OpenAI Hires Colin Fleming as Business Chief Marketing Officer

OpenAI announced the appointment of Colin Fleming as chief marketing officer for its business division. Fleming joins after two years as CMO at ServiceNow and more than ten years at Salesforce, where he reached the position of executive vice president of global marketing.

Fleming built campaigns at both companies that emphasized narrative storytelling over standard lead-generation content. He stated that AI tools allow teams to produce average work more quickly, requiring higher standards of clarity, taste, specificity, and discipline.

OpenAI has stated that 2026 is its pivotal year for enterprise priorities. The company has shifted focus from model training to application and product use cases in areas such as customer service, IT, and operations.

At ServiceNow, Fleming oversaw a Wall Street Journal advertising campaign that used satire to address governance questions around AI agents. The full-page ad, written as a memo from agents to humans, argued that enterprises must explain, audit, and own decisions made by such systems.

Fleming said the campaign aimed to make governance risks feel concrete rather than abstract. He added that trust must be part of the main narrative, not placed in an appendix.

Fleming described his task as turning existing brand awareness into customer confidence and documented proof of value. He said marketing must become AI-native, with faster learning cycles and messaging tailored to specific audiences. OpenAI has already begun offering independent distribution channels, custom enterprise-grade models, and agents that integrate with existing systems.

Fleming indicated that future campaigns will connect these offerings to specific workflows, security reviews, and measurable business outcomes.