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How AI Agents are Changing How GTM Teams Operate · Sales Pipeline Radio

• 0:15
  Matt Heinz: All right, we're back live on the marketplace floor here
• 0:18
  at Forrester, B2B Summit 2025.
• 0:20
  Been an amazing couple days, and just thanks again to the Forrester
• 0:23
  PR team for making this possible.
• 0:26
  We are coming up on interview number 20, I think across a
• 0:29
  variety of different people here.
• 0:30
  So excited to have with us right now.
• 0:32
  Jessie Johnson she's principal analyst at Forrester, has some amazing research.
• 0:36
  So she's unveiling and talking about here around how AI agents are impacting
• 0:40
  and benefiting B2B go to market teams.
• 0:42
  Jessie, thanks for being here.
• 0:44
  Jessie Johnson: Thanks for having me, Matt.
• 0:45
  Matt Heinz: It's a packed couple days.
• 0:47
  We're here sort of midway through the afternoon on day two.
• 0:50
  We're joking that you need a handler.
• 0:52
  I think you're the, of all the analysts we've interviewed so far, just the,
• 0:55
  they got you doing a lot of work here.
• 0:57
  Yeah a lot of places.
• 0:58
  Jessie Johnson: Yep.
• 0:58
  It's like very good busy for us.
• 1:00
  Matt Heinz: Yeah.
• 1:01
  If you're gonna come all the way down here, if we're gonna spend
• 1:03
  this time together just once a year, let's make the most of it.
• 1:05
  And I was saying before, kudos to the team for really
• 1:08
  leaning in on interactivity.
• 1:10
  Yep.
• 1:10
  On the agenda this year I think, you know, a lot of conferences you
• 1:13
  go to, and it can be good insights, but it's smart people talking to you.
• 1:17
  Not with you.
• 1:18
  And so to have the birds of a feather sessions at the breaks to have analyst
• 1:23
  led discussions, which are sessions about a topic that previously would've
• 1:26
  been probably just a PowerPoint deck talking to you and, okay, thank you.
• 1:29
  Bye.
• 1:30
  These were more interactive and it's a great way to get people in the audience.
• 1:34
  To engage with their peers, to share everything from best
• 1:37
  practices to cautionary tales.
• 1:39
  And I assume that was very intentional, in terms of the agenda
• 1:42
  Jessie Johnson: Absolutely.
• 1:42
  To help the attendees make those connections.
• 1:45
  To learn from each other.
• 1:47
  Yeah.
• 1:47
  Not just what works, but what doesn't.
• 1:49
  Right.
• 1:49
  And more importantly, how are they measuring success and what does that
• 1:53
  actually mean for their business?
• 1:54
  Mm-hmm.
• 1:55
  And behind that, what comes next after we reach this milestone,
• 1:59
  where are we headed beyond that?
• 2:01
  Matt Heinz: And I've noticed just in the last couple days talking to, you
• 2:05
  know, market operational marketers that are like, going back to the trenches,
• 2:08
  so to speak, and having to do the hard work that is modern go to market.
• 2:11
  They're willing to talk about.
• 2:13
  What's not working.
• 2:14
  They're willing to talk about the fact that like this is not a linear
• 2:18
  process and is never a straightforward or fully moving forward process.
• 2:23
  And I think sometimes we learn more from the cautionary tales and the
• 2:26
  failures than we do the successes.
• 2:28
  'cause we learn what not to do.
• 2:29
  And that's a building block.
• 2:31
  For being more likely to be consistently, predictably successful going forward.
• 2:35
  Mm-hmm.
• 2:35
  And that certainly applies to AI as we all start to think about not just
• 2:40
  random acts of AI and experimentation, but really truly integrating AI,
• 2:44
  as an ongoing perennial component of our go to market motions.
• 2:47
  Mm-hmm.
• 2:48
  You're talking here about AI agents, not just AI and like building, you
• 2:51
  know, writing copy, but like true agents that are really impacting and
• 2:55
  driving B2B marketing performance.
• 2:57
  Mm-hmm.
• 2:58
  Let's start from the beginning.
• 2:59
  Like, let's not assume everyone knows what an AI agent is, so
• 3:02
  what's your definition of that?
• 3:03
  To start
• 3:04
  Jessie Johnson: an AI agent is something that has advanced reasoning
• 3:08
  and decision making capabilities.
• 3:10
  Mm-hmm.
• 3:10
  They can retain context from say, one interaction or one job to the next.
• 3:16
  And really if we think about, you know, what is.
• 3:18
  The difference between that agent and say, you know, an an AI tool.
• 3:23
  Yep.
• 3:23
  It is that reasoning capability, but also the ability for the agent
• 3:27
  to act on what it's decided, but.
• 3:30
  To provide that transparency back to the human Yeah.
• 3:34
  As to how it came to that conclusion.
• 3:36
  Yeah.
• 3:37
  Why it took that action.
• 3:38
  Matt Heinz: Yeah.
• 3:38
  Jessie Johnson: A more succinct definition as we think about the
• 3:42
  AI agent versus agentic ai.
• 3:44
  Mm-hmm.
• 3:45
  So we keep hearing those terms and oftentimes interchangeably.
• 3:48
  Matt Heinz: Yeah.
• 3:49
  Jessie Johnson: So an AI agent is a business application
• 3:52
  of an agentic AI system.
• 3:54
  Matt Heinz: Got it.
• 3:55
  Got it.
• 3:56
  I've gotten to the point where I think this is really exciting.
• 3:58
  I think this is gonna be a leap in performance and just
• 4:01
  an impact for a lot of us.
• 4:03
  There are many people that are still on the other side of that and terrified
• 4:07
  when they hear that these robots are not just creating like semi decent
• 4:10
  pictures but are now thinking and reasoning and able to make decisions.
• 4:14
  And it becomes a bit of an existential threat to be honest.
• 4:17
  Mm-hmm.
• 4:17
  For a lot of people, when I'm sure you hear this quite a bit how do you coach.
• 4:23
  B2B marketers, they think about that.
• 4:25
  Jessie Johnson: Yeah, that's a great question.
• 4:27
  You know, one thing that we hear about agents is no human
• 4:30
  intervention required, right?
• 4:32
  Yeah.
• 4:32
  We see that kind of messaging everywhere, and that is, it's just not true, at
• 4:37
  least at this stage, right, of the game.
• 4:39
  Right?
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  So we're going to need, our humans are really our subject matter experts
• 4:45
  from within an organization to help train and onboard that agent so that
• 4:50
  when it does act on our behalf, right?
• 4:53
  It's doing so with context of the business.
• 4:57
  Of the customer and even the best ways of working.
• 5:00
  We want that, you know, our best business development rep to be providing
• 5:04
  that feedback and that oversight to that agent to try and emulate those
• 5:09
  behaviors that are top performing.
• 5:12
  Matt Heinz: I find that when companies and marketing leaders actually
• 5:15
  break down the jobs to be done.
• 5:17
  From AI agents, it actually helps sort of land the plane in terms of
• 5:20
  what role they're gonna play and people go from being cautious and
• 5:23
  fearful to being very optimistic.
• 5:25
  Yep.
• 5:26
  Because AI agents are taking over the jobs that none of us really
• 5:28
  wanna spend time doing anyway.
• 5:30
  Mm-hmm.
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  That you really don't want your BDR spending time doing that
• 5:33
  you don't want any of people in your marketing team doing.
• 5:35
  You just need done.
• 5:37
  And if we think about the past and think about the things that we think
• 5:39
  of that computing and the internet is just, we take it for granted.
• 5:44
  This is a different leap.
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  It may be bigger, it may be more substantial.
• 5:47
  But it certainly includes things that we took for granted before
• 5:50
  that we had to do ourselves.
• 5:51
  Jessie Johnson: Yep.
• 5:52
  Matt Heinz: And now we're at that point again.
• 5:53
  Jessie Johnson: Yeah, absolutely.
• 5:55
  And I think one of the appealing.
• 5:57
  Things here as we think about AI agents is that we're actually going to
• 6:01
  learn a lot from those agents right.
• 6:04
  As they work versus, you know, say other disruptive technology that's kind of
• 6:09
  come into the picture along the way.
• 6:11
  Yep.
• 6:12
  So if we think about the agentic capabilities, so an agentic AI
• 6:16
  agent can actually provide us with how it arrived at its decision.
• 6:21
  Mm-hmm.
• 6:21
  So kind of that full transparency.
• 6:23
  I was thinking about doing it this way, but then I, you know,
• 6:27
  here's my output and here's why.
• 6:28
  Yeah.
• 6:28
  So that's a real opportunity as we think about where's the human in the
• 6:32
  future, helping the human and the AI actually get smarter together.
• 6:37
  Matt Heinz: I've seen some companies start to build what we traditionally
• 6:39
  would've called an org chart, and they're calling it a accountability chart.
• 6:44
  Yep.
• 6:45
  And so you think about it more as the jobs to be done.
• 6:46
  So you still say, okay, I've gotta create demand, I've got a brand
• 6:49
  function, I've gotta do some creative, I've got some ops work to do.
• 6:52
  And you break down the jobs to be done in those areas, right?
• 6:56
  And the job needs to be done by something or someone.
• 6:59
  And so you end up with a chart that if you're looking at it sort of
• 7:01
  horizontally, you know, from left to right at the bottom of the chart are
• 7:04
  things that we need machines to do for us.
• 7:06
  Yeah.
• 7:06
  Some of them machines have done for a while.
• 7:08
  Some of them are AI embedded in many of the tools and vendors we see
• 7:11
  on the marketplace in front of us.
• 7:13
  But some of them are gonna be these AI agents.
• 7:15
  Yeah.
• 7:16
  That we're gonna be able to train and are taking over that work and.
• 7:19
  This is where the rubber meets the road for companies that do this.
• 7:21
  'cause I think they look at that and say, not only I fully accept
• 7:25
  them doing that work, I can't wait for them to take over these other
• 7:28
  things as the technology improves.
• 7:30
  Jessie Johnson: Yep.
• 7:30
  To expand their scope of responsibility.
• 7:34
  Matt Heinz: Yeah.
• 7:34
  Jessie Johnson: And the processes that they can actually improve for us.
• 7:38
  Matt Heinz: Yep.
• 7:38
  And
• 7:38
  Jessie Johnson: the goals.
• 7:39
  That they can execute against.
• 7:40
  I think the idea of using an agent for demand generation is super
• 7:45
  interesting because all of the different components that go into that.
• 7:49
  Yep.
• 7:49
  It's insights, it's action.
• 7:51
  It's creating these very compelling and contextually relevant
• 7:55
  experiences for our prospects.
• 7:57
  So there's a lot of different layers there, right.
• 8:00
  That we need either, you know, some kind of a. Super agent
• 8:03
  that can handle all of that.
• 8:04
  Yeah.
• 8:05
  Or we need a bit of a team of agents, right.
• 8:08
  That can accomplish that work by working together and passing
• 8:12
  their outputs back and forth.
• 8:14
  Whether that's more customer prospect insights or maybe content
• 8:18
  that they've generated on the fly.
• 8:20
  Matt Heinz: Yep.
• 8:20
  Jessie Johnson: To fuel some of the digital experiences that
• 8:23
  will ultimately fill Pipeline.
• 8:25
  Matt Heinz: We're talking live here on the marketplace floor at Forrester
• 8:27
  B2B Summit 25 with Jessie Johnson, principal analyst at Forrester.
• 8:31
  Trying to just make people feel a little safer mm-hmm.
• 8:34
  About AI agents coming along.
• 8:36
  And it's similar to me, like to when AI first came out and everyone
• 8:38
  didn't know what it was or how to start it, and the advice remember was
• 8:41
  just like, get in there and do it.
• 8:42
  Right.
• 8:42
  Just get in there, like, think anything you need to do, see if the AI could
• 8:45
  do it, and early on it's like it can't do most of it, and then it's
• 8:48
  gonna do things in a awkward way.
• 8:50
  And increasingly it's doing more and more things better.
• 8:53
  And I think for those that have leaned into it the most, they find it, it
• 8:56
  supercharges their productivity.
• 8:59
  Yes.
• 8:59
  And it really allows them to focus on the more uniquely
• 9:01
  human elements of go to market.
• 9:05
  I think, you know, AI Agent 1.0 was like, we can get rid of the BDRs.
• 9:09
  We don't need them.
• 9:10
  We have AI agents that can do that.
• 9:12
  We can get rid of our copywriters 'cause AI's just gonna do it.
• 9:14
  Mm-hmm.
• 9:15
  Ai Agent 2.0 was realizing, okay, well that's a little too far.
• 9:19
  We still need humans to do part of this work.
• 9:21
  We are still, unless robots still are robots, our lizard brains
• 9:24
  still want to talk to each other.
• 9:25
  Mm-hmm.
• 9:26
  And more.
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  Faster, cheaper content is not improving the experience for the buyer.
• 9:31
  Right.
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  So if we can find that right insight, but then deliver that
• 9:34
  in a uniquely human way mm-hmm.
• 9:37
  It maximizes machine and human along the way.
• 9:40
  Jessie Johnson: Absolutely.
• 9:40
  And if we think about even the content kind of creation, production
• 9:44
  use case, we've succeeded in turning a lot of content creators into editors.
• 9:48
  Mm-hmm.
• 9:48
  Yeah.
• 9:49
  Right.
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  That increase in volume has increased the need for that human oversight.
• 9:55
  Right.
• 9:55
  So while we're able to kind of focus on the things that are uniquely
• 9:59
  human, right, creativity, empathy, communication, all of those things that
• 10:04
  our customers, our human customers, yeah.
• 10:06
  We'll talk about the agent as customer maybe in a later podcast.
• 10:10
  Yeah.
• 10:10
  But those are the elements that aren't gonna go away.
• 10:13
  Matt Heinz: Right.
• 10:13
  Jessie Johnson: But rather they'll be amplified by our.
• 10:15
  Work with agents.
• 10:17
  Yep.
• 10:17
  So if we think about using the agents to actually improve our ability to
• 10:21
  solve problems, not just get that quick output, but the thinking that goes into
• 10:26
  that problem solving and to innovate in areas of the business to explore maybe
• 10:31
  use cases or applications of a product that just haven't occurred to us before.
• 10:36
  Not because we're mere mortals.
• 10:38
  Mm-hmm.
• 10:38
  But because you know, it just kind of.
• 10:40
  Brings about the ability to think a little bit further outside of the box
• 10:45
  Matt Heinz: in terms of thinking outside the box.
• 10:47
  Like what are some places for people to go and get ideas, prompts, scenarios,
• 10:53
  to really help see what an agent can do.
• 10:56
  Because we could talk about theoretically, but what are some places, I mean, I know
• 11:00
  clearly within Forrester, within your content, but like how do people learn?
• 11:04
  From others and where can they go to get some real life examples of what's working.
• 11:07
  Jessie Johnson: Yep.
• 11:08
  Fantastic question there, I would say actually start with
• 11:12
  your professional networks.
• 11:13
  Mm-hmm.
• 11:13
  Start with the humans that you're already talking with.
• 11:17
  Yep.
• 11:17
  Collaborating with that are trusted advisors either for
• 11:22
  your own purchasing journey.
• 11:23
  We talked about the buying network.
• 11:24
  Yeah.
• 11:25
  At the conference or, you know, it's somebody that you trust for career advice,
• 11:29
  for advice on technology implementation.
• 11:32
  So yeah, start with those human conversations.
• 11:35
  From there, just do a little bit of experimentation.
• 11:38
  You know, go to an agent platform and give it a few instructions and see
• 11:43
  what it can actually produce for you.
• 11:45
  Yep.
• 11:45
  And how you can leverage and learn from.
• 11:49
  The agent's reasoning how it arrived at its conclusion and its output.
• 11:53
  It'll really help to think sideways and differently about the problems
• 11:58
  or the opportunities that we have.
• 12:00
  And I think there'll be a lot of discovery in that regard along the
• 12:03
  way so that agent's gonna come back with a few things that maybe haven't
• 12:07
  occurred to the mere mortals yet.
• 12:09
  Matt Heinz: Let's fast forward to a year from now.
• 12:11
  We're sitting here at Forrester B2B Summit 2026.
• 12:13
  Yep.
• 12:13
  And we're clearly gonna be talking about AI agents again.
• 12:17
  What do you anticipate will be some of the jobs to be done that today's
• 12:20
  AI cannot do, but tomorrow's AI is more likely to be able to pick up?
• 12:24
  Jessie Johnson: Yeah, absolutely.
• 12:25
  I mean, in a perfect world, we'd have that AI agent may be delivering
• 12:29
  some of our presentations so we can spend more face to face time yep.
• 12:33
  With our attendees and our sponsors.
• 12:36
  I think what we're gonna see too a really interesting application of AI
• 12:41
  agents is this idea of an agent as maybe a software or digital experience.
• 12:47
  Yep.
• 12:47
  End user.
• 12:48
  So what do we need to do for that agent end user persona
• 12:52
  from a design perspective?
• 12:54
  Yeah.
• 12:55
  You know, when it comes to the website or even when it comes to
• 12:57
  a product, a software product.
• 12:59
  So I think that's going to be another really interesting
• 13:02
  kind of area to explore.
• 13:04
  Awesome.
• 13:04
  I think we'll see also the amount of insights, rich insights, deep knowledge
• 13:11
  and understanding of our buyer that we're just scratching the surface
• 13:16
  of when we're using these AI agents.
• 13:18
  I think a lot of companies, a lot of marketers, a lot of sellers are really
• 13:22
  going to kind of latch onto those insights and incorporate them more,
• 13:27
  not just in the agent interactions, but in other areas of the business.
• 13:31
  Yep.
• 13:31
  Because of that agent, we learned this.
• 13:34
  So we're going to use that to create uplift in this other effort or
• 13:38
  initiative that we have going on
• 13:40
  Matt Heinz: Is Fargo starting to thaw out a little bit?
• 13:43
  Jessie Johnson: It is not, no, we are actually we're in a blizzard right now.
• 13:48
  Oh man.
• 13:48
  So I'm so happy to be here in Phoenix.
• 13:51
  Matt Heinz: Normally you come down here to Phoenix and it's like
• 13:53
  surface of the sun hot, right?
• 13:54
  Yeah.
• 13:54
  And this week, like yesterday, it was like 70 today, like 65.
• 13:58
  I'm really happy, like it's nice outside.
• 14:00
  It's beautiful.
• 14:00
  It's not too hot.
• 14:01
  I don't know what it's doing in Seattle, but I'm guessing raining and crappy.
• 14:04
  Yeah, whether it's raining, blizzard, whatever.
• 14:07
  But Jessie, thank you very much for being here.
• 14:08
  I know you're super busy.
• 14:09
  I know we talked about you now have to go either upstairs or downstairs.
• 14:11
  No one really knows.
• 14:12
  Jessie Johnson: Nobody knows.
• 14:13
  I'm gonna hopefully figure that out along the way.
• 14:16
  I need my handler.
• 14:17
  Maybe that's another role for the AI agent next year.
• 14:19
  Matt Heinz: Get some water, keep hydrating.
• 14:21
  There's Advil at the 6sense Booth across from us.
• 14:23
  Just get what you need.
• 14:24
  Jessie, thanks so much for being here.
• 14:25
  Jessie Johnson: Absolutely.
• 14:26
  Thanks for having me, Matt.