3 Pitfalls of AI in B2B Marketing

with Sabuhi Yahya

Marketing Automation Leader, Sabuhi Yahya, walks us through the 3 main areas where B2B organizations can run into trouble when it comes to leveraging AI.

Transcript:

Nichole: “Today, we’re diving deep with the incredible Sab Yahya, a true powerhouse as a Marketing Cloud Champion and the driving force behind Ateko’s Marketing Automation Practice. We’re pulling back the curtain on three common AI pitfalls in marketing and, more importantly, how we can tackle them head-on. Sab – what’s one of the first mistakes you see companies making when using AI in B2B Marketing.

Sab: (slight pause) One thing we see a lot – and people kind of forget – is that AI is only part of the equation. Human oversight is still really critical in B2B Marketing.

Nichole: With all the hype about AI, why is that human in the loop still necessary?

Sab: AI without human supervision creates significant risks in B2B environments where relationships and credibility matter the most. (pause) Unsupervised systems can generate inaccurate technical specifications, provide wrong pricing information, or even create misleading statements in proposals and sales materials. (slow down) And the thing is, these kinds of errors can damage long-term client relationships, cause contract disagreements, and really undermine the trust that B2B partnerships need to succeed.

Nichole: That makes a lot of sense. What else are you seeing that can put companies at risk?

Sab: Another big one is over-reliance on AI, which ends up creating a lot of content that sounds the same. AI tools often generate material that feels generic and kind of strips away what makes each company unique. So when businesses lean too heavily on AI for marketing, proposals, or communications, they end up with similar language, tone, and messaging as their competitors. (pause) And that sameness makes it really hard for prospects to see why they should pick one vendor over another, which weakens the competitive edge that B2B companies really need to win deals.

Nichole: That’s a great point. When we’re making buying decisions, we want to feel like we know who we’re buying from. With AI-generated content, it’s hard to get a sense for the people behind the company – which ultimately, is often the biggest differentiator. 

Really impactful insights…so far – but what’s the third issue?

Sab: The third issue we see is that AI personalization can fall short when it comes to accounting for complex business scenarios and organizational dynamics.

Nichole: And why is this a problem?

Sab: Well, these systems may create really generic solutions to complex enterprise problems, or they might target the wrong stakeholders in a buying committee. (pause) Sometimes they even ignore critical timing factors like budget cycles, regulatory changes, or competitive pressures. And this kind of contextual blindness can actually damage carefully built B2B relationships and even cost sales opportunities.

Nichole: Ok, so to recap, the 3 common pitfalls we want to avoid are…

Sab:

• Lack of human oversight
• Over-reliance on AI creating content that all sounds the same
• Not accounting for complex business scenarios and organizational dynamics