In the latest episode of our Podcast, I sat down with our HubSpot CRM Specialist, Steven Marshall, live from UNBOUND 2026 in Boston. HubSpot’s flagship conference, known for fifteen years as INBOUND, took place from 16 to 18 September under its new name.
We recorded at Unbound, after Steven had spent time in sessions and speaking with technical partners at HubSpot and other companies building agent solutions. Our conversation covered agents, credits and how HubSpot workflows are changing, but the main point was simple: before you build anything, give AI the context it needs about your business, then start small and experiment.
You can listen to the full episode below, or read on for the highlights:
Steven's biggest takeaway was the scale of the shift. Across all technology, not just HubSpot, the conversation has moved to agents, tokens and credits, and how work actually gets done and paid for.
"We're now in the agentic era. It sounds scary, but the more you look into it, there is a massive opportunity."
The message that stood out most for him was that we are all builders now. Many people hold back because they think they need technical knowledge or previous experience. Steven's view is that the barrier has gone. If a tool explains something in a way that doesn't make sense, you ask it to explain it differently, and keep going until it clicks.
"Everyone is now a builder. Everyone can use these tools and feel confident that they're able to experiment."
The point isn't replacement. It's efficiency: finding sales opportunities faster, cleaning up data that used to take far longer, and freeing people up to focus on the business outcome.
For me, this is where it gets exciting. Workflows have always been one of HubSpot's most useful features. Something happens, and HubSpot sends an email, changes a property or kicks off an automation. Now those workflows can trigger actions outside HubSpot too. That means less reliance on third-party connectors, more happening in one place, and a huge jump in how quickly we can build.
Steven explained what's changed underneath. Workflows used to be bound by contact records, associations and specific property values. Anything more flexible meant a custom coded action, which needs Data Hub Professional, and most users don't have it.
AI opens that up. Instead of waiting for a property to equal a specific value, an agent can draw on information from across the portal and build automation around context: marketing activity, what's happening in the background, and who is coming into the sales pipeline.
I'd think of the old workflow as a row of dominoes, each one placed in advance. The new version is closer to a colleague who can read the room and decide what needs doing next.
So I asked the practical question. If you run a business of 20 or 30 people, where do you start?
Steven's answer wasn't a workflow at all.
"Before you actually start building your workflows and looking at your AI agents, context is king."
HubSpot now has an area for business context: who you are, your ICPs, who works internally and in which roles, what you sell and your product details. Once that's in place, you can build workflows and question Breeze on a solid foundation.
It's a bit like onboarding a new hire. You wouldn't expect good work from someone on day one without telling them what the business does and who the customers are. AI is no different.
With your context added, Steven recommends starting here:
"Start with your data, start with your context. It's gotten so powerful that you can actually use it as a business partner."
My advice is similar: if you don't know where to begin, ask. What should I do next? Where is my priority, based on what you know about me?
At one of the lab sessions, we were asked to build an agent on the spot. I built one that created a PDF from an event list with specific data points. Five minutes, and it used 19 credits. Before, I'd have downloaded the list, cleaned it up and formatted it myself.
Steven suggests starting with HubSpot's pre-built agents, such as closed lost reasons, to test the waters, then building your own.
"Start small, experiment, test, because what you're going to find is you're going to be able to achieve a lot more than you ever imagined."
We're learning alongside everyone else, and we know business is getting tougher, with more and more processes to manage. As Steven put it, building tools and integrations is our bread and butter.
Our team combines technical backgrounds with real marketing and sales leadership experience, so we can have a proper consultative conversation about where you go next and where the efficiencies are hiding.
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