AI Content is Eating the Internet (And Your B2B Marketing Strategy)

Look, we need to have an honest conversation about what’s happening to B2B marketing.

Have you scrolled through LinkedIn lately? It’s become a cesspool of AI-generated “thought leadership” that all sounds vaguely the same. Generic. Soulless. And weirdly effective at gaming the algorithm.

I’ve spent the last six months watching this phenomenon transform how our clients approach content creation, and I’m going to say something controversial: we’re witnessing the early stages of what I call the “Great Content Collapse.”

The Algorithmic Tsunami

I recently read an article by Jason Koebler that perfectly captured what’s happening. He calls it a “brute force attack on reality” where AI tools are enabling content creators to:

“…make a human linger on them long enough to say to themselves ‘what the fuck,’ or to be so horrified as to comment ‘what the fuck,’ or send it to a friend saying ‘what the fuck,’ all of which are signals to the algorithm that it should boost this type of content.”

These AI marketers aren’t even hiding their strategy. One openly brags to his followers about “cranking out 8-10 shorts in under 30 minutes” while another explains how he’s “using AI to spot viral patterns… and once AI finds something that goes viral…we can replicate them. Over and over.”

The strategy works because the intended audience isn’t humans – it’s algorithms. And it’s not just happening on social platforms. SEO, email, and even advertising are all experiencing the same flood of AI-generated content optimized for distribution rather than human value.

The Basketball Problem

It reminds me of how basketball has fundamentally changed over the past 20 years. Have you seen those heat maps showing where shots are taken?

Back in the day, players shot from all over the court – mid-range jumpers, post-ups, floaters – they played with creativity and instinct.

Today? Analytics has proven that three-pointers and dunks are the highest-value shots, so that’s literally all anyone takes. The mid-range game has nearly disappeared.

B2B marketing is experiencing a similar transformation. The “analytics” (in this case, algorithms) are pushing everyone toward certain types of content, and companies are abandoning what made them unique to chase the metrics.

But here’s the problem – what works for viral TikToks and Instagram Reels is proving catastrophic for complex B2B sales, for reasons that should be obvious but somehow aren’t to many executives.

The Algorithm-Trust Paradox

I recently worked with a cybersecurity client whose marketing team was under intense pressure. Their solution was technically superior, but their social metrics lagged behind competitors.

After seeing viral success from AI content farms, they decided to experiment. Using AI, they cranked out 50 short-form videos about “shocking security breaches” with slightly different titles, thumbnails, and intros.

The traffic was immediate and impressive – a 400% increase in social reach within days. The executive team was thrilled… until they looked closer:

• Engagement stopped at surface level with minimal click-through to product pages
• Sales reported that leads who mentioned the content were mostly unqualified
• Two enterprise prospects expressed concerns about the “sensationalist approach”
• The content attracted the wrong audience entirely – individual consumers rather than security professionals

What looked like marketing success on paper became a liability in actual sales conversations.

This isn’t an isolated incident. At Red Branch Media, we’re seeing this pattern repeat across industries. The fundamental misalignment is creating what I call the “Algorithm-Trust Paradox”:

The more you optimize for algorithmic distribution, the less likely your content builds the trust necessary for complex B2B sales.

What’s Actually Working

Here’s the good news – this content collapse is creating a remarkable opportunity for B2B marketers willing to swim against the algorithmic tide.

While everyone else is flooding digital channels with AI-generated fluff, savvy B2B marketers are going in the opposite direction and seeing incredible results.

We’re helping clients implement three approaches that are cutting through the noise:

1. Review-Based Marketing

We’ve started mining competitor reviews (both positive and negative) to create hyper-targeted campaigns. The results? Our clients are seeing 3-4x higher engagement rates compared to generic “thought leadership” because we’re addressing problems prospects have actually articulated, not ones we’ve imagined.

2. Micro-Events Over Mega-Conferences

A client recently cancelled their giant conference booth and instead hosted five intimate dinners in key cities with their top prospects. The ROI? Nearly 40% of attendees entered the sales cycle compared to a 2% conversion rate from their previous conference leads.

(And let’s be honest – how many qualified leads did you actually get from that $50K booth at the last industry conference?)

3. Unpolished but Authentic Content

We’ve found that imperfect but genuinely helpful content from actual experts consistently outperforms polished, generic material. Think: the VP of Engineering walking through a common technical challenge on a smartphone video versus a slick, AI-scripted explainer that says nothing substantial.

Turns out, B2B buyers can smell authenticity a mile away – and they’re increasingly starved for it in the algorithmic wasteland.

Coming Soon: Your Complete Guide

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be sharing more about how leading B2B companies are navigating this rapidly changing landscape. Then, in early April, I’ll be releasing a comprehensive guide: “The B2B Marketer’s Guide to Algorithmic Awareness + Human-Centered Design.”

This guide will give you:

• A framework for measuring content quality that aligns with actual business outcomes
• Practical techniques for balancing algorithmic visibility with genuine human connection
• Real-world case studies of companies succeeding with a human-centered approach
• A step-by-step implementation plan to transform your marketing strategy

As one CMO out it: “Everyone’s chasing cheap attention while genuine trust becomes more valuable than ever. The math is simple – would you rather have a million irrelevant views or the focused attention of 100 actual decision-makers?”

In a world of brute force content, thoughtful design and authentic expertise don’t just become nice-to-haves – they become your most powerful competitive advantages.

Stay tuned for the complete guide. In the meantime, I’d love to hear your experiences. Are you feeling the pressure to produce more content faster? How are you balancing algorithmic demands with authentic connection? Drop a comment below or reach out directly.

Let’s swim against this tide together.