Posts

Customer-First AI: Navigating the New B2B Buyer Shift

Liza Adams · May 7, 2025 ·

Too many AI conversations start with the tech. I start with customers.

AI is changing how people search, decide, and trust. But to make smart choices about AI, we need to start by understanding how buyers are changing. That’s the real shift.

Tomorrow, I’ll join Viola Eva, Drew Neisser, and Mike Galyen in a TrustRadius webinar to dive into what customers are telling us based on fresh survey data from the 2025 B2B buyer report.

We’ll unpack:

How buyers are using AI in their research and decision-making
What that means for discoverability, brand trust, and reviews
What marketers can do to stay relevant and helpful in this new journey

See the link to register and the 2025 B2B buyer report in the comments.

Hope to see you tomorrow, May 8 at 1 – 2 pm ET. It’s going to be a practical, real-world discussion grounded in what buyers actually want.

Bridging the Trust Gap: B2B Buying in the Age of AI – https://solutions.trustradius.com/vendor-blog/bridging-the-trust-gap-b2b-tech-buying-in-the-age-of-ai/

“Do More With Less” Is Destroying B2B Marketing Strategy

Liza Adams · May 6, 2025 ·

Published on 2025-05-06 13:23

“Do more with less” is quietly destroying B2B marketing.

This mindset could reduce marketing leaders to solely tactical execution and perpetuate the myth that marketing isn’t a strategic business function.

In the AI era, this approach doesn’t just hold us back, it accelerates failure in ways that many marketers haven’t recognized yet.

This isn’t about fighting efficiency. It’s about putting marketing back at the strategy table where it belongs.

But what should we say instead? Maybe the answer isn’t another slogan, but better questions:

Instead of: “How can we do more with less?”

► Ask: “What should we stop doing to focus on what matters?”
► Ask: “Where must we invest to build sustainable growth?”
► Ask: “What foundations need fixing before we scale?”

The future belongs to strategic marketers who drive business growth, not exhausted tacticians running on empty.

See the carousel below for 7 myths behind this mindset and what to do instead. Let me know your thoughts in the comments.

Why a Piñata Beats Digital Noise

Liza Adams · May 5, 2025 ·

Published on 2025-05-05 18:07

Congratulations Sendoso and Postal by Sendoso!!!

Thank you for the piñata. We love celebrating this moment with you but we don’t have the heart to take even a small wooden spoon to the cutest little piñata in the world! 🤣

Kacie Jenkins 🎁 and team, what an awesome campaign! Congrats!

I think we’ll see more creative mail like this in the AI era. As more technology comes between brands and people, physical mail stands out. It’s memorable. It lets brands connect directly with humans.

A colorful piñata catches attention in ways digital ads can’t. It creates a moment people remember and want to share. Even my husband and 12-year-old son thought that it’s adorable.

In a world full of digital noise, real-world connections become even more valuable.

A cute piñata, celebrating Sendoso and Postal by Sendoso

How My Daughter Embraced AI for Her Future

Liza Adams · May 4, 2025 ·

My teenage daughter, Alana Adams, came to my AI talk.

Highly unusual but I’m so grateful she did.

At home, I’m just “Mom” who couldn’t possibly know anything about tech. Even though I help companies use AI responsibly and drive team transformation every day. Sound familiar?

Last week at Acquia Engage 2025 in Boston, my daughter joined me at a marketing leaders lunch where I was speaking.

At breakfast, we sat with Paul Roetzer, CEO of the Marketing AI Institute. When he learned that she’ll be studying molecular biology, he mentioned how Demis Hassabis, the CEO of Google DeepMind and 2024 Nobel Prize co-winner in Chemistry, used AI to predict protein structures. This breakthrough could lead to more personalized medicine.

Demis’ work was so interesting to my future pre-med student that she looked it up on her own later. (Thanks, Paul, for sparking that curiosity.)

There’s a reason I wanted her there. A study in The Economist (see link in the comments) found women use AI 16-20% less than men in the same jobs.

Researchers call it the “good girl” mindset. The idea that using AI is cheating instead of working smart.

This matters. I worry about schools that either ban AI tools completely or fail to teach students how to use them responsibly. Both approaches leave students unprepared and may reinforce the idea that “good students” shouldn’t use these tools.

During my talk, I discussed how AI is changing customer behavior and showed practical ways marketing teams can use it. I shared a case study about teams working successfully with AI when they guide it as teammates rather than simply using it as a tool.

Afterward, Alana said she learned new ways to use AI from both my presentation and the audience questions.

This is why AI literacy matters. Governments from the US to China now treat AI skills like reading or math.

And companies are on the same track. AI literacy is now one of the top skills employers look for, and 7 in 10 say they prefer candidates who can guide these tools over those with longer experience.

As parents, we can help our kids see AI as a teammate that makes their work better when used responsibly—whether they’re going into medicine, marketing, or any other field.

My daughter saw how AI could help in her future career. That’s the kind of AI literacy our kids need: practical understanding of how these tools can support their goals and values.

To other parents, especially those with daughters: Let’s make sure they understand that using AI responsibly is preparing for their future, not taking shortcuts.

What are you doing to help the young people in your life understand AI?

(Many thanks to Jennifer Griffin Smith (She/Her), Jen Dold, and the Acquia team for inviting me and for making this mother-daughter moment possible.

Also, thank you to Sudarshan Mandayam and the Bounteous team for sponsoring the lunch event.)

Study in The Economist: https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2024/08/21/why-dont-women-use-artificial-intelligence

AI Teammates: What Smart Marketers Are Building

Liza Adams · May 2, 2025 ·

Here’s what smart marketing teams are building right now, shown in the chart based on my most recent newsletter .

Each box represents AI teammates you can create today. This is just a small sample of potential AI teammates for each function. Some examples:

► Document Review Advisor – helps marketing leaders identify blind spots and refine strategy docs.

► Brand Voice Guardian – keeps messaging consistent across all channels.

► Content Multiplier – turns one piece of content into formats for every stage of the buyer journey.

The newsletter includes interactive starter kits for all 11 marketing functions. Each kit has clear job descriptions, training requirements, and sample conversations showing how these teammates actually work.

(If you’re itching to go straight to the starter kits. I put the links to all 11 kits in the comments, https://lnkd.in/gGE_RuUr. But know that you’ll be missing out on context and the real-life case studies in the newsletter 😉)

You can build these using tools you already have access to: ChatGPT Custom GPTs, Gemini Gems, Claude Projects, Microsoft Copilot Studio, Glean Apps, or specialized martech tools. No coding required.

Marketing teams at Dice, Folloze, Alida, HackerOne, and more are building these specialized teammates for specific jobs. They focus each AI on one clear task so it performs much better than a general assistant.

Which specialized AI teammate from this chart would help your team the most? Other teammates you’re considering?