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We’re profiling enterprise industry leaders to gather their insights into the evolving world of generative AI and marketing.

Michael Sanie leads Synopsys’ Enterprise Marketing and Communications group, responsible for go-to-market strategies, strategic communication, and campaigns across the organization. He has previously served as the Vice President of Marketing and Strategy for the Design Group and the Vice President of Marketing for the Verification Group. Before joining Synopsys in 2009, Michael held executive and senior marketing positions at Calypto, Cadence, Numerical Technologies, and Actel, and IC design and software engineering positions at VLSI Technology. 

The integration of generative AI in various industries has been transformative. How do you see generative AI influencing the marketing landscape in the future? What steps are you taking to leverage generative AI in your marketing strategies?

AI is already making an impact in the marketing landscape. Today, the most relevant aspect of AI in marketing is its ability to use machine learning to drive propensity targeting. Propensity targeting could include activities where AI can recommend products to clients (based on their previous purchases) or recommend clients to our sales teams for new product offerings. As generative AI becomes proficient enough to drive accurate content, we will see an expanded and much broader use of AI in marketing. As such, we have several initiatives to constantly evaluate the rapidly progressing field of AI, how it can be leveraged in our projects, and when it would be most cost/effort efficient to start leveraging them.

As the CMO at Synopsys, could you share some of the innovative marketing initiatives you have undertaken to effectively promote your products to the general public while conveying your offerings' technical elements and complexities?

Synopsys is a pure B2B company, so we promote our products to our users and customers. However, we have several innovative initiatives that market our technology and, more importantly, its benefits to the greater public. The key difference is to shift our messaging and narrative from what we make (and sometimes how we make them) onto who we are (fundamentally) and how what we make impacts the world and humanity. We message the company on its technical elements and complexities. Still, we continually strive to raise and elevate the narratives using broader styles and terminology, as well as analogies and examples to resonate with the broader audience.

Synopsys is known for its technical expertise and advanced solutions. How do you effectively market your products to a wider audience while maintaining the depth and complexity that technical customers require? Are there any specific examples you can share?

As one can imagine, this is a complex (nearly impossible) balance to strike. This is something that the entire tech industry has historically struggled with, as the sourcing already starts at the ‘weed’ level, and the criticality to maintain credibility with the technical audience (for example, users) continues to be highly prioritized. Nonetheless, staying at the ‘weed’ level completely loses any connection with the broader audience. As for examples, there are two that are regularly successful:

I. Use of examples and analogies where we can highlight some of the high-level complexities or solutions to everyday life – for example, contrasting the design of a semiconductor chip to designing/building NYC, and where every six months, one would need to build another version of NYC in half the space, making sure everyone/everything moves at double the speed and consumes less electricity.

II. Use of aspiration of statements where the value/mission of the technology/company is represented in how it impacts everyday life (not the engineer’s life). For example, “Synopsys technology is used in virtually every advanced semiconductor chip, ultimately enabling mobile connectivity, medical advancements, etc.”

How does Synopsys support skills training and up-skilling for interns and entry-level employees? Are there any specific programs or resources available to help them develop their skills?

Synopsys is a $5B+ company with more than 20,000 employees worldwide.  Nearly half of the employees have been onboarded in about the last three years.  Synopsys actively attracts and works to retain emerging professionals through several programs, including global internship programs and a robust university program that works with universities across the globe.  In the marketing teams at Synopsys, we have leveraged both of these programs and continually engaged with interns. We have seen valuable input and perspective from emerging talent around the world.  

In addition, Synopsys has a full department organized and dedicated to training, providing resources, and growing the skills of its employees, both new and long-term employees.  As part of this program, the marketing teams at Synopsys have been successful in bringing in emerging talent, including interns, and growing as well as promoting them over their careers at Synopsys.

How have you observed generative AI influencing how marketing is conducted, and what opportunities or challenges does it present in content creation and customer Engagement?

The field of generative AI is nascent and rapidly growing. Most of the applications today are for high-fluency/mid-accuracy tasks. As such, companies have begun their application (though still early) in software development and testing, web development, telesales script development, and training videos (regenerative avatars/faces/voices who read a narrative).

In marketing, especially high-tech marketing, content is still king and continues to be expensive. As much as we wish to leverage generative AI for product marketing or corporate content and hence lower the content development cost, the fact that the produced results are still low in accuracy makes it a non-starter, as second-rate content negatively impacts the product's credibility and company reputation.

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