.

—----------

Remember that on September 18 we’re hosting an AI Product Strategy Workshop online.

MIT recently published a study showing that 95% of AI projects are failing.They’re spending without a strategy and building before they know what customers actually want.

Join this workshop on September 18th to build out a vision, strategy and plan that will succeed for your business.

Register at https://designof.ai/workshop & https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/ai-product-strategy-workshop-tickets-1560702245429

—-----

This episode was hosted by:

Arpy Dragffy Guerrero (Founder & Principal Strategist PH1 Research) ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/adragffy/⁠

And if you want more AI strategy & research content, subscribe to our substack newsletter at ⁠https://designofai.substack.com/⁠

This episode is brought to you by PH1 Research, a research & strategy consultancy specialized in mapping the future of your business & product. Get more info at ⁠PH1.ca⁠

Follow us here:

⁠⁠Spotify⁠

⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠
⁠YouTube⁠⁠

About our guest:

Nicholas Holland is Head of AI at HubSpot where he oversees product strategy, development, and adoption of Breeze, HubSpot's AI that powers the entire customer platform. Breeze combines a unified data foundation, AI-powered tools, digital workers (agents), and embedded workflows to help businesses become AI-first. Previously, Nicholas led HubSpot’s marketing products, growing them from ~$400M to $1.4B.

HubSpot recently Launched ⁠Breeze⁠, their new AI Assistant

42. HubSpot’s Head of AI on How AI Rewrites Customer Acquisition & Marketing

Product Impact Podcast | Formerly Design of AI