November.

From Forrester’s billion-dollar warnings on rushed AI adoption to rising investment in human creators, Reddit’s comeback, Gen-Z’s shifting loyalties, and the slow slopification of Linkedin, the message is clear: AI may accelerate things, but credibility, creativity and connection still belong to people.

Read on for a monthly download on all things Content, Community and Creator-led in B2B.

Kicking things off this month with two insights from one source – Forrester. First they explore the factors driving AI adoption in B2B (TLDR; aligning marketing and IT, data driven ops and investment in foundational AI readiness).

Then in the big one (their 2026 predictions for B2B marketing, sales and product leaders), they forecast that due to the pace of new and untested AI functionality, combined with lagging AI user skills will result in the loss of more than $10 billion in enterprise value (!)

Which might be why key trends elsewhere in the report point to an increased investment in HUMANS with employees outside centralised content teams predicted to be creating two-thirds of content in 2026, and 75% of enterprise B2B companies increasing budgets for influencer relations.

This totally reflects our experience over 2025 developing campaigns with external influencers, and helping organisations to develop their own internal creators, and we don’t see it slowing down any time soon…

This is cool (from Data is Beautiful on Reddit) – a motion graphic charting the relative share of web articles written by humans Vs AI over time. Spoiler alert, it all changes when ChatGPT launches…

And in a serendipitous coincidence, Forrester (again!) asks whether B2B brands should embrace Reddit? (Answer: Probably, with caution, and largely because AI search prioritises credibility and depth – e.g. from peer authority, community-led content and independent influence – over traditional SEO tactics.)

This – How AI Search is Collapsing the B2B Buyer Journey – goes into more detail. And this report, via YahooFinance,<!–> finds that “AI has overtaken traditional search for a quarter of B2B buyers, with nearly two-thirds using GenAI as much as or more than search when researching vendors.”–>

This month we’ve also seen a glut of new AI applications in the content marketing space – many from startups (where the risk is that one of the AI behemoths could tomorrow include their product as a feature…). Speaking of which, last week Adobe launched a suite of agentic AI tools promising automation that preserves brand voice and the ability to deliver – you guessed it – personalisation at scale. Others question Adobe’s ability / credibility on ‘governance’ given previous privacy concerns raised towards the company and how it uses customer data.

‘Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should’ is a truism that’s been around since the earliest days of direct marketing and personalisation. Now updated by emarketer for the AI age and reminding us that relevance always beats mindless repetition of your name, cheap web-scraping ‘research’ into your business, etc.

A short and useful summary of what B2B Marketers learned at Advertising Week New York last month, including this “it currently is not hard to spot AI-generated content and that is where marketers must focus to make their copy standout…This is why influencers are gaining traction, giving them a rise as being authentic”.

We don’t normally curate content from sources like The Drum on the assumption that you’ve seen it already but ICYMI this report about Forrester’s (AGAIN!) recent B2B Summit is a good one: “Are you ready to put your CEO on TikTok?” There was an audible laugh from the crowd. “Are you ready to create the chief influencer officer?” “Do you invite influencers to your company events?” The laughter seemed to dissipate, because if the answer to any of these is ‘no,’ then chances are you’re missing out on sales.”

And on a similar theme AdWeek asks “Could the Next Hit Podcaster be your CFO?” based on a new podcast from Morning Brew which “will not be hosted by a journalist, social media lead, or even a professional podcaster—instead, it will be led by Kate Noel, the senior vice president of people operations at Morning Brew.”

Back to insights from Advertising Week New York where a panel ‘pushed back’ on the perceived wisdom that Gen-Z are not brand loyal, and they hate advertising… Key quote: “The real culprit of Gen Z’s perceived aversion may be a failure by marketers to understand what types of content resonate with a group that is intensely picky and increasingly pulled toward insular online communities that require a different mindset to break into” (from a B2B point of view, various reports estimate that Gen-Z now make up 9 to 15% of B2B buyers – with a far higher percentage having influence on buying decisions).

“Community is the new persona” according to a panel at B2B Worldfest last week exploring how B2B brands can connect with buyers by building, nurturing and activating communities of advocates, and featuring Mel Lazarus, ecosystem engagement director at Open Banking, and friend of VOLUME.

Can Linkedin survive AI? Paul Armstrong asks the question in his City AM column, can the world’s largest platform of professional communities survive the double edged sword of artificial intelligence? On one side powering a new way of recruiting and on the other the LLM created content. Not one to pull his punches, Paul suggests the platform’s feed has become a slopification tsunami<!–>: endless synthetic authenticity–> and algorithmic filler. It hasn’t died but it feels fossilised.

And it’s not just AI that threatens Linkedin’s status. Largely driven by podcast video, the volume of B2B content on YouTube – and the audience for it – is growing fast. So the new YouTube community feature is an interesting development.

Back in the summer we took our podcast The Problem with B2B Marketing on the road, recording mini-eps with speakers and guests at the Legal Marketing Association’s inaugural European Conference. We discussed gnarly topics, including The Evolving Role of the CMO, Building your Personal Brand, and How to (really) Leverage Data for Growth. All eps for your listening and viewing pleasure can be accessed here<!–>. And huge thanks to all our guests:–>

• Karen Morton, Chief Marketing Officer, Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP and President, LMA Europe 2025
• Peter Skinner, Marketing & BD Director (CMO), Wedlake Bell, and LMA Europe 2026 President-Elect
• Michelle Holford, Chief Commercial Officer, Slaughter and May
• Owen Williams, Partner, Director of Marketing & BD, Simmons & Simmons
• Shirley Meyers, Head of Marketing, BDBF
• Vanessa Montero, Chief Communications Officer, Hogan Lovells
• Heather Vadgama, CMO, Walkers
• Raya Blakeley-Glover, Global Head of Business Development & Sales, Bird & Bird
• Mike Beswick, BD, Marketing & Communications Director, Taylor Wessing

After a packed launch and 200-strong waitlist, we’re back on Monday 24th November for round two of Difference Works , a community connecting neurodiverse entrepreneurs, freelancers, and creatives across the Soho Works and Soho House & Co<!–> networks. This session explores burnout – and how to avoid it. Expect candid stories, practical wellbeing strategies, and actionable takeaways to help you work smarter, not harder. –>

Hosted by Kalila Bolton (founder of SheSpot) and our very own Mark Maddox<!–> – both ADHD founders and Soho Works members. We’ll be joined by Aidy Smith–> – Soho Works community member and award winning TV presenter, journalist and neurodivergence & LGBT+ advocate – alongside a panel of neurodiverse entrepreneurs and ADHD experts.

Monday 24th November, 6.30 – 8pm, Soho Works, 180 Strand, London WC2R 1EA. Spaces are limited and the first event was a sell out, so sign up quick! To join us, email mark.maddox@wearevolume.io