The Revenge of Experience in B2B Marketing

When AI degenerates into a boredom machine, experience suddenly becomes the most powerful weapon in the battle for attention. Why senior marketers need to activate their long-underestimated superpower.

Generative artificial intelligence has taken B2B marketing by storm — it came, it saw, it generated. And it does so with enthusiasm and confidence. Texts seem to write themselves and visual worlds and code are created almost automatically. Everything appears possible, polished and of flawless quality. However, upon closer inspection, cracks appear: the systems understand surprisingly little about specific situations. Recently, their quality has even seemed to decline. Sentences sound increasingly formulaic, and the content lacks originality. Generated images are becoming more similar to one another than stock photos in standard databases, and the code is still buggy. According to the 2024 Stanford AI Index, large language models such as GPT-4 still have significant shortcomings in areas such as abstract reasoning and language comprehension. Overall, it’s as if an overzealous intern has access to all of humanity’s knowledge in milliseconds, but with the life experience of a newborn golden hamster. So yes, it handles 80 per cent of the basic work reasonably well. However, it’s the remaining 20 per cent that determines whether the work makes sense or achieves any goal.

The Great Flattening

The core problem of the new AI-driven marketing economy is its uniformity. The algorithms learn from the same data and thus produce statistical averages. This is why all B2B campaigns, websites and white papers soon start to look as if they came from the same bureaucracy where boredom and predictability meet over a caffè latte in the grey canteen. Every slogan sounds like an echo of the previous one, which is itself an echo of an endless chain of echoes. All visuals look alike. This algorithmically induced monotony evokes the mental image of a municipal office rather than an exciting brand universe. The result is pure boredom — the cardinal sin of communication. In such cases, it might be better to scrap the budget altogether and use it to fund a team trip to a party destination, just to boost morale.

But let’s be serious and get to the point. In such a generic environment, experience is the secret superpower. Experienced B2B marketers possess something that machines lack: lived industry knowledge that goes far beyond data. They know the unwritten rules, understand the real pain points of their target groups and can sense which messages truly matter intuitively. They can see from the course of a campaign which subtle adjustments are needed and what different stakeholders expect.

These are the people who matter now — provided they find a way to reactivate their expertise. Because the AI challenge is primarily a mental one. There are virtually no technical barriers. A browser is enough. Unlike with previous technological shifts, there is no need to learn code or obtain budget approval for expensive software. The challenge lies in the mindset, and in productively linking one’s own know-how with these new, seemingly magical machines.

The Dangerous Experience Gap

Experience also loses its power if it isn’t paired with digital know-how. We’re caught in a cycle: many young people passively scroll through digital worlds and gain little real-world experience. Meanwhile, those with experience entrench themselves behind what worked in the past. ‘Why should I bother relearning everything? I’ve always done it this way,’ is a common attitude. The result is devastating. A generation with little experience is coming up against a group of seniors who are resistant to change. Yet the key to a successful AI future for our society lies precisely in combining fresh perspectives with lived expertise. Both sides must move towards each other. One side must come with curiosity and the other with a willingness to share knowledge.

So how can we bridge this gap? As always, the answer lies in action rather than theorising. Those who experience firsthand the power that comes from combining their expertise with AI will transform scepticism into pure enthusiasm.

Start with simple experiments: let AI develop creative variations of your proven campaign approaches. Use your expertise to identify the most valuable ideas among the machine’s suggestions. The more industry experience you contribute, the better the results will be. In ‘warp mode’ — the state in which humans and AI collaborate — a new creative dynamic emerges. What used to be thought of as sequential now happens simultaneously. Multiple solution paths for problems are developed within seconds, which you can evaluate using your experience-honed judgement. This process awakens new enthusiasm for your craft in a playful and incidental way. A fertile symbiosis is formed: the machine provides speed and variety, while the experienced marketer contributes judgement and contextual knowledge — an unbeatable combination.

Agencies as Courage builders

Agencies can play a key role here. They are evolving into mediators between human expertise and machine efficiency. The most successful creatives today see themselves as activators of experiential knowledge, translating in both directions. They help companies identify the tacit knowledge of their experienced employees and translate it into precise instructions and processes for AI systems. At the same time, they filter and refine machine output using the judgement and creativity that can only be acquired through years of experience in client meetings, meeting deadlines and the irrepressible drive to create something original. Their greatest value lies in their ability to introduce rough edges where algorithms would otherwise smooth everything out. The agency becomes a sparring partner that asks critical questions and maintains a high level of courage in marketing when everyone else takes the easy route. At the same time, they ensure strategic coherence and consistent implementation.

All of this becomes possible when experienced professionals return to the fold. When machines set the pace, we need humans with the courage and desire to engage. Your moment has come. Without your input, AI will be leaderless. Are you ready for your liftoff?