The marketing technology landscape has grown significantly over the past decade. In 2011, Scott Brinker’s first MarTech landscape featured 150 tools. Today? That number has exploded to over 15,000 – a staggering 100-fold increase.
Despite all these tools and increased investment, marketing leaders find themselves spending more time managing technology and data, and less time on what they’re passionate about: building brands, crafting strategy, and creating meaningful customer relationships.
This is where agentic AI can help – not as another tool to learn, but as a fundamental shift in how marketing teams operate.
What is Agentic AI?
Traditional marketing automation requires you to learn how to use a system to automate specific tasks or processes.
Agentic AI takes a different approach. Instead of learning to use the tool, you design an agent to perform tasks or sets of tasks around a specific goal, operating autonomously with minimal human intervention.
As Max Gabriel, CEO of Augmented AI, puts it, “In the case of automation, it’s still a tool that you need to learn how to use. But, in the case of agents, you’re actually designing the machine to leverage the tool to accomplish a goal, which is a huge productivity gain.”
Two fundamental applications for B2B marketing
Agentic AI can transform B2B marketing in two main ways:
- Freeing up time for crafting and strategising
Marketing teams are drowning in menial tasks. AI agents can handle the routine work that consumes so much time, freeing marketers to focus on brand building, strategic planning, and creative work.
- Personalisation at scale
B2B marketing’s complexity – long sales cycles, high-value transactions, multiple decision makers – demands hyper-personalised communication to remain competitive. AI agents can analyse industry context, trends, job titles, and additional data points to create genuinely relevant messaging for each individual prospect.
Where to start your Agentic AI journey
The key is choosing where in the funnel do you want to start your AI journey. You can opt to implement it at the start or end of your marketing workflow:
- Starting at the end (conversion-focused): Focus on campaign performance and conversion rates where you can easily measure impact through A/B testing. This approach delivers quick, measurable results.
- Starting at the beginning (top-of-funnel): Target lead generation and qualification processes. While these may take longer to show measurable impact, they can deliver significant productivity gains.
Regardless of where you start, remember this is a long-term journey. The more experiments you run, the better your agents will perform. Don’t expect perfection from day one.
Getting your foundation right
Before diving into agentic AI, ensure you have the foundational elements in place:
- Data readiness: These tools rely heavily on quality data across multiple systems. While imperfect data won’t stop you, it will slow your progress.
- Current marketing automation: Understanding your current automation capabilities will help you identify where agents can add the most value.
- Team readiness: Perhaps most importantly, your team needs to shift from using AI as a “glorified Google” to treating it as a strategic partner. Buy-in from your team is essential for the implementation to truly work. This may include arranging training for employees to help them understand the technology better.
Measuring success and building value
As with any new technology investment, establishing clear measurement frameworks is crucial. Start with simple questions:
- Does this outperform our previous approach?
- What specific outcomes are we targeting?
- How will we prove value to secure continued investment?
The temptation for many businesses is to immediately focus on cost reduction and efficiency savings. Resist the urge. The real value lies in driving growth – more leads, better conversion rates, stronger customer relationships. Build your agent-powered marketing machine for growth first; efficiency gains will follow naturally.
Starting your journey
The agentic AI revolution in marketing is still in its early stages. While there’s significant hype around the technology, most organisations are still running pilots rather than scaled implementations. This means there’s still time to learn from early adopters and develop a thoughtful approach.
The key is to start somewhere, whether that’s a simple campaign personalisation pilot or a lead qualification agent. Choose something you can measure, commit to the iterative process, and prepare for a future where your marketing team focuses on strategy while agents handle execution.
The marketing leaders who begin this journey now, with realistic expectations and proper foundations, will be best positioned to capitalise on the productivity and growth opportunities that agentic AI promises to deliver.
This insight comes from the pilot episode of the Unapologetically B2B podcast, featuring Max Gabriel, CEO of Augmented AI. For more insights on B2B marketing transformation, make sure you subscribe for future episodes.