The State of AI: B2C, B2B, SMB
Dialog presented at the ALSMA conference in Bangkok, November 10-11, on the current state of AI usage by consumers, B2B buyers and small businesses. (The slides are linked below.)
The main point I tried to make is that AI is evolving quickly and the market is becoming more complex than the simple narratives we've told ourselves to date. AI isn't replacing Google but that doesn't mean it hasn't impacted usage or become part of the customer journey – in some cases it's a significant influence on buying behavior.
On the SMB side, there's a genuine question about whether some North American businesses have reached a kind of DIY plateau. Here's where their SaaS vendors can help them integrate AI tools more deeply into operations to deliver more productivity gains. But the AI tools landscape is overwhelming and trust is key.
The slides make the following points:
- Consumer AI adoption is broad and usage is uneven but increasing
- AI use cases are growing, but local is still underdeveloped
- AI search is not replacing Google, but it is affected it
- AI drives discovery, Google still closes the loop
- AI optimization vs. SEO: similar but not identical
- B2B buyers enthusiastically embracing AI (more than search)
- SMBs were early adopters of AI, but US usage has flattened
- SMB AI use cases are mostly marketing-heavy
- SMB AI barriers and friction are consistent across regions
- SMBs need more help from agencies and SaaS providers
