B2B businesses are putting brand back at the centre of their marketing plans. The rapid adoption of AI across the sector is doing more than automating tasks; it is pushing marketers to hero the "human behind the strategy" and to find new ways to build trust with buyers.

The shift is tangible in the numbers. According to Marketing Week's 2026 State of Brand in B2B research, 59% of the 300 marketers surveyed say their business understands the value of brand building.

For Glen Hagensen, CMO of SaaS brand Templafy, that change is playing out inside his own company. As AI tools spread through the B2B toolkit, human insight and brand building are becoming more valuable, not less.

The logic is straightforward. When machines can generate content, analyse data and execute campaigns at scale, differentiation comes from elsewhere. Marketers are responding by emphasising what AI cannot replicate: judgement, relationships and a distinctive brand voice.

The research signals a broader correction. After years when B2B budgets leaned heavily toward demand generation and performance channels, brand is once again a boardroom topic. The 59% figure suggests most marketers now feel their wider business grasps why long-term brand investment matters.

The driver is trust. B2B buyers face an accelerating volume of AI-generated output, and businesses that can demonstrate real people making real decisions behind their strategy are finding that "human premium" cuts through.

For marketing leaders, the implication is clear. As AI adoption accelerates, the marketers who invest in brand and foreground human insight will hold the advantage.