We need to talk about the gap.
Not the buzz. Not the endless opinion pieces. But the very real performance divide opening up between B2B marketing teams who are experimenting with AI, and those who are embedding it into how they actually work.
27% of global CMOs admit their teams aren’t really using AI at all (TechMonitor).
Meanwhile, commercial teams are blending AI with customer experience and according to McKinsey are 1.7× more likely to increase market share.
This isn’t just a tech trend. It’s a strategic marketing shift.
The AI accelerators vs. the AI avoiders
Let’s be honest: every leadership team says AI is on their radar. But in practice, we’re seeing two camps emerge:
1. The Experimenters
Curious, but cautious. Teams dipping their toe in with the odd content assistant or AI generated image. But no strategic fit. No real integration and still asking ‘where does this actually belong and add value?’
2. The Accelerators
They’ve moved past pilots. They’ve embedded AI into campaign planning, content operations, and optimisation processes. They’ve built confidence and they’re gaining ground fast.
In fact, Deloitte found that 42% of top-performing B2B firms say AI is “critical” to their future competitiveness.
What’s holding others back?
From our work across fintech, SaaS, publishing, and industrial sectors, we’re seeing four big blockers that keep organisations stuck in experimentation limbo:
- Skills and confidence gaps – across the whole team, not just senior leadership
- Governance paralysis– fear of “getting it wrong” overrides the need to try
- Unclear use cases– too many tools, not enough strategic focus
- Scepticism on ROI – because we’ve all seen the martech hype fall flat
What the high-performers do differently
The B2B teams making AI work aren’t just tool-savvy, they’ve rethought how they operate. Three things stand out:
- Cross-functional AI squads– blending marketing, ops, data, compliance and legal. No more innovation stuck in silos
- Meaningful investment in AI literacy– not just a one off webinar. Structured training that includes prompt engineering, model interpretation and even ethical training for campaign planning
- Agile ways of working– the real differentiator. Agile gives teams the framework and guardrails to test tools in live campaigns, measure what works, and scale quickly without the faff.
From theory to traction
Real world examples we’re seeing working right now:
- A global publishing firm using agentic AI to build a new persona and create highly tailored content for a new market segment.
- A global payroll and HCM solution provider integrating video AI tools to halve production time (and cost) for their quarterly internal marketing show reel production
- A global industrial machinery firm is using generative AI tools to translate complex product specs into customer-friendly content at speed – to improve ad campaign performance and unlock localisation that used to take weeks.
These aren’t vanity projects. They’re operational advantages being built sprint by sprint.
This is a leadership moment
Marketing leaders have a choice to make.
Treat AI as a side project for “when we’ve got time” or we can treat it as what it really is – a lever for improving performance, agility and team effectiveness right now.
At Bright, we help teams bridge the gap. Not just by adopting and integrating the right tools, but by reshaping how marketing works, so AI becomes part of the engine.
That means:
- Mapping your current AI maturity (and be honest about it!)
- Identifying the workflows where AI can actually drive value and measure it
- Giving your team the skills, space, and support to experiment with purpose.
Because in this era of B2B marketing, experimentation isn’t the goal. Transformation is.
What about your team?
What’s the reality in your team right now – are you experimenting or accelerating? What would help you move faster, with more confidence?
Want to get more value from Agentic AI?
If you want to Make AI work for you B2B marketing team and not just add more tools to your tech stack, download our AI Activation Framework.
