B2B marketing, sales, and product leaders are entering 2026 with more questions than answers. The pace of change across go-to-market (GTM) functions has accelerated, driven by the widespread adoption of generative AI and compounded by persistent economic and political volatility. Once considered experimental, AI now powers daily operations — and the implications are far-reaching. AI is transforming how teams create content, engage buyers, and develop products. But it is also introducing new risks that many organizations are unprepared to manage. Meanwhile, external forces, from shifting buyer behaviors to geopolitical tensions, are reshaping the landscape in ways that demand sharper foresight and more adaptive planning.
What This Means For 2026
To help go-to-market leaders navigate these challenges, here is a look at three of the 2026 predictions that Forrester believes will define the year for B2B marketing, sales, and product leaders — and what leaders must do now to stay ahead of risk and lead with confidence:
- Ungoverned genAI in commercial apps will cost B2B companies more than $10 billion. AI is everywhere — in sales tools, marketing workflows, and product development. The pace of new and untested functionality combined with lagging AI user skills will result in the loss of more than $10 billion in enterprise value, such as through declining stock prices, legal settlements, and fines. (That may sound like a big number. Just a few weeks ago, however, a global consulting firm refunded its client hundreds of thousands of dollars for a project deliverable that contained AI hallucinations and “slop.”) Top-down attempts to minimize risk by applying governance practices used for internally developed applications are inadequate for governing genAI in commercial applications. Organizations must improve employees’ AI intelligence quotient and empower employees to spot and stop bad outputs before they reach customers.
- Employees outside centralized content teams will create two-thirds of content. The days of centralized content teams owning the full production cycle are numbered. GenAI and creative tools are putting content capabilities directly into the hands of employees. By the end of 2026, traditional content teams will no longer create two-thirds of content in B2B organizations. This shift offers speed and scale — but also introduces risk. Leaders must equip employees with decision frameworks, training, and guardrails or risk diluting their brand and degrading CX.
- Seventy-five percent of enterprise B2B companies will increase budgets for influencer relations. External influencers such as analysts and subject-matter experts are playing a bigger role in B2B buying decisions and the buying network — buyers increasingly rely on them for fact-based insights. In 2026, most B2B organizations will increase budgets for influencer engagement. This increase is down to recognition of the power that external influencers wield to build trust, especially in an increasingly AI-powered discovery environment. This isn’t about chasing trends; it’s about aligning GTM strategy and activation to surface meaningful buying signals and drive measurable impact.
You can learn how to put these predictions into action during this webinar. Get additional complimentary resources on the Predictions 2026 hub.
This post was written by Principal Analyst Renee Irion and originally appeared here.
