Custom AI Agents vs Out-of-the-Box Tools

Custom AI agents vs. out-of-the-box tools: which delivers better ROI? Nicholas Holland, Head of AI at HubSpot, shares his expertise on the evolution of AI agents in marketing automation. He recommends starting with pre-built AI tools before attempting custom development, emphasizing the importance of mastering prompt engineering and data integration first. Holland outlines a practical progression path from using AI for basic tasks to implementing complex automated workflows that can transform marketing operations. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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  The Martech Podcast is a proud member of the I Hear Everything Podcast Network. Looking to launch or scale your podcast? I Hear Everything delivers podcast production, growth and monetization solutions that transform your words into profit. Ready to give your brand a voice? Then visit iHereEverything.com.

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  From advertising to software as a service to data, across all of our programs and clients, we've seen a 55% to 65% open rate.

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  Getting brands authentically integrated into content performs better than TV advertising.

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  Typical life span of an article is about 24 to 36 hours.

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  If we're reaching out to the right person with the right message and a clear call to action, then it's just a matter of timing.

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  Welcome to the Martech Podcast, a member of the I Hear Everything Podcast Network. In this podcast, you'll hear the stories of world-class marketers that use technology to drive business results and achieve career success. Here's the host of the Martech Podcast, Benjamin Shapiro.

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  I'm Benjamin Shapiro and joining me today is Nicholas Holland, the Head of AI at HubSpot. And today Nicholas is going to explain how the shift from agentic AI is fundamentally changing marketing automation and what it means for your team's future. All right, Nicholas, I want to move into our lightning round where I'm going to ask you a couple of questions about artificial intelligence and HubSpot and the agentic revolution. Are you ready?

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  Let's do it.

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  All right, here we go. Would you spend more time leaning towards building custom AI agents or relying on simpler out-of-the-box AI tools that need human oversight?

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  From my vantage, like HubSpot is all about making AI do work on behalf of SMBs. So we're not really in love with AI itself. We're in love with how to help SMBs apply AI to help them grow. So because of that, we take the stance that many of these agents should be ready to go out of the box. We're really trying to aim for the lowest amount of effort to get it going for the Highest amount of output. We do have the ability for people who kind of graduate past that. And I do think some of the marketers will graduate past that. But I would lean on really first, especially if you've never done any agentic stuff. It is critical that you use out of the box agents. Going down the path of trying to build a custom one, you have signed up for a much bigger task than what you know of. Somebody's got to keep taking care of that agent slash employee years from now, or you got to deprecate it like it's hard. So I would do out of the box.

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  Baby steps. Start with having chat GPT or Claude write some email responses for you. Start getting better at writing prompts to more complex tasks. Start figuring out how to feed data. Start figuring out how to build context. Then you can get into more automated workflows where you're building your own agents. All right. That wraps up this episode of the MarTech Podcast. Thanks to Nicholas Holland, the head of AI at HubSpot for joining us. If you'd like to contact Nicholas, you could find a link to his LinkedIn profile in our show notes or on martechpod.com. Or you can learn about HubSpot and how they're building AI for marketers by going to hubspot.com/ai. And if you haven't subscribed yet and you want a daily stream of marketing and technology knowledge in your podcast feed, hit the subscribe

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  button in your podcast app or on YouTube and we'll be back in your feed next week. All right. That's it for today. But until next time, my advice is to just focus on keeping your customers happy.

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  Thanks for listening to the MarTech Podcast and I Hear Everything production. Looking to launch or scale a podcast like this one for your brand, then visit ihereverything.com.