Milind Khandare has spent the past decade turning complex technologies into customer success stories. After shaping financial products at Intuit and driving growth at SoFi, he's now helping Ontra, the AI-powered contract automation platform trusted by Blackstone and KKR, reimagine how marketing and AI work together to move an industry forward.
You joined Ontra in a "post-ChatGPT world." How has AI changed your marketing approach?
Every workflow, from customer research to lead enrichment, can now be done faster, better, or at greater scale. AI hasn't just changed our output; it's changed our mindset. It's become an amplifier for both creativity and efficiency.
We now use AI to test campaign variations, analyze feedback instantly, and identify winning narratives in real time. The biggest difference is speed to insight. What once took weeks now takes days.
What's been the most transformative use case so far?
Plugging AI into our content optimization process was a turning point. Take a ten-page white paper: we can now transform it into a crisp LinkedIn carousel, a short blog, or a 60-second video within minutes. Tools like Jasper, Gemini, and Descript make this possible.
But AI isn't a substitute for creativity. I tell my team often: for now, use it to refine, not to imagine. You can tell when something was written entirely by a model. It lacks emotion, that human fingerprint.
How do you make sure the human voice doesn't get lost in that process?
Guardrails. Just like with agencies, we've set strict brand guidelines, tone standards, and review systems. We have built a "pattern library" of what bad AI content looks like: too many dashes, generic intros, inflated adjectives. AI learns from feedback, but it's humans who curate.
Your marketing stack is one of the most sophisticated in B2B SaaS. What's powering it?
It's a hybrid of automation and creativity. We use Salesforce for CRM, Marketo for email, SEMRush for SEO, Peec for GEO, Goldcast for events, Storylane for interactive demos, and Gong for customer intelligence. Sigma handles analytics, and WordPress powers our website.
We've recently added Clay for prospecting and Outreach for intelligent engagement. Storylane, in particular, has been a game-changer. It lets us build beautiful, interactive demos fast.
How has AI changed the relationship between marketing and sales?
It connected the dots. With tools like Gong, we can understand customer conversations in real time, while Outreach helps sales deliver the right content at the right moment. It's a feedback loop. Marketing learns what resonates. Sales sharpens its pitch. Everyone moves faster.
You've worked across fintech and AI. What do successful go-to-market strategies have in common?
Speed and trust. When we built QuickBooks Capital, the hardest part wasn't acquiring users. It was convincing them to trust an algorithm with lending decisions.
QuickBooks' success, in my view, comes from three things: investing in the brand, listening to customer feedback, and offering a holistic suite of services that reduces friction for the customer.
The same principle guides my approach to marketing AI solutions today: transparency isn't optional. It's what earns trust and drives adoption.
At Ontra, that means showing how our models handle privacy. Buyers want to know: Does this train on my data? How is it secured? The answers have to be clear and consistent.
Any bold predictions for 2026?
Every marketing team will have an AI evangelist, either in a formal or informal role, exploring ways to embed AI into key workflows. Not as a novelty but as a way to unleash efficiency, move faster, and reduce repetitive work. Sometimes this role will be played by the head of marketing. The real differentiator will be how well teams embrace this and adapt it for their bespoke needs.
Ironically, that shift will make human skills such as storytelling, empathy, and taste even more valuable.
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