Believe it or not, we are kicking off Season 4 of Misadventures in Marketing! In this first episode of the new season, co-hosts Steve Haney and Peter Farrago examine the fundamental shift occurring in B2B product discovery: what happens when AI agents, rather than human buyers, build the vendor shortlist? As potential customers move away from manual search engine research toward detailed prompts in large language models, the traditional SEO playbook of keywords and page clicks is quickly being replaced by Generative Engine Optimization (GEO). Peter breaks down this emerging dynamic into an "invisible RFP," where autonomous bots filter hundreds of potential solutions against strict criteria before a human sales team is ever engaged. To survive this algorithmic first cut, the hosts emphasize the critical framework of eligibility, fit, extractability, credibility, and consistency across digital footprints.

Surviving the bot-driven evaluation requires a deliberate strategy that combines machine-readable information with classic human-centric positioning. Steve and Peter discuss tactical approaches to visibility, including structuring web content into easily digested formats like Markdown, expanding detailed comparison pages and FAQs, and tracking citations across authoritative third-party sources like Reddit, G2, and Wikipedia. At the same time, they stress that as AI automates technical evaluations, traditional human elements—such as brand perception, emotional resonance, and empowering internal champions—become more vital than ever to close the deal. Ultimately, modern go-to-market teams must view the AI agent as a permanent new stakeholder on the buying committee, balancing technical precision for the bot with relationship-driven trust for the human decision-maker.

Also, don’t forget to check out AMA SF’s latest blog posts. Rinita Datta has a new post on LinkedIn AI slop, how to spot it, and what using it means for brand trust.

Rough Edges and Building Trust: B2B Marketing in the Age of AI Slop

https://www.amasf.org/blog/rough-edges-and-building-trust-b2b-marketing-in-the-age-of-ai-slop/

The American Marketing Association San Francisco Chapter presents Misadventures in Marketing, a podcast about high tech marketing in Silicon Valley, focusing primarily on marketing challenges in early stage technology startups. Hosts Peter Farago, a career high tech marketer and Steve Haney, a fractional GTM executive in tech, chat weekly about marketing practices in high tech, the latest martech product news, their experiences from the front lines, and interviews with their CMO friends and marketing colleagues.

Listen: https://mim.captivate.fm/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AMASanFrancisco/

X: https://x.com/AMASanFrancisco

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amasanfrancisco

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/amasf/

Hosts: Peter Farago and Steve Haney

Content Producer: Rinita Datta

Editing: Brian Douglas (Creative Comms)

Consulting Producer: JulieAnn Bornales

Marketing: Ian Robinson Lambert

We'd also like to thank our sponsor Workbox for their support of Misadventures in Marketing.

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00:00 Intro

03:17 Tech News (Apple iPhone Duo, AI Concerns)

10:55 AI Tips and Tricks (AI Bot Workflows and Shared Context Workflow

22:00 Five core pillars for generative engine optimization

27:22 Rethinking SEO

29:43 Why Brand Marketing Still Matters

34:07 Practical Steps for Marketers in the Age of AI