For Ashley Faus, the favorites pieces of the childhood playground are what B2B marketers need to rediscover in order to connect with their audiences in the age of artificial intelligence (AI).
As marketers think about how to adapt the journey, workflows, and metrics in the age of AI, Faus told attendees at the B2BMX 2026 conference powered by Advertising Week, they need to remember that it’s still about connecting with the humans behind the screen the way we made friends on the playground.
“Treat the buyer’s journey as a playground,” said Faus. “People can enter and exit as they desire, they can go in any order, and they can engage with the content the “wrong” way.”
Meet Ashley Faus
Faus is the author of the book, “Human-Centered Marketing: How to Connect with Audiences in the Age of AI” which work has been featured in TIME, Forbes, and The Journal of Brand Strategy as well as sharing insights with audiences at Harvard Business Review, INBOUND, and MarketingProfs. She works for Atlassian, a collaboration software maker on a mission to unleash the potential of every team.
In her keynote, she noted marketing strategies often rely on rigid structures that fail to capture how buyers actually behave. To create meaningful connections and drive ongoing commerce, marketers must rethink their approach to the buyer journey. Faus said what is need a framework that reflects the dynamic, multi-channel reality of modern B2B interactions.
Playground Metaphor and Linear Funnel
After Faus asked her audience, “what is the best piece of playground equipment? Swing slides, monkey bars?,” she noted the different preference, and nobody forces you to use the equipment in a specific sequence. This freedom of choice represents the ideal environment for engagement, allowing individuals to navigate their own experience.
Unfortunately, marketers often force a completely different, much more painful experience on their prospects. Faus humorously highlights this jarring reality by stating, “let’s pretend I put you on that merry go round, spun you around, you fell off, hit your head, and we are now in a place where we are talking about the linear funnel.” B2B marketers try to push buyers down a strict path—awareness, consideration, decision—regardless of their actual needs.
“We map out content strictly by these stages, assuming buyers will naturally comply with our calendar,” said Faus.
The reality is that the traditional funnel is fundamentally flawed and frustrating for everyone involved. As buyers conduct independent research, they jump between stages unpredictably. Pointing to complicated marketing diagrams, Faus notes, “I got to tell you, the worst image on this screen is this one right here in the bottom right. It’s a Mobius. How many of you have ever been stuck in the endless loop of marketing and sales content? It’s terrible.”
The Buyer’s Journey as a Playground
To empower businesses year-round, Faus advocated for building a modern journey that embraces flexibility. Instead of trapping prospects in a rigid sequence, they should invite them into a space where they control their path.
B2B marketers should be considering how prospects interact with pricing information, which is traditionally locked at the bottom of the funnel. A buyer might simply need a ballpark figure to secure budget approval long before they are ready to purchase.
Faus points out the friction this causes. “How many of you have ever had to go secure budget and you’re searching around on the website, and you’re forced to contact sales just to get a ballpark budget right,” she said. Forcing top-of-funnel buyers into bottom-of-funnel sales conversations breaks the experience.
To fix these broken experiences, we must comprehensively update our strategies to match modern buying behaviors. “We can no longer rely on simple formulas to drive ongoing commerce,” summarized Faus. “We have to adapt what we say, who says it, where we say it, and, of course, how we measure it. By adapting across these four areas, we can foster impactful engagement that truly serves the customer.”
Evaluating Creators and Building Trust
Developing influential content requires us to carefully consider who delivers the message. Trust is the currency of modern business, and corporate logos alone no longer inspire confidence.
“People trust people like themselves… showing the people behind the assets, ideas and the offerings helps to build trust, said Faus. When buyers connect with real experts, they feel understood and are more likely to engage with your brand.
Selecting the right voices for your brand requires a strategic evaluation of your talent pool. Faus advises that “we are going to evaluate the right creator for our needs” that is done across four key pillars: credibility, profile, being prolific, and depth of ideas. Assessing creators against these pillars ensures your content remains authoritative and relevant, she said.
Different creators serve different strategic purposes within the B2B marketing playground, aligning their strengths with specific business goals. “Subject matter experts [SME] explain how to solve,” said Faus. “Influencers help you reach a new audience…thought leaders focus on new ideas in the market.”
By leveraging the right mix of SMEs, influencers, and thought leaders, B2B marketers can successfully drive diverse outcomes.
Expanding the Playground: AEO, GEO, AIO
As search algorithms evolve, marketing approaches to digital visibility must also adapt. Buyers now expect immediate answers without having to navigate away from their current platform.
“We are competing for attention, but our audience wants instant access to value,” Faus said. “Zero Click Content offers valuable standalone insights or simply engaging material with no easy click.”
The published author noted platforms are increasingly penalizing content that attempts to pull users away. Marketers must rethink asset creation to thrive in these closed ecosystems.
“The algorithms don’t want you to go away from their platforms. I implore you, please stop creating snackable content and instead create modular content,” she said arguing modular content behaves like building blocks, allowing it to be repurposed with deep insights across multiple channels efficiently.
Ultimately, technical optimization only goes so far without genuine human connection. The platforms prioritize dense, expert-driven conversations over simple keyword matching. “Conversations and community drive that memorability and affinity… expert humans matter more than ever,” she said.
Connecting Online and Offline
Digital engagement alone cannot sustain deep, long-lasting business relationships. To truly expand meaningful connections, virtual presence and real-world interactions play an even more outsizes role today. Authentic, physical connections provide the ultimate defense against digital noise
“My only focus right now is taking my audience from URL to IRL,” Faus states. In three to four years, when 99% of the content here is AI generated, you’ll remember the real relationships that you built.”
Faus proclaimed that live events remain a cornerstone of robust B2B marketing strategies, an environment where spontaneous, high-value conversations naturally occur. These curated experiences cement the trust initially sparked through online channels.
“Getting together for dinner, smaller, intimate dinners, in person, events, that is what is going to help move the needle, not just the broad reach of our digital content,” said said.
Measuring Impact in the Age of AI
The rapid integration of artificial intelligence into search engines fundamentally changes how we track success. Traditional metrics like click-through rates lose their meaning when answers are generated directly on the search page.
“AI overviews are reshaping the search landscape in real time… visibility now means earning a spot in the answer itself,” said Faus.
To understand true market impact, marketers must look beyond immediate conversions. A mature measurement strategy evaluates the entire playground, acknowledging that different activities yield different timelines. Faus recommends that we “take a holistic approach. You need to be looking at leading and lagging indicators… matching the intent, the format and the channel.” This ensures marketers properly value the foundational work that eventually drives revenue.
Changing for an AI World
Building authority in an AI-driven world relies heavily on external validation. Search engines look for signals that real people trust your expertise. Faus encouraged marketers to “take an extra look at the trust and affinity, intent and true learn intent [that are] particularly important in an AEO and GEO world.
Building a better marketing strategy requires the industry to abandon outdated, rigid models and embrace flexibility. The shift toward a dynamic marketing playground that Faus is proposing is not just about changing metrics; it is about changing mindset. By focusing on real human experiences, deep expertise, and meaningful connections, B2B marketers can deliver powerful solutions that drive ongoing business growth all year long.
“The journey has changed, the tools have changed, but the people remain the same,” said Faus.
