Podcast Summary: Marketing Beyond with Alan B. Hart

Episode 26: Is your governance ready for AI? Insights from OneTrust Chief Marketing Officer, Michael Schanker
Release Date: November 19, 2025
Guest: Michael Schanker, CMO, OneTrust
Host: Alan B. Hart

Overview

In this episode of Marketing Beyond, Alan B. Hart sits down with Michael Schanker, the Chief Marketing Officer at OneTrust, to explore the emerging frontier of AI governance. The discussion covers Michael’s unconventional journey from accounting to marketing leadership, the challenges and imperatives of governing artificial intelligence, how OneTrust approaches AI both as a market offering and as an internal practice, and the broader implications for marketers in an age where data and AI are inseparable. Schanker shares candid stories about leadership, lessons learned, and the necessity of adaptability in today’s rapidly changing business landscape.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Michael Schanker’s Career Path

From CPA to CMO

• Michael began as a CPA but soon realized his passion was on the product and customer side, leading to a career in technology consulting, product management, and finally B2B marketing ([02:27]).
• He emphasizes how experience in both sales and marketing is invaluable:

  “You can sum up marketing’s mission in five words: Set up sales to win.” (Michael, [06:59])

Influence of a Hybrid Background

• Michael credits his analytical side to his engineer father and creativity to his artist mother, which shaped his marketing approach as a blend of art and science ([20:19]).

2. Creating a Narrative for AI Governance at OneTrust

• Upon joining OneTrust, Michael’s main challenge was unifying five related products under a cohesive narrative, especially as the company moved into AI governance ([07:26]-[08:42]).
• He approached category creation by immersing himself in customer, employee, and analyst feedback to ensure the story resonated with genuine business problems.

Customer-Centric Category Creation

• Schanker insists on beginning with the customer’s pain points—even those customers don’t fully understand yet:

  “Sometimes, especially when you’re doing category creation, they might be able to articulate their own pain or issue, but they don’t know that there’s a solution out there…” ([08:54])

3. Understanding & Implementing AI Governance

What Is AI Governance?

• Schanker describes governance as “all about risk management”—not minimizing risk, but balancing it for optimal business performance ([10:15]).
• AI upends traditional governance models. With its constant evolution and integration across business functions, manual, point-in-time oversight is obsolete.

• “You’ve got to actually, ironically, use AI in order to scale with AI.” (Michael, [11:45])

Automating Governance

• OneTrust’s solution leverages AI to automatically discover and assess AI use cases across the organization, evaluating risks at every stage—from inputs to model outputs ([13:47]).

Internal Application: “Customer Zero”

• OneTrust applies its tools internally, ensuring they practice what they preach, especially around data consent and responsible AI use ([15:04]).
• Schanker highlights the criticality of balancing speed and governance:

  “How can you move fast and govern well? Or if you’re talking to a governance audience, govern well and move fast.” ([15:31])

Regulation & Brand Risk

• While initial privacy programs were driven by regulation, AI governance is more about protecting brand reputation and customer trust:

  “Regulation is not the driver when it comes to the governance of AI because everybody knows what the stakes are if you get it wrong…” ([16:49])

4. The Evolution of Consent and Data Use

• The conversation covers how AI changes the game in data usage:

  “The purpose of use of data can change and therefore what type of risk you’re taking on or introducing, especially in something like an AI model, is completely different than before.” (Michael, [15:31])

• OneTrust manages 400 million consent transactions daily, highlighting the scale and importance of responsible data use ([19:25]).

5. Leadership Reflections & Personal Philosophy

Key Experiences

• Michael credits his parents’ contrasting backgrounds for his hybrid approach to marketing ([20:19]).
• Advice to his younger self:

  “Take more pictures.” (Michael, [21:35])
  He reflects on the power of memory and the importance of capturing moments, both personally and professionally.

Learning Mindset

• On continuous learning, he advises marketers to stay curious and keep up with AI developments, not just tools but also ethics and fundamentals ([22:44]-[24:22]):

  “If you want to understand how it’s really going to be so transformative… you need to understand the principles behind it.”

6. Storytelling and Empathy in Marketing

• Schanker talks passionately about his love of movies and how patience for stories with strong character development—a quality now more common in streaming series—parallels effective marketing:

  “The essence of good marketing and good selling is having empathy for the person on the other side of the table… If you can’t understand their internal world… you’re not going to be very good at your job.” ([24:31])

7. The Threat of Complacency in Marketing

• Schanker’s biggest warning for marketers is the risk of complacency—not adapting to changing personas, problems, and technologies:

  “If you try to apply static tactics against a dynamic world… you might start off on target and then you’re 10 degrees off and 15 degrees off and 20 degrees off.” ([27:38])

• He urges leaders to regularly re-examine their strategies:

  “If you had a clean sheet of paper, is this how we would do things or would we approach things differently?” ([28:45])

Notable Quotes

• On the Mission of Marketing:
  “You can sum up marketing’s mission in five words: Set up sales to win.” (Michael, [06:59])
• On AI & Governance:
  “You’ve got to actually, ironically, use AI in order to scale with AI.” (Michael, [11:45])
• On Internal Adoption:
  “We have to be customer zero of our own software.” (Michael, [15:04])
• On Data Consent:
  “The purpose of use of data can change and therefore what type of risk you’re taking on or introducing, especially in something like an AI model, is completely different than before.” (Michael, [15:31])
• On Brand Risk vs Regulation:
  “Regulation is not the driver when it comes to the governance of AI… the level of consequences has gone up…” (Michael, [16:49])
• Advice to His Younger Self:
  “Take more pictures.” (Michael, [21:35])
• On the Biggest Threat to Marketers:
  “I actually think the biggest threat to marketers today is complacency.” (Michael, [27:38])

Key Timestamps

• [02:27] – Michael’s career journey: CPA to marketing leader
• [06:59] – “Set up sales to win”: philosophy on marketing’s mission
• [07:26] – Joining OneTrust, seeking a unifying narrative
• [08:54] – Customer-driven category creation
• [10:15] – The fundamentals of business risk & technology governance
• [11:45] – AI changes how governance must be automated
• [13:47] – Auto-discovery and risk assessment for AI use cases
• [15:04] – OneTrust as “customer zero” and the internal use of its tools
• [15:31] – Impact of AI on the meaning and risk of data consent
• [16:49] – Regulation and brand risk; why governance matters
• [19:25] – OneTrust scale: 400 million consent transactions daily
• [20:19] – Family background shaping an “art and science” approach
• [21:35] – “Take more pictures”: leadership advice
• [22:44] – Commitment to continuous AI learning
• [24:31] – Empathy, storytelling, and understanding personas
• [27:38] – Complacency as the greatest modern marketing threat

Closing Reflections

Michael Schanker delivers a timely and insightful look at marketing and governance in the post-AI era, underscoring the need for agility, empathy, and a rigorous approach to risk and compliance. His philosophy, rooted in collaboration with sales and saturated with a customer-first mindset, serves as a model for modern marketing leadership. This episode is especially relevant for marketers and executives wrestling with the dual imperatives of innovation and responsibility in a fast-evolving digital landscape.