B2B Reads: AI Search, Brand Citations, and Commercial Outcomes

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 CSO’s AI Roadmap: Moving From Experimentation to Commercial Outcomes by Cuong Nguyen Cao, Forbes
AI magnifies whatever it runs on, so messy data and cluttered sales processes just get messier faster. Judge it by revenue impact, not hours saved, and point the freed time at buyers.

Why Winning AI Search Isn’t Enough to Win B2B Buyers by Scott Gillum, MarTech
Buyers finish nearly 70% of their research before talking to sales, then spend a median 78 seconds on your site. Getting found is step one. Making the page clear enough to keep them is the harder part.

What It Means If Your Brand Is Mentioned but Not Cited in AI Answers by Robert Rose, Content Marketing Institute
Ford ranks 18th for mentions in ChatGPT car answers, but its site is only the 1,055th most-cited source. Mentions are cheap. Citations are trust, and that’s the number worth chasing.

Marketers, Stop Random Acts of AI Investing by Peter Kim, Forrester
Too many AI budgets got approved on executive hearsay and vendor promises. Expect tougher questions in 2027 planning, and tie every AI dollar to what the CEO and board actually care about.

Martech Consolidation, Infrastructure, and the Braze-Salesforce Deal by Scott Brinker, Chiefmartec
Salesforce buying Braze is a textbook consolidation move, and buyers may lose some pricing power. Brinker also sees martech shifting from apps to infrastructure, with MCP access spreading fast.

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.