In this episode, Datadog CMO Sara Varni breaks down what AI adoption really looks like inside a large, scaled marketing organization.

Sara shares how her team is experimenting with AI while also selling AI-driven products, and why Datadog now expects every headcount or budget request to be evaluated through an “AI productivity” lens. She talks through the real use cases that are working, and the ones that are still too early.

Sara also walks through Datadog’s bottoms-up AI Council, their cross-functional AI hackathon, and the 21 projects that surfaced from it. She offers a candid look at evaluating AI-native tools vs. AI add-ons from legacy vendors, and how she decides which innovations truly matter for a company at Datadog’s scale.

We also get into:
 • why she doesn’t over-index on “AI experience” when hiring
 • misconceptions about how fast big companies are moving
• how to pilot new AI tools inside smaller product lines
• why curiosity matters more than credentials in the AI era

It’s a grounded, practical look at what AI-enabled marketing actually looks like inside one of the industry’s most respected enterprise software companies.