Following my recent piece, Where B2B is heading, it’s time to talk about the elephant in the room: AI. Here, I explore why automated mass-volume is killing buyer connections, and how the machine is ironically forcing us to become more human.
If you look at B2B feeds today, you’ll notice a strange paradox. We have access to the most sophisticated artificial intelligence tools in human history, yet a massive chunk of B2B content feels robotic, stale, and generic.
Why? Because too many brands are using AI to do the wrong thing. They’re using it to generate volume instead of value: flooding the space with blog posts, generic social media updates, and automated emails that are just about "good enough" —sounding exactly like every competitor in their sector.
In a world where anyone can use a prompt to generate a thousand words of corporate fluff (albeit grammatically correct), vanilla content has become a widespread commodity.
For B2B brands looking to catch the eye of today’s modern, tech-savvy buyer groups, this is a massive strategic mistake. When marketing’s baseline becomes completely automated, the only way to stand out is to lean back into what a machine can’t do — be human.
We need to get beyond the average
AI models are trained on what already exists. Because they’re prediction engines, they provide the most average, likely response to a prompt. Ask an AI to write a B2B headline for a cloud security platform, and it’ll pull from the sea of headlines already out there. Who wants copy that’s already been done: content that’s safe, predictable — and ultimately invisible?
I don’t view AI as a threat to the teams I work with; I believe it’s an incredible filtering tool. It’s brilliant at handling the heavy lifting — crunching data, summarising lengthy technical briefs, suggesting SEO keywords, and helping brainstorm angles at lightning speed. It also eliminates my biggest daily terror: the blank page.
But that is where the machine's job should end and where people’s job begins.
Our role as creatives is to take that average baseline and inject the human friction, the unexpected visual metaphors, and the subtle emotional nuances — that "emotion with a small e" to form a memory in buyers’ minds.
What now for engaging buyers?
For everyone's benefit, B2B marketing leaders need to shift their approach to AI-driven content production from broadcasting to connection.
Use AI for personalisation, not just speed. Modern buyer journeys are never straightforward; often involving multiple stakeholders. AI should help segment your data and understand the specific pain points of different roles among your buyer personas. When it comes to writing the actual message, make sure it passes the pub test with human warmth.
With the market so flooded by automated noise, buyers have developed a high text-filtering reflex, so you have to raise your creative standards. If your copy looks or sounds like a machine wrote it, it’ll be ignored straight away. Premium, distinctive copywriting is now the ultimate differentiator. I should know. It’s why clients come to me.
And because AI can’t interview customers, it can’t capture the relief of a manager who finally goes home on time, or invent a completely surreal visual metaphor to explain complex financial issues. Focus on original insight and double down on original storytelling and real-world human experiences.
I don’t see the future of B2B creativity as a battle of man vs. machine. But I do see machines clearing away the dull admin so that we creatives have the time and space (and maybe the bravery), to do truly great, memorable work.
AI may be able to generate a million words a minute, but it can't build a relationship. If you want a Senior CD/Copywriter who knows how to use modern tech to scale your output and keep your brand distinctively human, let's talk about how I can help future-proof your creative team.