As AI continues to dominate vendor pitches and advertising decks, three senior B2B advertising leaders warn the expertise is being oversold and underused, and that automation alone is neither the objective nor the differentiator for profitable advertising.
Divya Handa, senior director of worldwide advertising at level of sale software program supplier Avalara believes “there’s plenty of AI-washing”.
As AI continues to dominate vendor pitches and advertising decks, three senior B2B advertising leaders warn the expertise is being oversold and underused, and that automation alone is neither the objective nor the differentiator for profitable advertising.
Divya Handa, senior director of worldwide advertising at tax and compliance supplier Avalara believes “there’s plenty of AI-washing”.
Avalara has embedded agentic AI into its go-to-market engine for 2 years, utilizing it throughout gross sales workflows, buyer expertise, and ABM programmes. However Handa mentioned the expertise stays a instrument, not a substitute for strategic considering.
“AI is an operational enabler. It helps with scoring, orchestration and surfacing early intent. Nevertheless it doesn’t change human perception,” she mentioned, speaking on the World ABM convention yesterday (5 November).
“It can not inform you what’s motivating a shopping for workforce or what urgency is behind their search.”
For Sophie-Louise Vevers, senior advertising supervisor for demand packages at software program growth agency Nintex, the trade’s present drawback isn’t lack of knowledge however saturation.
“We’re drowning in insights, not information itself,” she mentioned. Single indicators, equivalent to a white paper obtain, she argued, are too usually handled as shopping for intent.
Vevers advised significant perception solely emerges when a number of information factors are layered collectively. Datapoints like first-party behaviour, third-party intent, firmographic context and historic exercise. “One sign doesn’t inform you something. It’s about portray the image,” she defined.
She additionally admitted that the majority advertising groups use solely a fraction of the AI functionality obtainable to them. Nintex constructed its personal inner AI mannequin educated solely on proprietary information and buyer content material to assist spot lookalike prospects and form go-to-market pitches.
Nonetheless, adoption continues to be in early levels. “We’re fairly immature as an organisation in AI,” she mentioned. “The chance now could be designing workflows round it, not anticipating automation to do the job for us.”
Convention platform Zoom’s EMEA built-in advertising supervisor, Laura Winnan, centered on the problem of separating useful shopping for indicators from noise. Zoom blends first-party analytics, ABM platform perception, and firmographic information to validate whether or not indicators replicate the personas and shopping for committees it goals to affect.
“We have a look at accounts, not particular person contacts,” she mentioned. “It’s the sample of behaviour throughout the organisation that issues.” Winnan described AI as a robust accelerator, significantly Zoom’s personal AI Companion, however emphasised that orchestration requires groups to grasp not solely the sign however the acceptable subsequent motion.
Zoom makes use of the 95:5 mannequin, which means it operates on the belief that solely 5% of its whole addressable market (TAM) is actively in market at any time. The remaining 95% requires constant brand-to-demand exercise that retains Zoom high of thoughts.
“We keep current with the 95% in order that when intent seems, we’re already forward,” she mentioned. However she warned that none of this works with out gross sales alignment. “If gross sales aren’t on board in the beginning, the entire thing falls down. That you must give them the why, not simply the information.”
New approaches
For Avalara, a renewed strategy has already reshaped outcomes. After reassessing its full information ecosystem, equivalent to CRM hygiene, intent platforms, first-party behaviour, and account growth consultant (ADR) outreach.
Handa’s workforce found it was overspending on weak-fit accounts that not often transformed. “We slowed all the way down to go quick,” she mentioned. By refocusing on strong-fit accounts with significant indicators and tightening coordination between SixSense information, Salesforce intelligence and enrichment instruments, the corporate elevated pipeline by 28% with out growing spend, in line with Handa.
Handa additionally flagged a recurring pressure between offering gross sales with intelligence and guaranteeing they act on it. Avalara created customized ChatGPT cases to assist ADRs personalise outreach, however uptake has been combined.
“You may take the horse to water, however you may’t make it drink,” she mentioned. “We’re doing quarterly enablement to assist gross sales use the intelligence correctly. The orchestration is the problem.”
Throughout the panel, it was agreed that what distinguishes high-performing ABM programmes is the intentional coordination of perception, activation, enablement and timing. AI can amplify this, however solely when the expertise is embedded inside a cohesive working mannequin.
Handa mentioned the market is shifting from a mass concentrating on strategy the place AI is used to scale up the variety of accounts focused to an strategy the place AI is used to search out. “It’s not automation — it’s orchestration,” she mentioned. “The winners are those who combine their CRM information, intent information and first-party indicators right into a related view.”
Vevers argued that success additionally depends upon empowering groups, and holding AI use restricted the place acceptable. “Don’t simply use AI for activation,” she mentioned. “Use it to upskill folks. People are nonetheless behind the campaigns.”
Winnan closed the panel with a name for focus: “Know your tech stack. Take away what doesn’t work. Use what does. And construct predictable workflows that assist you to pre-empt, not react.”
