Clay vs Demandbase

Clay's Kareem Amin Discusses Rise of GTM Engineer

Clay co-founder and CEO Kareem Amin will speak at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 about the emergence of the 'GTM engineer' role. This new discipline uses AI, data, and automation to build repeatable revenue systems, replacing manual go-to-market processes. Clay coined the role in 2023 and reports about 100 GTM engineering job listings each month. The company has seen rapid growth, with ARR tripling to $100 million in a year, a $115 million Series D round at a $7.1 billion valuation, and a $1 million scholarship fund to train GTM engineers. Amin's session will explore how AI is transforming go-to-market strategies and what this means for company growth.

• Clay coined the GTM engineer role in 2023.
• Approximately 100 GTM engineering job listings appear each month.
• Clay tripled annual recurring revenue to $100 million in a year.

AI Deployment Insights at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026

At TechCrunch Disrupt 2026, leaders from Anthropic, Gamma, and Clay will discuss what happens when enterprises actually deploy AI. Anthropic's Head of Applied AI, Cat de Jong, will share patterns from enterprise deployments of Claude, focusing on why some deployments succeed while others stall. Gamma's CEO Grant Lee will discuss how AI products gain adoption, referencing Gamma's near 100 million users and expansion into marketing assets. Clay's CEO Kareem Amin will bring the founder perspective on integrating AI into workflows, noting Clay's integration with Claude as a launch app. The session aims to explore the transition from AI pilots to production, the challenges of making AI a habitual tool, and what separates successful deployments from experiments. The event takes place October 13-15 at Moscone West, San Francisco.

• TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 will feature a session on enterprise AI deployment with leaders from Anthropic, Gamma, and Clay.
• Anthropic's Cat de Jong will discuss patterns in enterprise deployments of Claude.
• Gamma's CEO Grant Lee will discuss AI product adoption; Gamma is approaching 100 million users.

OpenAI: AI-native firms turn workflows into operating capability

OpenAI's latest Enterprise Signals data shows enterprise AI shifting from assistance to execution, with top 10% 'frontier' AI-using firms now generating 8.3x more output tokens per active user than typical firms, up from 2.6x in January. The article profiles three startups applying AI agents to real workflows: Basis (AI agents for accounting firms) cut first-day onboarding from two hours to 30 minutes using OpenAI's Codex; Clay (a revenue engine for go-to-market teams) uses persistent workspaces and subagents to save about an hour of daily inbox triage; and Exa Labs (web search infrastructure for AI agents) automated its developer integration workflow with Codex. OpenAI outlines six steps for scaling these agentic workflows, including defining measurable outcomes, writing agent job descriptions, and building human oversight. The core message: leading firms are connecting agents to company context and tools to automate substantive work end-to-end.

• Frontier AI-using firms generate 8.3x more output tokens per active user than typical firms, up from 2.6x in January.
• Basis reduced first-day employee onboarding time from two hours to 30 minutes using OpenAI's Codex.
• Clay's persistent account workspaces with dedicated subagents save roughly one hour of inbox triage nightly.

Marketo Co-founder Launches AI Marketing Automation Platform Phave

Jon Miller, co-founder of Marketo and Engagio, together with Nick Bonfiglio, formerly head of product and engineering at Marketo, has launched Phave, an AI-powered marketing automation platform for enterprise B2B organizations. After two years in stealth, Phave reached general availability in August 2026 and is now used by 10 companies. Designed to replace legacy MAPs like Marketo, Pardot, Eloqua, and HubSpot, Phave's intelligence engine, Maestro, generates personalized 'Playlists' that dynamically sequence marketing touches based on real-time data, objectives, and governance. The platform treats contacts, accounts, and buying groups as first-class objects, supports natural language configuration, and offers headless access via MCP (exposing 319 tools) and REST API. In an independent evaluation against 481 requirements, Phave scored 2.97, outperforming HubSpot (2.46) and Marketo (2.38). Early enterprise customers include SambaNova, SPS Commerce, mabl, Servion, and Hypha.

• Jon Miller and Nick Bonfiglio founded Phave, an AI-powered B2B marketing automation platform.
• Phave emerged from stealth and reached general availability in August 2026, currently serving 10 companies.
• Phave uses AI reasoning models (via Maestro) and 'Playlists' to personalize and sequence marketing actions.

Demandbase Launches Mojo, the B2B Marketing Agent that Learns from Every Campaign

Demandbase launches Mojo, a B2B marketing agent that turns briefs into live cross-channel campaigns across connected tools like Google Ads, Marketo, and Salesforce.

ChatGPT Referrals to B2B Sites Quadrupled

Demandbase’s Labs data shows ChatGPT-driven referrals to tracked B2B websites rose from about 645,000 in June 2025 to 2.6 million in June 2026 (a 303% increase), with a sharp inflection in May 2026 when volume more than doubled. The Labs dataset covers more than 11 billion visits across 1,584 platform instances, but Demandbase warns the data is proprietary and not independently verified; attribution is further complicated because many AI-influenced sessions appear later via brand searches. Growth was concentrated in OpenAI’s ChatGPT while Perplexity referrals declined and Gemini and Claude remained largely flat. Demandbase also reports rising ad spend on its platform—CTV up 112% and display up 55% year over year, with CTV’s share rising modestly—and says AI-generated referrals may become an increasingly important buyer-intent signal. Independent evidence on conversion value is mixed.

• Demandbase Labs: monthly ChatGPT-referred visits rose from ~645,000 (June 2025) to 2.6 million (June 2026), a 303% increase.
• Labs dataset covers >11 billion website visits across 1,584 platform instances; Demandbase describes it as proprietary and not independently verified, and attribution is complicated by later brand searches.
• Demandbase observed a sharp inflection in May 2026 when ChatGPT referral volume more than doubled versus prior months.