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Reinventing B2B Podcast: Episode 11
April 30, 2026:
Alison Watson
EVP, Global Media
Kara Borbely
VP, Media
Kristy Derba-Strauss
VP, Omnichannel
James Harper
VP, Search
Buyers aren’t where you think they are anymore
AI is compressing the B2B journey. Research is happening before a click, before a visit, often before a brand even knows it’s in the running.
As host of this episode, Alison Watson, EVP Global Media, puts it: “AI is mediating discovery, compressing journeys, and reshaping what qualifies as a meaningful signal.”
That raises a harder question:
If buyers aren’t showing up in your data, how do you know they’re there?
→ Listen to the full episode (46 mins) or read the transcript below.
Search is happening without you
Q: If buyers aren’t even getting to our landing pages anymore, what does that mean for strategy?
Kara Borbely (VP, Media):
“The way that we are getting information is changing. We may not get customers to landing pages, so we have to get those signals a different way and respond to them in a different way.
Google’s also scraping content differently, so we have to make sure we’re thinking about not only designing content strategy for consumers… but also then for the models that are researching on their behalf.
The way we write content for LLMs is different than how we write for human consumption… we also need to think about frequency, scale, how often we’re publishing, where we’re publishing, how we’re leveraging premium partnerships…
So there’s a different way to think about gated and un-gated content… how we’re distributing… and then how we’re collecting signals back from that content and incorporating that into the overall targeting strategy.”
Fewer clicks, higher stakes
Q: If those site signals are disappearing, what actually breaks—and how do we replace them?
Kristy Derba-Strauss (VP, Omnichannel):
“Largely, the conversation is shifting towards buying groups…
A click now, ultimately, while we’re seeing fewer, has more weight, as that is typically coming after a deeper research period through LLMs…
It also means that we’re looking at these larger trends at the account level… it’s more about seeing kind of an ‘all tides rising’ across who we’ve deemed to be the buyer group of our target accounts.”
Intent is still there, it's just less visible.
Q: With AI compressing journeys, is intent dead?
Kristy:
“I do not think intent is dead. I think it is taking a different shape…
Intent looks very different… if you compare a data segment from a few years ago to today, the overlap would be minimal…
It’s important that we’re looking under the hood at what kind of intent signals we’re relying on.”
Kara:
“Not only what signals we’re using, but how many at the same time…
Instead of certain actions of a couple of individuals, is it the number of people in a buying group engaging… that becomes a better representation of account stage?
We need to be a little bit more responsive and a little bit less prescriptive… letting the accounts tell us where they are.”
More data didn't make the journey better
Q: Have we over-engineered the customer journey?
James Harper (VP, Search):
“We’ve had so much data available… and we’ve leveraged that data to optimize every touch point…
But somewhere along the way, a lot of marketers lost sight of the overall user journey…
We’ve taken all the data that we have and we’re forcing various personas into journeys… perhaps over-engineering some of those paths…
We need to get back to basics… understanding what it is that you can uniquely provide… and speaking very clearly to how you can help solve that.
We need to make sure that we’re feeding those LLMs with the most expert information…
Branding is becoming more important than ever… we want to make sure our brand is memorable and we’re part of the conversation from the very beginning.”
The next ad channel won't look like a channel
Q: Will we start seeing ads inside LLM experiences?
James:
“Absolutely. What that’s going to look like is yet to be determined…
There’s a fine line between monetizing the platforms and maintaining data integrity and trust…
We’re seeing different approaches… contextual ads… sponsored links… it’s a space that’s rapidly evolving.”
Kristy:
“You can now buy the ad space on the pages being cited within the LLM…
As a user’s kind of gut checking, there you are… ideally you’re coming up in the cited research as well as the ad space next to it…
It’s not going to look exactly the way we expect… there are a lot of different paths to what this next ad space will look like.
A really important thing… is to start testing now into AI-powered ad units… responsive ad units…
The more you can test things like Performance Max and AI Max… the better prepared you’re going to be.”
Working with intent signals you can't fully see
Q: What should marketers do differently right now?
Kara:
“An articulated content journey is going to be more important than ever…
Assume people are always in market…
What do you want to say when you’re not in the room?
Consistency in that messaging… making sure you’re reinforcing the same message in multiple places…
Clarity of message, cohesive strategy… and making sure we’re delivering the right message to people who care.”
Kristy:
“A smaller group of high intent accounts is going to outperform a large list… every time…
It’s really important to understand how accounts are interacting with your… well-defined brand proposition…
How do we start to score individual companies and buying groups… and dial in that connection between branded and demand.”
James:
“Get back to basics and focus on high quality content…
Simplifying the user journey… focusing on branding…
Even though site traffic is declining, buyers are still out there…
We want to think less about clicks… and more about the user experience… thinking about influence… how we’re showing up within LLMs.”
What changes next
Q: One prediction for 2026
James:
“We’re going to see some really interesting ad units appear in LLMs.”
Kristy:
“A shift from demand capture to demand orchestration… more about how you communicate with users after you’ve identified them.”
Kara:
“As the internet becomes more individualized… interactions with content will become more tailored…
There’s also a lot of space for humor in B2B marketing… it’s an untapped opportunity.”
Need help applying this?
You can’t see the whole buyer journey anymore—but you still have to act on it.
Talk to our team about how to measure intent, interpret signals, and show up earlier in the decision process.
You’ve read the shift—here’s what it means: key points and next questions.
If discovery is happening before a click, how do marketers ensure brands show up early?
Brand presence now has to extend beyond owned channels. Growth comes from being embedded in the sources AI pulls from—trusted content, consistent POV, and broad visibility across the ecosystem.
Where should brands focus to drive sustainable brand growth from here?
Differentiation comes from a clear, repeatable point of view. Brands that articulate what they uniquely stand for—and reinforce it consistently—are more likely to be surfaced and remembered.
How should we rethink brand investment when performance signals are declining?
As clicks become less reliable, brand becomes the primary driver of influence. The focus shifts from capturing demand to shaping it earlier—before buyers ever enter measurable channels.
What defines brand growth in an AI-mediated buying journey?
It’s less about traffic and more about inclusion, recall, and relevance. If your brand is consistently part of the conversation—across channels and AI outputs—you’re growing.
How do brands stay differentiated when AI is summarizing entire categories?
Differentiation comes from a clear, repeatable point of view. Brands that articulate what they uniquely stand for—and reinforce it consistently—are more likely to be surfaced and remembered
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Brand and demand have always worked best together, but most B2B marketers still struggle to prove the connection. As AI reshapes buyer discovery, traditional attribution is missing the moments that matter most: trust, authority, and shortlist formation before sales ever enters the conversation. The path forward is not perfect measurement overnight, but a shift from attribution to contribution — connecting brand investment to pipeline, revenue, and business outcomes.