MIT data reveals the learning gap that kills GenAI ROI—plus the workflow fixes that actually work…
This week: Why 95% of GenAI pilots crater, the death of spray-and-pray GTM, how buyers now self-serve before they speak, the new rules of AI search, and why your ICP might be useless. Giddyup!
The 95% AI Pilot Failure Trap
MIT’s latest numbers sting: 95 % of enterprise GenAI pilots never deliver ROI. The culprit isn’t model quality or regulation—it’s the learning gap. Teams bolt on AI without building feedback loops, context tuning, or role clarity. One CEO told Oren Greenberg a marketer took three days to do what AI could finish in three hours—then fired the marketer. The winners treat AI as co-pilot, not autopilot: they document workflows, refine prompts weekly, and let humans steer.
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BIG IDEA: AI ROI depends on org design, not algorithms.
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WHY IT MATTERS: Skip the systems work and you'll fund another vanity demo.
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From Funnels to Scalpel-Sharp GTM
Stop pouring six figures into MQL ads while sales already talks to perfect prospects. The new playbook flips the sequence: marketing amplifies accounts that sales has pre-qualified. One cybersecurity team maps individual journeys for CISO, IT, and Compliance leads, then runs paid media like a scalpel. Cold outreach dies unless it starts with live signals—one marketer tripled replies by targeting only LinkedIn-active leads.
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BIG IDEA: Align spend with sales-qualified accounts; volume is vanity, velocity is everything.
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WHY IT MATTERS: Every dollar aimed at unqualified leads is a dollar stolen from deals in motion.
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- Reddit thread confirms 10× engagement when marketing syncs on a short target list
- One commenter blends LinkedIn DMs for relationships with email for direct offers
Meet the Self-Serve Buyer
Seventy percent of research happens before a prospect ever books a call. Buyers pull from ChatGPT threads, peer DMs, G2 grids, and industry Slack groups; they arrive with a shortlist and hard questions about integrations, timelines, and risk. Natasha Vernier of Cable says demos now hinge on practicalities, not features. Your job: be discoverable and useful in the channels they already trust.
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BIG IDEA: B2B buying is now buyer-led; trust is earned long before sales speaks.
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WHY IT MATTERS: If your funnel still pushes demos, you're invisible to 70 % of your market.
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- Reddit user urges acting like a consultant, not a closer
- Natasha Vernier doubles down: transparency about complexity builds early credibility
Brand Gravity in the Age of AI Search
AI answers are already the #2 lead source for companies like Missive and Help Scout. Instead of chasing backlinks, build "brand gravity" (Peep Laja’s term): become so synonymous with your category that ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude can’t ignore you. LLMs cross-reference G2, Capterra, and case-study pages to verify claims. Accurate, congruent profiles on third-party sites are now table stakes.
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BIG IDEA: Third-party authority > backlinks when algorithms curate your reputation.
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WHY IT MATTERS: If you're absent from AI-generated shortlists, you're absent from deals.
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- Lashay Lewis shows LLMs parse reviews to confirm features and pricing
- Peep Laja recommends a simple AI-mention audit as step one
Strip Complexity, Sharpen the ICP
Marketing’s real customer isn’t sales—it’s the end user. When MQL quotas drive strategy, messaging warps and bad-fit revenue sneaks in. Liam Moroney argues this internal focus turns brands into lead-gen factories. Counter-move: adopt "FD energy"—the Finance Director’s ruthless ability to say no—and obsess over a razor-sharp ICP defined by a painful, solvable problem.
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BIG IDEA: Simple strategy beats complex funnels; clarity compounds.
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WHY IT MATTERS: Every "yes" to off-ICP revenue dilutes positioning and steals focus.
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- TK Kader warns that chasing personas instead of pain points wastes a year
- B2B Jade at Ignite shows how tool overload kills creativity
One question to take into next week: What single process, tool, or metric could you kill tomorrow to give your team instant clarity?
