SaaStr 819: Swapping Notes on the AI Revolution in Marketing...
The Official SaaStr PodcastFull Title
SaaStr 819: Swapping Notes on the AI Revolution in Marketing with G2's CMO Sydney Sloan
Summary
The episode discusses the profound impact of AI on the B2B marketing and buying landscape, highlighting how enterprises are leading AI adoption due to productivity gains and how the buyer journey is shifting to LLM-first interactions.
It explores the evolution of marketing strategies, the concept of "Generative Engine Optimization" (GEO), and the increasing importance of trust and brand building in an AI-driven world where sales are increasingly conducted via chat.
Key Points
- Enterprises are surprisingly leading AI adoption, driven by significant productivity gains, challenging the historical trend of smaller businesses adopting new technologies first.
- AI is no longer an optional add-on but an "always included" expectation for software, with 88% of buyers considering AI capabilities a prerequisite for purchase.
- The buyer journey has fundamentally changed, with consumers now starting their research with Large Language Models (LLMs), trusting their answers and subsequently verifying information on peer review sites like G2.
- Marketers must adapt to this LLM-first buying process by shifting from traditional SEO to "Generative Engine Optimization" (GEO), focusing content on prompt-based answers and user-generated content that LLMs can index.
- Trust in marketers has eroded, making LLMs a more trusted source, necessitating a focus on rebuilding brand trust through authentic interactions and valuable content that addresses users' "jobs to be done."
- The traditional website experience is evolving towards conversational AI and "sell by chat," where transactions can occur within chat interfaces, mirroring how consumers interact with LLMs.
- There is a growing trend of creating "hidden websites" specifically for AI agents to scrape and learn from, distinct from human-facing web experiences, indicating a dual-purpose content strategy.
- The future of web experiences will likely involve LLMs directly connected to databases, bypassing traditional HTML rendering and browser interfaces, for a more seamless and direct information retrieval process.
- AI orchestration is emerging as a critical role, focused on managing, tuning, and overseeing AI tools to ensure trust and efficiency, replacing traditional roles like AI GTM Ops.
- Founders and CMOs are urged to proactively invest in AI and adapt their strategies for a future where LLMs will significantly influence traffic and user interaction, emphasizing the need for forward-thinking investment and clear predictions.
Conclusion
AI is fundamentally reshaping how buyers discover and purchase software, with LLMs becoming the primary starting point.
Marketers need to adapt by focusing on "Generative Engine Optimization" and rebuilding trust through valuable, persona-driven content.
Embracing AI and anticipating future shifts, such as conversational commerce and webless experiences, is critical for founders and CMOs to remain competitive.
Discussion Topics
- How can marketers effectively rebuild trust and re-establish their brand authority in an era where LLMs are increasingly becoming the primary source of information for buyers?
- What are the most significant ethical considerations marketers must address as AI becomes more integrated into the entire customer journey, from discovery to purchase?
- Beyond optimizing for LLMs, what are the key strategic shifts companies need to make in their overall business operations and talent acquisition to thrive in an AI-driven future?
Key Terms
- LLM
- Large Language Model - A type of artificial intelligence algorithm trained on vast amounts of text data to understand and generate human-like language.
- UGC
- User-Generated Content - Content created by unpaid contributors, typically end-users or customers, as opposed to official brand content.
- PPC
- Pay-Per-Click - An internet advertising model where advertisers pay a fee each time one of their ads is clicked.
- GEO
- Generative Engine Optimization - A proposed new strategy for optimizing content and online presence to be discoverable and perform well within AI language models, similar to SEO for search engines.
- MCP
- Marketing Cloud Platform - A suite of marketing automation and analytics tools offered by software providers.
Timeline
Enterprises are surprisingly leading AI adoption, driven by significant productivity gains.
AI is no longer an optional add-on but an "always included" expectation for software.
You absolutely have to be able to add AI and AI capabilities to existing platforms.
The use of AI is part of the buying process and people are going to LLMs first.
Buyers are going to LLMs first in their research and discovery process and trust them.
Marketers need to figure out how to influence LLMs, shifting to Generative Engine Optimization (GEO).
Content strategy should focus on prompts and answers, with LLMs indexing listicles and UGC.
Trust is moving towards LLMs, presenting a challenge for marketers due to a historical lack of trust in their messaging.
There are two broad categories for marketers: AI-proof (social proof, influencers, events) and full AI (influencing AI agents like ChatGPT).
Brand building is crucial for trust, leveraging voice of customer and trusted sites that LLMs use.
LLMs are accelerating productivity and providing insights, leading to their rapid adoption and user trust.
AI is reducing friction in the buying process, allowing consumers to find better-fitting products more easily.
The web is moving towards GPT, with purchases potentially happening entirely within chat windows.
"Sell by chat" is a new paradigm where AI agents facilitate transactions, mirroring the LLM buying process.
The value of the conversation and perceived value for the recipient is more important than the medium.
The experience of using AI interfaces is improving, making them more desirable than traditional customer service channels.
There's a need for website refreshes to match the conversational AI experience buyers expect after interacting with LLMs.
Agent handoffs and seamless conversational experiences are becoming critical for the customer journey.
The conundrum is where to put content that LLMs are trained on, leading to "hidden websites" for AI scraping.
MCP (Marketing Cloud Platform) can expose product descriptions for LLMs, potentially making traditional websites obsolete.
The future involves LLMs connected directly to databases, bypassing traditional web interfaces.
The focus is shifting from redoing websites to continuing to make the user experience great and build brands.
Tools for persona and content development, and conversion rate optimization, are indispensable.
Voice AI and personal AI assistants are transforming individual workflows and how people interact with technology.
AI workflows are transforming content creation, allowing for scaled production of articles from recordings.
The rise of AI orchestration roles is significant due to the need for managing and tuning AI tools.
Founders and CMOs should force themselves to use AI daily to understand its potential and implications.
Humans underestimate long-term changes, urging strategic investment in AI for the next 6-12 months.
Episode Details
- Podcast
- The Official SaaStr Podcast
- Episode
- SaaStr 819: Swapping Notes on the AI Revolution in Marketing with G2's CMO Sydney Sloan
- Official Link
- https://www.saastr.com/
- Published
- September 10, 2025