The Hidden Value in Redundant AI Efforts (Deltek)

15 July 2026 | EPISODE 199 | 37 MIN | Claude Code Cut Dev Cycles 60% Then Forced an Org Redesign

[Un]Churned

Jul 16, 2026

Deltek’s post-sale org covers 1,100 people across implementation, Customer Success, and support. This year, all three teams independently built many of the same AI tools without knowing it.

Margo Martin, Chief Customer Officer at Deltek, and Jason Goldsmith, VP of Customer Strategy and Services, joined host Josh Schachter for the [Un]Churned episode, “199. Claude Code Cut Dev Cycles 60% Then Forced an Org Redesign.” They discussed what it takes to rebuild the customer journey, make build-vs-buy decisions, and what the duplication across three siloed orgs revealed about their structure.

Listen on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Gainsight.com.

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🎯 The [Un]Churned Take: AI Isn’t Creating Chaos. Your Org Structure Is.

When Margo Martin, Chief Customer Officer at Deltek, reviewed what her three post-sales teams had built with AI this year, she noticed directors were making tools that others had already created. Managers were starting similar projects at the same time, and there was no shared list of these efforts across implementation, Customer Success (CS), and support.

This repeated work was actually a good sign. Teams were using AI and turning their ideas into real workflows. What they lacked was a way to connect with each other, encourage collaboration, and build on each other’s progress.

Duplication as a Signal, Not a Flaw

It’s easy to view this kind of overlap as a management problem that can be solved by adding more coordination, such as steering committees, more meetings, or working groups. But when teams independently come up with the same AI projects, it points to a deeper issue. The structure itself is causing problems.

What Margo discovers is a valuable lesson. There were clear improvements being made from her team’s AI innovation. Claude Code reduced custom integration times by 50 to 60 percent. Customer documentation was completed 80 percent faster. Post-sales directors were told to focus on AI and did exactly that, but they didn’t know what the others were working on. Instead of waiting for new instructions, they moved forward even without a shared plan.

The real question for your organization isn’t why teams aren’t working together better. It’s whether your structure gives them a reason to work together at all. When new tools make one team much more efficient, the reason for keeping teams separate becomes less clear. The people doing the work often notice this before leadership does.

Seeing Opportunity in Team Initiative

Margo created a new executive role, filled by Jason Goldsmith, VP of Customer Strategy and Services at Deltek, to focus on bringing teams together without giving any one team full control. She expected some resistance. Instead, people at different levels volunteered before anyone even asked. They had already seen the benefits, and openly admitting that teams were coming together made them feel free to stop working around the old system.

“We got incredible feedback... a lot of people raised their hands and said, I’d be interested in maybe being on that team at some point. I thought people would be like, ‘stay out of my org.’”
— Margo Martin

If you can’t create a new executive role, the same lesson still applies. Are your people already finding workarounds to do their jobs well? If so, your current structure probably isn’t meeting their needs.

Don’t Trade Connection for Speed

Even as AI increases efficiency, customer retention still needs to be the north star. Jason’s main goal in his new role isn’t just speed; it’s making sure customers renew. That might sound simple, but automation can remove important parts of the relationship. The steps that AI speeds up, like weeks of close contact during integration or the support history that helped a rep really get to know a customer, weren’t just inefficient. Some of those steps helped build real connections.

“We could develop something that is a touchless implementation that doesn’t actually give the customer what they want or provide them a great experience, and then they’re immediately a churn risk at their next renewal.”
— Jason Goldsmith

You can use the same logic here as you would with org structure. If your CSMs are finding reasons to stay involved longer than the process requires, or your customers are going quiet after a faster-than-ever onboarding, those aren’t edge cases to manage. They’re the structure telling you something it doesn’t have language for yet.

The Big Picture

Smart teams will always find ways to adapt when the structure no longer fits. Instead of treating overlap or unusual team behavior as problems to fix, pay attention to what they reveal about how your organization really works. Use these signals as an opportunity to rethink your structure, so you can unlock even more value for your teams and your customers.

🎧 Listen for These Moments

Margo and Jason are two weeks into a structural bet that most CS orgs are still debating whether to make. Listen for these moments in the full episode:

The initiative inventory Jason built in his first weeks on the job: 65 to 100 active AI initiatives spread across three orgs, none of them visible to each other, and what surfaced when he finally put them all in one place.
The build-vs-buy moment where Deltek built something solid and bought it anyway, and the real reason the math worked out that way.
How both Margo and Jason have built personal AI chiefs of staff. What Margo’s caught her forgetting, and why she says it’s less about summarizing meetings and more about surviving the tyranny of the day.

🔎 Where to Find the Speakers

Margo Martin — LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/margomartin-/
Jason Goldsmith — LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jwgoldsmith/
Josh Schachter — LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jschachter/

📎 Referenced in This Episode

Deltek — the ERP software provider for government contractors and professional services firms where Margo and Jason lead post-sale
Claude Code — the agentic coding tool Deltek’s services team used to compress custom integration timelines