I was on a call recently with Meg, a Cannonballer. She’s a VP of Marketing who gets it. And she said something I haven’t been able to shake.
She was planning a vacation. Wanted good hiking, great seafood, non-touristy, scooter-friendly, Mediterranean, direct flight from Minneapolis. She didn’t open Google. She told AI what she wanted and it said: Ischia. Island off the coast of Italy. She went. It was great.
Then she paused and said: “If I’m not researching the same way I used to. My buyers aren’t either.”
That’s it. That’s the whole thing.
If you’re trying to figure out what AI means for the way you find and reach customers. We see you.
Here’s what the data says happened while most of us were still optimizing subject lines.
Every week I go deep on the research so you don't have to. Then I sort it into three buckets. Fire means act on this now. Watch means keep your eye on it. Noise means move on. My son tells me those aren't Gen Z words anymore. I'm using them anyway.
FIRE. Act on this now. It changes something you are doing today.
Two thirds of B2B buyers now use AI as much or more than traditional search. The consequences are compounding.
That number comes from a Responsive/Audience survey of 350 B2B buyers published in January 2026. Start there. Then follow the logic.
80% of the buying decision is now made before a seller ever enters the room, according to Consensus’s 2026 Buyer Behavior Report, which analyzed six million buyer interactions. Buyers are forming shortlists, comparing vendors, and crystallizing preferences entirely inside AI tools before any detectable signal hits your CRM. Your intent data is showing you the end of a process you weren’t invited to.
Here’s the part that stings. AI isn’t just finding vendors now. It’s excluding them. Software Finder surveyed 714 B2B buyers in March 2026 and found that 22% have removed a vendor from consideration because AI didn’t surface them. Vendors they already knew. Already aware of. Didn’t matter. Not in the AI output, not on the list.
The one thing that looks like good news isn’t entirely good news. Buying cycles are compressing. Faster decisions sound great until you realize buying groups are expanding at the same time. INFUSE’s Voice of the Buyer 2026 report, based on 2,300 GTM leaders, found that brand preference is crystallizing in the dark funnel before vendors detect any signals at all. More decision makers, less time, with AI playing a larger role in what those groups hear and believe. You’re not selling to a person anymore. You’re selling to a consensus that formed without you.
This is why we keep pounding the table on one thing. Find buyers using publicly available data before they build a shortlist without you.
The third-party data market is losing its legal foundation.
19 US states now have active data protection laws. California’s B2B exemption expired in 2023, after which business email addresses with a person’s name became legally protected personal data. That’s according to a February 2026 analysis from Prospeo.
Same analysis: ZoomInfo just guided for 1% growth on $1.25 billion in revenue. That’s a company whose entire business model is selling you a list of names and hoping you don’t notice that half of them are wrong. The math is catching up.
The “buy a list and blast emails” model isn’t just dying strategically. It’s dying legally. And honestly good riddance. Now, if we could just kill personalization…..
WATCH. Keep your eye on this. It is not urgent but it will be.
Someone just built an AI orchestration layer on top of Salesforce.
A company called Aurasell launched what they’re calling an AI-native GTM operating system, covered by Demand Gen Report in February 2026. The pitch: add intelligent automation on top of your existing CRM without replacing it. No migration. Deploy in hours.
Pay attention to this one. HubSpot and Salesforce have massive installed bases and atrophied codebases. They’re not going to rebuild from scratch. That gap is where companies like Aurasell climb in. This is the beginning of a category. Watch the space, not just this player.
NOISE. Interesting but not actionable. Move on.
LinkedIn Sales Navigator added shareable account searches in their Q1 2026 update.
Cool feature. Not why your pipeline is broken. Move on.
Every week we'll sort through what matters and what doesn't. Next week we'll do it again.
Meg booked a vacation differently. Her buyers are researching differently. The question isn’t whether to adapt.
It’s whether you do it before your competitors figure out what Meg already knows.
New here? Cannonball GTM helps growth leaders find hidden buyers using publicly available data. Every Friday we sort through the AI and GTM news that actually impacts the buyer journey so you don’t have to. Start with our most read posts below.
