Mission possible: What B2B CMOs are really planning for 2026

Last month in Seattle, senior B2B marketing leaders gathered for a confidential ‘Mission Impossible’-themed dinner to exchange insights and challenge assumptions about what it will take to succeed in the year ahead.

2026 won’t reward business as usual. B2B CMOs are rethinking everything – from AI search visibility to team structure, budgets, and channel priorities. The evening’s classified dossier outlined five mission-critical areas – and our guests were open about both the obstacles and opportunities ahead.

Five major challenges were identified as disruptors to ‘business-as-usual’ marketing planning:

• Treat AI as a buyer. In a world where AI is everywhere, marketing leaders must see AI as both an evaluator and an influencer – and make sure their brand makes it past the algorithmic shortlist.
• Budget for resilience. With flat-to-inflationary annual budget increases, marketing leaders must develop scenario-based planning, foster agility, and adopt a sharper ROI discipline.
• Define AI’s role in marketing. Marketing leaders are redefining AI’s role within the marketing organization – beyond cost-cutting – to focus on smarter decision-making, process automation, and personalization.
• Close the talent gap. B2B CMOs are struggling with emerging positions (e.g., Head of Marketing AI, Data Steward, AgentOps Manager), rapidly changing roles (e.g., SEO to GEO), and the need to upskill entire teams as part of their marketing planning.
• Shift from volume to value. ‘Spray and pray’ marketing is being replaced by targeted, or precision, marketing. Marketing leaders are focusing on improved campaign coordination, team flexibility, and AI-friendly content as the new sources of competitive edge.

Over dinner, leaders aligned on key opportunities and obstacles, with common themes emerging.

• Evolving teams and culture. Almost every B2B CMO has acknowledged that their teams face challenges with AI literacy. Continuous change management initiatives aim to help employees shift their mindsets regarding the application of AI in their current roles. CMOs are seeking the right training and resources to support employees in transitioning from highly specialized roles to broader positions that incorporate AI into their responsibilities.
• Pilots over perfection. Many marketing leaders are initiating AI pilot projects to explore new options, such as content personalization, campaign optimization, and agile content versioning. B2B CMOs are also rethinking their standalone martech stacks in favor of building shared ‘data lakes’ with other go-to-market teams, including sales and support organizations, to prepare for a more AI-integrated future.
• Content for humans and machines. Since AI tools are heavily used in the research and discovery phase of B2B buying, there’s a greater focus on content that addresses not only human stakeholders but also what machines will ‘see’. This includes FAQ-style content, structured data, and ungated content for early buyer research. CMOs are investing in brand authority, thought leadership, and third-party citations to increase the frequency with which AI tools reference their brands.
• New metrics. Traditional B2B marketing metrics, such as clicks, page views, and last click, are becoming less reliable in environments where AI provides direct answers or filters information. CMOs are now experimenting with metrics like ‘visibility in AI responses’, brand citations, content authority, engagement quality, and insights into what the AI tools are surfacing.
• Better buying experiences.Since buyer groups are complex with multiple stakeholders and non-linear journeys, CMOs are working with sales leaders to simplify the process. The aim is to reduce friction, provide clarity, and deliver strong content for each buying ‘job’. With over 70% of the buyer’s journey completed before contacting vendors, efforts are underway to use more self-service, digital tools, and improved content paths, enabling buyers to act more independently. 

Attendees shared their 2026 priorities:

• Support the full buyer lifecycle. B2B CMOs are shifting their focus from just generating leads at the top of the funnel to supporting buyers through every stage – research, evaluation, purchase, and post-sale. Mapping the entire buyer journey and aligning messaging, content, and metrics across all stages is becoming essential.
• Build brand early. CMOs are shifting their focus to build brand recognition and favoritism earlier in the buyer journey to become part of the consideration set. Influencer relations, thought leadership, and proactive storytelling are gaining importance.
• Retain and expand. With new customer acquisition costly in constrained markets, CMOs are focusing on upselling, cross-selling, expansion, and ensuring customer success. Building lifetime value, reducing churn, and maximizing the adoption and use of existing customers are essential.
• Adopt hybrid talent models. The hybrid model (in-house + agency) is growing rapidly. Many B2B CMOs are shifting away from solely in-house or fully outsourced models toward flexible setups that let them scale capacity and access expertise as needed. Marketing leaders use external partners and agencies to fill internal gaps while keeping core strategy in-house.

Based on the learnings shared by attendees, other CMOs currently involved in 2026 planning should consider:

• Investing earlier in awareness, brand, and influence versus just waiting until a buyer is ‘in market’
• Strengthening partnerships among sales, finance, and customer success, with greater shared ownership of the customer journey and revenue impact
• Creating AI-ready content and analytics to match evolving buyer behaviors.
• Expand training to grow AI/data literacy skills, buyer lifecycle knowledge, and agility and cross-functional collaboration skills

Unlike in the movies, this mission won’t self-destruct – it’s just the beginning. 

If you’re interested in more planning guidance, join Meta Karagianni, Chief Consulting Officer, and me at our webinar, 2026 Marketing Reset: Why the Old Playbook Won’t Win on October 9, 2025.