At SaaStr AI Annual 2026, Amelia Lerutte, SaaStr’s Chief AI Officer, demonstrated building a new AI VP of Marketing live on stage in about 15 minutes. This followed five months of development on 10K, SaaStr’s AI marketing agent, which has been used nearly a million times. The event showcased how to create a focused AI agent to automate marketing tasks effectively.
The process began in January 2026 when Lerutte automated a simple dashboard to avoid manual copy-pasting of marketing and sales data into Notion. Over five months, 10K evolved to own key marketing metrics, build campaigns, write email copy from real data, and send reminders. At the event, attendees built their own AI marketing agent simultaneously, following a ten-step playbook that includes defining a single goal per agent and establishing workflows and guardrails to prevent errors.
This approach highlights the importance of focused AI agents, each dedicated to one goal with a single brain, rather than combining multiple functions. SaaStr now operates nearly 30 such agents across different functions, including customer success and event management. The method contrasts with complex, multi-purpose AI systems by emphasizing simplicity and specialization, which improves reliability and output quality in SaaS marketing automation.
SaaStr’s AI VP of Marketing, 10K, exemplifies the practical application of AI agents in SaaS, having been used almost one million times. The full playbook and demonstration from SaaStr AI 2026 are available on saastr.com, providing a detailed guide for companies aiming to build similar AI-driven marketing solutions.