Five Knowledge Competencies Determine If Marketing Can Effectively Act On AI AI does not eliminate the need for marketing expertise, but it exposes where expertise, process, and accountability are lacking or too fragmented to support effective action.

Leaders must consider management overhead, governance concerns, and contracting and cost containment issues. This overhead, and the operational risks, can often outweigh the benefits of outsourcing. Use The B2B Marketing Sourcing Decision Framework To Align Resources The B2B Marketing Sourcing Decision Framework offers a structured method for reviewing, positioning, and managing marketing resources and workloads efficiently.

Background/Experience Seven or more years of experience supporting C-level executives in fast-paced, high-pressure environments, preferably supporting chief marketing officers or senior vice presidents Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite, including Word, Excel, Outlook, and PowerPoint Strong working knowledge of collaboration tools such as Teams and Zoom; experience with project management tools preferred Exceptional organizational and time-management skills with the ability to manage

Empowering Marketing Leaders To Thrive Amid Change Marketing teams face unprecedented disruption — with client interactions indicating that many have experienced significant restructuring in the past year. The complexity has only intensified as organizations spread talent across fragmented go-to-market, digital, content, brand, field, business-unit, and other functions, creating operational silos and unclear accountability.

Our research shows that several challenges affect how B2B marketing organizations currently handle AI responsibilities: Lack of necessary AI skills. Marketing teams face a shortage of talent to effectively harness AI.

When leaders underestimate the human cost of change, fear spreads faster than facts, triggering a domino effect of disengagement, stalled execution, and talent flight — particularly among high performers who have options and a low tolerance for ambiguity. In an era of constant business transformation, marketing leaders cannot afford to repeat this pattern.

Cross-functional leadership across marketing, product, digital, analytics, IT, data, sales, and customer success teams. Governance, templates, and practice development for consistent adoption across teams, regions, or business units. Executive communication and prioritization of investments, trade-offs, risks, and resource requirements. Team leadership, talent development, or matrixed management in digital, content, visibility, or AI-enabled marketing.

The B2B Marketing Capabilities Framework defines the interconnected capabilities required to support the end-to-end work of marketing, with digital marketing capabilities serving as critical enablers across strategy, audience engagement, activation, measurement, and technology domains (see Figure 1). When designating digital marketing responsibilities, CMOs must: Align digital marketing responsibilities with current capability maturity levels.

Customer obsession requires this level of integration, so customers experience marketing as one unified whole. The Forrester B2B Marketing Ecosystem Model The graphic illustrates the Forrester B2B Marketing Ecosystem Model as a circular framework. At the center is customer obsession, which provides direction for the entire model. Surrounding the center is the inner ring, which shows capabilities, structure, and orchestration in a connected cycle that reflects how marketing creates value.

This aligns with data from Forrester’s Marketing Survey, 2025: B2B marketing decision-makers indicated that, to support their marketing priorities in the coming year, their organization needs to enhance marketing skills and capabilities (24%), improve marketing process flows and collaboration (22%), and improve alignment and collaboration with other departments (22%). As go-to-market complexity increases and marketing functions evolve, organizations become more intricate.