Runki Goswami, Chief Marketing Officer, Newgen, on Building the Intelligent Enterprise
CMOs are becoming increasingly important to CIOs because technology is no longer simply an internal efficiency layer; it is increasingly becoming the engine of customer experience, revenue and growth. This is fundamentally reshaping the CIO-CMO relationship, with marketing and technology increasingly working together to shape how enterprises engage customers and create business value.
It is against this backdrop that CIO&Leader presents The CMO Lens, a special series bringing the perspectives of leading marketing leaders to the technology and enterprise community.
The first conversation in the series features Runki Goswami, Chief Marketing Officer, Newgen, an Indian enterprise software company that provides low-code digital transformation, workflow automation and content management solutions to businesses and governments. In an exclusive interaction with CIO&Leader, Runki discusses how AI is reshaping marketing, why enterprises must move from hindsight to foresight, the rise of agentic AI, the evolving role of CMOs in enterprise technology decisions, and why preparedness, not simply technology, will define the intelligent enterprise.
CIO&Leader: Newgen has traditionally been known for process automation and digital transformation. As the company increasingly positions itself as an AI-first data transformation partner, what is the strategy behind this evolution?
Runki Goswami: Newgen has been in the industry for more than three decades, and our DNA has always been about anticipating what comes next and being prepared for it. When we started in 1992, the market was largely oriented towards services, but our leadership envisioned a product company. That ability to anticipate where the market is heading has always been part of Newgen.
Our AI-first positioning is therefore not a sudden shift. We were already leaders in digital transformation and process automation, and we had started looking at automation well before AI became mainstream. AI is about amplifying those strengths rather than replacing them.
Our strategy rests on three pillars. First, we have embedded AI across our platform so that intelligence and orchestration become part of every business process rather than an add-on.
Second, we are investing in thought leadership and customer education. Many enterprises are still trying to understand how AI can move from experimentation into production. We work with CXOs to help them understand how AI can drive tangible business outcomes.
Third, we showcase real-world AI success across industries, including banking, insurance, government and healthcare, to demonstrate tangible value.
Our objective goes beyond simply positioning Newgen as an AI-first company. We want to be a partner that helps enterprises build intelligent, adaptive and future-ready organisations.
CIO&Leader: Why must brands move from reactive execution to proactive and predictive decision-making? And how is this changing the way you approach marketing?
Runki Goswami: Today’s markets don’t wait. Customer expectations can change overnight, competition is innovating faster, and disruption has become the norm. If brands are only reacting to change, they are already behind.
Proactive decision-making means using data, AI and customer intelligence to anticipate trends, identify opportunities and address risks before they affect the business. It enables organisations to become more agile, deliver more relevant customer experiences and make smarter investment decisions.
Preparedness is no longer simply a competitive advantage. It is a business necessity.
CIO&Leader: As a CMO, what have you learned about building a technology brand internationally, particularly at a time when AI is changing marketing itself?
Runki Goswami: One of the biggest lessons is that technology should amplify creativity, not replace it.
AI can generate content, analyse data and optimise campaigns, but I don’t believe it can replace human insight, empathy or a compelling brand story. Creativity remains fundamentally human, while AI can amplify it.
The second lesson is that marketing is not simply a creative function; it is a business function. Today’s marketers need to be as comfortable discussing pipeline, customer lifetime value and ROI as they are discussing campaigns and brand positioning.
The third lesson is that technology should never be adopted for its own sake. Every investment in AI or automation should answer a fundamental question: does it create a better customer experience or deliver a better business outcome?
Technology can help you reach more people, but creativity and trust are what make people choose your brand. Nothing works in isolation.
CIO&Leader: With agentic AI entering the enterprise, which marketing processes do you believe will increasingly be handled by autonomous AI agents?
Runki Goswami: I don’t think agentic AI will replace marketers. It will replace many of the repetitive tasks they do.
Demand generation is one area where AI agents can provide significant assistance. For example, first-level cold-calling or inside-sales activities could increasingly be handled by agents. That would allow human teams to spend more time on go-to-market initiatives and higher-value activities.
Campaign execution, content adaptation, media optimisation, audience segmentation, A/B testing, reporting and performance analysis are other areas where agents can take over repetitive work.
The result should not be fewer marketers, but marketers with more time to think strategically.
What will remain uniquely human is defining brand vision, understanding cultural nuances, building emotional connections and making ethical and strategic judgments. AI agents will become powerful teammates, freeing marketers to focus on strategy, growth and real-time thinking.
CIO&Leader: We are seeing much closer collaboration between CMOs and CIOs, particularly because both are increasingly responsible for customer experience. Where do you see the strongest opportunities for collaboration?
Runki Goswami: The boundaries between the CIO and CMO are becoming thinner because customer experience is no longer something owned by a single function. It is a shared responsibility between technology and business.
The boundaries between the CIO and CMO are becoming thinner because customer experience is no longer something owned by a single function. It is a shared responsibility between technology and business.
The CMO brings customer insight, brand understanding and knowledge of the customer journey. The CIO brings technology, platforms, data, AI, governance and scalability. Together, they can create customer experiences that are more personalised, intelligent and seamless.
This collaboration isn’t entirely new. Technology and marketing have always had to work together. But as AI becomes central to enterprise transformation, the partnership becomes even more strategic.
Ultimately, the objective is business growth. Technology and marketing cannot succeed in isolation.
CIO&Leader: Newgen talks about “orchestrating intelligent enterprises.” What does that mean in practice?
Runki Goswami: An intelligent enterprise isn’t simply one that has AI. Having AI by itself doesn’t make an enterprise intelligent.
An enterprise becomes intelligent when people, processes, data, applications and AI work together seamlessly to enable faster and better decisions.
That is where orchestration becomes critical. Instead of isolated systems and disconnected workflows, orchestration creates a connected enterprise where information flows seamlessly, decisions are contextual and actions can be automated across functions.
AI alone doesn’t create transformation. The real value comes when AI is orchestrated into everyday business processes, whether that means onboarding a customer for a bank, processing an insurance claim, approving a loan or resolving a service request.
Orchestrating an intelligent enterprise means connecting people, processes, data and AI so businesses don’t just automate work; they make smarter decisions, adapt faster and deliver better outcomes.
CIO&Leader: How do you see predictive analytics helping organisations identify opportunities and improve customer engagement?
Runki Goswami: Predictive analytics helps organisations move from being reactive to being anticipatory.
Instead of waiting for a customer to complain, churn or request a service, businesses can identify patterns and predict what that customer is likely to need next. This enables personalised recommendations, proactive service, faster issue resolution and more relevant engagement.
But its value goes beyond personalisation. Predictive analytics can help organisations identify credit risk, anticipate insurance claims, optimise customer journeys and forecast demand.
The result is better customer experiences as well as better business outcomes.
We see predictive analytics as a key enabler of the intelligent enterprise, where every interaction is informed by data, every decision is more context-aware and every process becomes more proactive.
CIO&Leader: You have spoken about creating “zero blind spots” across the enterprise. Beyond technology, how should CIOs think about achieving this across customer journeys, document workflows and decision-making?
Runki Goswami: CIOs are increasingly moving beyond managing systems to understanding customer journeys end to end.
“Zero blind spots” means having complete visibility across every customer interaction. Customer data is often fragmented across systems, which can leave organisations with an incomplete picture and result in inconsistent experiences.
The CIO’s role is to connect these silos and ensure that data flows seamlessly across the enterprise. With AI, that connected data can generate actionable insights in real time.
But this also requires close collaboration with business leaders. CIOs need to work with CMOs, COOs and other business functions because the last mile of customer experience isn’t a technology initiative; it is an enterprise-wide commitment.
That, ultimately, is what zero blind spots means.
CIO&Leader: Where do you see technology moving over the next three to five years as AI and robotics become more prominent?
Runki Goswami: Over the next three to five years, AI and robotics will fundamentally change how enterprises operate. Routine work will increasingly become autonomous, decisions will be augmented by AI, and customer expectations will move towards instant and hyper-personalised experiences.
The question for CXOs is therefore no longer whether change will happen, but whether their organisations are prepared to embrace it.
Preparedness means building an enterprise where data is connected, AI is embedded into core processes, people have the skills they need and governance ensures AI is deployed responsibly.
The organisations that succeed won’t necessarily be those with the most AI. They will be those that are best prepared to combine these capabilities and respond to changes they may not even have anticipated.