Can AI Really Manage Your Entire Renewal Book? ft. Grant Clarke (Gainsight))

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The future of customer renewals is here. And it's AI-native. Josh Schachter sits down with Grant Clarke, EVP & GM of Gainsight Atlas, to explore how AI agents combined with human renewal managers are transforming the renewal landscape. Grant, a 15-year veteran of renewal operations at ServiceSource, explains how Atlas manages entire renewal books through an outcome-based model—not software licensing. Discover why deploying AI agents in renewals is harder than it looks, how Gainsight is pioneering a new category called AI Native Services (AINS), and why the long tail of customers just became manageable. Plus: the surprising story behind Grant's 15 beehives outside Nashville.

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What You'll Learn

- How AI agents are transforming customer renewals at scale

- Why deploying AI agents in renewals is fundamentally hard

- The margin economics that make productizing AI agents profitable

- Why the long tail of customers is now economically viable to serve

- How combining AI + human renewal managers creates better customer outcomes

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Timestamps

0:00 - Preview & Meet Grant Clarke

2:00 - What is Atlas?

4:50 - Grant's Background: ServiceSource & Dropbox

11:05 - How Atlas onboards a new customer

13:04 - Data hygiene: "The D word"

14:21 - The ideal customer profile for Atlas

16:20 A day in the life: the Atlas cockpit

17:55 - When the agent hands off to a human

19:05 - The learning loop: forward deployed engineers & 2-week sprints

20:10 - The business model: avoiding the pure-services trap

22:04 - Mirage PMF: go fast, go slow, go fast again

23:35 - What's next for Atlas: Agentic judgment and renewal edge cases

26:40 - Can AINS hit 70% gross margins?

26:35 The renewal action inventory: 10–25 actions per renewal

28:38 From 20% to 55% agent-led actions: margin accretion

29:43 Grant's 15 beehives outside Nashville

32:39 Wrap-up

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Josh is writing a book on building customer relationships. Follow his journey and insights at www.joshschachter.com

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Where to Find the Guest

Grant Clarke: https://www.linkedin.com/in/grantclarke/

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Where to Find the Hosts:

Josh's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jschachter/

Unchurned Substack: https://unchurned.substack.com/