The truth about AI readiness in B2B marketing with Shaun Ma
Table of contents
Most B2B teams are racing to adopt AI, but few are structurally ready for it. Breaking down AI readiness in B2B marketing, Shaun Ma, VP of Digital Customer Engagement at Schneider Electric, uncovers the gap and what CMOs must fix to see meaningful impact. A must-listen for leaders looking to future-proof their marketing organization.
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Episode summary
In this episode of Radically Transparent, host Jennifer Gutman sits down with Shaun Ma to confront an uncomfortable truth many B2B marketing leaders are beginning to face. While AI tools are being adopted at record speed, most organizations are not structurally prepared to support them. The AI readiness gap in B2B marketing is still wide.
If you’re using AI the way you did in 2024, you’re already outdated. You do not use AI like a search engine. You have to give context, constraints, and then validate the output.
Shaun reveals a widening space between the promise of AI and the operational reality inside modern marketing teams.
New capabilities are emerging, but none of them fall under any key person’s responsibility. So AI stays experimental.
From unused data and fragmented tech stacks to unclear ownership and outdated AI habits, Shaun makes it clear that “plug and play” doesn’t exist in B2B. Complex buying cycles and cross-functional dependencies mean AI readiness in B2B can only succeed when systems, processes, and responsibilities are truly aligned.
Over 80% of the data that marketing teams track is unused. To future-proof an organization, you have to break silos and start rebuilding with customer experience at the center.
For CMOs, this is the real story behind AI adoption and AI readiness in B2B marketing. It isn’t about how many AI tools sit in the stack. It’s about whether the organization is structurally ready to support and scale them.
Hot topics
- What’s really causing the AI readiness gap in B2B marketing and why teams need clear ownership, governance, and metrics to make AI operational
- How B2B organizations can turn AI into a true competitive advantage through agentic experiences, GEO, and personalized cross-channel engagement
- How marketers should actually be using AI today and why so many still rely on outdated habits
- When AI-driven automation becomes more expensive than manual work and what hidden costs leaders should be watching for
- Why SEO evolving into GEO, and how LLM-driven research patterns are creating new, un-trackable buyer journeys
- What leaders misunderstand most about AI and why do expectations often outpace real-world capabilities
- How marketing organizations can future-proof themselves by breaking silos, building intelligence capabilities, and designing teams around modern customer experiences
Meet Shaun
Shaun Ma is the Vice President of Digital Customer Engagement at Schneider Electric. A specialist in B2B transformation, he focuses on modernizing internal operations, designing new processes, and leveraging martech, AI, and data-driven insights to elevate customer experience and drive organizational change.
