AI is rewriting the rules of marketing. But here’s the paradox: the more machine-driven the world becomes, the more you’ll see human-centric brands win.
Brands that will win the AI era won’t choose between automation at scale or protecting the human elements of their experience. They’ll start with how they want to make their customer feel, then work backward from there using AI and humans to deliver the right experience where it makes sense. Automation and AI should not be viewed as a replacement, but as an engine for understanding, context and care. Your customers won’t think about the tech behind the experience, they’ll just feel seen and understood.
The most effective brands see AI as background infrastructure. It’s not the lead actor. It’s the invisible co-pilot. A powerful engine that reads signals, mines insights and makes sense of complexity in the background so the human touch can show up stronger.
The Problem with ‘More’
The problem in B2B buying today isn’t that buyers don’t have enough information. It’s that they have too much. Over 90% of marketers say AI helps them produce content more quickly (without expanding headcount). But volume is a blunt instrument. More touchpoints don’t drive better connections. In fact, they often do the opposite. The flood of content created by B2B marketing teams in recent years has eroded confidence and created decision paralysis.
A recent study by Harvard Business Review coined the term “workslop” – AI-generated content that looks polished but lacks the depth to be useful. Customers can feel the difference. They’re no longer impressed by fast. They want real.
B2B brands that succeed in the age of AI don’t just generate content, they help the buyer make sense of the information they already have. The single biggest opportunity for B2B brands is to provide buying-decision teams frameworks and processes to gain consensus to make a buying decision. This requires human connection, empathy and real grit and determination from a sales team that can’t be simply automated by AI.
Good Judgement Is the Ultimate Moat
For CMOs, the age of AI demands a recalibration of what effective marketing looks like and reframes how success is measured. The best leaders are not just fixated on throughput; they are asking sharper questions. How do we give them more confidence to make a decision? What keeps them up at night? How can we experiment rapidly and learn systematically at scale?
Answering those questions requires systematized insights. It demands AI level intelligence drawn from behavioral patterns, preferences, timing and tone – signals that only advanced systems can capture at scale.
While AI has democratized this information gathering, it has not democratized human-nuanced judgment. Good taste in design, narrative and coherent experiences remains rare. It is the human layer of empathy and decision-making, applied on top of machine-scale cues, that makes a brand magnetic and real. The CMOs who step forward in this moment will not only redefine marketing. They will stand as stewards of empathy, proving that in the AI era, human judgment and good taste is the ultimate moat.
Connection Is the New Differentiator
In B2B SaaS, technical parity is coming fast thanks to AI. Whether it’s code bases, platform resilience or advanced features, competitive gaps are shrinking. But the feeling someone gets from your brand is still wide-open territory. Customers will always compare specs. But they choose based on how your brand sees and supports them.
Research from Block Club found that the No. 1 challenge marketers experience when trying to differentiate their brand is when competitors’ messaging is too similar to their own. When every message sounds the same, the one that feels real stands out instantly.
This is the opportunity that’s hiding in plain sight. When your competitors talk like software and you talk like a human, you become magnetic.
This doesn’t mean abandoning technical depth. It means framing it through the lens of human impact. Not what the tool does but what it helps someone feel with clarity, confidence, control.
When AI is used well, it enables this reframing at scale and allows teams to stop reacting and start anticipating. This gives marketers the room to tell better stories, not faster ones.
Despite being B2B brands, companies like Slack, Salesforce, Ramp and Stripe excel in the feelings department. Which is part of the reason many everyday consumers have heard of them. They make work life easier, inject personality and humor, build community, and provide trusted content that focuses on customer success rather than promotion. These brands don’t overtly push sales agendas and in doing so make connections that are deeply felt.
Don’t aim to be noticed. Aim to be remembered.
The question isn’t whether you should use AI. That part is settled. The real decision is whether you use it to make your customers feel something.
