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Over the past 7-months we've run multiple AI and ABM certification events (the photo below is from our July event in London).

On top of those and our ForgeX research studies, I’ve spent hundreds of hours on calls with marketing leaders at companies ranging from mid-market to Fortune 50 enterprises, to understand what their AI deployment actually looks like.

Here's what I’m hearing over and over again.

Propensity → is an AI-powered lifecycle marketing platform for personalized B2B orchestration.

Folloze → AI can draft your ABM campaign in an hour. Folloze deploys it live, per account.

7 Non-Obvious Patterns Across AI + ABM

Live AI in ABM Certification Event | London

1. Individual AI adoption is up, structured organizational AI adoption is not

Marketing leaders repeatedly express that individuals have incorporated AI into their own workflows while the broader organization lacked a broader internal AI operating model or roadmap.

They describe AI adoption as "everyone's kind of doing their own thing," "pockets of goodness," "completely siloed," and "on the side of everybody's desk."

2. AI investments are outpacing organizational capability

Most organizations have already invested in enterprise AI platforms like ChatGPT Enterprise, Claude, or Gemini.

What has not kept pace is the organizational infrastructure surrounding those investments.

Marketing leaders consistently point to the absence of structured enablement, governance, role-specific training, and defined ownership. In many cases, organizations have “thrown enterprise AI platforms at teams” while simultaneously expecting the practitioners to determine how those tools should be incorporated into daily work.

+1000 licenses had been purchased, but everyone was still required to"figure it out on their own."

3. Capacity is quickly replacing AI skepticism

Marketing leaders are consistently describing AI as something they knew would improve their performance but struggled to prioritize alongside existing responsibilities.

As one practitioner summarized, "I know AI would help me do those things, but I don't have time to learn how to have the AI do it for me."

Without dedicated enablement and structured learning, AI becomes another responsibility layered onto already constrained teams.

4. Organizations with a defined roadmap are progressing faster (obviously)

Our ForgeX AI in ABM benchmark research continues to reinforce what we hear qualitatively.

Organizations with a defined AI roadmap are approximately 2.5 times more likely to be among the highest-performing teams than those without one.

The roadmap itself is not the source of competitive advantage. Rather, it provides sequencing, prioritization, governance, and organizational alignment.

Less mature organizations frequently describe their AI efforts as staring at a "blank page" or asking, "Where do we even start?"

5. AI is exposing operational weaknesses that predate AI

Many of the barriers attributed to AI are, in reality, longstanding operational issues.

For example:

  • Poor CRM data

  • Fragmented data across systems

  • Inconsistent governance

These challenges existed long before the AI boom, and AI is simply making their consequences more visible.

Several marketing leaders described AI initiatives forcing conversations around data quality and process discipline that had been postponed for years.

6. Organizational maturity is reflected in the language teams use

One of the more subtle patterns was linguistic rather than technical.

Organizations in earlier stages of maturity tended to discuss tools, prompts, and experimentation.

More mature organizations discussed workflows, agents, connectors, standards, operating models, and governance.

While vocabulary alone does not determine maturity, it often reflects where an organization has focused its attention.

7. Executive pressure is accelerating change

Boards, executive leadership, and investors are increasingly asking for evidence of an AI strategy and measurable business outcomes.

Internal conversations have progressed from whether AI should be adopted to whether organizations are moving quickly enough to remain competitive.

This external pressure is accelerating investment, but it is also exposing the difference between organizations pursuing isolated experimentation and those building long-term capabilities.

Takeaway

Organizations that successfully transition from isolated AI experimentation to coordinated execution will compound the benefits of AI across teams, functions, and customer experiences.

Those that continue to rely primarily on individual initiatives are likely to see incremental productivity gains but struggle to translate them into durable competitive advantage.

Based on the conversations we've had over the past several months, that transition is becoming one of the defining characteristics separating the highest-performing B2B marketing organizations from the rest.

2026 AI in ABM Benchmark Report

In this report, you’ll learn:

  • What separates AI leaders from the rest of the market

  • Which AI use cases are delivering the greatest business impact

  • Where leading organizations are focusing their AI investments

Survey: How B2B Marketers Prioritize and Target

We’re researching how GTM teams predict and prioritize where focus drives outcomes.

The findings will inform an upcoming ForgeX report on best practices, operational foundations, and where AI fits in.

  • Time: 5-7 minutes

  • Thank you: early access to the research report

  • Privacy: data is exclusive to ForgeX, never shared

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Have an awesome rest of the week all!

Davis

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