Marketing technology has never been more capable. AI tools promise an increase in effectiveness, automation platforms streamline workflows, and analytics can deliver compelling insights at large. However, research conducted by Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs, surveying 1,015 B2B marketers in 2025, suggests a different story about what actually drives results, one where human judgement, strategic thinking, and organisational capability outweigh the tools themselves.

61% of marketers reported improved content strategy effectiveness over the past year. Among the most effective teams, content relevance and quality ranked first (65%), followed by team skills and capabilities (53%). Technology and tools placed fourth (43%), behind alignment with sales teams. The data underscores a simple truth: performance improves not through better tools, but through better application of human capability.

Organisations can gain a clear advantage by investing where competitors overlook. The challenge lies in justifying these investments when the industry continues to pull resources toward newer technology.

What actually drives performance?

How do organisations define success? The research found 59% of B2B marketers rate their efforts as at least somewhat effective with only 12% exceeding their goals, 47% met most. Nearly half still struggle with mixed results.

What makes the difference? Effective teams credit sales alignment (45%), customer understanding (40%), and measurement capabilities (40%). Budget allocation barely registers at 20%. Success flows from internal capabilities rather than spending levels.

The pattern holds up in regards to content strategy too. Nearly all marketers (97%) have a documented approach. Strategy refinement drove improvements for 74%, technology for 51%, team changes for 40%. People and planning matter more than tools.

Teams that invest in capabilities see returns. Teams that chase tools without building capacity to use them strategically see diminishing benefits.

AI Makes You Faster, Not Smarter

Nearly all B2B marketers (95%) now use AI-powered applications, with 89% deploying them for content creation. The productivity gains are undeniable: 87% report improved efficiency and 80% cite faster workflows.

But the numbers shift when measuring what actually matters. Only 65% see improved creative capability, 58% notice better content quality, and just 39% detect enhanced content performance. Twelve per cent report that their content quality actually decreased with AI assistance, and another 22% remain uncertain about its impact.

AI accelerates production brilliantly, but it struggles with the strategic and creative thinking that separates memorable marketing from forgettable output. The technology makes teams faster — not smarter.

If you invest in AI without simultaneously investing in the people who direct it, you’re optimising for volume, not value. Your team will produce more content, but that doesn’t mean better content. They’ll move faster, but not necessarily in the right direction.

“Success in marketing isn’t about talent or technology. It’s about talent and technology. Teams must keep pace with innovation while celebrating and empowering professionals who are bold, clever, creative, and dynamic, bringing exceptional work and energy to everything they do.”

Bria Bell, VP of Industry Engagement Marketing, JPMorgan Chase & Co

Treat AI adoption as a dual investment. When budgeting for new tools, allocate equivalent resources to developing the strategic capabilities that guide them. This means training teams to ask sharper questions, refine strategic direction, and evaluate output critically. Technology and talent work as complements, not substitutes. Organisations that grasp this will extract exponentially more value from identical tools.

The budget priority problem

When asked which areas they plan to increase investment in for 2026, 45% of B2B marketers prioritised AI-powered marketing tools. Events and experiential marketing followed at 33%, owned media at 32%. Human resources (salaries, training, team development) ranked last at 9%.This allocation contradicts the very factors marketers identify as driving effectiveness. 

“Efficiency is only the first chapter of the AI marketing story, not the ending. Actually, maybe it’s the prologue. AI is like giving every marketer a turbo-charged typewriter. Hooray! We can all crank out words faster. But the bigger prize is what we do with the time saved: the slower, deeper work of thinking. The bold ideas. The genuine human that no machine can automate.”

Ann Handley, Chief Content Officer, MarketingProfs

Speed without direction produces volume without value. Teams need capacity for strategic thinking, creative problem-solving, and judgement, all of which as capabilities that develop through investment in professional development, not software licences.

Where to Focus Investment

Rebalancing investment priorities means matching spending to the factors that actually drive performance. This doesn’t mean abandoning technology. It means ensuring it’s supported by parallel investment in human capability.

Cross-functional alignment delivers measurable returns. The research shows 45% of effective teams cite alignment between marketing and sales as crucial to their performance. Building this alignment requires time, process development, and often organisational restructuring, which are investments that rarely appear in technology budgets but consistently pay dividends.

Quarterly workshops that bring marketing and sales together to review shared objectives, refine lead qualification criteria, and align content priorities can significantly reduce friction and accelerate deal cycles.

One-third of marketers still struggle to measure content effectiveness. Yet measurement frameworks determine whether teams can prove value and secure future resources. Developing this capability requires analytical skills, strategic thinking, and the discipline to track and act on findings.

At 74%, strategy refinement led all factors in improving content strategy effectiveness. This demands teams capable of critical evaluation, creative problem-solving, and adaptive planning, all of which are skills cultivated through professional development, exposure to diverse perspectives, and the psychological safety to experiment and learn from failure.

The Path Forward

The research presents business leaders with two clear options: follow the prevailing pattern, allocating the majority of incremental budgets to technology while treating human capital as a fixed cost, or recognise what the data demonstrates. Sustainable advantage stems from the quality of strategic thinking, the depth of customer understanding, and the ability to execute with creativity and precision.

When human resources rank last at 9% while AI tools lead at 45%, organisations signal a belief that technology can solve problems that actually require capability. Closing this gap demands conviction to defend training budgets, discipline to measure capability development as rigorously as software ROI, and recognition that the rarest resource in modern marketing is strategic thinking applied consistently over time.

The organisations that grasp this truth won’t just survive the AI transformation, they’ll use it to pull further ahead.