Welcome, Mattia! Let’s begin with your marketing journey and what you’re focused on today at Hotjar. I’m currently leading the marketing team at Hotjar, where I’ve been since late 2022. My journey has taken me across B2C, marketplaces, and B2B in industries like ecommerce, mobility, retail, healthcare, and analytics. I’ve had the chance to work at global giants like adidas, Tommy Hilfiger, and Uber, as well as fast-growing startups and scaleups like Leavy and Atida. At Hotjar, I’m responsible for shaping the global marketing strategy, scaling growth, and nurturing strong, long-lasting relationships with our customers. I also work closely with our product teams to shape the roadmap and lead cross-functional initiatives. It’s an exciting space to be in, especially as we evolve our offering to meet the changing needs of digital teams. As a three-time CMO, what’s your perspective on how the role is evolving—especially in B2B tech? My experiences across industries and geographies have been incredibly formative. One thing that surprised me—in a good way—was how smooth the transition from B2C and marketplaces to B2B has been. The fundamentals of great marketing are still the same: you’re still selling to humans, still driving value through great products, and still building teams that need purpose and inspiration. That said, the expectations of CMOs are shifting rapidly. Today’s CMO must not only be creative and strategic but also deeply collaborative, especially across sales and product. Silos don’t work anymore. To generate high-quality leads and deliver great customer experiences, marketing must be aligned with every function in the business. Tell us about Hotjar’s recent AI-driven updates. How do you see AI transforming the martech space in the near future? At Hotjar, we’ve always prioritized customer empathy—putting the user at the center of every decision. This philosophy shapes how we build and improve our product. Recently, we introduced Hotjar AI, an AI-powered research assistant that helps product and marketing teams analyze survey data and user responses, then generates actionable insights in minutes. AI is starting to reshape the martech landscape—but we’re still in the early innings. Right now, marketers are using AI mostly to speed up tasks. But the real potential lies in how AI will change the way users discover, experience, and connect with brands. We’re already thinking about how to prepare for that shift. What are some powerful AI benefits that martech users often overlook or underutilize? One big opportunity lies in customer understanding. Product and marketing teams often waste time manually combing through feedback to find actionable insights. AI can dramatically accelerate that process—analyzing huge datasets, surfacing trends, and highlighting customer pain points or desires. That speed unlocks time to do what humans do best: empathize. The less time we spend on admin work, the more we can spend crafting meaningful, personalized experiences for our audiences. That’s where AI shines—not just in efficiency, but in enabling deeper human connection. If you had to define the future of B2B marketing in one vision, what would it be? The future of B2B marketing will remain rooted in customer obsession, but it will also be shaped by how well teams can evolve with emerging technology and shifting customer behavior. Success will depend on how seamlessly marketing fits into the larger ecosystem—whether that’s sales-led, product-led, or otherwise. Marketing will increasingly become the glue between teams—the force that translates product innovation into value, turns data into decisions, and builds bridges between companies and their customers. The teams that embrace both human insight and technological evolution will be the ones leading the charge. MartechHeads Insight:Mattia Santin’s approach to marketing is a timely reminder that even in an AI-first future, empathy, collaboration, and customer connection are the true differentiators. As martech becomes smarter, the most successful teams will be those that marry automation with authenticit
