B2B Reads: Buyer Trust, ABM ROI, and AI’s New Value Equation

Summary

Some of our favorite B2B sales and marketing posts from around the web this week.

Every Saturday morning we share some of our favorite B2B sales & marketing posts from around the web from the last week (so it’s fresh!). We’ll miss a ton of great stuff, so if you found something you think is worth sharing please let us know.

The Real AI Opportunity Is Creating New Value by Frans Riemersma, MarTech
Most organizations using AI are optimizing existing workflows, not questioning whether the workflow should exist. Frans Riemersma makes the case for moving from efficiency gains to genuine new value creation. The IKEA example is worth sitting with: a chatbot that couldn’t answer 53% of questions became the seed of a €1.3B new revenue channel.

What ABM Tactics Deliver the Highest ROI? The 2026 Account Based Marketing Benchmark Survey Provides the Answers by James Hickey, Demand Gen Report
Fresh data from the 2026 ABM Benchmark Survey: personalized content leads ROI at 47%, executive events come in at 27%, and AI earns a 7.3 out of 10 for improving ABM outcomes. Nearly 80% of organizations are now actively running ABM. The gap between piloting and doing has largely closed.

Your ICP Is the Strategy: Q&A with Karlyn Ankrom by Bri Krantz, MarketingProfs
Karlyn Ankrom is direct: ICP isn’t a targeting filter, it’s the whole strategy. This Q&A covers how to handle multi-role buying committees, why platform selection without ICP discipline burns budget, and how to push back when executives want to “do it all.”

How to Build Trust When Buyers Question Everything by Stephanie Trovato, MarTech
B2B buyers are filtering content harder than ever. They want specifics: who actually did this, what failed, what changed. Polished messaging and trend summaries don’t cut it anymore. This piece breaks down the signals buyers actually use to evaluate credibility, and what most thought leadership programs still get wrong.

Turning Content into Pipeline in the Age of AI: Lessons from 2026 B2BMX by James Hickey, Demand Gen Report
Key takeaways from B2BMX on turning content into pipeline with AI. The consistent theme: most B2B content still doesn’t connect to revenue, and AI alone doesn’t fix the underlying measurement and messaging gaps. Worth reading if you’re rethinking how your content program ties to pipeline.

Have a wonderful weekend and thank you for reading! If you have B2B news sources you rely on we’d love to hear about them. Please share them with us.