• AI allows marketers to repurpose single live events into extensive libraries of targeted content, significantly extending the lifespan and reach of event messaging.
• By connecting event engagement data with multi-channel ABM campaigns, B2B marketers can turn trade shows into measurable drivers of pipeline creation and revenue.

Personalized and Efficient. That is the needle B2B marketers look to thread in the age of artificial intelligence (AI). AI has become a strategic initiative for those hosting both in-person and digital event as interactive event technologies are drivers to marketers who attend and participate as trade shows are a $15 billion market where 52% of business leaders say is their highest-ROI marketing channel.

This is happening as our 2026 B2B Trends Research Report found 89% of marketers report that evolving buyer behaviors and preferences are a top challenge, forcing a departure from traditional engagement models. Buyers now expect highly personalized, seamless, and digitally-native experiences. This shift requires marketers to invest in deeper data analysis and more sophisticated personalization tools to meet customers where they are. The days of one-size-fits-all campaigns are definitively over, replaced by a need for nuanced, account-specific strategies.

The value of face-to-face meetings compared with other business initiatives is remarkably strong— more than 70 percent say that events are either somewhat or significantly more valuable than other such initiatives, according to according to Northstar Meetings Group. Interactive event technologies is seen as a key to capitalizing on these meetings.

How AI Is Impacting Interactive Events

AI transforms conferences from passive learning experiences into personalized, highly efficient events for B2B marketers by utilizing predictive analytics for attendee targeting, generative AI for content creation, and AI concierges for real-time logistics.

“Events are shifting from one-time, isolated moments to integrated, always-on experiences within a broader go-to-market strategy,” said Keith Turco, Madison Logic CEO. “Marketers are under increased pressure to prove impact beyond attendance, which is driving a shift toward measurable pipeline contribution and buying group engagement.

“At the same time, there’s a growing recognition that a single attendee doesn’t represent a deal. The most successful event strategies are focused on engaging multiple stakeholders across the buying group before, during, and after the event.”

Detailing AI Use

Events a pivotal role in B2B growth strategies, with in-person and virtual gatherings, like hybrid roundtables and small-group meetings, gaining popularity. The events are being utilized to collect valuable first-party data, which is essential in today’s privacy-first marketing environment. American Express Global Business Travel’s 2026 Global Meetings and Events Forecast found AI is being used for event planning, attendee communications, during events, and for post-event evaluation. Top uses of AI include:

• Delivering AI-powered event apps (40%)
• Sponsor and attendee matchmaking (35%)
• Generating creative concepts and themes (34%)
• Content creation with tools like AI writing assistants (31%)
• Tracking attendee engagement (31%).

“AI will soon power much of what happens behind the curtain, acting as a critical assistant that helps event organizers reduce planning friction and enable more personalized face-to-face moments at scale,” said McNeel Keenan, vice president of product development at Cvent, told AMEX. “But even as technology advances, events will continue to be decidedly human. In fact, in an AI and tech-driven world, authentic connections will likely stand out even more.”

Current AI Uses at Conferences

The human touch was amplified by a Hilton survey that found 84 percent of attendees prefer in-person work events. While attendees seek authentic human connection, technology serves as a vital support system that enhances the overall experience. Today’s events deploy AI-driven tools that streamline logistics— from frictionless check-ins and personalized schedules to real-time communication via an events app.

Notably, 67 percent found AI helps personalize their experience by delivering tailored content recommendations, connecting them with like-minded professionals, and suggesting optimized networking opportunities. Two in three attendees report that AI-powered networking tools help them make meaningful connections more easily, while 65 percent express interest in AI assistants to help them prepare for meetings and navigate complex event agendas.

But beyond the content and personalization it provides, interactive event technologies impact the bottom line. Research from the Center for Exhibition Industry Research showed that interactive exhibits are 52% more likely attract attendees compared to traditional static displays. Booths incorporating gamified elements see 40% higher foot traffic with a three-minute interactive experience converts to lead capture at roughly 85%, compared to approximately 10% for a brief booth conversation.

How Does B2B Marketers Connect Event Engagement to Revenue?  

While event success previously was measured by surface-level metrics like registrations or attendance, AI enables a much deeper understanding of who engaged, how they engaged, and what that activity signals in terms of pipeline progression and deal readiness.

“With AI-powered insights, marketers can identify which accounts and buying group members are most likely to attend and convert, while also delivering more personalized engagement before and after the event,” said Turco.

Additionally, AI allows for automation to enable coordinated, behavior-driven outreach across channels without relying on manual follow-up— orchestrating a multi-channel ABM campaigns around events for example.

“Rather than relying on manual follow-up, marketers can trigger coordinated engagement across display, social, email, and content based on attendee behavior,” added Turco. “The result is a more connected view of ROI where events aren’t just a lead source, but a measurable driver of pipeline creation, acceleration, and revenue impact.”

Detailing Content Opportunities

AI integration is enhancing event experiences by automating insights from keynote speeches and repurposing them into content such as blogs and videos. At the same time, conversational AI and chatbots are revolutionizing customer engagement by addressing complex B2B queries.

The subject of his session at B2BMX 2026 and in their The 2026 Digital Engagement Benchmarks Report, On24’s Mark Bornstein VP, Marketing and Chief Evangelist detailed how marketing professionals consume content in shifting in a large way. Audiences are showing up in record numbers, but they demand personalization, interactivity, and always-on access. AI, automation, and content hubs are focused on buyers and delivering measurable ROI.

In 2025, the average webinar attracted 239 attendees, marking an 11% increase from the previous year with attendees stayed engaged for an average of 49 minutes. Total engagement per webinar jumped by 18%, generating over 400 unique interactions per session.

Repurposing Event Content

“You can capture this level of attention by integrating live polls, Q&A features, and downloadable resources directly into your event console,” said Bornstein. For example, the average webinar now sees 150 poll responses and 14 questions per session. These interactions provide valuable first-party data. as sales team can use these precise buying signals to tailor their follow-up and close deals faster.

Marketers are heavily adopting AI to repurpose their event content, having the ability to turn a single live event into a vast library of targeted assets, instantly transcribing webinars, summarizing key takeaways, and generating promotional clips.

The creation of all derivative content grew by 37% year over year— production of key moment video clips skyrocketed by 2.5X, while AI-generated blog posts and e-books increased by 2.4X, said Bornstein.

“AI and automation allow you to scale your output without sacrificing quality,” he said. “This automated workflow ensures your best ideas reach buyers across paid, earned, and owned media channels long after the live broadcast ends.”

How to Overcome the Challenges of Virtual Events

What started as a temporary workaround during the pandemic, hybrid and virtual event formats have evolved into a strategic advantage. These events give marketers the ability to scale reach, engage broader buying groups, and extend the lifespan of event content well beyond a single moment in time.

But, as Turco notes, the introduce new challenges— fragmented attention and the difficulty of sustaining meaningful engagement in digital environments. The event itself can no longer carry the full weight of engagement.

“That’s where a multi-channel ABM approach becomes essential,” he said. “Marketers can build awareness and drive registration through targeted pre-event campaigns, reinforce key messages during the event through complementary channels, and continue the conversation afterward by re-engaging both attendees and non-attendees with personalized follow-up.”

Another advantage is hybrid formats can unlock new opportunities to engage buying groups more holistically. Different stakeholders can interact in different ways with some attending in person, others virtually, and others through post-event content. “When orchestrated effectively, this expands internal alignment within target accounts and increases the likelihood of moving deals forward,” said Turco.

Why Personalization is a Priority

B2B marketers are consistently on the search to make their content more personalized. According to On24 officials, webinars featuring personalized offers saw a 118% increase in clicks and organizations using personalization generated four times as many meeting bookings per webinar.

To maximize ROI, Bornstein urged organization to implement interactive tools that capture first-party data during every live session. That data then can be fed into their MarTech to deliver hyper-relevant content hubs.

“Stop treating your webinars as isolated activities,” said Bornstein. “Start viewing them as the foundation of an intelligent, always-on campaign.”

The Data-ABM Connection That Conferences Provide

To achieve results, data needs to be treated as the foundation of modern event strategy. The most effective marketers are using data not just to report on events, but to design them by shaping everything from who gets invited to how each interaction is experienced.

“By leveraging account-level and buying group insights, marketers can prioritize the right accounts, tailor messaging to specific roles within the buying group, and personalize event experiences based on known interests and past engagement,” said Turco. “This ensures that every touchpoint feels relevant and intentional, rather than one-size-fits-all.”

Data becomes even more powerful when paired with a multi-channel ABM approach. For example, if only one stakeholder from a target account attends an event, that engagement doesn’t have to exist in isolation. Data can inform how to extend personalized follow-up to the rest of the buying group, effectively amplifying the impact of that single interaction across the account.

“Ultimately, data-driven decision-making enables marketers to move beyond generic event experiences and toward highly relevant, account-centric engagement strategies that drive stronger pipeline outcomes,” said Madison Logic’s CEO.

What is Working on Conference Floors

Walk on any trade show floor and you will see booths incorporating virtual reality games, motion simulators, and branded interactive installations that can be deployed at scale. Interactive booth games are the primary mechanism through which exhibitors capture prospect data. The average cost per lead at a trade show is $112, compared to $259 for a traditional field sales call.

This matters because 81% of trade show attendees arrive with buying authority. Two-thirds are entirely new prospects that exhibitors have not previously reached. When trade show booth games convert those attendees into registered leads at rates approaching 95% for the most engaging formats like racing simulators, the channel starts to look less like marketing and more like a sales pipeline with better conversion rates than most digital campaigns.

The results have encouraged a wider market to follow— 61% of exhibitors now prioritize personalization in their booth experiences, and 57% use digital business cards or QR codes to streamline contact exchange-both indicators that the trade show floor has moved decisively toward technology-driven engagement.

Driving Stronger Pipeline Outcomes

Turco stressed that first-party event data is one of the most valuable assets marketers have, but its true impact depends on how effectively it’s activated after the event. The most successful marketers treat event data not as a static output, but as a catalyst for ongoing engagement. Importantly, even limited engagement can be expanded into broader influence across the buying group.

“By mapping attendee behavior back to accounts and buying groups, marketers gain a more complete view of deal context and can tailor follow-up based on engagement levels, interests, and stage in the buyer journey,” said Turco. “This allows for more relevant, personalized outreach that continues the conversation rather than restarting it.”

Using those signals to guide outreach to additional decision-makers helps amplify the event’s impact within the account. Over time, these insights inform future strategies—. understanding which accounts engaged, what content resonated, and how buying groups interacted enables marketers to continuously refine their approach. Interactive event technologies tuns events into an ongoing source of intelligence that drives stronger pipeline outcomes.

The post Why AI is the Ultimate Tool for B2B Event Marketers appeared first on Demand Gen Report.

• Adobe introduces CX Enterprise, an AI-powered system to streamline customer lifecycle management.
• CX Enterprise integrates with leading AI platforms to deliver personalized, scalable customer experiences.

At the Adobe Summit last week, unveiled Adobe CX Enterprise, a new end-to-end agentic artificial intelligence (AI) system offered to simplify how businesses manage their entire customer lifecycle, from acquiring and engaging prospects to driving conversion and lasting loyalty.

Customer Experience Orchestration (CXO) is changing in the era of agentic AI as agents become critical resources that can help accelerate complex workflows, from on-brand content production to one-to-one personalization. With the introduction of CX Enterprise, Adobe is solving CXO with a new class of intelligent systems.

Grounded in decades of domain expertise in data, content and customer journeys, the CX Enterprise is an anchor for AI agents that are reliable, auditable and can understand context. CX Enterprise powers agents that can help scale impactful, personalized customer experiences so that interactions consistently reflect brand guidelines.

How Adobe is Enabling the Scaling of AI Agents

Anil Chakravarthy, President, Customer Experience Orchestration Business, Adobe, commented that CX Enterprise is powered by the new Adobe Brand Intelligence, a continuously learning reasoning engine that can capture evolving brand signals, and Adobe Engagement Intelligence, a decisioning engine optimized for customer lifetime value, to deliver personalization at scale.

“Adobe CX Enterprise enables businesses to scale agentic AI with a fully customizable solution that is tailored to the needs of their organization, moving teams beyond AI experiments to tangible business outcomes,” said Chakravarthy in a statement. “This end-to-end solution fits naturally into any environment, built to work alongside tools across leading AI platforms with seamless interoperability.”

A List of Adobe’s AI Partners

CX Enterprise is being offered with multiple access points and forward-deployed engineers that can tailor solutions to real workflows. A composable architecture that works with various technology stacks provides businesses flexibility and control, including extending agentic skills and workflows across Adobe and partner solutions from Amazon Web Services, Anthropic, Google Cloud, IBM, Microsoft, NVIDIA and OpenAI.

The new agents streamline time-intensive tasks and help businesses to meet customer retention and growth objectives. Powered by Adobe Experience Platform Agent Orchestrator— which enables teams to build, manage and coordinate agents across Adobe and third-party ecosystems— the agents are natively integrated into new and existing Adobe solutions across areas such as customer engagement, content supply chain and brand visibility.

By managing the quality of output and governance, the Adobe is extending these capabilities by bringing the agents into surfaces including Amazon Quick, Anthropic Claude Enterprise, ChatGPT Enterprise, Gemini Enterprise, IBM watsonx Orchestrate and Microsoft 365 Copilot.

A Look At CX Enterprise’s Key Benefits

Other offerings in CX Enterprise will include:

• Agent skills catalog: This set of agent skills make it easy for businesses to create custom workflows by packaging reusable instructions, such as reviewing performance metrics to drive content creation or journey orchestration workflows.
• Developer tools: CX Enterprise will provide access to Adobe’s agentic skills, MCP servers and the infrastructure needed to build customizable use cases. It will enable developers to incorporate  agentic capabilities directly into tools from Anthropic, Google Cloud, Microsoft, and OpenAI among others, with a composable platform that makes it straightforward to bring functionality directly into the tools used daily by marketing and creative teams.
• Adobe CX Enterprise Coworker: Businesses have the flexibility and control needed to bring AI agents into daily workflows with confidence, increasing levels of automation that will help teams drive business outcomes, while maintaining human oversight and control. The goal is to improve the capability, choice and automation that transforms how brands engage customers.

Anjul Bhambhri, SVP of engineering, Customer Experience Orchestration, Adobe, further detailed that the CX Enterprise Coworker is designed to execute tasks based on defined business goals, coordinating work across multiple agents by translating clear objectives into multi-step actions, said

“Coworker will be the next step for businesses that are retooling marketing workflows to help teams take advantage of agentic AI technology,” said Bhambhri. “By synthesizing intelligence from across Adobe applications, enterprise systems, and leading AI platforms, we are closing the gap between insight and action, enabling brands to deliver one-to-one personalized experience at scale.

“This is what it means to put the full power of agentic intelligence to work for marketing teams.”

The post Adobe Looks to Redefines Customer Experience with CX Enterprise appeared first on Demand Gen Report.

• The marketing technology market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 20.1% from 2026 to 2033, reaching $2.4 trillion.
• Social media tools and AI-powered solutions dominate the market, with North America leading in revenue share.

The global marketing technology market size is expected to reach $2.4 trillion over the next eight years, registering a CAGR of 20.1% from 2026 to 2033, according to a new report by Grand View Research.

The internet, mobile devices, social media, and customer relationship management programs are key for business growth and success,  transforming the B2B marketing landscape and the type of communications strategy businesses to conduct online research, connect with others, and conduct business.

As B2B digital marketing is central to modern marketing strategies, digital tools like tablets, smartphones, and personal computers are key. Game consoles and connected televisions are increasingly used to interact with stakeholders. The report found that North America held the largest share of the global marketing technology (MarTech) market in 2025, capturing over 33.8% of revenue.

Why Digital Marketing Maters

Due to its superior ability to target and track a variety of factors, including Return on Investment (ROI), more precisely than other conventional marketing channels, digital marketing is a key pillar for B2B marketers.

The most harmful factor in the shift of power from marketers to consumers has been the development of the internet, accoridng to the report. B2B buyers now have access to a vast amount of global data that is timeless, important, and verifiable thanks to the internet. Consumers may get useful information about businesses and their goods with just one click. This allows users to  look for lower costs, compare products, read reviews, and converse with other users regarding the caliber of the product and customer satisfaction.

Which is the Largest MarTech Market

Additionally, internet users are not just consuming content; they are producing it and sharing it with others,. With the rise of social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Reddit, TikTok and others, customers can access immediate feedback from friends and family on products, both good and poor. A blog post or video made by a disgruntled consumer these days can become viral in a matter of hours.

Among the key finding of the report includes:

• The social media tools segment dominated the MarTech market, accounting for a revenue share of 23.6% in 2025, driven by the accelerating importance of social platforms in digital marketing strategies.
• In 2025, digital marketing dominated the marketing technology market, capturing the largest revenue share. Businesses are increasingly investing in AI-powered tools, automation, and analytics to enhance campaign effectiveness.
• The healthcare segment accounted for the largest revenue share of the marketing technology industry in 2025, driven by the growing emphasis on patient-centric marketing and personalized engagement strategies.

Click here for the full Marketing Technology Market Report

The post Marketing Technology Market Projected to Reach nearly $2.4T By 2033 appeared first on Demand Gen Report.

• Iterable’s Nova Agent uses real-time AI to adapt campaigns, ensuring precise personalization at scale.
• The platform integrates tools like Google Ads sync and compliance features to enhance marketing effectiveness.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping how people discover, evaluate, and engage with brands, but most marketing teams are still operating with workflows built for a different era. The result is a widening gap between the experiences customers expect and what brands actually deliver.

To close that gap, Iterable, the AI customer engagement platform, announced an AI-powered agent that helps marketers keep every customer interaction relevant as programs scale.

Nova Agent evaluates behavior as it happens, determines what matters, and adjusts campaigns in real time, so every message reflects current intent. Instead of losing precision as complexity grows, teams can maintain deep personalization, drive stronger engagement, and turn performance into a more predictable growth engine.

How AI is Improving Personalization

As AI-driven feeds increasingly control what customers see, scale has become the enemy of relevance. What begins as highly personalized engagement quickly turns generic, pushing teams to create more campaigns just to keep up.

Nova Agent changes that dynamic, continuously adapting campaigns in real time so personalization stays precise, relevant, and effective as programs grow, according to company officials.

Real Time Solutions

Teams that can translate customer signals into action in real time will outperform those that cannot. With Nova Agent, Iterable offcials said they are  giving marketers a way to close the gap between what customers expect and what brands deliver, turning relevance into a system that drives consistent, measurable growth.

To support these results, the platform offers several key capabilities designed to scale relevant, deepen trust, and activate audiences across every channel.

• Iterable Command Center: Centralized view of campaigns, goals, and performance for faster optimization
• Nova Agent and AI capability suite:  Context-aware, goal-driven AI that automatically builds campaigns, audits messages, runs experiments and delivers deeply personalized engagement to drive relevance at scale
• Unknown User Activation: Identify and engage high-intent anonymous visitors before they convert
• Google Ads integration: Sync audiences in real time to reduce wasted spend and align paid and owned channels
• Compliance and governance tools: SMS Compliance Toolkit and stored message retention to protect deliverability and provide audit-ready records

Customer Testimonial

Customers are already seeing the impact of Nova Agent.

“What excites me most about Nova Agent is how it simplifies the path from data to action,” said Yvette Rojas, email marketing manager at Joybird, in a statement. “Having a unified AI engine to help with campaign setup and content optimization means we will be able to move much quicker, from testing a new strategy to fully optimizing our customer journeys.”

Teams interested in learning more can visit www.iterable.com.

The post Iterable Launches AI Agent to Scale Personalization appeared first on Demand Gen Report.

The problem is that too many marketing teams treat this data as something to review after the push is over. By delaying, they leave potential sales and new customers on the table.

Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM) highlight what’s at stake when teams fail to act on live data. It’s the biggest weekend of the year in retail, and more first-party data flows in during this one weekend than almost any other time of the year. Every customer touchpoint— click paths, email opens, QR scans, regional performance spikes and conversions— can be tracked across multiple channels by the minute.

The Importance of QR Codes

This data is so valuable because it reveals what shoppers are actually doing in the moment. It shows what messages make them click, what offers drive action, which channels are pulling the most attention and where friction is costing sales. It’s a live feedback loop that tells marketers what’s performing and why. When used in real-time, that information allows them to optimize while the buying window is still open.

The challenge is that much of that potential goes untapped, particularly when it comes to QR code scan data. According to Uniqode’s 2025 BCFM QR Code Marketing Report, one in four marketers failed to act on 2024 Black Friday scan data in time to improve their campaign performance on Cyber Monday. By contrast, marketers using QR codes were less likely to miss the optimization window (31% for non-users vs. 20% for users) and more likely to rate their BFCM campaigns as very effective (45% vs. 26%). The takeaway here is that activating first-party signals is more effective while a campaign is live instead of after it ends.

Capture Consumer Intent

QR code scans might seem like a simple action, but they capture real consumer intent in real time. Someone sees an offer, a product or a piece of content and chooses to engage. That behavior creates an immediate data signal that shows what’s working, where interest is highest and what might need attention. When a contact clicks on a specific offer in an email, marketers have automated follow-ups built in. The opportunity is treating a QR code scan in the same fashion— as a high-intent action that triggers immediate, relevant next steps.

Almost 60% of marketers said they used QR codes in their 2024 campaigns. Adoption has become mainstream as a way to connect physical and digital touchpoints across print ads, packaging, in-store displays and social media. Roughly 60% of shoppers now scan QR codes on a weekly basis, and nearly 75% of shoppers said they were likely to scan a QR code during BFCM in 2025. The reasons for scanning varied, with 41% seeking discounts or coupons, 13% for faster checkout and 12% for product information. More than half expected an immediate benefit, like a promotional offer or an easy path to purchase.

QR codes are a case study in what’s possible when real-time, first-party data is treated as a live signal rather than a static report. Acting on those signals during the campaign can lead to more effective spend, stronger engagement and better overall outcomes.

What Marketers Can Do

The reality is that most marketing teams aren’t built to act on this data fast enough. BFCM shines a light on that gap as data floods in across devices, regions and platforms. Yet, campaign decisions still move through slow processes that effectively turn off that live feedback loop.

Part of the reason for this is timing. Half of marketers started preparing their BFCM campaigns only a week or two before the event. That tight planning window leaves little room for testing, learning or adjusting. Even teams with strong analytics find themselves using data in hindsight.

Changing this requires a shift in how marketers think about measurement itself. During peak sales moments like BFCM, data should be seen as a live signal. Teams should be monitoring scan rates, traffic patterns and engagement levels and have the authority to act when something changes. For example, if a creative asset starts outperforming, they boost it. If conversions drop on mobile, they immediately troubleshoot. If users are scanning QR codes specific to a product or offer, respond to that interest signal immediately— retarget those high-intent scanners across digital channels while their interest is still fresh. These small, responsive moves compound into big gains when made at the right time.

Speed Winds the Day

Speed is important. Customers move quickly, and they expect that brands will meet them in the moment. When a shopper engages, they’re signaling intent. Marketers who can respond to that signal within hours (not days) create personal and relevant experiences.

The hidden brand advantage in this responsiveness is simple: It proves you’re paying attention. A customer scans a code, finds a smoother path and trust builds. Repeat that pattern, and it becomes your brand promise— a company that listens, adapts and delivers when it matters.

Justine BaMaung is a seasoned B2B marketing leader with a focus in full-funnel strategy, digital performance, and growth acceleration. She is Vice President of Marketing at Uniqode, leading integrated marketing initiatives that drive brand impact, customer acquisition, and revenue performance. Justine’s career spans over a decade of marketing leadership across high-growth SaaS and enterprise environments. At ActiveCampaign, she held multiple roles, overseeing promotions strategy, lifecycle marketing, and the growth sales organization. Her work was instrumental in scaling the company’s reach and operational sophistication during rapid expansion. Earlier in her career at Grainger, Justine built out the company’s digital optimization program, leading to industry-recognized advancements in website personalization. Her team’s work was featured at Adobe Summit, spotlighting Grainger as a leader in digital commerce transformation.

The post Stop Measuring. Start Moving: Closing the Execution Gap in Peak Sales Moments appeared first on Demand Gen Report.

• Target specific decision-makers and hidden stakeholders instead of relying on broad account-level outreach. 
• Eliminate sales latency by synchronizing marketing and sales efforts to deliver personalized educational content at the precise moment of need. 

Account-based marketing (ABM) requires precision, intelligence, and a deep understanding of human behavior. At B2B Marketing Exchange (B2BMX) 2026, powered by Advertising Week, LiveRamp’s Ed Vander Bush and Influ2’s Doug Madey discussed the importance of focusing  marketing efforts on the right individuals. By treating key buyers as the main characters of your outreach, B2B marketers can drive unparalleled revenue growth and foster meaningful business connections.

Understanding the buyer’s journey forms the foundation of any successful account-based marketing strategy, the two stated.. As buyers move from initial awareness into deep consideration, their needs and expectations shift dramatically. Marketers must map these stages meticulously to ensure they provide relevant information exactly when the prospect requires it.

Buyer Journey and Personas

Personas play an equally critical role in this progression. Targeting an entire account often dilutes the message, whereas focusing on specific individuals allows you to tailor your communication to the distinct pain points of the decision-makers. This contact-level approach transforms generic outreach into valuable, consultative engagement.

Reflecting on this need for precise targeting, Vander Bush noted, “It really comes down to understanding not only the account, but the person on the other side of the process.”

Challenges in the Buying Process

Modern B2B purchasing decisions rarely happen in a vacuum, presenting significant challenges for sales and marketing teams. Buyers conduct extensive independent research, meaning that by the time they finally reach out for a meeting, they have often already finalized their decision. This dynamic forces revenue teams to engage prospects much earlier in the evaluation phase.

Another major hurdle is the presence of hidden stakeholders who influence the final decision but remain invisible within your CRM. When sales representatives execute unexpected outreach without understanding the full buying group, they risk alienating these unseen decision-makers. Navigating this complexity requires gathering deeper contact-level insights.

“Having been recently on the buying side, I was surprised by hidden stakeholders within my own company ” noted Vander Bush. “Colleagues who brought real, important perspectives to the table that become completely invisible if we were to try to reduce the buying journey to the account level.”

Latency and Orchestration in Sales

Latency in the sales process occurs when representatives react to outdated signals and reach out too late. Relying solely on account-level intent data often creates a lag, causing sellers to miss the critical window of opportunity when the prospect is actively seeking solutions. Eliminating this delay is essential for maintaining momentum in the deal cycle.

Vander Bush emphasized the importance of this alignment, stating, “Too often, we align around the real problem too late, waiting for a sufficient ‘score’ rather than orchestrating marketing and sales together around the signals that reveal what real people are trying to achieve as they move through the customer journey.”

To address the latency problem, revenue teams must master the orchestration of relevant materials. Serving the right content at the precise moment requires marketing and sales to operate in total alignment, moving beyond siloed activities. This synchronized effort ensures that the buyer receives continuous value without aggressive, premature sales pitches.

Personalization and Content Strategy

A robust content strategy relies heavily on personalization to drive internal consensus within target accounts. Vander Bush highlighted a case study involving a global brand where an internal champion recognized the immense value of a data clean room. However, this champion struggled to secure the necessary buy-in from skeptical colleagues across different departments.

Instead of aggressively pushing for more sales meetings, the team deployed a highly personalized content strategy. They distributed targeted educational videos designed specifically to provide thought leadership of those hesitant internal stakeholders. This strategic distribution of content naturally multi-threaded the account, elevating the conversation and ultimately leading to increased attendance at pivotal sales meetings.

“This wasn’t a time for a traditional multithreading strategy,” stated Vander Bush. “This was the time to put really well-timed, relevant educational content in front of those contacts our champion was trying to sell internally. That effort led to those contacts leaning in and asking to join the next call, because as their knowledge grew, so did their understanding of the potential business value of a clean room.”

Attribution and Campaign Impact

Proving the impact of targeted campaigns remains a persistent attribution problem for B2B marketers. Standard dashboards often fail to capture how specific marketing touches influence individual buyers over time. Accurately measuring this engagement is vital for demonstrating how ABM moves prospects further down the sales funnel. This is where taking a contact-level approach to your ABM program helps, because you can’t tailor the next message if you don’t know who engaged with what. There’s no context on which topic landed—or whether anything changed.

Such engagement can be measured at various points of the customer journey, even while performing different functions. For example, personalized messaging can serve as a powerful tool to overcome stubborn gatekeepers who block access to decision makers. By deploying the right level of personalization, you can bypass these barriers and deliver compelling arguments directly to the people holding the budget. This level of precision transforms stalled opportunities into active deals. Engagement that speaks directly to the attribution and impact of the campaign.

Vander Bush illustrated this impact with a real-world example: “I worked with a seller trying to close an end-of-quarter deal who was being blocked from everyone who needed to sign. Coming into that conversation, we were able to show how those stakeholders were already engaging, which opened the door to collaborating. We spent 20 minutes over Slack and hammered out a plan to deliver that personalized messaging to the right people.”

Collaboration Provides Results

The synergy between marketing and sales dictates the overall success of any account-based strategy, noted Vander Bush. Delivering personalized, relevant content requires both teams to share insights seamlessly and understand the buyer’s point of view.

When revenue teams collaborate effectively, they empower internal champions to advocate for their solutions with confidence.

“Understanding the buyer’s perspective fundamentally changes how you approach content creation and sales outreach,” he said. “Showing true value and relevance to stakeholders transforms your brand from a vendor into a trusted strategic partner. Delivering with empathy and specialized knowledge drive these engagements forward.”

The post Orchestrate ABM Around Main Characters, Not Extras: Lessons from B2BMX appeared first on Demand Gen Report.

• Branch’s Adam Landis AI details how AI-search delivers fewer but higher-intent users, requiring marketers to shift focus from quantity to quality in funnel management.
• Coexistence of AI search and traditional SEO is expected, with both channels growing and requiring innovative measurement methodologies.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has rapidly redefining how B2B marketers connect with their target audiences, making the shift from traditional search to AI-driven discovery a top priority.

Branch’s AI Search and Discovery Enterprise Benchmark Report dives into how organizations are managing this complex transition. Surveying 300 enterprise leaders, the report reveals data on the pursuit of reliable performance measurement and how AI search is generating fewer but significantly higher-intent users for B2B platforms.

To help us interpret these market-shifting findings, we sat down with Adam Landis, Head of Strategic Growth at Branch. Landis in our discussion detailed the significant challenges marketers face when adapting to AI-driven discovery models, the anticipated coexistence of traditional SEO and AI search, and forward-looking guidance on how to balance budget allocations.

Demand Gen Report (DGR): Adam, thanks for taking time to answer our question about the recent report from Branch. In the report, what are the most significant challenges B2B marketers face when adapting to AI-driven discovery?

Adam Landis: In Branch’s recent survey of 300 enterprise leaders, only 3% of respondents reported negative results from AI search. But when asked to share an opportunity or concern, over 60% opted to share concerns.

Like most emerging technologies, early concerns center on transparency and accuracy. That’s not surprising. LLMs are notoriously unreliable, which their proponents are quick to point out is a feature of the system, not a bug. They’re also opaque. Model providers don’t readily share the weights that make up the highly proprietary models.

Unfortunately, for marketers, that means we’re dealing with a black box that returns unreliable answers. That’s a significant challenge, and an understandable one.

DGR: What are the top strategies B2B marketers can adopt to optimize for AI-powered search platforms?

Landis: It’s well understood at this point that marketers need clean, structured data that LLMs can consume. But that’s about as far as we’ve gotten.

These are black boxes, and we’re stuck literally asking the model where we rank against competitors. It’s very reminiscent of early days in SEO. And like SEO, I don’t expect this to ever be fully figured out. Models will constantly change. But over time, we’ll develop methods to measure, test, and iterate on optimization techniques. With practice, we’ll get better and faster at understanding what works.

How SEO, AI Search Can Coexist

DGR: How do you see traditional SEO and AI search coexisting in the future for B2B marketers?

Landis: I’ve been thinking about this since seeing the data. Respondents expect both SEO and AI search traffic to increase in 2026. I don’t think AI will ever fully replace SEO, at least not as recognized by the consumer. It’s a new, additive channel.

When we look back, we’ll see a gradual convergence of AI and SEO until users stop differentiating between them. It’ll less be like the automobile replacing the horse and more like mobile smartphone usage outpacing the personal computer. Today, we use automobiles to get to the store. We use computers to get to the internet. Whether that computer is in our pocket or on our desk is beside the point.

DGR: What are the implications of AI search delivering fewer overall visits but higher-intent traffic for B2B marketing strategies?

Landis: For marketers, this is classic funnel management: If you’re not focused on getting more users into the funnel, you’re focused on increasing funnel throughput. With AI delivering fewer, but higher-intent users, many marketers are seeing similar or better conversion rates.

This shift from quantity to quality requires a change of technique. Lower-quality traffic requires investment in targeting and performance optimization to fill the funnel efficiently. For higher intent users, marketers invest in lower-funnel mechanisms like personalization, retention, and reengagement. As traffic moves down the funnel, so must marketer focus.

The New Priorities of B2B Marketing Budgets 

DGR: The report mentions that 65% of leaders are dedicating at least a quarter of their 2026 marketing budget to AI search. What advice would you give to those just starting this journey? 

Landis: Most things in marketing come down to ROI. And right now, you can’t measure the return without solving measurement, which is exactly where most marketers are stuck. Almost 70% of respondents are struggling with the very basics of measuring AI. As with any new technology, the standards and tools are still developing.

Measuring AI isn’t easy, but those who develop strong measurement methodologies early will quickly learn how to outpace their competition. Getting measurement right early is how you maximize return on what’s becoming one of the most important growing channels.

DGR: How should B2B marketers approach budget allocation between traditional SEO and AI search optimization?

Landis: Spend allocation should always rely on measurement. And measurement should indicate return on your investment. AI search is emerging as a powerful, fast-growing, but additive channel. Marketers will first need to learn how to measure the combined output of AI and SEO before they decide how to allocate spend across them.

DGR: How can B2B marketers measure the effectiveness of AI-driven discovery when traditional analytics tools fall short?

Landis: Mobile app analytics struggled to measure advertising impact until Facebook developed the concept of a mobile measurement partner (MMP). AI-driven discovery faces a similar early-stage challenge.

But this is an opportunity. Firms are already combing server-logs to measure AI-bot traffic and finding the language that LLMs prefer. Companies who develop their own methods for measuring optimization outcomes, when existing tools fall short, will come out ahead in the rapidly growing LLM economy.

Changing for the AEO World

DGR: How can B2B marketers ensure their brand is included in AI-generated synthesized answers?

Landis: LLMs operate differently than humans, and marketers need to adjust accordingly.

For instance, LLMs aggregate multiple sources of information, which means they reward message consistency. This is a meaningful shift from SEO. With search, you can target individuals with antithetic intent: I can market an automobile as both “luxurious” and “affordable,” complete with supporting documentation across two separate landing pages. A user looking for either will come across their respective page. An LLM consumes both pages and produces an aggregated result that may be unclear or dropped from the response entirely.

DGR: What are the most common misconceptions B2B marketers have about AI search and discovery?

Landis: This report disabused me of one: AI search is replacing SEO. The data shows budgets and traffic for both channels are growing and remain an important part of the discovery process.

DGR: How do you see AI search impacting the customer journey for B2B buyers in the next few years?

Landis: The most interesting data point in this report is that 87% of respondents expect their business to execute closed-loop AI transactions this year. This is incredible given that, as of this response, there isn’t a widespread technology that even allows AI transactions (though OpenAI may change their mind yet again next week), but here we have executives at large organizations expecting they’ll participate within months.

This, more than anything else, truly underlines how dramatically the customer journey is expected to change.

What B2B Marketers Should Do to be Prepared

DGR: What do you see as the next big innovation in AI search and discovery, and how should B2B marketers prepare for it?

Landis: Advertising, without a doubt. Like traditional search, social media, streaming, or any newly adopted consumer technology, the biggest impact to marketers will be the emergence of a new, scaled, and evolving advertising mechanism.

The entire direct-to-consumer model was enabled by targeted, programmatic advertising. The concept of “freemium” was enabled by the App Store’s distribution and monetization channels. AI search advertising will enable new business models and new routes to consumers. And like every new technology, the companies that can most quickly learn how to test, experiment, and measure outcomes will be the ones who benefit most.

AI search has arrived. The companies that will build successful businesses around it are already on their way.

The post Navigating the Future of AI Search: The DGR Interview with Branch’s Adam Landis appeared first on Demand Gen Report.

• The integration allows syncing TikTok ads and organic content with HubSpot’s CRM for better targeting and tracking.
• Marketers can build lookalike audiences and automate personalized follow-ups using TikTok data.

TikTok is now available in ‘s Marketing Hub to allow native integration for B2B marketers to sync, manage, and measure TikTok ads and organic content using their full context.

Because TikTok is now available inside HubSpot, campaigns are informed by actual customers. The Integration offers rich context— who someone is, how they’ve engaged across your marketing mix, where they sit in your funnel, and what has historically driven conversions for your business.

Users can sync CRM contact segments to TikTok for targeting based on lifecycle stage, deal history, and purchase behavior. Marketers can build lookalike audiences from their best customers using context HubSpot already has about who converts and why. Once auto-tracking is enabled, TikTok ad interactions are linked to HubSpot contacts to be uses workflow triggers to automate timely, personalized follow-up, according to officials from both companies.

Why TikTok Integration with HubSpot

TikTok is one of the most powerful tools for SMBs to reach new audiences. Running it inside HubSpot means every campaign starts from everything your business already knows about your customers, said Lorry Destainville, Global Head of Monetization Product Partnerships at TikTok.

“TikTok has become a powerful engine for business growth, and our goal is to make that growth easier to unlock,” said Destainville in a statement. “By integrating with HubSpot, we’re giving marketers a seamless way to connect creativity, audiences, and performance so they can move from discovery to customer faster.”

More Impactful Campaigns

With TikTok Pixel deployed and managed inside HubSpot, every conversion feeds back into your business context, that will improve campaigns over time. The integration goes beyond ads— B2B marketers can schedule and publish TikTok content from HubSpot’s social tool alongside every channel, use HubSpot’s AI tool Breeze to generate captions and hashtags in the publishing flow, and manage TikTok comments and mentions in your social inbox with AI-suggested replies.

TikTok performance, both paid and organic, now roll up into unified campaign reports with attribution that connects an ad to a contact, a deal, and closed revenue, said Angela DeFranco, VP Product and GM of Marketing Hub at HubSpot.

“Buyers live on TikTok, including those making B2B purchasing decisions,” said DeFranco. “By bringing TikTok natively into HubSpot, businesses can now manage campaigns informed by everything they already know about their customers, and that context is what makes them more impactful.”

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• Tofu’s platform consolidates marketing tools for scalable, personalized campaigns across multiple channels.
• The $12M funding will expand product capabilities and integrations for GTM teams.

Tofu has completed a Series A funding round of $12 million to further their mission of building a unified artificial intelligence (AI) platform for GTM teams.

As budgets have poured into AI-driven initiatives, marketing teams found themselves with solutions that often overlapped in functionality and delivered little measurable impact on revenue.

Instead of relying on multiple disconnected marketing tools, Tofu officials said that have created a unified platform that supports a comprehensive range of GTM use cases, enabling marketing teams to build cohesive, on-brand, omni-channel campaigns at scale while personalizing assets for every customer segment.

EJ Cho on the Shift to Comprehensive Marketing Platforms

The need for tools like Tofu is growing as budgets tighten and marketing teams face greater scrutiny over software spend, said EJ Cho, Co-founder & CEO of Tofu.

“Marketing leaders are becoming more intentional about their purchases and are turning to comprehensive platforms like Tofu over point solutions to scale campaigns without the burden of managing numerous tools,” Cho wrote in a blog post announcing the fundraising round.

How New Platform Performs

Building a platform that replaces fragmented tools is complex, as marketing teams need support for a wide range of use cases, whether it’s demand generation, content marketing, lifecycle marketing, event marketing, digital marketing, or outbound SDR campaigns. Cho said his company is launching a new campaign platform that gives teams the flexibility to build custom workflows that connect different actions, making it easy to configure repeatable campaigns for every use case.

“Our approach to building a unified platform for GTM teams has resonated strongly with our customers as companies,” said Cho. “Over the past year, we’ve seen explosive growth, increasing our revenue by 12x and the amount of content generated by 36x.”

Tofu has been adopted by marketing teams of all sizes, from fast growing startups to enterprise organizations like Check Point, RingCentral and Bluecore where hundreds of marketers use Tofu every day. With this adoption, their platform has matured to support a growing set of GTM use cases.

List of Investors

Tofu personalize landing pages and emails for specific personas or industries and push these assets to your CMS and marketing automation tools. It can repurpose webinars and whitepapers into derivative assets such as social posts, blog articles, and emails while maintaining brand guidelines and templates.

For 1:1 ABM campaigns, the company can ingest private data from CRM and combine it with real-time public data from the web to generate hyper-personalized ads and emails.

The funding round was led by SignalFire with participation from HubSpot Ventures, Tau Ventures, Correlation Ventures, Alumni Ventures, SH Fund, Riverside Ventures, Eudemian Ventures, and Han Bridge Capital. Previous existing investors included Index Ventures, Stage 2 Capital and Liquid 2 Ventures.

‍” We’re continually expanding our integrations and content types to support even more marketing use cases,” said Cho.“Our fresh round of capital allows us to accelerate our mission by scaling our team, expanding our product capabilities, and increasing value to our customers.”

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The partnership enables enterprise content teams using Acquia’s CMS to access Conductor Creator functionality natively within their publishing workflows. Rather than switching between systems or exporting drafts for optimization, the agreement means marketers can research, write, and refine content directly within the CMS using artificial intelligence (AI)-driven insights to guide content structure, relevance, and search visibility.

The announcement reflects a broader shift in how organizations approach digital visibility as AI is changing how content is discovered and evaluated, according to officials from both companies. As AI-driven experiences increase demand for both higher volume and quality of content, teams need tools to create that content efficiently and at scale; content systems can no longer function as basic repositories.

Adjusting to AI

Pat Kent, VP of Partnerships at Conductor, noted AI has fundamentally changed where and how customers discover brands.

“Optimization can no longer be considered something to do once content is published. Instead, it must be built into the creation process,” said Kent in a statement. “By embedding our capabilities directly into Acquia’s CMS workflows, we are helping teams operationalize AI-ready content at the point of production where it has the greatest impact.”

Benefits to Acquia Customers

The integration between the two organizations enables marketing teams to align content strategy with real-time insights as they write, supporting both traditional search performance and emerging answer engine visibility. Reducing friction between content creation and optimization enables enterprises managing complex digital environments to improve efficiency while bolstering governance and consistency.

For Acquia, the OEM agreement builds on a partnership that has already delivered measurable value across joint customers. As enterprises continue to adapt to AI-driven search and generative discovery models, this integration provides Acquia customers with a streamlined path to creating content tailored to how audiences now find and evaluate information.

“Our customers expect their digital experience platform to help them publish efficiently and improve results,” said Paul Raisanen, SVP of Partnerships at Acquia. “Conductor has shown that search and AI insights are most valuable when they are accessible inside the tools teams already use. Bringing those capabilities directly into Acquia’s platform gives content teams clearer direction while they are writing, not after the fact.”

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