If you’ve worked in B2B marketing for any length of time you know that status quo thinking too often holds marketers back from the kinds of adaptation B2B brands need to succeed.
There is great promise for AI to transform marketing, but whether the promises being made by AI platforms and advocates will be kept, time will tell. In the meantime, B2B marketing leaders are at the center of navigating what works and what doesn’t in a time where the pace of change is accelerating.
Of course, change has always been part of a B2B marketer’s career. What feels different today is the speed, scope, and uncertainty of it.
According to LinkedIn’s 2026 marketing skills analysis, the fastest-rising capabilities include both technical and human-centered disciplines, from performance analysis and AI literacy to visual storytelling, team collaboration, community engagement, and operational efficiency. Those insights provide useful direction: B2B marketers who grow through the kind of transformation and disruption like we are experiencing now are those that keep learning, stay grounded in outcomes, and build skills that create value.
Growth is not just about the tools. Nor is it just about the talent. It’s about both!
That pattern shows up beyond marketing skills lists. LinkedIn’s 2026 Talent Report found that only 14% of organizations qualify as talent velocity leaders, yet those leaders are significantly more confident in their ability to attract, retain, and align talent as priorities change. Those leaders are more likely to build AI literacy, but they are also more likely to strengthen communication, trust-building, adaptability, and collaboration. While AI is now thoroughly ingrained in our work as marketers, it is human skills that are becoming more relevant and an important differentiator.
Beyond research from LinkedIn, I wanted to understand the impact of AI driven change on careers and what advice successful B2B marketers could share. I asked several top B2B marketing pros like Beverly Jackson, Robert Rose, Tyrona Heath and Pam Didner for their best career advice. I also asked the B2B marketing leaders we recently recognized in the Winter 2026 Edition of B2B Marketers on the Move a simple question:
What is the best career advice or lesson that has helped you navigate change in your marketing career?
1. Make continuous learning a career strategy
If there’s one pattern that stands out, it’s that adaptability is a habit. Now faced with a constant stream of new technologies, channels, and buyer behaviors, AI has amplified the pace and breadth of those changes even more. The B2B marketers who continue to grow in this environment are the ones who treat learning as a core part of their career strategy.
Ty Heath, Global Director, Thought Leadership, GTM Strategy at LinkedIn describes it this way:
“Treat your career like training, not a single race. AI isn’t a single disruption to survive. It’s a new training environment. The leaders who thrive won’t be the ones scrambling to ‘figure it out’ this quarter. They’ll be the ones building the muscle to continuously adapt. Change isn’t the exception. It’s the job. And that’s what makes it interesting.”
That ability to adapt quickly and stay comfortable with uncertainty was echoed by James Montana-Pickering, Director of Product Marketing at Vizient:
“The best career advice I have learned as a marketing leader is to be agile and flexible. You need to learn to adapt quickly and be comfortable with change and ambiguity. If you can pivot quickly when needed you will be more successful.”
No stranger to experimenting with new technologies and ideas, Pam Didner, B2B Consultant and Keynote Speaker at Relentless Pursuit shared,
“The best advice I’ve received is to get your hands dirty and learn new things yourself. That doesn’t mean chasing every shiny object. But when a technology fundamentally changes how we work-like the internet, smartphones, search engines, or now AI-you need to understand how it impacts your role.
The best way to stay relevant in modern marketing is to learn by doing, testing, and experimenting with new technologies or tools. Sometimes that even means investing your own time or money to learn.
Marketers who navigate change best are those who stay open-minded and actively experiment. Whether you call it pivoting, adapting, reinventing, or upskilling, it ultimately requires the willingness to unlearn and relearn.”
For some marketers, that lesson came early in their careers as shared by Ken Kundis, Chief Marketing Officer at CEI:
“The best advice I’ve received: Don’t become a dinosaur. I had a CMO earlier in my career who told me this, as it related to marketing automation and analytics. I listened to the advice and have made sure ever since to stay up on marketing tools, most recently AI tools like Canva, Pictory and others.”
Others approach continuous learning as a broader mindset rooted in curiosity and initiative as Debbie Kestin Schildkraut, VP, Global B2B Program Lead, CMO Global Growth Council at Association of National Advertisers tells us:
“No one gave me this advice on navigating change, it’s simply how I’ve always approached my work. Keep learning, take initiative, and stay focused on what’s best for the business and the customer. When you lead with curiosity instead of resistance, change becomes an opportunity.”
Across these perspectives, what stands out is that B2B marketers who thrive through disruption are the ones continually building new skills, experimenting with new ideas, and staying agile enough to evolve along with the market.
2. Start with outcomes, not tools
While continuous learning keeps you adaptable, real marketing effectiveness requires a relentless focus on clarity of purpose. With rapid AI integration, the biggest trap is confusing the value of things like efficiency gains with impact. The most successful marketers know that the technology should never lead the strategy; instead, every tool needs to be anchored to specific business outcomes and customer value.
Rob Patey, Director of Content and Phenom, talks about this in terms of strategic clarity.
“Begin with the end in mind. AI is no different. Marketers are easily distracted by tasks and toys. We often fall into the trap of doing more things with more tools will be the panacea of success. Nothing could be further from the truth. Just like any other tech turn, start out with what you want to achieve and then judiciously apply AI.”
That same perspective shows up in advice from Ed Erdem Demirtas, Lead Digital Customer Growth – B2B at AT&T.
“One lesson that stuck with me is simple: don’t fall in love with the tool, fall in love with the problem you’re solving. Marketing is full of impressive AI tools, but real progress starts with asking the hard questions about the problem first. When you do that, it becomes much easier to choose the right tools that fit your process instead of wasting time forcing your process to fit the tool.”
The distinction between activity and results is also an important part of how marketers adapt their plans as Nakul Goyal, Chief Marketing Officer at CARFAX describes:
“The biggest lesson I’ve learned is that you can’t fall in love with your plan. Markets shift, teams change, and AI is forcing all of us to reexamine old assumptions. Plan = Activity. Goal = Outcome.
Key takeaway: Be stubborn on outcomes, but flexible on strategy.
Actionable advice: Build a habit of revisiting assumptions. Ask often: What’s changed, what are we missing, and what would we do differently now? That simple discipline helps me navigate disruption with more clarity and less ego.”
For Treasa Dovander, Head of Content & Dialogue at Stora Enso, the connection between technology, storytelling, and business impact comes down to clarity of thinking:
“I learned early that change doesn’t require louder messaging; it requires clearer thinking and sense-making. Whether navigating AI transformation or market pressure, our role as marketing leaders is to connect technology and storytelling to measurable business value. Outcomes matter – make sure to define them upfront.”
What I take from this collective of advice is that tools will continue to evolve, platforms will rise and fall, and new technologies will transform how marketing gets done. But the discipline of defining the outcome first and applying technology in service of that outcome is still one of the most reliable ways to navigate change.
3. Anchor your work in timeless marketing principles
When technology moves fast, it’s easy for marketers to feel a little overwhelmed. New platforms pop up, algorithms evolve, and AI changes how content is created and discovered. With all of this change, there’s a natural instinct to search for the next, new playbook. But what experienced B2B marketers point out is the stability of the fundamentals of good marketing. Centering work on those core principles helps marketers deal with disruption with clarity and purpose.
Robert Rose, Chief Strategy Advisor at Content Marketing Institute and Founder at Seventh Bear, talks about how his understanding of value creation evolved over the course of his career:
“Early in my career, I misinterpreted my grandfather’s advice to ‘create an experience for someone every day’ as a prompt for optimization – how to extract value from an audience. But the real power lies in the shared experience; when you do good for someone else, you’re the first beneficiary. Navigating today’s AI-driven disruption isn’t about increasing speed, but having the courage to slow down and find the creative edge that only comes when we optimize for the creation of value instead of the extraction of it.”
That emphasis on enduring principles also shows up in how marketers think about strateg as Dakota Shane Nunley, Director of Content & Authority Strategy at Product.ai, points out:
“The best lesson I’ve learned is that change doesn’t reward the people who react fastest – it rewards the people who build systems that absorb change by design. When AI started reshaping how content gets discovered and consumed, the instinct was to chase every new tactic. But tactics decay. What lasts is a clear model of the problem you solve and the fundamentals underneath it. I stopped asking ‘what’s the new playbook?’ and started asking ‘what’s the underlying principle that won’t change regardless of the platform, algorithm, or medium?’ Once you anchor to core truths, every disruption becomes a variable – not a crisis.”
For Jon-Mikel Bailey, Director of Marketing at Xecunet, that principle shows up in the type of marketing we choose to create.
“Ann Handley, author of Content Rules, once told me, ‘If I had to sum up my book, Content Rules, in one sentence, it would be this: Create marketing your customers will thank you for.’ This was a powerful message, and I took it to mean to not create noise, but to create marketing that informs, empowers, and inspires. I have tried to follow this advice in every bit of marketing I have a hand in.”
These perspectives point to a basic truth for marketers that are navigating disruption. Tools, channels, and technologies will keep evolving, but the core principles that guide meaningful marketing are more important than ever.
4. Anticipate change and move early
Another lesson that comes up often from experienced B2B marketers is that the most difficult disruptions are rarely the ones you see coming. The marketers who navigate those moments best are often the ones who started adapting early.
Mark Milinkovich, Director of Product Marketing at Arango, recalls advice that shaped how he approaches change:
“Looking back one of the best pieces of advice came from a mantra John Chambers shared during all hands when he was CEO of Cisco: ‘Make changes before you have to.’ As a marketing leader, that’s meant proactively anticipating shifts in markets, customer needs, and technology-especially with AI-and acting before disruption forces your hand. Navigating change successfully is less about reacting to trends and more about internalizing what’s coming next and adapting early. Market and Marketing leaders don’t wait for disruption; they prepare for it.”
For Dagmara Szulce, Executive Vice President at Association of National Advertisers, proactive leadership is how she stays grounded:
“Best advice: Marry the brand story to the spreadsheet-when markets convulse, truth lives in unit economics (CAC<LTV, retention, velocity) and a clear mission. In downturns, play offense: cut what doesn’t convert, protect talent density, over-invest in product and brand while attention is cheap, and be a learning animal. Launch experiments weekly, get fluent in AI and make hard calls fast.”
Even when leaders do not control the timing of change, they can still control how they respond to it. Beverly Spaulding, Sr Director, Global Demand Generation at Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence, points out that accepting reality quickly can help marketers move forward with less friction.
“One piece of advice that’s stuck with me is that as a leader you don’t always get to choose the change (or for that matter agree with it), but you do get to choose how you respond to it. I’ve learned that the faster you accept the new reality and help your team make sense of it, the less time and energy everyone spends resisting it or fearing it, and the more energy everyone has to actually move forward.”
Stepping back and seeing the change objectively can go a long way towards creating the mental mindset you need to adapt as Beverly Jackson, Vice President of Brand and Product Marketing at Zillow shares:
“Find a way to embrace the change. If you can make it personal without taking it personally it’s easier to make change a reality! I never fear change it’s a useless exercise! Lean in!“
The lesson here is that the B2B marketing leaders who handle disruption best are the ones who anticipated change early and position their teams to move forward with confidence.
5. Build the relationships that help you navigate change
Careers rarely evolve in isolation. During periods of transformation, the perspective and support of others often becomes just as valuable as new skills or technologies. Trusted peers, mentors, and professional communities can help marketers interpret signals in the market, challenge assumptions, and see opportunities they might miss on their own. When the environment is uncertain, those relationships can provide insight, inspiration and intelligence.
Sarah Groves, Vice President, Marketing & Communications at Concentra, emphasizes the power of a professional network:
“The best advice I’ve received is simple: your network is the work. In periods of rapid change, the most valuable asset a marketing leader has isn’t a playbook, it’s a trusted community of peers who help you see around corners, challenge your thinking, and move forward with confidence.”
Relationships also help maintain perspective when navigating uncertainty. Dianne Bruno, Head of Global Channel and Field Marketing at Versa Networks, points to a more personal piece of advice.
“The best advice I received was to take life ‘ONE DAY AT A TIME’. Always keep your head up and don’t look back as you are not going that way.”
Viewed through these experiences, the ability to navigate change goes beyond individual capability. It is also about the people around you, the conversations that challenge your thinking, and the encouragement that helps you keep moving forward.
The technology shaping B2B marketing will continue to evolve, but the career advice from these leaders suggests that the fundamentals of navigating change are remarkably consistent. Keep learning. Focus on meaningful outcomes. Anchor your work in principles that create value. Move early when the market shifts. And surround yourself with people who help you see what’s coming next. AI may be accelerating the pace of disruption, but the B2B marketers who thrive will be the ones who combine new capabilities with timeless habits of curiosity, clarity, and connection.
Beyond B2B Marketing Podcast
As part of our continued effort to put a spotlight on talent in the B2B marketing world, be sure to listen, watch and subscribe to the Beyond B2B Marketing podcast where we interview top B2B marketing leaders to uncover break free strategies to go beyond the status quo to become Best Answer Brands.
