Show Notes
Brian and Andy share a preview of Andy's upcoming book, Bot 2 Bot: The New Future of B2B Commerce, a deep dive into how AI is transforming B2B buying and selling. Andy shares the book's central thesis: that AI adoption in B2B is already outpacing B2C by a rate of 3 to 1, and that AI agents are expanding outward from data-heavy "middle mile" functions like pricing, quoting, and order management toward fully customer-facing interactions. Looking ahead, Andy offers predictions for the next two-to-five years, including the rise of "headless distributors" selling bot-to-bot with no human interaction, and AI-powered super apps that will manage professional buyers' entire workdays. The book will be available on Amazon in paperback and Kindle, with updated editions planned as the landscape continues to evolve.
More from Master B2B Friday 15
McKinsey reports that 88 percent of companies use AI in at least one function, and only 7 percent have scaled it. Andy and Brian dig into a Harvard Business Review article that names middle managers as the most common failure point in generative AI adoption, what the article recommends, and why Andy argues companies also need to rethink the work itself. Along the way: Amazon's flatter organization, Microsoft's internal AI lessons, and what the West Coast offense can teach B2B leaders.
Andy and Brian preview the 2027 Master B2B Mindshare Summit - our 5th annual! - taking place in Chicago on March 16-17, 2027. This year's event moves to a bigger venue (Convene Willis Tower), but features the small group conversations attendees rave about. In the podcast, the guys talk through some of the new sessions and improvements we're making for the event. Tickets available at summit.masterb2b.com
Andy and Brian are back from Nashville with a full recap of the B2B Exchange at Shoptalk Fall, where roughly 4,000 attendees watched B2C giants like Abercrombie & Fitch and Ralph Lauren share a room with B2B companies like Uline and Schneider Electric. They break down the sessions that packed the room, what two CIOs told a room full of vendors about cold outreach and pilots, and why nearly every question all week came back to one thing: data.
Andy Didyk, CEO of Ntara, joins Andy and Brian to preview an upcoming Shoptalk Fall session on turning data into dollars in the age of agentic commerce. Only 44% of B2B marketers have the data infrastructure to support AI, and new research from Ntara found that while 79% of manufacturers have a C-suite mandate to implement AI, only 7% say their systems are actually ready. Andy Didyk breaks down why the real gap is organizational, and what it takes to give AI engines the structured product data they need to actually recommend you.
Credit terms are the default way B2B companies buy, and 72% of buyers prefer them, but the process behind them is still stuck in manual invoicing. John Jakobe, VP of Commercial Strategy at TreviPay, joins Andy and Brian to preview an upcoming discovery stage session at Shoptalk Fall on new payment types in B2B.