Why the Best Answer is Still Human – TopRank® Marketing

I think it’s safe to say that the world of B2B marketing is in a state of flux. And that change extends to B2B thought leadership content.

Publicly, there is enthusiasm for the efficiencies of AI. Privately, there is concern about the sea of sameness AI tools create.

In my continuing efforts to expand my understanding of how thought leadership is evolving, I recently attended a webinar hosted by the Global Thought Leadership Institute (GTLI) that explored this topic.

Moderated by Bob Safian, former editor-in-chief of Fast Company, the panel brought together some heavy hitters from the world of thought leadership including: Lucia Rahilly from McKinsey, Anthony Marshall from IBM, Joss Simpson from Heidrick & Struggles, and Katherine Andrews from Boston Consulting Group (BCG).

The discussion was rich with a focus on AI topics that confirmed a trend we are watching closely here at TopRank Marketing: as AI lowers the floor for content creation, the ceiling for true authority is rising. To compete, B2B brands must evolve their own Answer Engine, a system that delivers trustworthy, experiential, and data-informed answers to buyers who are increasingly skeptical of generic content.

With that perspective as context, here are my top takeaways from the GTLI webinar, including a few key data points from our own 2026 State of B2B Thought Leadership Report in partnership with Ascend2.

1. The soul of Thought Leadership content is (still) data-informed

One of the most telling moments in the webinar came when Katherine Andrews of BCG mentioned that while AI can produce grammatically perfect drafts complete with subheads and formatting, it often lacks the substance that senior executives actually read for. Lucia Rahilly of McKinsey added that AI can be “sycophantic,” giving high scores to mediocre drafts just to be pleasing.

The consensus? AI has no soul.

“Only a human writer or editor can bring that soul,” Anthony noted. True “soul” comes from proprietary insight and hard-won research-the unique intellectual property that a LLM cannot hallucinate.

That distinction matters: according to our Thought Leadership research, 93% of B2B marketers say research-based content is effective at driving engagement and leads, with nearly half calling it very effective, a clear signal that a meaningful, not a mechanical approach is what earns attention and credibility. If you want to stand out in AI search, amongst the media and people who influence your customers in 2026, you cannot simply iterate what is already out there. There is a distinct advantage to creating new knowledge.

2. Trust is the new currency

Trust was a significant theme throughout the GTLI webinar conversation. With AI-generated hallucinations and “confetti” (content that looks good but says nothing) flooding the market, buyers are becoming conditioned to verify everything.

Lucia Rahilly mentioned that McKinsey does not publish anything that hasn’t been substantially re-edited and rigorously fact-checked. The risk of citing competitor data or hallucinated facts is just too high.

That caution is well-founded. 35% of B2B marketers from our survey say original research is significantly more valuable than AI-generated content for building trust and authority, while another 32% say it is more impactful overall. This underscores why verification and human judgment have become non-negotiable when it comes to any kind of content that is AI assisted.

Another perspective on trust when it comes to thought leadership is that it isn’t enough to rely solely on your own brand to carry the weight of credibility. Beyond brand to audience credibility, in order for thought leadership content to be more likely surfaced in AI-powered search, it is advantageous to borrow and build trust through a network of credible voices. Those voices can add validation to the research itself or provide context for use in content extensions from the research for demand gen.

3. The shift to experiential and interrogative content

“We don’t write 10,000-word reports anymore. People aren’t reading long anymore. ”

This statement reflects a reality many marketers are experiencing today. As Katherine Andrews mentioned, audience behavior has fundamentally changed and very few people are engaging with lengthy, static content. The GTLI panel highlighted a shift away from long form PDFs. What’s the alternative? I would suggest more experiential content that invites participation vs. passive consumption. Supporting this shift towards content as experience, our research found that 48% of B2B marketers say interactive experiences make thought leadership more impactful, tying with video and live events as the most effective formats for driving engagement.

Anthony Marshall from IBM shared an interesting insight: executives don’t just want to read content; they want to interrogate it. They want to use AI agents to ask questions of the data and get specific answers relevant to their unique context.

This may be the future of thought leadership content strategy. It is not just about publishing a white paper; it is about creating an ecosystem where that content can be consumed via video, interactive tools, or even conversation. As moderator Bob Safian said during the discussion on video strategy, many leaders now effectively engage with podcasts by watching them on YouTube. This of course, is why we publish our Beyond B2B Marketing podcast in multiple channels and syndicate to all major podcast platforms.

4. Visibility means being found by machines and humans

As B2B marketers we used to optimize for search engines. Now, we must optimize for AI-powered Answer Engines.

Anthony Marshall shared that at IBM, being an AI company means using these tools is mandatory, joking that when asked “Who uses AI?” in a meeting, he felt it was a setup because he would be fired if he didn’t say yes . Suffice it to say that AI is everywhere and it is distinctly changing how content is created and discovered.

Our research confirms this trend, finding that 32% of professionals already use Generative AI tools like ChatGPT or Claude to discover thought leadership. If your content isn’t structured, cited, and distributed in a way these models can understand, you may be invisible to a third of your potential audience.

This is the core of modern content and brand visibility. You need to be where the buyer is, whether that is a Google search, a LinkedIn feed, or a prompt in an LLM. Or as we like to say, be the best answer wherever your customers are looking.

What You Can Do Next

The bar for thought leadership content has certainly been raised. It is no longer enough to be smart; you have to be distinctive, trustworthy, and accessible.

If you are looking to refine your thought leadership strategy and hear more from the experts shaping this space, I highly recommend checking out the upcoming Global Thought Leadership Institute Symposium, happening February 5-6, 2026, in Houston, Texas. It is a rare opportunity to get in the room with the leaders who are defining the future of the thought leadership industry.

You can also check out The State of B2B Thought Leadership in 2026 report we produced in partnership with Ascend2, here.

About the author

Lee Odden has been recognized as a top B2B Marketing professional by Forbes, The Economist and the Wall Street Journal. For over 20 years he’s worked with his team at TopRank Marketing to help elevate the B2B marketing industry through creative marketing programs that deliver more authentic, experiential and inclusive content for brands like LinkedIn, Dell and Adobe. Lee is the author of Optimize and has published over 1.4 million words on his agency’s B2B marketing blog. As a trusted marketing thought leader, he has given nearly 300 presentations in 20 different countries on B2B content, search and influencer marketing. When not marketing, Lee is probably running, cooking or traveling.