Andrew Watts

Here's how AI kills Demand Generation as a marketing function AI Assistants like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Microsoft co-pilot are like bright interns completing tasks on your behalf. They'll use tools to browse the web, code, analyze data, and more. Demand Gen exists because B2B buyers need help understanding the best software for their business. The best demand gen engines can nudge you toward making a purchase. And they're all in different stages of that journey. Some have just discovered your website, others are reading through your emails (usually terrible emails), some are taking your demo, and others are comparing your features vs. a list of competitors. Very few people want this job. Buying software isn't something people 'want' to do; it's something 'they have to' do. AI Agents will be able to do most of this on behalf of the buyer. They'll be able to use tools to do most of the research and recommendations so you don't have to. - Agents will be able to summarise all of your marketing/sales material, website, emails etc - It can start a chat with your online chat assistant to clarify questions. - It will be able to sign up and complete a demo, checking whether you have the required features. We've seen companies like Adept work on agents that can use software, and OpenAI is also investing in this area. - It will be able to comb through user reviews online, creating a score card based on the positives and negatives of the things you care about It means the art of demand gen gets lost because you're creating material for agents rather than humans. It doesn't matter about your copy, personalization, or timing of your comms in helping to nudge people towards a purchase. The agent distills the entire process down to a checklist, and you either meet the requirements or you don't. I suspect we'll see a lot of agents pop up that will do 90% of the research and recommendations around software buying in the future.