Here's what we learned at B2B Online Chicago
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Summary
If there's one lesson that stood out at this year's B2B Online conference in Chicago, it's that technology is no longer the story — content is.
Specifically, content that is deeply personalized, genuinely useful, and built around how today's buyers actually make decisions, not how we wish they did. With this context as a starting point, let's dive into everything else we learned at B2B Online Chicago 2026.
The Buyer Has Already Done Their Homework
One consistent theme across presentations was how much of the purchase journey happens before a buyer ever speaks to a sales rep. Across multiple sessions, speakers cited estimates that between 75% and 90% of a buyer's research (including visits to vendor websites) is done entirely independently.
Even more striking: an estimated 77% of that research is now conducted using AI tools rather than traditional search engines. It's not hard to understand why. According to Gartner, 77% of B2B buyers describe their most recent purchase experience as difficult, largely due to information overload. AI tools help buyers cut through the noise by synthesizing content from multiple vendors into clear, comparable summaries. Gartner data also reveals that 75% of B2B buyers prefer a rep-free sales experience, a statistic that should prompt every marketer to take their digital content strategy far more seriously.
The Content Challenge
At B2B Online Chicago, Apply addressed one of the most pressing questions facing B2B marketers today: who is actually going to create all of this content?
Personalization and experimentation are proven drivers of engagement, but they come with a real cost: producing countless variations of homepages, product sheets, and use case documents. Apply demonstrated how AI-powered platforms can automate much of this creation process, an approach that resonated strongly with the audience.
The reality is that generic, one-size-fits-all content no longer cuts it. B2B vendors across industries are beginning to use AI to rewrite and reframe their existing content for distinct audiences. One compelling example: transforming a technically dense, research-oriented piece into a focused narrative aimed at procurement teams.
This reflects a larger shift that was alluded to repeatedly throughout the event — the move away from being a product information company toward becoming a provider of guided selling experiences that speak meaningfully to a wide range of stakeholders.
A key part of making this happen is removing friction during the buying journey. Donna Bedford, Global Senior Executive Officer of Strategy and Operations Lead at Lenovo, delivered one of the conference's most memorable lines when she told the audience to "break down the gates." Her point was straightforward: hiding content behind registration forms and login portals doesn't serve the modern buyer. In a world where AI tools are doing much of the research heavy lifting, freely accessible information is a competitive necessity.
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B2B Has a Lot to Learn from Influencer Marketing
Here's a stat that may surprise you: 80% of B2B buyers consume influencer content. Bedford was quick to clarify that it isn't about chasing celebrity endorsements. The real opportunity lies in working with small, highly trusted figures in specific industries who are credible with audiences and come at a lower cost than larger creators.
Lenovo has leaned into what Bedford called "buyertainment" or content featuring real people using products in everyday contexts. One example was tapping into the cultural trend of "van life" to naturally showcase Lenovo’s batteries and laptops in use. The result feels honest rather than polished. This example shows how earned media (content that spreads organically) has effectively become the new PR.
Rethinking How We Measure Success
Bedford and several other speakers were candid about how measurement remains one of marketing's most persistent pain points. Attribution is harder than ever to accomplish in a fragmented media landscape, and optimizing for last-click attribution is increasingly challenging.
The reality is that buyers enter a research mindset long before they're ready to make a purchase — and as Bedford put it, shopping happens across periods of time, not at a single, trackable moment. Marketers who cling to traditional attribution models risk misreading where their impact is actually being made.
The Generational Factor
One nuance worth noting is that younger buyers are more skeptical of AI-generated marketing content than their older counterparts. Authenticity isn't just a nice brand value; it's a trust signal that directly influences whether a younger audience engages or keeps scrolling.
This makes community building more important than ever. Brands that invest proactively in cultivating relationships rather than scrambling to activate them when a campaign needs a boost will be far better positioned to connect with younger buyers.
The Bottom Line
From what we experienced at B2B Online Chicago, B2B marketers have a lot to learn from B2C. The wall between the two disciplines is coming down, and the brands that build content strategies that reflect how buyers actually behave will gain a real and lasting advantage.