
The Scarcity of Being Human: Catherine Blackmore, Oracle's Group VP of Customer Programs and Employee Success on CS in the Age of Agents
From The Thread Podcast by Justin Vandehey
June 12, 2026 · 38 min · Season 1 · Episode 152
About this episode
Catherine Blackmore discusses the evolution of customer success and its relevance in the age of AI.
Catherine Blackmore has spent nearly two decades building the programs that wrap around technology, from the early days of customer success in 2007 to her current role as Group VP of Customer Programs and Employee Success at Oracle. In this episode she sits down with Justin to unpack what the discipline got right, what it got wrong, and what survives the shift to AI. Catherine makes the case that the high touch model was right all along. It buys a company time to build its moat. But the obses...
People in this episode
Host: Justin Vandehey
Guest: Catherine Blackmore
Topics covered
- customer success
- AI
- employee success
- technology
- business strategy
Keywords
- customer success
- AI
- employee success
- Oracle
- business strategy
- high touch model
- technology
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Oracle
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