From Skeptic to Believer: How Ververica Made DOJO AI Our Best Investment of 2025
Jan 14, 2026
Alex Walden
The Reality Check: Garbage In, Garbage Out
When we first started with DOJO, I'll admit - expectations were measured. Another AI tool promising to "revolutionize" marketing. We've all heard that before.
The first attempts were eye-opening, but not in the way you'd expect. We learned quickly that DOJO isn't magic. If you feed it weak content, you'll get weak output. That's just how it works.
But here's where it got interesting: when we put in a solid foundational piece - a well-structured brief, clear positioning, quality reference material - DOJO's output was miles ahead of anything else we'd tried. Not just good. Actually usable. Often excellent.
The difference wasn't just the tool. It was our understanding that AI amplifies what you give it.
SEO and GEO: Powerful, But Don't Outsource Your Brain
The SEO and GEO features are genuinely fantastic. They surface insights we'd otherwise spend hours digging for. Keyword opportunities, content gaps, competitive intelligence - all there.
But here's my advice: don't just accept everything at face value. Have an opinion. Push back. Challenge the recommendations. The "test this" prompt after a long session is just gold.
We found that DOJO works best when we come with a strategy we want to execute, not expecting it to hand us one. The more clarity we have about what we're trying to achieve - who we're targeting, what differentiates us, which battles we're choosing to fight - the more reliable and useful DOJO becomes.
Here's something I didn't expect: the chats with DOJO became almost psychotherapeutic (in a funny way). I've always been the person who avoids writing strategic documents and OKR frameworks at all costs. Too abstract. Too time-consuming. Too easy to procrastinate on.
But working through those pieces with DOJO changed that. The back-and-forth helped me clarify my thinking, structure arguments I'd been carrying around in my head, and actually finish documents I'd have otherwise put off indefinitely. It's not that DOJO wrote them for me - it's that the process of articulating what I wanted made me better at the work itself.
It's a tool that makes smart teams smarter. It won't make directionless teams suddenly strategic.
The Three-Stage Journey (We All Took It)
Watching our team adopt DOJO was predictable in the best way:
Stage 1: "Ahh, another AI tool."
Skepticism. Eye rolls. "We already have ChatGPT."
Stage 2: "This is actually kind of cool."
Someone produces a draft in 10 minutes that would've taken two hours. Others notice.
Stage 3: "How did we do this before?"
It's now part of the daily workflow. Not for everything, but for the things it's genuinely better at.
The learning curve? Practically flat. People picked it up fast because it fits into how we already work.
Not About Layoffs. About Mindset.
I'm not going to claim you can fire your marketing team because you have AI. That's nonsense, and anyone telling you that doesn't understand what good marketing actually requires.
What DOJO does is give us time back. But here's the thing - your sales and marketing staff need the right mindset going forward.
If someone on your team isn't embracing tools like DOJO, Claude, or Gemini, they have the wrong mindset. This isn't about like-for-like replacements. It's about making your work better. Faster iterations. Higher quality output. More time for strategy and creativity, rather than mechanical execution.
Instead of staring at a blank page for three hours trying to find the perfect opening for a blog post, we let DOJO draft it for us. Then we review, refine, inject our voice, and ship.
Instead of manually researching every competitor's positioning, we get a structured analysis in minutes.
Instead of rewriting the same social post five times, we get variations instantly.
Same team. More output. Better quality. Less burnout. But only if your team is willing to adapt.
How It Changed Us
For Ververica, DOJO has become critical infrastructure for sales and marketing.
It's changed how we approach social media - we're more consistent, more strategic, and frankly, more creative because we're not bogged down in execution grunt work.
It's about to change how we publish content on our website. We're planning a comprehensive overhaul of our content production process, and DOJO is the engine that makes it possible.
The monthly cost? It's the best investment we made in 2025. Not because it's cheap (though it's reasonable), but because the return - in time saved, quality improved, and team morale - is undeniable.
Looking Forward: The Enterprise Gap
Don't get me wrong - DOJO is excellent as it stands. But we're hungry for what's next.
Enterprise features, such as SSO and SCIM, would facilitate smoother adoption across larger teams. Connectors to our existing tools would reduce friction. And while copy-paste works fine for now, being able to export files directly would be huge. Sometimes you need to escape the sandbox.
I understand these features are being worked on, and once they're there, DOJO will enter another level for us. The foundation is rock solid. Now it's about scaling it for enterprise workflows.
What I'd Tell Someone Considering DOJO
Three things:
Be ready to meet it halfway. If your content strategy is a mess, DOJO won't fix that. Get your positioning clear, know your audience, and have a point of view. Then DOJO will multiply your effectiveness.
Don't treat it like a black box. Utilize the SEO and GEO features, while maintaining your own strategic perspective. Challenge it. Customize it. Make it yours.
Make sure your team has the right mindset. If someone isn't willing to incorporate AI tools into their workflow, they will fall behind. This is about augmentation, not replacement.
We didn't expect DOJO to become as essential as it has. But here we are, six months in, and I can't imagine going back.
If you're serious about scaling your marketing without scaling your headcount proportionally, and you're willing to put in good work to achieve great results, DOJO is worth a hard look.
About Ververica
Ververica is a leading provider of data streaming and real-time analytics solutions.
About DOJO AI
DOJO AI is an AI Marketing Operating System built for challenger brands and high-growth companies that need enterprise-grade marketing capabilities without enterprise complexity. Start your free trial to see how AI agents can transform your marketing strategy and execution.
The Reality Check: Garbage In, Garbage Out
When we first started with DOJO, I'll admit - expectations were measured. Another AI tool promising to "revolutionize" marketing. We've all heard that before.
The first attempts were eye-opening, but not in the way you'd expect. We learned quickly that DOJO isn't magic. If you feed it weak content, you'll get weak output. That's just how it works.
But here's where it got interesting: when we put in a solid foundational piece - a well-structured brief, clear positioning, quality reference material - DOJO's output was miles ahead of anything else we'd tried. Not just good. Actually usable. Often excellent.
The difference wasn't just the tool. It was our understanding that AI amplifies what you give it.
SEO and GEO: Powerful, But Don't Outsource Your Brain
The SEO and GEO features are genuinely fantastic. They surface insights we'd otherwise spend hours digging for. Keyword opportunities, content gaps, competitive intelligence - all there.
But here's my advice: don't just accept everything at face value. Have an opinion. Push back. Challenge the recommendations. The "test this" prompt after a long session is just gold.
We found that DOJO works best when we come with a strategy we want to execute, not expecting it to hand us one. The more clarity we have about what we're trying to achieve - who we're targeting, what differentiates us, which battles we're choosing to fight - the more reliable and useful DOJO becomes.
Here's something I didn't expect: the chats with DOJO became almost psychotherapeutic (in a funny way). I've always been the person who avoids writing strategic documents and OKR frameworks at all costs. Too abstract. Too time-consuming. Too easy to procrastinate on.
But working through those pieces with DOJO changed that. The back-and-forth helped me clarify my thinking, structure arguments I'd been carrying around in my head, and actually finish documents I'd have otherwise put off indefinitely. It's not that DOJO wrote them for me - it's that the process of articulating what I wanted made me better at the work itself.
It's a tool that makes smart teams smarter. It won't make directionless teams suddenly strategic.
The Three-Stage Journey (We All Took It)
Watching our team adopt DOJO was predictable in the best way:
Stage 1: "Ahh, another AI tool."
Skepticism. Eye rolls. "We already have ChatGPT."
Stage 2: "This is actually kind of cool."
Someone produces a draft in 10 minutes that would've taken two hours. Others notice.
Stage 3: "How did we do this before?"
It's now part of the daily workflow. Not for everything, but for the things it's genuinely better at.
The learning curve? Practically flat. People picked it up fast because it fits into how we already work.
Not About Layoffs. About Mindset.
I'm not going to claim you can fire your marketing team because you have AI. That's nonsense, and anyone telling you that doesn't understand what good marketing actually requires.
What DOJO does is give us time back. But here's the thing - your sales and marketing staff need the right mindset going forward.
If someone on your team isn't embracing tools like DOJO, Claude, or Gemini, they have the wrong mindset. This isn't about like-for-like replacements. It's about making your work better. Faster iterations. Higher quality output. More time for strategy and creativity, rather than mechanical execution.
Instead of staring at a blank page for three hours trying to find the perfect opening for a blog post, we let DOJO draft it for us. Then we review, refine, inject our voice, and ship.
Instead of manually researching every competitor's positioning, we get a structured analysis in minutes.
Instead of rewriting the same social post five times, we get variations instantly.
Same team. More output. Better quality. Less burnout. But only if your team is willing to adapt.
How It Changed Us
For Ververica, DOJO has become critical infrastructure for sales and marketing.
It's changed how we approach social media - we're more consistent, more strategic, and frankly, more creative because we're not bogged down in execution grunt work.
It's about to change how we publish content on our website. We're planning a comprehensive overhaul of our content production process, and DOJO is the engine that makes it possible.
The monthly cost? It's the best investment we made in 2025. Not because it's cheap (though it's reasonable), but because the return - in time saved, quality improved, and team morale - is undeniable.
Looking Forward: The Enterprise Gap
Don't get me wrong - DOJO is excellent as it stands. But we're hungry for what's next.
Enterprise features, such as SSO and SCIM, would facilitate smoother adoption across larger teams. Connectors to our existing tools would reduce friction. And while copy-paste works fine for now, being able to export files directly would be huge. Sometimes you need to escape the sandbox.
I understand these features are being worked on, and once they're there, DOJO will enter another level for us. The foundation is rock solid. Now it's about scaling it for enterprise workflows.
What I'd Tell Someone Considering DOJO
Three things:
Be ready to meet it halfway. If your content strategy is a mess, DOJO won't fix that. Get your positioning clear, know your audience, and have a point of view. Then DOJO will multiply your effectiveness.
Don't treat it like a black box. Utilize the SEO and GEO features, while maintaining your own strategic perspective. Challenge it. Customize it. Make it yours.
Make sure your team has the right mindset. If someone isn't willing to incorporate AI tools into their workflow, they will fall behind. This is about augmentation, not replacement.
We didn't expect DOJO to become as essential as it has. But here we are, six months in, and I can't imagine going back.
If you're serious about scaling your marketing without scaling your headcount proportionally, and you're willing to put in good work to achieve great results, DOJO is worth a hard look.
About Ververica
Ververica is a leading provider of data streaming and real-time analytics solutions.
About DOJO AI
DOJO AI is an AI Marketing Operating System built for challenger brands and high-growth companies that need enterprise-grade marketing capabilities without enterprise complexity. Start your free trial to see how AI agents can transform your marketing strategy and execution.