AI Agents Fail at 95%—Here’s How Salesforce Fixes Trust | Ariel Kelman

Salesforce CMO Ariel Kelman on Customer-Centric Marketing, AI Agents, and Building Trust in Enterprise AI

Recorded at Dreamforce, this episode features Ariel Kelman, President and Chief Marketing Officer at Salesforce, on what it takes to market and scale enterprise technology in the era of AI agents. He shares lessons from his career journey and how customer-first thinking shaped his approach to B2B marketing.

The conversation digs into why enterprise AI demands more than compelling demos, and how trust becomes a prerequisite for deploying AI agents in real customer workflows. Kelman also explains leadership practices for building high-performing teams, including hiring for intellectual curiosity and creating a culture where learning from failure fuels innovation.

Key Topics Covered:

• How customer obsession outperforms technology-first marketing
• Lessons from Amazon and Andy Jassy’s “have you talked to customers” philosophy
• Why trust is central to CRM, AI, and enterprise adoption
• Introducing AI agents to enterprise customers and setting expectations
• Why “95% accuracy” may be insufficient for customer-facing AI
• Leadership and team development through inspiration, not only education
• Hiring signals for intellectual curiosity, humility, and low ego
• Building transparent resource allocation systems to strengthen team trust
• Creating a culture where failure supports innovation
• How leaders use AI in day-to-day work at Salesforce

Episode Timestamps:

0:00 - Introduction
1:03 - From Data Warehouse Consultant to CMO: Career Journey
2:50 - Andy Jassy's Customer-First Philosophy at Amazon
4:08 - The Foundation of Customer Success in Marketing
5:46 - Trust, CRM, AI, and Data: The Four Pillars
7:20 - Building Trust as a Marketing Leader
8:56 - Introducing AI Agents to Enterprise Customers
10:31 - What Trust Really Means in AI
12:02 - President + CMO: The Dual Role Explained
13:11 - Training Teams Through Inspiration, Not Just Education
14:52 - Hiring for Intellectual Curiosity and Humility
17:04 - Creating a Culture Where Failure Leads to Innovation
18:45 - How Leaders Use AI Daily at Salesforce
20:09 - The Joy of Product Marketing
20:50 - Why Do You Do What You Do?

About the Guest:

Ariel Kelman is the President and Chief Marketing Officer at Salesforce, where he leads global marketing strategy across CRM, AI, and enterprise technology solutions. He previously held leadership roles at Amazon Web Services, Oracle, and MicroStrategy, bringing more than 20 years of experience spanning B2B technology marketing and sales engineering.

About the Company:

Salesforce is an enterprise software company best known for its CRM platform and its broader portfolio of cloud products for sales, service, marketing, data, and analytics. The company also invests in AI capabilities designed to help organizations deploy AI within customer and business workflows.