One trend has become increasingly clear to me over the last couple of years.
Thought leadership is no longer company-led. It’s becoming people-led.
For years, B2B technology companies invested heavily in corporate blogs, white papers and campaigns designed to position the brand as the expert. But buyers don’t really connect with logos.
They connect with expertise. They connect with experience. They connect with people.
The data supports this shift. The 2025 Edelman-LinkedIn B2B Thought Leadership Impact Report found that 73% of decision-makers say thought leadership is a more trustworthy basis for assessing an organization’s capabilities than traditional marketing materials. Even more telling, 90% of C-suite executives say they are more receptive to outreach from organizations that consistently produce high-quality thought leadership.
That’s remarkable.
Not because it validates content marketing. We already knew that.
What’s interesting is that buyers increasingly want to hear from experts rather than institutions.
And perhaps that’s the bigger lesson for CMOs. Why are we hiding our smartest people behind corporate logos?
Your customers don’t necessarily want another polished white paper.
They want to know what your CISO is worried about. What your architects are seeing. What your product leaders are learning from customers. What your executives believe about where the industry is heading.
The rise of AI makes this even more interesting. AI can write. It can summarize. It can repurpose.
But it can’t replace experience. It can’t manufacture credibility. And it certainly can’t create original thinking.
As content becomes easier to produce, differentiation becomes harder to achieve.
Which is why I believe we’re entering an era where human expertise becomes the ultimate competitive advantage.
This is consistent with findings from the Edelman Trust Barometer, which has repeatedly shown that trust is one of the most important drivers of business relationships. Likewise, McKinsey has observed that B2B buyers increasingly expect authenticity and personalization throughout the buying journey.
The implication for CMOs is profound.
Thought leadership should no longer be viewed primarily as a brand exercise.
It’s an expertise exercise.
The winners won’t necessarily be the companies publishing the most content.
They’ll be the companies helping their leaders, practitioners and subject matter experts become visible, credible and trusted voices in the market.
Because in a world overflowing with AI-generated content, people may become the most powerful media channel of all.
And perhaps that’s the irony.
As technology becomes more sophisticated, marketing itself becomes more human.
I’d love to hear from fellow CMOs and marketing leaders in the technology industry.
Are you seeing the same shift?
Are buyers engaging more with brands?
Or with the people behind them?
References
Edelman-LinkedIn B2B Thought Leadership Impact Report 2025
https://www.edelman.com/expertise/business-marketing/b2b-thought-leadership
Edelman Trust Barometer
https://www.edelman.com/trust/trust-barometer
McKinsey & Company – The New B2B Growth Equation
https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/growth-marketing-and-sales/our-insights/the-new-b2b-growth-equation
LinkedIn B2B Institute
https://business.linkedin.com/marketing-solutions/b2b-institute
Harvard Business Review
https://hbr.org/
Gartner Future of Sales Research