#97 AI-First RevOps: Achieving Autonomous Operations – with Tessa Whittaker, VP RevOps at ZoomInfo

Tessa Whittaker, VP of Revenue Operations at ZoomInfo, joins Janis Zech to discuss the critical challenge of shifting to an AI-First mindset within the RevOps function. Many leaders feel pressure due to the AI hype, but how do you ensure your teams implement the technology effectively? Tessa shares her proprietary RevOps Maturity Scale, a framework that identifies the operational foundation (systematization and process discipline) required before AI can be successfully deployed to boost upstream RevOps team efficiency.

She reveals how her team at ZoomInfo—a multi-billion-dollar valuation company with over a billion in ARR—transformed their roadmap prioritization and requirements gathering process using AI agents. This strategy helps them eliminate "human behavior" and resource fights, leading to maximum execution speed.

We discuss:

• Why manual processes and poor data are the biggest roadblocks to successful AI implementation (Garbage In, Garbage Out).

• Tessa's RevOps Maturity Scale (0 to 5), and why AI-Augmented Workflows only begin at Step 3.

• How to build Operational Excellence as the foundation for AI (Ad Hoc → Manual but Defined → Systematized Rigor → Agentic Assistance).

• The RevOps team structure at ZoomInfo: How Sales Operations, Business Process (Product Managers), and Revenue Technology collaborate.

• The transformation of the RevOps Roadmap process: Moving from firefighting to data-driven stack ranking of strategic initiatives.

• The use of an AI Agent for Requirements Gathering and generating Prioritization Scores to end subjective resource battles with stakeholders.

• How to coach Internal Stakeholders to bring problems instead of prescribed solutions, and how AI facilitates this shift.

• Tessa’s Hackathon strategy to mandate an AI-First mindset across the RevOps team and build internal efficiency agents.

Mallory Lee on LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/tessa-whittaker-44903940/

Weflow: ⁠getweflow.com⁠

RevOps Chat Community: ⁠getweflow.com/community⁠

RevOps resources: ⁠getweflow.com/revops⁠

Janis on LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/janiszech⁠

Philipp on LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/philippstelzer

Chapters:

(00:00:00) Introduction and Welcoming Tessa

(00:01:52) Tessa's Career Path: From Executive Assistant to VP of RevOps

(00:03:16) The RevOps Team Structure at ZoomInfo (Sales Ops, Business Process, RevTech)

(00:06:19) Introducing the RevOps AI Maturity Scale

(00:08:43) Steps 0 through 5: From Ad Hoc to Autonomous Operations

(00:10:45) The necessity of Operational Excellence as an AI prerequisite

(00:16:03) The RevOps reality before systematization (Chaos and Firefighting)

(00:21:44) Building Systematized Rigor: Central intake, JIRA, and capacity measurement

(00:26:40) Dealing with noise and Fire Drills: How centralized stack ranking eliminates resource fights

(00:35:17) The AI-First Leap: Transforming the RevOps Roadmap process with AI

(00:37:50) The AI Agent for Requirements Gathering: Eliminating time-consuming meetings

(00:40:24) How the AI agent calculates Prioritization Scores for dynamic sprint planning

(00:43:39) Additional AI Use Cases: Process documentation, slide generation, and monitoring

(00:44:40) The Hackathon Strategy to instill an AI-First mindset in the team

(00:46:10) Community Recommendations: The value of a tight-knit expert network