MAICON brings collectively prime visionaries and specialists within the subject of AI throughout a three-day convention filled with actionable periods and networking occasions—all to place you because the change agent your group (and profession) wants. On this ongoing speaker sequence, we’re that includes these extraordinary leaders, with forward-looking predictions, actionable suggestions you need to use in the present day, and a preview of their MAICON 2025 periods.
Maila Ruggiero is ABM Supervisor and Co-Lead of the Advertising and marketing AI Council at Snowflake. Her journey with AI started in 2022, when ChatGPT first grew to become extensively accessible. On the time, she was a part of the digital advertising group at VMware and shortly acknowledged the potential of generative AI.
“It’s about how we are able to use AI to offer our personal abilities superpowers,” she explains. “Taking what you are already superior at and what you’re an professional in, and pairing that with AI to amplify your earlier influence.”
Seeing the chance for innovation at VMware, Maila linked with like-minded colleagues, forming one of many first Advertising and marketing AI Councils in B2B know-how. She helped safe CMO sponsorship and funding, ultimately taking a management function within the inside AI technique for international advertising at VMware.
Her hands-on expertise paved the best way for her present function at Snowflake, the place she co-leads a cross-functional group of seven on the Advertising and marketing AI Council. There, she focuses on growing AI adoption, selling accountable use, and constructing frameworks to speed up AI-driven advertising initiatives.
“I’m a agency believer that each marketer can be taught the abilities to be a builder to some extent,” she says. “The boundaries from taking an concept and constructing a prototype have by no means been decrease.
“You used to want to know learn how to code, however LLMs unlock a brand new wave of AI-powered options that may be constructed by non-technical folks.”
Maila approaches her work with the aim of “out-innovating” herself and serving to different groups do the identical. At MAICON, she’ll share sensible methods for main AI initiatives that ship measurable outcomes.
Session Preview: The Constructing Blocks for AI Innovation
AI adoption and ongoing innovation can really feel insurmountable at first, however you don’t want a technical background to create AI fashions.
On this session, Maila will share the “particular constructing blocks” to drive each adoption and innovation at scale and the teachings realized rolling up her sleeves to construct proof of worth. Anticipate actionable insights and real-world examples, together with perception into the entire following:
- Fingers-on labs to decrease the barrier to constructing
- Co-created use circumstances that show AI’s worth in collaboration with human experience
- Tying adoption to management priorities to create a system that lasts
- Fostering a tradition of builders the place each group member feels empowered to innovate
- Sensible suggestions from a marketer who went from experimenting with prompts to constructing options
You’ll depart with sensible methods to launch and lead your personal AI initiatives from the bottom up.
Lesson(s) Discovered: Shifting Tradition, Not Simply Instruments
“Govt AI rollouts don’t assure worker adoption,” Maila explains. “That disconnect could make or break the general influence and lots of corporations are working into it proper now. The important thing to adoption is when folks don’t really feel like AI is ‘being accomplished to them’ and begin seeing it as theirs to personal.”
The second folks understand that their very own distinctive strengths, experience and judgment is what makes these instruments beneficial is once you begin to shift a tradition that embraces constructing with AI. That is why it’s important to have devoted assets and programs that encourage accountable experimentation, frameworks that assist spot alternatives, and coaching that exhibits the human’s function in making AI beneficial.
“At Snowflake, we’ve seen adoption develop not as a result of it was mandated, however as a result of entrepreneurs skilled firsthand how attainable it’s to co-create and construct with AI,” says Maila.
If you need AI use at your organization to maneuver past treating LLMs like one other search engine, it’s good to create the circumstances the place staff can construct workflow options themselves. That’s how you alter the perceptions and behaviors from customers to energetic builders and actually begin to remodel the best way groups work and clear up each day challenges.
Wanting Forward: The Rise of AI Workflow Designers
Maila predicts the emergence of a brand new sort {of professional}: the AI workflow designer.
These roles will doubtless come from entrepreneurs, undertaking managers, and operations leaders who already know the each day ache factors of groups and may prototype options through the use of prompts, templates, and low-code instruments.
“They will not essentially write code however would architect how AI will get utilized in actual work,” Maila mentioned.
Hyperlinks We Like
Weblog: AI-Driven ABM: Scaling Precision and Impact for B2B Growth
Customized advert copy is essential for ABM success, however creating it at scale generally is a problem. To sort out this, Maila examined whether or not AI-generated advert copy might drive greater engagement and enhance marketing campaign ROI.
Working with Snowflake’s model group, Maila used Cortex AI to craft prompts and pointers for a big language mannequin, then constructed a Streamlit app to streamline the method. The outcomes have been spectacular: campaigns utilizing AI-generated copy achieved a 54% carry in click-through charges in comparison with the unique artistic.
“With AI, we not have to decide on between effectivity and personalization — we are able to have each,” says Maila. “Now we are able to scale messaging that cuts via the noise and actually speaks to prospects’ wants, challenges, and objectives.”
From Unmatched Data to Hundreds More Meetings: Snowflake’s AI-Driven Marketing Breakthroughs
On this submit, dive into how Snowflake’s advertising intelligence and developer relationships groups are utilizing Snowflake AI instruments to drive vital enhancements in how they join with clients and allocate assets.
Maila’s Session at MAICON
Proving the Attainable: Classes from an AI Council Chief Turned Builder
What does it take to steer AI innovation whereas rolling up your sleeves to create influence?
On this session, Maila Ruggiero, ABM Supervisor at Snowflake and two-time founding member of Advertising and marketing AI Councils, shares her journey from strategist to builder—proving that anybody, no matter technical background, can create AI fashions that drive measurable outcomes.
Recognizing {that a} clear AI path wasn’t but absolutely outlined, Ruggiero centered on leveraging inside assets to convey AI innovation from the bottom up. After six months of trial and error with totally different prompting methods, she constructed a mannequin that generated hyper-personalized, account-specific messaging that was on-brand and outperformed historic benchmarks. That single undertaking grew to become a proof of worth and impressed the launch of an AI Council at Snowflake.
Attendees will depart with sensible insights and inspiration for main AI initiatives inside their very own groups.
Preserve Up with Maila (and AI)
Comply with Maila’s journey and keep impressed by her insights on AI and advertising innovation.
Marketing Artificial Intelligence Conference (MAICON) was created for advertising leaders and practitioners looking for to drive the following frontier of digital advertising transformation inside their organizations.
We’re excited to host our fifth annual MAICON—Advertising and marketing AI Convention—at this pivotal level for our business. Be a part of us from October 14 to 16, 2025, in Cleveland, Ohio, and use the particular code SPEAKERSERIES100 at checkout to obtain $100 off your registration!