Episode 02: Leveraging both big and small data to truly understand customer behavior with Kate Minogue

In this episode of the SaleSage Podcast, host Brooks Canavesi sits down with AI and data science expert Kate Minogue. With a background in data-driven roles at companies like Meta and the Bank of Ireland, Kate shares her insights on how AI is revolutionizing sales and marketing, why understanding customer behavior is more crucial than ever, and the misconceptions that surround AI in today’s marketplace. Kate discusses the growing importance of data literacy, problem-solving skills, and customer-centric approaches for sales and marketing professionals navigating an AI-enabled world.

Together, Brooks and Kate explore topics ranging from optimizing customer interactions with AI, AI's impact on productivity in sales, the significance of contextual data, and how to manage the tension between technology's promise and real-world application. Whether you’re an AI enthusiast, a sales professional, or simply curious about the future of technology in business, this episode offers invaluable insights for staying ahead in a competitive landscape.

Episode Show Notes:

Introduction to Kate Minogue

• Background in AI, data science, marketing, and product operations.
• Career journey through roles in Meta, Bank of Ireland, and consulting.

Exploring Grok 2 and AI’s Ethical Considerations

• Discussion on the release of Grok 2 and the implications of uncensored AI.
• The societal impact of generative AI and the need for regulatory oversight.

Debunking AI Myths

• Addressing misconceptions about AI being “new” or a “silver bullet.”
• Distinguishing generative AI from the broader landscape of AI applications.

AI’s Transformative Role in Sales and Marketing

• How AI enables a personalized approach to sales and marketing.
• The shift from traditional productivity metrics to AI-driven customer insights.

Specialists vs. Generalists in an AI-Driven Workplace

• Insights on how generalist skills can thrive alongside specialized AI knowledge.
• The future value of adaptability, creativity, and critical thinking in an AI landscape.

Customer-Centric Strategies in Sales

• The importance of aligning sales and marketing efforts with the entire customer journey.
• Tips for understanding customer behavior without relying solely on big data.

Advice for Young Professionals and Parents

• Essential skills for the future workforce: data literacy, problem-solving, and influence.
• Encouraging a non-linear career path and embracing diverse experiences.

Closing Thoughts

• Kate’s predictions for AI’s role in responsible data use, ethical boundaries, and corporate transparency.
• Future of AI in verifying data accuracy and supporting customer-driven business models.

Connect with Kate Minogue:

• LinkedIn: Kate Minogue
• Website: kate-minogue.com

Wrap-Up:
If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review us! Visit SaleSage.ai to learn how AI can empower your sales team.

Creators & Guests

Host

Brooks Canavesi

CXO @prob_sols - Enabling the Augmented Enterprise / AI / Spatial Computing / Transformation

Guest

Kate Minogue

Marketing Science, Gaming @ Facebook Previously: Data Science @ Bank of Ireland and @ Paddy Power

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The SaleSage Podcast dives into the transformative world of artificial intelligence, sales, and marketing, featuring in-depth conversations with industry leaders, AI experts, and innovative entrepreneurs. Hosted by Brooks Canavesi, each episode unpacks how cutting-edge AI technologies and data-driven strategies are reshaping the way we sell, market, and grow businesses.

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Brooks Canavesi:
Welcome to the SaleSage Podcast. I'm Brooks Canavesi, your host, and if you're tired of playing by the old rules, you're in the right place. We're here to give you an unfair advantage, where AI becomes your secret weapon to outsmart, outmaneuver, and outperform the competition. No gimmicks, just real strategies that top performers are using to stay ahead. Ready to tip the scales in your favor? Let's get into it.
Hello, everyone, and thank you for tuning in to the SaleSage Podcast, where we explore the rapidly expanding world of AI and RevOps. Today, we are honored to be joined by Kate Minogue, who has a storied career working at big companies like Meta and the Bank of Ireland. She comes from a background in data science, AI/ML, marketing, product development, and operations. She also has an MBA and is a certified AI product manager. Currently, Kate works in strategy consulting and as a fractional executive. Welcome, Kate!

Kate Minogue:
Thanks, Brooks. It’s so great to be here.

Brooks:
Awesome. Starting right from the top, Grok 2 was released this week, and I just wondered if you've had any experience with it so far.

Kate:
No, I haven’t tried it myself yet. I’ve been more interested in following the discussions around it. Sometimes I find the conversations around these releases as entertaining as people’s attempts at using them. Have you used it yourself?

Brooks:
Yes! I spent last night laughing and chuckling at some of the AI generations. It’s an uncensored LLM and image generation model, and people really pushed the boundaries with it, creating some hilarious and stunning images. It’s just fascinating to see XAI, a company less than a year old, already producing foundational models and training new ones on hundreds of thousands of H100 GPUs for Grok 3, which they’re aiming to release by year-end. The pace of competition is wild.

Kate:
It really is. Particularly with companies like X, these models, especially with labels like “uncensored,” reveal the full spectrum of human behavior. Joy Buolamwini calls this an “evocative audit”—it’s like a public demonstration of what can go wrong. It’s a conversation we’ve had with social media, which has shown both light and dark sides of human nature. I think AI models will require similar conversations around regulation, control, and intervention, especially with generative models that people push to extremes quickly.

Brooks:
Can you tell the listeners about some of the major misconceptions around AI today?

Kate:
Absolutely. One big misconception is that AI is new. I was just chatting with some friends who were saying, “Obviously, AI is very new,” and I had to clarify that it's actually been around and evolving for over 50 years. Even in marketing, AI has been an integral part of advertising, driving companies like Google and Meta to their current scale. AI is also misunderstood as a “silver bullet,” which I find problematic—there’s too much complexity in people, use cases, data, and technology for it to be a universal solution. There’s also the misconception that all AI is generative AI, when in fact generative models are just one part of a much larger AI landscape.

Brooks:
I think that's so valuable, especially as our audience is primarily sales professionals and AI enthusiasts. How do you see AI transforming sales and marketing roles both today and in the future?

Kate:
AI is well-established in marketing, particularly digital advertising. Companies like Meta and Google have focused on AI-driven optimization to match ads with the right audience, maximizing conversions. The last two years, however, have seen advancements in automating ad decision-making to reduce the need for hands-on campaign management, which is both exciting and challenging for people in those roles.
In sales, I’m noticing a shift toward productivity metrics that might not align with actual customer needs. AI has the potential to move us away from generic productivity measures—like “call this client every week”—and toward smarter, personalized engagement. Imagine AI helping a salesperson determine the optimal frequency and timing of touchpoints based on previous successes, company size, and the customer’s unique needs. This would empower sales teams to focus on quality rather than quantity, enhancing relationships and, ultimately, revenue.

Brooks:
Absolutely. It sounds like AI could bring some nuance to sales productivity metrics, which too often are one-size-fits-all. For top salespeople, relationship-building and intuition are key, and it sounds like AI could support that by analyzing customer data to suggest better engagement strategies.

Kate:
Exactly. It can validate the instincts of top salespeople by aligning AI insights with real customer needs, ensuring that sales teams focus on high-impact activities. It’s about respecting the expertise of human salespeople, rather than rigidly applying data at the cost of good relationships.

Brooks:
That’s profound. Speaking of sales professionals, do you think they’ll need to become more generalists or specialists as AI continues to evolve?

Kate:
That’s a great question. AI is creating opportunities for generalists, especially in sales and marketing, where the ability to adapt and strategize around AI tools can be more valuable than deep technical expertise. However, we’ll still need specialists to fine-tune AI, verify outputs, and understand complex data nuances. I’d say we’re moving toward a landscape where generalists use AI as a powerful tool, while specialists ensure its reliability and ethical use.

Brooks:
Interesting perspective! You’re a fractional executive now and have a diverse background across industries. How did you get here, and what led you down this path?

Kate:
It’s been quite a journey! I initially wanted to become a mathematician, but I found myself drawn to understanding human behavior through data. After studying cognitive science, I realized I was fascinated by the intersection of data and psychology, so I took a role in data science for marketing in the gambling industry. That experience taught me a lot about customer motivation and led me to roles in finance and eventually at Meta, where I was helping companies use data for decision-making.
At Meta, I became interested in the human side of decision-making—how people navigate complexity and biases, even when the data is clear. That led me to do an MBA and eventually start consulting to help businesses solve complex, data-driven problems. Now, as a fractional executive, I get to work on a variety of exciting projects, blending strategy, data, and people.

Brooks:
With all that in mind, if you could give advice to your 19-year-old self, what would it be?

Kate:
I’d tell myself to trust that there are many paths to the same destination and that it’s okay to make decisions without a long-term plan. Careers aren’t always linear, and sometimes you need to follow your interests and adapt. Today’s job market is more flexible, and new roles and paths are constantly emerging. Young people should focus on building a variety of experiences rather than a rigid 10-year plan.

Brooks:
Great advice! For listeners who are parents, what skills do you think will be valuable for their children in the future?

Kate:
Tech and data literacy will be essential, regardless of profession. Problem-solving and influence will also be key, as they’ll help people adapt to whatever roles and challenges emerge. And, honestly, I’d advise young people to build communication skills. Even technical professionals need to influence and connect with others to make an impact. Understanding and working with people will always be essential.

Brooks:
That’s solid advice. As someone who’s worked at Meta with massive datasets, can you share some steps sales and marketing teams can take to better understand their customers?

Kate:
One thing I recommend is for sales and marketing professionals to look beyond their part of the funnel and understand the full customer journey. Knowing what customers experience from start to finish builds empathy and helps us make better decisions. Also, regularly questioning assumptions and asking open-ended questions can reveal surprising insights about how customers actually use products, which often differs from how we imagine they do.

Brooks:
I couldn’t agree more. Listening and asking the right questions are critical. I also use AI to generate open-ended questions based on a prospect’s context. This helps me understand their needs without assuming I know them from the start.

Kate:
That’s a great approach. AI can be valuable for generating thoughtful questions rather than pre-formed answers. Customers are individuals, and we need to leave space to learn something new.

Brooks:
From a marketing perspective, especially in B2B and B2C, what’s working well today, and what’s not?

Kate:
In B2B, there’s a lot of “AI washing,” where companies promote AI as a feature without focusing on real solutions. The most effective outreach is still empathy-driven, focusing on customer pain points rather than AI buzzwords. In B2C, I think we’re at risk of relying too heavily on data for tactical decisions and forgetting the creative, human side of marketing. Data-driven optimization is great, but we also need room for differentiation and innovation.

Brooks:
I read in an article that you helped lead a task force to demystify AI at Meta. Can you tell us about that?

Kate:
Yes! We created educational initiatives to help advertisers understand and navigate Meta’s “black box” algorithms. Many of our clients, especially in mobile gaming, were highly data-savvy, sometimes noticing algorithm changes before we did. We aimed to build transparency around how to get the best results by balancing human input with machine learning.

Brooks:
It sounds like you were ahead of the curve in fostering AI literacy. Any predictions for where AI will take us in the next few years?

Kate:
I hope we’ll see a shift toward smaller, highly verified language models. Quality of data will become more important than sheer volume, and there will likely be legislative progress around data ethics. Companies may also adopt private, in-house AI models to maintain data sovereignty and control over their proprietary information. I see data becoming a major competitive advantage, with businesses carefully guarding and optimizing their unique datasets.

Brooks:
That’s a fascinating direction. Kate, I could talk to you for hours. Thank you so much for joining me today. If listeners want to reach out to you, where’s the best place?

Kate:
I’m active on LinkedIn, or you can find me through my website at kate-minogue.com.

Brooks:
Thanks again, Kate. This has been an insightful episode of the SaleSage Podcast, where we explore AI and revenue enablement with some of the top minds in the world, like our guest today. Remember, the game has changed. Now it’s your turn to tip the scales in your favor with AI as your secret weapon. Keep pushing the boundaries, and we’ll see you next time. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review and share it with your peers. Visit our website at salesage.ai to learn more about equipping your sales teams with AI superpowers.