TECHtonic: Trends in Technology and Services

Technology & Services Industry Association
  • 4.8 (31)
  • Management
  • Updated Biweekly

Join host Thomas Lah as he discusses shifts in the ever-changing technology industry with tech executives, researchers, and thought leaders who share their experience and provide their perspective and data on what companies should do to stay relevant, be profitable, and succeed.

  1. 2d ago

    127. Your Customers Have Been Telling a Story. AI Can Finally Read It.

    Your CRM knows what happened. It doesn’t know why—or what’s about to happen next. That gap is costing revenue teams millions in preventable churn, missed expansion, and deals that slip away long before anyone saw it coming. In this episode of TECHtonic, TSIA Executive Director Thomas Lah sits down with Alok Shukla, CEO and co-founder of Funnel Story, to explore a new category of technology: the AI-powered revenue intelligence layer. Unlike traditional CRM dashboards that report on structured activity data in a single point in time, Funnel Story’s patented composite model combines structured data (usage, revenue, activity), unstructured conversational data (calls, emails, notes), and third-party market signals—then reverse-engineers your full historical timeline to train itself from day one. Median deployment time: less than a day. Alok introduces the concept of “needle movers”—AI-detected early warning patterns that surface months before churn or expansion become visible to any human. He shares a compelling real-world example where signals from three different organizational levels (an executive conversation, a support ticket, and a CSM interaction) were silently pointing to competitive risk—patterns that only emerged because of historical churn analysis. Without the intelligence layer connecting those dots, the account would have been marked “healthy” right up until it churned. Drawing on his 20+ years in cybersecurity (McAfee, Intel Security, Imperva), Alok makes a powerful analogy: the Security Operations Center went from 80% people / 20% tech to nearly the inverse over 20 years—and that transformation is now coming for revenue and CS organizations. The leaders who will thrive are those who start thinking now about what it means to manage a fleet of agents rather than a team of reps.

    43 min

  2. May 15

    126. Live from the 2026 TSIA Board Summit: Executive Leaders Debate the Future of Services

    Recorded live at the May 2026 TSIA Board Summit, this executive panel brings together technology and services leaders to explore how AI is transforming the future of customer engagement, professional services, support, sales, and education services. Moderated by Thomas Lah and George Humphrey, the discussion dives into emerging business model trends shaping the technology industry, including forward-deployed engineers (FDEs), AI-native operating models, value realization frameworks, agentic workflows, outcome-based selling, and the evolving role of services organizations in driving revenue growth. Panelists Kusal DeSilva of AptEdge, Prasad Sular of Certinia, Shari Cravens of HPE Digital Experience, Usman Nasir of Salesforce, Fotini Costopoulos of ServiceNow, and Kurt Kuelz of Siemens Digital Industries Software share real-world examples of how leading organizations are restructuring around customer outcomes, why services teams are playing an increasingly strategic role in the sales cycle, and the evolving skills technology professionals will need to thrive in an AI-first economy. This candid, unscripted live discussion captures how leading companies are navigating one of the fastest technology shifts the services industry has ever experienced.

    1h 2m

  3. May 1

    125. Outsourcing Impact: A New Playbook for Customer Success Leaders

    In this episode of TECHtonic, Thomas Lah of TSIA sits down with Michael Harnum, CEO of ESG Success, to unpack a bold idea reshaping the tech industry: Customer Success as a Service. As companies face mounting pressure to cut costs while still driving retention and growth, traditional customer success models are being pushed to their limits. Michael shares how his experience scaling renewal operations and training services led to a broader, more holistic approach—helping organizations not just execute customer success, but design, optimize, and even outsource it. From building maturity assessments to leveraging AI for scalable success plans, the conversation dives into how companies can transform fragmented, underperforming CS functions into strategic growth engines. If you’re grappling with churn, struggling to prove ROI, or wondering how to scale without adding headcount, this episode delivers practical insights and a fresh perspective on making customer success a true driver of business value.

    35 min

  4. Apr 17

    124. Science Meets Strategy: Inside Agilent’s Growth Engine

    In this episode of TECHtonic, host Thomas Lah sits down with Angelica Riemann, SVP and President of the CrossLab Group at Agilent Technologies, to unpack how a legacy hardware company is transforming into a modern, recurring-revenue powerhouse. From its origins as a spinout of HP to becoming a global leader in lab innovation, Agilent is redefining what it means to deliver value—not just through instruments, but through an integrated ecosystem of services, consumables, software, and digital experiences. Angelica reveals how Agilent is: Building a “flywheel” of recurring revenue across the entire lab lifecycleNavigating increasingly complex buying personas and pricing modelsLeveraging AI and digital tools to transform both customer support and internal operationsShifting from selling products to delivering outcomes and workflow solutionsThe conversation also explores the future of enterprise buying—where frictionless digital experiences, self-service support, and even AI-to-AI transactions are reshaping how customers engage. If you're in tech, services, or any industry facing disruption, this episode offers a powerful look at how to evolve your business model for a world that demands more value, speed, and flexibility.

    33 min

  5. Apr 3

    123. How to Beat Bigger Competitors (Without Bigger Teams)

    In this episode of TECHtonic, Thomas Lah sits down with Cormac Whelan, CEO of Nitro Software, to unpack what it really takes to compete, and win, when you’re up against industry heavy weights. As AI reshapes the software landscape, Cormac shares how smaller, more agile companies are using it as a force multiplier, enabling lean teams to innovate faster, deliver smarter products, and “punch above their weight.” But technology alone isn’t the advantage. The real differentiator? Customer intimacy and value realization. Cormac dives into how Nitro leverages deep customer insights to uncover massive efficiency gains, like reducing document redaction from hours to seconds, and turning those insights into scalable, AI-powered solutions. The conversation explores why traditional software models are breaking down, how pricing is shifting toward outcomes, and why proving value is now the ultimate competitive edge. You’ll also hear: Why incumbents still hold power, and where they’re vulnerableHow AI is changing product development, pricing, and go-to-market strategiesThe growing importance of trust, security, and transparencyWhy the future belongs to companies that deliver outcomes, not just softwareIf you're navigating today’s rapidly evolving tech landscape, this episode offers a clear message: the winners won’t be the biggest—they’ll be the most agile, customer-focused, and value-driven.

    35 min

  6. Mar 20

    122. Staying Strategic in an AI-Driven Marketing World

    What happens when AI can do almost everything marketing teams used to own? In this thought-provoking episode of TECHtonic, Thomas Lah chats with marketing leader Kathy Macchi to unpack a bold AI manifesto that’s challenging how CMOs think about their role, and their future. As AI rapidly takes over content creation, campaign execution, and analytics, marketing teams face a critical crossroads: evolve into a strategic powerhouse—or risk becoming a commoditized service function. Kathy breaks down: Why most marketing work is quickly becoming “context”, and what remains truly “core”The dangerous trap of over-automation (and how it can quietly erode your brand)How AI is reshaping roles, workflows, and even org structuresWhy “more content” actually makes it harder to stand outThe rise of “Move 37 moments”, when AI forces professionals to rethink their value overnightThis isn’t just about marketing. It’s about how professionals stay relevant in a world where AI keeps raising the bar. If you’re a CMO, marketer, or a business leader navigating AI disruption, this episode will challenge how you think about strategy, value, and the future of your role.

    40 min
  7. 121. Moving Beyond AI Experiments to Real Business Value

    Mar 6

    121. Moving Beyond AI Experiments to Real Business Value

    AI is everywhere. So where is the real business value? In this episode of TECHtonic, TSIA’s Thomas Lah speaks with Sofi Elfving Hallberg, CEO and co-founder of Substorm and a machine learning pioneer who has worked in the field since the early 2000s. Sofi shares how the AI landscape has evolved from the early days of limited data and computing power to today’s generative AI boom, and why many companies are still struggling to move beyond experimentation. They discuss why much of today’s AI investment may be chasing hype rather than solving meaningful problems. According to Sofi, the biggest opportunities lie not in generic generative AI tools, but in vertical, industry-specific solutions that tackle complex operational challenges—like quality control, document management, and other “boring” enterprise processes that can deliver massive ROI when optimized. The conversation also dives into what it actually takes to make AI succeed inside organizations. From avoiding endless proof-of-concept projects to prioritizing change management and business ownership over IT-led initiatives, Sofi explains why delivering measurable value from day one is critical. For leaders trying to cut through the noise, this episode offers a practical roadmap for turning AI potential into real results.

    44 min
  8. 120. AI vs. Renewal vs. Churn: Who Wins in 2026?

    Feb 20

    120. AI vs. Renewal vs. Churn: Who Wins in 2026?

    Net revenue retention is under pressure. SaaS growth has slowed. Sales and marketing budgets are shrinking. And AI is forcing companies to rethink everything, from seat-based pricing models to how they engage, retain, and grow customers. In this episode of TECHtonic, host Thomas Lah welcomes back Brent Grimes, CEO of Reef.ai, for a direct and timely conversation about what’s actually happening in the AI revenue landscape. Since their last discussion, AI capabilities have advanced rapidly, but the bigger shift isn’t just better models. It’s how companies are using those models to survive and win in a far more demanding market. With declining net revenue retention across public SaaS companies and mounting pressure to “do more with less,” leaders can no longer rely on intuition, last-call sentiment, or broad segmentation strategies. The era of guessing is ending. Thomas and Brent explore the rise of model-driven revenue management, where predictive AI doesn’t just improve forecasting accuracy but identifies churn risk months in advance, pinpoints expansion opportunities with statistical precision, and helps teams prioritize their time where it matters most. They discuss how upsell intelligence may actually unlock more upside than churn reduction alone, and how organizations are beginning to move from dashboards and insights toward autonomous workflows powered by renewal and expansion agents. The conversation also dives into the practical realities of making this shift—from solving data quality challenges to building trust with revenue teams who must learn to work alongside models and agents rather than rely solely on instinct. As AI adoption compounds quarter over quarter, the gap between early adopters and laggards is widening, and 2026 may mark the moment when that divide becomes unmistakable. If you own revenue, lead customer success, or sit in the CRO seat, this episode will challenge how you think about forecasting, expansion, resource allocation, and the future of go-to-market execution.

    46 min
See All (130)

4.8
out of 5
31 Ratings

About

Join host Thomas Lah as he discusses shifts in the ever-changing technology industry with tech executives, researchers, and thought leaders who share their experience and provide their perspective and data on what companies should do to stay relevant, be profitable, and succeed.

Information

You Might Also Like