Key Lessons from the 2025 Forrester B2B Summit

A few weeks ago, I attended the Forrester B2B Summit North America in Phoenix, and I walked away armed with transformative insights about how B2B organizations should be operating. 

I spoke with several global enterprise organizations and multiple Forrester analysts. Three themes seemed to dominate every hallway conversation: the rise of buyer networks, the increasing powers of generative AI, and the urgent need for integrated planning 

Let's review. 

1. The Rise of Buyer Networks 

Gone are the days when B2B transactions were simple exchanges between a buyer and a seller. Today's decision-making process involves complex buyer networks. A crucial question posed during the summit was, "Who is in your buying network?"  

What do B2B organizations need to prioritize? Here’s Forrester’s view:

Mapping Buyer Networks: On average, there are now 13 people involved in the B2B buying process, and 10 or more external influencers who play a role. To engage all these stakeholders, B2B teams should be homing in on the buying signals that let them map the relevant buyer network.

Crazily, I learned that Generative AI is now the 2nd most frequent touchpoint in the B2B purchase cycle. Here are some other buyer network imperatives:

1. Data Unification: High-performing B2B organizations should invest in data unification to capture behaviors exhibited by the entire buying network. This allows them to utilize analytics to interpret those behaviors and create personalized experiences that deliver value for each member of the buying network. Finally, as they evolve, AI agents will become extraordinarily useful for optimizing and automating the self-service experience for buyers.

2. Transition from MQLs to Buying Groups: Forrester emphasized the need to move beyond traditional Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs) towards recognizing buying groups and opportunities. Buyers now make decisions in collective groups; hence, aligning sales strategies around these groups can significantly enhance engagement and conversion rates.

3. Value Creation for Customer Advocates: Organizations must rethink their roles to assist buyers effectively. This includes ensuring that customer advocates—those speaking positively about your product—derive value from their support. Establishing strong, reciprocal relationships within the buying network enhances advocacy and trust.

One example: ArcBest, a global supply chain company, saw a 6x increase in year-over-year growth and a 2x improvement in productivity and quota achievement by implementing the concept of buyer networks. By focusing on external partners, customers, influencers, providers, and AI, B2B organizations can cast their net wider, targeting the multiple buying groups that play an influential role in the final decision.

2. Generative AI: A Game Changer

Generative AI has emerged as a pivotal force in the B2B buying and selling process. Surprisingly, approximately 90% of buyers consult generative AI before making a technology investment decision. Here’s how AI is revolutionizing B2B interactions:

• Buyers are doing more on their own

  Buyers are using AI to analyze vendors, compare options, and prep for internal discussions. Sellers may never see these interactions, but they’re shaping decisions all the same. If you’re not accounting for this step in the journey, you’re already behind it.

• AI knowledge is now a competitive advantage

  In one breakout, a SaaS leader walked through how they’re building internal AI literacy—not by handing out tools, but by forming AI councils and embedding AI mentors on go-to-market teams. The goal isn’t just efficiency. It’s judgment. Teams that understand how to work with AI are better at testing hypotheses, refining messages, and deciding when to move.

• Execution depends on clean systems

  To actually use AI well, companies need better inputs. That means cleaning up tech stacks, structuring data, and clarifying internal processes. When those foundations are solid, AI can help improve the quality of decisions, not just the speed.

One takeaway from Forrester’s Seth Marrs stood out: AI coworkers aren’t coming. They’re here. Enhanced predictive, conversational, and generative capabilities will evolve AI coworkers into autonomous and adaptable agents. The question isn’t really whether AI will replace human work. It’s how companies can use AI to elevate it.

3. The Planning Problem Waiting to be Solved

At the summit, one theme that kept surfacing was the need for alignment. B2B organizations are still struggling to align sales, marketing, and product teams around the same strategic goals. I’m not joking: the need to align Sales and Marketing was mentioned in at least half of the sessions I attended.

What might this look like in practice? 

1. Systematic and Sequential Planning: Presenters emphasized the need for consistent, cross-functional planning sessions—where sales, marketing, and product teams align not just on goals, but on how they’ll get there. The other recommendation was to integrate technology stacks, with the goal of having relevant data and analytics shared across teams.

2. Flexible and Adaptive Strategies: The summit pointed out that flexibility isn't merely about changing plans. It’s also about making sales, marketing, and product adaptable. Creating adaptive interaction models and practices empowers cross-functional teams to respond swiftly to market shifts without losing sight of strategic goals.

3. Operational Efficiency: Most organizations could benefit from refining their operational processes for growth. The less friction, the easier it is to adapt.

Neel Shah from ADP and Amanda Shelley from Rockwell Automation discussed the power of integrated planning in a breakout session I attended. As they shared, 87% of operations professionals agree that their executives value process optimization, but only 37% agree their processes are flexible enough for a fast response when conditions change.

Embracing Change for Future Growth

By the end of the summit, one thing was clear: B2B is becoming more interconnected, more technology-driven, and more buyer-led. Buyer networks and AI aren’t trends to track—they’re realities to work with. Integrated planning remains the most urgent, unsolved challenge for companies trying to keep up.

The question isn’t whether your organization is evolving. It’s whether that evolution is intentional.

B2B leaders should be asking: What buyer networks are we building? Where does AI fit into the way we plan, sell, and engage? And how aligned are our teams, really?

The companies that take those questions seriously—and act on them—won’t just adapt. They’ll outperform.