Hot Right Now in B2B Messaging: Governance, Tuning, AI Hallucinations and Data Control
By Lori Smith, VP
After nearly 14 years positioning tech companies at ZOOM Marketing, I’ve seen the buzzwords change—from “cloud” to “AI”—but buyer skepticism hasn’t. The challenge is the same: say something real.
We test messages with real buyers because that’s where the truth lives. Four shifts are cutting through right now.
1. Governance or Bust 🔒
A few years ago, governance was a checkbox. Now it’s a gatekeeper.
Nutanix built their AI positioning on governance, compliance, and security by design—critical for workloads across on-prem, cloud, and edge.
At Snowflake, the urgency was sharper. With AI multiplying data’s volume and velocity, one customer said, “If AI is touching our data, I need to know who can see what, and why.” Snowflake’s message landed by showing how they deliver live data, controlled access, and full visibility for every user and action.
Takeaway: If your solution touches AI, compliance, security, or IP, governance is your baseline.
2. Tuning Makes You Hot 🔥
Today’s buyers expect solutions tuned to their people, workflows, and risk.
DeepHow captures expert knowledge already inside the workforce, then scales and tailors it by role and need—operational intelligence in the user’s own language.
Lumana applies similar tuning in AI video security, surfacing only anomalies that matter—like spotting a U-Haul where it doesn’t belong—so teams act fast and prevent harm.
Takeaway: Show me you get me. If your product adapts to me, say it with confidence.
3. Hallucination Isn’t a Strategy 👻
If your AI message creates confusion, that’s a hallucination too. Buyers want outcomes, not “AI-powered” buzzwords.
Across clients, the strongest stories put AI in service of results: surfacing blind spots, speeding time to value, helping teams trust what they see.
Snowflake models this by framing AI as an enabler of better decisions at scale—echoing CMO Denise Persson’s point: “This year, it’s about outcomes.”
Takeaway: Lead with the why—AI is the means, not the headline.
4. Data Control Is Business Control 📊
More dashboards aren’t always more control.
Chronosphere’s “observability you control” gives teams permission to focus, not drown in telemetry.
G-P takes the same approach globally, delivering one dashboard that tells teams what to act on—and what to ignore—across 180+ countries.
Takeaway: The win isn’t more data. It’s more clarity.
What It Means for You
These shifts aren’t a script—they’re signals. What works in the market isn’t set by trends. It’s set by your buyers.
That’s why we pressure-test positioning before it hits your homepage, slides, or board deck—validating what resonates and cutting what doesn’t.