Practical AI in Go-to-Market Get practical insights in using AI for go-to-market strategy, initiatives, workflows, and roles.
Hello go-to-market leaders, strategists, and innovators! 👋 Thank you for dropping by to learn practical AI applications and gain strategic insights to help you grow your business and elevate your team’s strategic value.
Quick Take
In my previous newsletter about how a lean team transformed into a human-AI powerhouse, I covered a marketing team’s 6-month journey from a small group to a 45-member powerhouse (25 humans guiding and managing 20 AI teammates).
I shared the human-AI org transformation playbook showing steps to build a powerful human-ai org, earn trust, create learning spaces, and move forward together. The results speak for themselves: 50-75% faster content creation, 98% accuracy in lead qualification, and 35% better campaign performance.
Now an even bigger transformation is happening. As teams get comfortable with their AI teammates, customers are gaining AI buying assistants. The timing isn’t random. AI tools are evolving from executing tasks to working independently.
Today, AI already helps evaluate options. Makes clear recommendations. Handles routine decisions. This changes everything about how customers find and choose solutions.
The winners in this new era will be those who understand and adapt to this shift in buying behavior. We’ll take a look at what this means for your business and how to prepare.
Prefer to Listen? Try the AI-Generated Podcast
For those who prefer to consume information through audio, I’ve used Google’s NotebookLM to transform this newsletter into a short podcast episode, featuring a natural conversation between two AI hosts. You can listen to the podcast here. Once you hit play, give it just a few seconds then it will start.
Disclaimer: This podcast was generated by AI based on this written newsletter and reviewed by me to ensure ethical and responsible AI use. It’s designed to provide an efficient, more inclusive way to consume information.
How AI is Changing the Customer Buying Journey
First, let’s be clear about what we mean by “AI agents.” Paul Roetzer, CEO of the Marketing AI Institute, breaks it down simply. A true AI agent works independently, on our behalf, across five key areas:
Set goals
Make plans
Execute tasks
Learn from results
Analyze outcomes
While many solutions call themselves “AI agents” today, most focus on execution and some planning and analysis. But that’s changing fast. Early agency capabilities in AI tools show where we’re headed:
Gemini Advanced Deep Research – It shows planning abilities. It maps out research steps, finds sources, and creates reports with minimal guidance. (Here’s a sample research that I conducted with Deep Research and its output.)
ChatGPT Deep Research – OpenAI recently launched its own research feature with ChatGPT Deep Research (Yes, same name :-)). It apparently does even deeper research than Gemini’s because it reasons.
ChatGPT with Scheduled Tasks – It works independently, delivering responses at specific times or on a recurring basis.
ChatGPT Operator – In a demo, OpenAI showed how it can order pizza, make restaurant reservations, and buy basketball game tickets on its own. But it hands control back to humans for sensitive tasks like payments, when it gets stuck, or needs approval for important decisions.
AI Assistants – They can evaluate vendors before humans see them.
And it’s not just these foundational AI models. Your GTM (go-to-market) tools are getting smarter too:
Experience platforms now create personalized content and journeys for each visitor
Marketing tools run and adjust campaigns on their own
Sales tools sort and route leads without help
Customer success tools spot and fix issues by themselves
As Etai Beck, CEO of Folloze, shares an interesting perspective on this shift:
“What’s fascinating is how AI is transforming personalization in B2B. It’s no longer just about showing different content to different people. Today’s AI understands each buyer’s full context and adapts the entire experience in real-time.
The magic happens when AI handles the heavy lifting of personalization, freeing up humans to focus on meaningful conversations and strategic decisions.”
While these tools don’t do everything on their own, they handle specific tasks without constant human input.
But agency capability doesn’t necessarily equal control. Think of these capabilities like tools in your toolkit. As the toolkit grows, you’ll most likely still decide:
Which capabilities to use
When to use them
How much autonomy to give them
Where human judgment is important
Why This Story Matters
Your customers are changing how they research and buy. AI forms an opinion about your company before humans do.
Christopher Penn, Co-founder and Chief Data Scientist of Trust Insights, breaks this down perfectly.
“When it comes to creating content today, your content has to be available for two distinct audiences and serve both of them equally – human and machine. Most marketers tend to do one or the other well; SEO folks have long been practicing great content formatting for machines. Content marketers have long been practicing great content for humans. Relatively few do both well, and doing both well is mandatory now.
Think of it like a restaurant. A restaurant has to have clear, easy to understand menus (thanks, Cheesecake Factory, for your 5,000 word menu) for people to order well. But the food also has to not suck. A great menu with terrible food is not going to win customers. Great food with no menu at all is going to be a bad dining experience.”
Chris offers a practical tip to test if you’re serving both audiences:
“Here’s a simple, easy tip to see how your content stacks up. Use any screen reader intended for people with vision disabilities and browse your website and content.
If it’s a straightforward, positive experience where you can get to the content quickly and easily, and the content sounds good when you listen to the screen reader narrate it, you’ve got a winning site.
If it takes you 30 minutes of painful navigation just to get to your content, your site isn’t ready for AI.
And if your content is so dry that you lose interest in listening to it after 10 seconds, then your content isn’t ready for humans.”
I covered how brand trust is the new premium in the AI era previously. Strong brands already spend 5× less to get customers and keep them 50% longer. With AI as an amplifier, brands able to build trust with humans and AI can potentially achieve even better results.
This affects your whole GTM team. Sales teams now talk to buyers who have already gotten AI’s view of your company. Customer success works with users who bring AI tools to their daily work. Marketing teams need to connect with both AI agents and human decision-makers.
This diagram shows five key truths about business today:
Being found isn’t enough anymore – Just showing up in AI search results won’t cut it. You need real proof that shows AI and people they can trust you.
AI forms opinions before humans do – AI will evaluate your brand first. What it tells people about you influences every decision after.
AI amplifies brand impact – AI multiplies every signal about your brand. With trust, you’ll win faster and land bigger deals before your first call.
Trust drives business results – If you have trust, you can charge 20% more, convert twice more, and even reduce hiring costs. (Here are more insights on quantifying the value of brand, including an interactive calculator.)
Great products need trust to succeed – Even your best product will fail without trust. AI tells buyers whether to trust you before they ever talk to you.
The Evolution of B2B Buying
Let’s look at how B2B buying is changing from my perspective. Remember, we’re all learning together. There’s no ideal roadmap yet.
This table shows what we can expect, understanding these changes and adapting thoughtfully.
First Signs of Change
Here’s a real example: When I got invited to join a business directory, I didn’t schedule calls or read materials. I asked Perplexity to check the company. It quickly found some concerning practices. Decision made, before any sales pitch. (Here are more details on what happened.)
This happens thousands of times each day. AI looks at:
Your online presence
Customer reviews and sentiment
Market position
Trust signals
Reimagining GTM in the AI Era
The interactive AI-Human GTM Matrix below shows how your go-to-market activities can evolve to serve both human buyers and their AI assistants. Move the sliders to see how different levels of AI involvement changes each stage of the customer journey.
There are three key approaches:
Traditional GTM Evolving – Think of this as upgrading your existing playbook. You’re taking what already works, like your content, campaigns, and customer interactions, and making them work better with AI. It’s like adding smart features to a trusted tool.
New Human-Focused GTM – This is about doubling down on what humans do best. While AI handles the data and analysis, your team creates more meaningful experiences through workshops, strategic discussions, and relationship building.
New AI-Focused GTM – This is building for AI-first interactions. Just like we optimize websites for search engines, we’re now creating content and tools that AI buying agents can easily understand and use.
Kathie Johnson, Chief Marketing Officer of Sitecore, shares:
“Companies that serve both human buyers and AI assistants, rather than choosing between them, will win in the AI era. The leaders will update traditional programs for AI, create special human experiences, and build AI-first capabilities.
Success comes from knowing exactly what to automate, what to keep human, and what to rebuild for AI.”
Let’s look at an example across key stages:
Awareness (80% AI)
Traditional – Blog posts now include structured data tables for easy AI analysis
Human-focused – Expert roundtables that generate both stories and data
AI-focused – Product specs in machine-readable formats
Consideration (60% AI)
Traditional – ROI calculators that combine AI insights with human validation
Human-focused – Interactive solution design workshops
AI-focused – Automated compatibility checking tools
Purchase (40% AI)
Traditional – AI-enhanced proposals with human-led negotiations
Human-focused – Strategic alignment workshops
AI-focused – API-driven pricing systems
These are just examples. Your mix will depend on your customers, product, and market. It’s important to find the right balance between AI efficiency and human connection at each stage.
Try the interactive Human-AI GTM matrix. Move the sliders to different positions. Notice how the highlighted activities shift. Where do you see opportunities to evolve your current approach?
Learning Together: Humans and AI Working Together
We’re starting to see buyers and AI agents work as partners like in doing research and evaluations. Here’s how it looks:
Human sets the goal: “Find the best project management platform for us”
AI does the research, comparisons, creates a shortlist
Human makes key decisions using AI’s findings
Building Trust Step by Step
Remember how we learned to trust online shopping? We didn’t jump straight to buying expensive items on Amazon. We started small, maybe a book or a movie. Same with Uber and Airbnb. Most people didn’t immediately trust strangers to drive them around or stay in their homes.
These companies won trust through transparency with clear policies, real reviews, secure payments. And most importantly, giving users control over their privacy and information.
Now we’re seeing a similar pattern with AI. Both teams and customers are finding their comfort level with different types of AI help.
Here’s one framework that can help think through trust levels. While every organization will find their own way, this example shows different levels of AI involvement:
Basic Info – Like webinar sign-ups
Financial Tasks – Like routine purchases
Personal Details – Like identity checks
Sensitive Info – Like health records
Full Access – Like tax planning
We’re at a crossroads between convenience and personal control. AI agents will get us thinking about our risk/benefit tolerance:
What tasks are you comfortable delegating to AI?
How much control are you willing to give up?
What information are you prepared to share?
Which AI companies/tools will you trust?
What trade-offs and risks are you willing to accept?
Trust isn’t one-size-fits-all. Companies we already know and trust for specific tasks have a natural advantage in those areas. For example, we might trust our bank’s AI for financial transactions but prefer a specialized healthcare provider’s AI for medical advice. This existing trust gives established brands a head start in their specific domains.
For teams, this might mean starting with AI helping on basic content tasks before moving to more complex analysis. Or, starting with internal work then gradually using AI for customer-facing interactions. For customers, it could mean using AI for initial research before trusting it with purchase recommendations.
Recognizing that both sides of the relationship is important. Your team and your customers are on this trust journey together.
Understanding your own team’s path helps you better serve customers who are figuring out their own balance between AI efficiency and human control.
Looking Ahead
The lines between AI teammates and AI customers are blurring. We’re seeing this everywhere: AI helps our teams create content, while AI helps our customers evaluate that same content. AI assists our sales teams in qualifying leads, while AI helps buyers qualify us as vendors.
This mirroring isn’t random. As tools like Gemini, ChatGPT, and our GTM platforms gain more autonomous capabilities, we’ll see teams and customers using AI in increasingly similar ways. The winners will be those who understand both sides of this evolution.
Every GTM team is figuring this out. Some focus on making content machine-readable. Others create special experiences just for humans. The smartest ones do both.
What’s working for your team? Share your story below so we can learn from each other.
The Practical AI in Go-to-Market newsletter is designed to share practical learnings and insights in using AI responsibly for go-to-market strategy, product, brand, demand, content, and digital, and growth marketing. Subscribe today and let’s learn together on this AI journey!
For those who prefer more interactive learning, explore our applied AI workshops, designed to inspire teams with real-life use cases tailored to specific go-to-market functions.
Also check out this team transformation case study and step-by playbook of how we helped transform a lean GTM team into a human-AI powerhouse with human and AI teammates.
Or, if audio-visual content is your style, here are virtual and in-person speaking events where I’ve covered a variety of AI topics. I’ve also keynoted at many organization and corporate-wide events. Whether through the newsletter, multimedia content, or in-person events, I hope to connect with you soon.