Asteroids and Dinosaurs: A Moment in Time on AI, Commerce, and CMS with Kelly Goetsch

Today on "The Critic's Corner" Podcast, we’re talking asteroids and dinosaurs (and other stuff) with Kelly Goetsch, COO at Pipe17 – a leading order management system (OMS) for e-commerce, 3PLs, and large brands. You might know Kelly from his previous gig at commercetools, a headless commerce platform, where he was instrumental in the company’s aggressive growth. He’s also been a fixture within the MACH Alliance since its founding, and continues to play a role in the composable technology ecosystem. In our conversation, Kelly shares his recent brush with "abysmal" CX through a retail TV purchase, opening up the subject of “enshittification” – a fun new term that defines the process whereby online platforms, initially offering a positive user experience, degrade in quality over time as profit takes over. Kelly gets real about what’s at stake as consumers seek new and better ways to search and engage with brands – namely, AI-powered answer engines like ChatGPT. He likened the coming change to that moment when an asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs. Dark? Sure. But from the ashes rose a new life, and he sees the same potential. Within that, we talk about CMS and its category challenges. He asked recently in a LinkedIn post if we really need another content management system in an already crowded and mature space. As the AI phenomenon continues to shift expectations, he’s focusing beyond the legacy “dinosaur” story. “Value is not created by that which is different, but that which is unique,” he said. “That's something that took me a while to fully understand, but it's true. There are a lot of legacy platforms, or even newer versions, but still fundamentally legacy approaches.” We also chat about Kelly’s origin story and how learning to be a resourceful builder early in his career unlocked critical thinking, which has served him well in his leadership roles. Asteroids… dinosaurs... could this be the end as we know it? Maybe. But as Kelly maintains, this is where the opportunity lies for something new to emerge. So things get a little dark, but there's some light at the end of the tunnel. We promise. It's a fascinating discussion, and we hope you enjoy it. Highlights: - Introduction - 0:00 – 4:11 - Kelly's “Origin Story” - 4:25 - Asteroids and Dinosaurs: AI, CMS, and What’s Ahead: 19:30 (Big thanks to Brian Kelly for composing and performing our amazing musical track)