Marketers have been urged to take a long term view on artificial intelligence spend, after research suggested impatience could lead to organisations scaling back their AI ambitions.
Forrester’s B2B Marketing & Sales Predictions 2025 report found some marketers have been pursuing quick wins, but warned these are unlikely to “deliver meaningful change” because of the short-term nature of their strategic focus.
The research consulting group urged marketers to “use insights gained from trial and error to methodically build a path to growth” and encouraged them to focus on strengthening infrastructure and data practices.”
“Many organisations will try to address the lack of competency with reorganisations, such as moving partner ecosystem marketing directly under the CMO, swapping revenue development reps between sales and marketing, or moving revenue operations under a go-to-market title,” the report concluded.
“Instead of making superficial changes, have the courage to focus on long-delayed moves such as resetting strategy and planning to orient around customers, fixing broken revenue processes, improving operational effectiveness, and levelling up talent to blend human and machine competencies.”
The research also found that Millennial and Gen buyers are more likely to be influenced by online communities, social media, and industry conferences when making buying decisions in 2025.
“As extended value networks become an increasingly important part of the buying process, B2B marketers and sellers must understand these outside influencers and develop capabilities to enable, support, and interact with them.”
An eight page summary of the latest report findings is available here.