Inside LinkedIn's 2026 B2B Trends Report with Danielle Hydro

Speaker A: You're listening to LinkedIn Ads Radio, the podcast dedicated to exploring and mastering LinkedIn advertising, with your host, Anthony Blatner from Speedwork.

Speaker B: All right, welcome to another episode of LinkedIn Ads Radio. Today I have Danielle Hydro from LinkedIn's B2B Institute here to talk about the new 2026 B2B trends that they've researched and compiled. Uh, called Trends for the Contrarian Marketer. These, uh, aren't even yet very soon, so if you're listening, you'll get a sneak preview. Maybe they'll be out by the time this episode comes out. But before we jump in, let me properly introduce Danielle. She, uh, is the thought leadership and research lead at the B2B Institute where she supports B2B marketers by providing valuable insights and data driven research to inform their strategies and drive brand growth. So with a focus on leveraging custom research methodologies, academic research and all of LinkedIn's proprietary data, uh, Danielle helps marketers navigate complex trends and make informed decisions. So we really appreciate all the work that Danielle and the B2B Institute does. Uh, before she joined LinkedIn, Danielle specialized in streaming TV research at Disney and Hulu, where she focused on sales strategy as well as consumer and advertising insights. So welcome to the show, Danielle. I'm super excited to dive into all the new information and trends that you guys have for this year.

Speaker A: Thanks for having me. Excited to be here.

Speaker B: So first thing I'll ask is, uh, this is a very specific area. How did you get into doing research and get into working in this area?

Speaker A: It's a great question. I'm like a lifetime researcher. Like I knew right away that I wanted to go into research and even during college. I got my first job at a research company during college so they, they needed help and I was like willing to fly around the country as a focus group moderator. So I, I was actually doing pilot testing at that time with them and I would like miss class to go do, do research studies and ethnographies and um, a lot of qualitative research at the time for big TV network. So I knew early on that I loved like behavioral economics and research and I spent the majority of my career in technology and media research doing um, both quantitative research and building data sets, but also running qualitative research as a moderator. So it's been really fun. I've always enjoyed it. I love kind of getting it to the whys behind what people are thinking about. Um, and in this media space that's continually changing. It's just, I find so Much fun.

Speaker B: Yeah. So you knew, you knew from day one. You were getting into the data and you were like, this is very interesting stuff. Um, I can relate to that. Uh, back in school I got my master's, um, and did some research for that and really enjoyed. Whenever you find an insight and you're like, oh, this isn't commonly known. Why is this not commonly known? But then you to use that opportunity to go share that and other people enjoy learning that. And when you find those golden nuggets, then that makes all kind of the digging and the research useful and interesting. So, uh, I can definitely relate to, you know, enjoying that research part of things. So today we're going to be talking about B2B Institute's 2026 B2B Trends Report. Uh, trends report for the contrarian marketer. So before we dive into the actual report itself, can you start by telling people what the B2B Institute is and uh, what it means to be a contrarian marketer?

Speaker A: Yes. So I'm a member of the B2B Institute at LinkedIn. So we're LinkedIn's think tank and we're dedicated to advancing the future of B2B marketing, whether it's through research, insights, thought leadership. And I really think what's so fantastic about the B2B institute is that we just take a step back, we're able to kind of look at the broader industry and think independently and dive into the reasons behind how people are behaving, how they're buying, how they're marketing, and really look at the numbers to see what the findings are.

Speaker B: So, yes, again, like, we really appreciate the work that the B2B Institute does as us. You know, most people listening here are working on LinkedIn marketing. Maybe that's their role or their company is doing LinkedIn marketing. So, you know, for most people, like, they get to see inside their own ad account or their own LinkedIn profile. But, um, I think the really powerful thing is when you can look platform wide into like the big picture trends, the macro trends, and then start to put some reasoning around what are those big trends, why are those trends happening and what should you do about it? You know, as a marketer, what can you learn from this and then what should you do about it? So overall, I think you have the coolest job. And I think the B2B is like, I like, you know, I really enjoy the research side of things too and love nerding out and stuff like that. So I think you have a super cool job. Um, and yeah, again, we really Appreciate everything that the B2B Institute puts out. So looking in the past, you guys have, have had a lot of really interesting research in the, in the past. So excited to dive in today. Some of the ones that are on my top of mind that I know I talk, I even talk about all the time is like the 95.5rule, reach, maximalism, and then situational awareness are things that we, we talk about all the time in like, our regular work. Um, and then what I really love that what you guys do is you kind of put mnemonics around it that make it easier to remember and easier to communicate the stories. Because just with everything, with all the data, sometimes it's like, hard to remember it or hard, hard to, like, understand what this really means. So I think you guys do a great job with all that. So for today, let's dive into the 2026 trends. I'm, um, super excited to kind of learn more about these. I know you have, you have five trends today. We're going to talk about three. So people will get a little taste of what those trends are. And then after you've listened to this and heard those, go check out the B2B Institute. The rest of the trends will probably be out there and you'll have more that you can dive into and learn from there. All right, so let's jump in. Um, do you want to start, start us off with what the first trend is and we can learn more about that?

Speaker A: Sure. So the first trend we'll go through today is called B2B's Bottle Episode. So I guess I'll pose a question to you first. I'll say a couple TV episodes from hit shows. Let me know if you can think about what they all have in common. We have the Chinese restaurant from Seinfeld, the suitcase from Mad Men, Doctor who, and the one where no one's ready with Friends. I don't know if you remember the one where Joey's wearing all the clothes, uh, of Chandler's.

Speaker B: I, I, I watched Mad Men, um, but I did not watch Friends, uh, unfortunately. But so I know some of those, uh, and Seinfeld. I know Seinfeld.

Speaker A: Well, the, the fun answer to that question is that they're all actually bottle episodes. And I, my whole career has been in television, uh, research within television. And I was actually unfamiliar of the term bottle episode until we dug into this work. And what so cool in my mind is that this whole concept of a bottle episode is about having all of the characters on one set having just like the main cast and it's, it's kind of about using a tight budget to, uh, to make something special. So this whole concept of a bottle episode came about. I believe it was one of the producers from the Twilight Zone mentioned that they, they created a very inexpensive episode at the time. They likened it to pulling an episode, uh, out of a bottle, like a genie. So a bottle episode. And you'd think that this would be like a constrained, tough thing where you're like, oh, we don't have any budget. We're just using the main characters. There's no big action. But it's actually a really special part of a television series where it gives you a chance as a viewer to really get to know the characters. You focus on character development, relationship building. And what's. What's interesting is it kind of forces this level of creativity. And these episodes, like, I know you haven't seen the Friends one, but some of these like that I mentioned, they are the most replayed and referenced episodes in all that we're watching, and they're really iconic in that way. Um, so I just think this whole concept of a bottle episode is really interesting. You think it's like a negative, a constrained environment, but it's all about relationships and bringing people together.

Speaker B: Yeah, I think that's really interesting. So, like, there's a few, few things there that I think we can all relate to. Number one, very often, uh, companies have budget, um, restrictions or, you know, you don't have unlimited budgets, so you have to put it to the best use possible. And finding unique and creative ways to do that forces you to be creative. And the results that come out of that. We're finding some beneficial things from, from doing that. So finding creative ways to be, to be creative with your budget is producing results. And then there was something else about the bottle episode. Reducing distractions and just kind of like focusing on, I think you said character development and getting to know the characters. There was something else that I remember seeing from B2B Institute, uh, I don't know, a year or two ago. And it was like, what are the main factors for brand familiarity and brand, um, likability. And like, I remember, like, it was like characters or mascots was like one of the biggest things that helped with both of those. So I think, I think that's very interesting because I was like, oh, yeah, I remember back to that. Like, what are some of the things that can help with people remembering your brand and liking your brand? It's having a likable mascot that they're going to Remember? So if you think about Geico, like that's super recognizable one and like things like that. So I don't think like B2B could benefit from doing more of those. So, you know, for all the brands listening, how can you involve a mascot in your marketing? A likable mascot that people remember and then that feeds into them remembering everything else about your brand.

Speaker A: Love that. I'm um, actually doing some other research right now on attention that I think we'll really get it at pieces like that. So more to come. Teaser for the next study.

Speaker B: Nice.

Speaker A: Um, love that. So I would say, I'm sure like anyone listening would be like, okay, so what does the bottle episode have to do with B2B? Like what, why are we talking about this? But what's interesting is that we see events as the bottle episode of the B2B space. Like B2B events are really an important thing that are leaving a lasting mark. So I'm a researcher, so I always have stats, uh, to pull out here. But we know that 85% of B2B buyers find conferences, trade shows, events and webinars influential when they're considering either a new product or a new company. And actually 59% of B2B marketers plan to increase their presence at these in person events in the next year. So to me that's actually pretty interesting that they're, we value them and we're looking to do more of it, which I think is a special thing. And to take that even a step further, we know that 77% say that their trust increased after an interaction at a live event. So like they're more trustful of a brand after like kind of having that in person interaction. So I think those stats speak really well to just the importance of events, how we're prioritizing them and how it leads to a lot more. I know like, trust is a huge thing and events are like a great vehicle for, for building that.

Speaker B: Yeah, I think events like uh, in, in the back of my mind we're still in. We're like, we're like getting back to events like post Covid and like everyone's I think, still very excited to go kind of restart getting, doing events. I've seen companies and now they're kind of more up to speed now. But okay, we're restarting that yearly conference we used to do. We put it on pause during COVID and now we're getting that back and going. So I've seen a lot of companies moving into restarting their events, going to attend Other events. And I think at the end of the day we are online so much. We really enjoy those in person experiences. Getting out to go travel again, getting to meet people that we've been working together online for years and being on a lot of zoom calls together. But it's nice to like meet people in person. So I think overall like the, you know, the professionals love it, the companies are, are enjoying it and we're seeing good benefits come out of those relationships and those interactions and you have some great stats there for like all the reasons that prove yes, events are, are beneficial M and they, you know, produce good results for your marketing.

Speaker A: Yeah. And I, I really do think like the bottle episode piece like speaks well to it as you said. Like it's removing distraction, it's putting people in one place where they're together and they can really focus on building the relationships, understanding each other, like looking at the insights. I think we, as you said we have so much going on in our world. We're online a lot. I think having the in person interaction and focus just like you know, bringing everything kind of condensed like a bottle episode is something really special. Now I know earlier you asked like what uh, what's the contrarian piece here? And one thing that we pulled out in this trend that, that feels contrarian to me is that events are really like the beginning of the relationship. Like I often having worked in this space for a long time, to me like when the event ends you're like ah, uh, we did it. Like the event's over. We put everything into it. It's the ending point. But that's really not the case. Like the event is the beginning and once an event is treated as a content generator, not just the event, it's or not just like that destination, there's a lot more that we can do reaching out through digital touchpoint. So I think a great example of this is huh, HubSpot's inbound event. So they do a really good job of this. It's a three day conference which you think like at the end of the conference, like we're done like great. But actually there's amazing pre event work where there's previews, speaker announcements, learning guides. They have the conference and then after the event they've got recaps, highlights, follow ups and then throughout the year they have on demand access to different content that's been uh, shown at the conference. They have something called Scrapbook where it's like an ongoing conversation of what they've learned. And I think it's just A good example. It's like the event isn't the ending, it's just the beginning to a lot more relationship building, insight sharing and dialogue. And I think that if we can treat events as that content generator, that that's like just a different way to frame maybe how we've been thinking events, uh, traditionally.

Speaker B: Yeah, I think that's a good call because the other point of view for events is like, oh, there are a lot of work that can be very expensive. Is it worth it? And it seems like the takeaway from your research is there's a lot of data that says that it is worth it. But also if you do it right with the pre event promotion, to make sure people know about it, they get excited for it, and there's a lot you can do with like inviting people to the event and then you have the event and then after the event, you do the all the recaps. You leverage everything you got out of the event to maximize your results from it. So take those clips. You know, being in person gives you such good capabilities to like record videos, do interviews, do things live, and then go play those back afterwards. And it helps put those people back into the. The being there and the feelings of being there and connecting with others. So when, when done right, events can be very effective. But, but don't just do the event, do the pre event, do the post event and then, boom, you'll get some better results.

Speaker A: And honestly, uh, I think there's something to extend that even a step further. Where we're looking at, it's not just about the people who are in the room. When we're looking at events, like, the way we think of these episodes, like living on, in syndication or having snippets live on, on social media from our favorite TV show, Bottle episodes, um, they're really great examples of some brands kind of pushing it outside of the room that people are in. So there's this amazing example. I think it happened last year with Ramp. They did this activation called CFO for a day and they actually put Kevin from the office. Um, I don't know if you saw this, um, but he was in like a glass box in Times Square and he's just like sitting in the box processing expense reports. And it was an example of showing like how Ramp can help with automation and making these processes easier and better. And I read they had like a thousand or ten thousand attendees in real life there, so it got a lot of visibility. To me, that's like such a win. Like you're getting a ton of eyes on this, like, how valuable? But actually they had an estimate of like tens of millions of live streams of that experience. Like, all he was doing was processing expense reports. So I think that's just a hysterical example. An effective example, I should add, of it's not about just being there in person. The in person piece is effective, but you also want to stretch those insights and takeaways even further. Um, so I thought that was a really good example. That kind of fits within our space as well.

Speaker B: That is a good example. I feel like if I was walking through there, I would at least take a picture of what's going on and send this to a friend or somebody else. And yeah, you have all people that are going to go stream it onto social media and other places. So the more you can encourage your audience or just enable it so that they want to reshare it, the better reach you're going to get out of that. All right, so love the bottle episode. I think there's a lot of great takeaways for marketers. There's, um, um, let's jump over to trend number two now and let's dive into that one.

Speaker A: Awesome. So our second trend and the. These are dissimilar trends. Like, they're trends. They all, they don't like, fit together perfectly. They're larger trends that we're seeing in the marketplace. So we'll kind of pivot a little bit here for the next trend. But I love it. It's called the drip effect. And so I'll pose a question to you, Anthony. So there was a farmer in the 1930s and he was walking in the desert and he saw that one tree was growing taller than the rest. And he thought that was strange. What do you think might have made the tree grow taller than the others?

Speaker B: Uh, better fertilization? Um, or. There's a lot of, lot of options, a lot of possibilities.

Speaker A: Um, but we'll ask the hard hitting questions here. But, um, so what's interesting here is that he actually noticed something odd. The one tree that was growing taller was benefiting from a leaky pipe. It was a slow drip from a leaky pipe and it was slow, steady, consistent. And he found that fascinating because you'd think like a tree growing more, you'd think it'd be like sprayed from a water hose, no big deal, you know, like, it would just be getting more water nourished, no problem. But it was something about the steady, consistent drip right to the roots that was more effective. And I love that because it's the Unexpected. And this whole finding actually became the whole concept of drip irrigation, where you're delivering water slowly and directly to the roots. And what's so interesting about the drip irrigation process is that it's very strategic and efficient and I love efficiency. So I think that that's such a cool thing that you don't have to spray the water hose to make the tree grow. It's about using less water actually to have better results.

Speaker B: Now, uh, I'm in Texas and we're always in a drought here and we're always looking for ways to stretch the water further and make our plants stay greener for longer.

Speaker A: I love it. I'm in New York City, so I have no plans, can't relate at all. But, um, what I love here is that, like, when we bring this into our business space, we know that actually employee networks can be leveraged as that strategic trip. I think this is like a really interesting way to think about it where if you think about the slow, steady drip of, you know, the leaky pipe, we can think about all of the things that we're doing as employees to post for our brands and really getting our messaging out there, um, leveraging our employee networks, whether it's in person or online, is a really great way to kind of build that knowledge and is a great model for B2B growth. So it's not just about, you know, being everywhere and doing everything. It's about these slow little drips where speaking on a podcast, liking something online. Um, I went to a conference this week, like going to a conference and giving a presentation. It's about the continuous stream of advocacy. That can really be an efficient tool when you have, you know, all of these members of your organization helping with your brand messaging as well. Now, again, stats to like, back this up, I think we see some pretty interesting things on, um, LinkedIn. We actually found that content shared by people, like individual people, receive two times higher engagement than the exact same content shared by companies. So, like, what that tells me is that we are looking for relationships. We're looking to hear from people in our networks. There's something about that, that one to one feeling where even if you're saying the same thing as the company, that like, it feels better or resonates more when you're speaking like individual to individual. We also know, and this was actually astounding to me, that employees have five to ten times more connections if you look at them collectively than company pages have follows. So not only are we as individuals able to share content with higher engagement, but we have huge networks. Like, it's not just Danny's network, it's my whole team's network and then my whole company's network. Like, they're, it's wider than we think. When we look at the, the range that employees can, can get to and the reach that we have.

Speaker B: Uh, and I was gonna say, like, so, uh, we've done lots of split tests on this and clearly see every time that people always get more engagement than companies. And I think just kind of goes down to like, when a person says it versus a company, uh, you know, people are always gonna engage with people more. And then I think, like, the, what people don't always think about is that network part. And when the average person sets up their LinkedIn profile, it's, you know, usually like in college, they're starting to like, add all their college connections. And then throughout their career they're like, they're building a network and all those different people all have like, you know, a little bit different net, their own networks. And then when you put all your employees together, your team together, like, suddenly you have a much bigger network and leveraging that gives you the whole network effect. So, you know, it just depends on your company size. But if you're a mainstream company, sure, maybe you do have a lot of followers and yes, of course, leverage that. But your people, uh, also have like, lots of connections in their network too. So I love this principle overall because this is what we advocate to clients day, uh, in and day out is, you know, use your people, post on profiles, get, get your message out there. And I'd say, like, what we see too often is like, a company is like, we're going to go make a big push and we're going to start posting and everyone else is going to start posting too. And that lasts for like maybe a month and then it kind of flames out and, you know, what kind of impact do we have? And then they're like, questioning if it worked. And then, then now I'm going to go point to the drip effect and be like, well, you know, doing one giant spray of, of your hose on your tree is not going to get it to grow as much as drip irrigation would. Um, that constant, you know, that constant drip of content. So, yes, I love this principle overall because now it gives me something to point to when we talk to clients and know, make recommendations.

Speaker A: Right? And it's, it's wild. Like, only 3% of employees share their company content. Yeah, 3% stat. Like, it's low. Um, that's a very Low number. And honestly a missed opportunity as I see it. And it makes sense. Like it's, I'm, um, not, you know, we're not getting awards from work for, for posting on LinkedIn or for going on to conferences. Like there's no big reward. I mean I think there are a lot of motivations to building your own career, showing your, you know, dedication to your company, helping your, your larger brand. There's a lot to it, but I think in the little moments it doesn't feel as like sexy to do all of these things, but it's a huge impactful, like untapped resource that we need to just be mindful of. Um, and find ways, you know, to motivate our employees, motivate ourselves, to kind of push a little further and see what we can do there.

Speaker B: Yeah. Are there any um, tips you would have for companies to find like unique ways to motivate employees or like how, how do people go about motivating their employees? Because 3% is a very low number. How do we get that up?

Speaker A: It's a great question. I actually recently spoke with the CMO of Dream Data. I brought up the drip effect to him, uh, his name, Stefan. And he had an amazing perspective on this. So he's like, we've been using the drip effect for years and it's been really successful for us. And he was saying that they used kind of like a, a friendly gamification of it where whoever gets the most likes gets their post boosted. So it's, it was almost more of like a, a uh, fun way for the company to join together to feel like they're building something and, and get rewarded. So it's not just if you, if you post, you know, and it's gone, like your post can then be boosted later and have the company money behind it. And I just think that's like a nice thing where it not only helps your brand of your company, but it helps your personal brand too. And he made it sound kind of fun and like a really nice way to have that cross team promotion. I thought it was a great example of the drip effect.

Speaker B: Yeah, I love that. Those are all like great tips like hey, make it, make it fun, gamify it. Uh, and then yeah, if you win, you get a little, little extra benefit by getting the company to boost it too. So from my own experience I think there is like, you know, a few different, like everyone's going to have different things that they're interested in and what's going to get them motivated. So I think it first starts with like, yeah, show people how this is going to help them in their long term career trajectory. Uh, you know, people are, you're probably going to have a long career. This isn't your only job you're ever going to have. But the more you share, the more that this is going to, you know, build your overall career journey. Some people do go check you out on LinkedIn and go scroll back through your past posts and see what you've been talking about. So if there's nothing there, then maybe they just think you haven't been as active in your career versus somebody who has been regularly active on LinkedIn and sharing content there and purely just, I know, like talking to recruiters and as we've done recruiting for our own company, like this is stuff that people look up and go look at. So you know, showing people how it's going to benefit them, you know, in their long term career. And then number two, love the gamification aspect. You know, show them how other people at the company are posting on LinkedIn. And maybe you have a leaderboard or something like that. Who gets the most likes in any given month? Maybe you get a little gift or award from that and then, and then the boosting thing too, like that, that's either the, you can do the boosting, you can, you know, give them a gift or an award, maybe a little plaque or something could be fun to do. So all different things to kind of get people, you know, give, give them a reason to post. And then I think, you know, there's a lot of like interesting things today with like AI of just enabling people. Because I, you know, we work with lots of different people and sometimes this is employees we're talking about, but then sometimes it's like a founder, CEO that it's just like, hey, you need to be creating content on behalf of your company. And sometimes it's just hard for people to stare at a blank screen or know what to post. So go use AI to generate ideas and to write that first draft that gets you started, gets you over the hump of not knowing what to post. And one of my, just lately one of my favorite workflows is when you take your favorite AI app and go connect your call recording platform and say, hey, go review my calls that I've had this past month, pull out some of the top ideas that I can post about on LinkedIn and maybe do a first draft for me. Um, so you can do your calls you've had from the past month. You can have it scan your slack Messages. You can have it scan your emails and then just makes it personal to you. Because if you just ask ChatGPT, you know, what should I post about? It's going to give you a generic list, but these are just different ways to make it personal to you. And you know, you'll pick up on which one or two you want to run with and then from there take that, and then that's give you some good starter content. But yes, overall, drip effect, definitely going to point, you know, point lots of people towards this. Go, this is why you need to stick with it. This is how you do it. And then these are the results you can get. The opportunity is wide open. Only 3% of employees are posting, so go get on it. All right, so that is the drip effect. We have one more to dive into today. Uh, so why don't you tell us about the third trend?

Speaker A: Great. Yeah. So this third trend, I think is so much fun. It's called Alice in AI Wonderland. I don't know if you've seen Alice in Wonderland.

Speaker B: I have. It's been a while, but I have seen it.

Speaker A: Right. I think there's something interesting about how we've entered this AI space and it feels like we're Alice in Wonderland. Things are just a little different from what we know and what we expected. What's big is small, what's up is down. So it's kind of like Alice going down the rabbit hole and experiencing this whole new space and kind of figuring out, you know, who is she, how does she fit into all of this? And, um, we thought that was like a perfect metaphor for diving into this new AI age.

Speaker B: Yes.

Speaker A: Now, we ran this great study called how to Win Mindshare and Gen AI. My colleague Derek ran the study. It's fantastic. And we pulled some of these findings out through this trend, um, that I think are really compelling and shed some light for me on that. What I expected wasn't always how people were behaving in terms of AI. So I'll share some stats here to kind of dive into that. Um, we found that Gen AI power users are 25% more likely to use Gen AI for tasks they enjoy versus tasks they don't want to do. So that's kind of interesting. I feel like so many of the ads I see around AI is about efficiency, help get stuff done, remove the grunt work. But we're finding is actually a number of these Gen AI power users, so people who are using it regularly want to lean into the tasks they enjoy as kind of that entry point. To using AI, it's not just about removing the grunt work. And for me, that was actually kind of the opposite of what I was expecting. Very Alice in Wonderland in that way.

Speaker B: So do you have any, uh, of your own use cases that you've. You find yourself using AI in like non work ways?

Speaker A: Well, I just was doing some vacation planning.

Speaker B: Okay.

Speaker A: I. Nothing is more enjoyable for me than building a trip itinerary. I just, I'm that person. I have everything organized. I love researching the restaurants, but I really enjoyed recently like putting together an itinerary of where I'm traveling to, pulling in recommendations. So as a little bit of my own work, but also a little bit of AI kind of telling me best time of year to go, like, you know what to pack. All those fun, fun details that might have kind of stretched my thinking a little bit.

Speaker B: I love that because there's like so many different things to like plan when you're traveling that it's like if you can just maybe ask AI to go do some of that for you and then you can still be the person to pick out what you're going to go do. So you're not just kind of like, you know, delegating it totally, but give you a starting point. You're going to a new city you've never been to. You know, because if you just like Google, a lot of those articles are just like meant for SEO purposes, so you don't necessarily want to read and follow those articles. But maybe you ask Chat GPT and it's going to go reference what the critics have said for what are the best restaurants and stuff like that. So that's, that's, that's an awesome use case. Uh, for us. For me, I've used it for researching a lot of baby stuff. Kind of a lot of like, is this normal type of stuff initially? And then last week we used ChatGPT to write a song with our daughter's name in it.

Speaker A: That's brilliant.

Speaker B: The first version was like, needed a lot of work. But then the second version was like really funny. We gave it some more info and like some of the verses were like really funny because it tied to different things that we gave it. So that's my personal use case.

Speaker A: I'm going to have to do that this afternoon with my children. That's really fun.

Speaker B: Um, but I think, I think the, you know, this point of like using it for other ways, like, yeah, you would think like, okay, who's the person that's like automated their whole life? You know, their, their Whole job and like, has turned up, you know, they don't have to work anymore because the ChatGPT just runs their work for them. But really it's the people who find interesting ways in their own, maybe outside of work to use it, who are becoming more of the power users who are. I think I've seen this in a lot of different technologies and it's like when you, uh, enjoy something, you kind of like, you're going to spend more time with it. You're going to like, be curious about all the ways you can use it and that help that gives you a way to, like to learn it to the next level. Whereas if you're just using it for work, then you're like, I want to, I'm going to do it and I'm going to get out of here. But if you're curious about it, you enjoy it, you're going to spend more time, you're going to, you know, try all the different features and then you become the real power user in that case.

Speaker A: Exactly.

Speaker B: Uh, so if someone is like, still kind of maybe on the fringes of AI, like what, what are some of the recommendations you might have? Or how do people navigate this AI world now?

Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, I think everyone should like, move at their own pace. But I do love from that finding that kind of enter, like having an entry point of tasks that you enjoy is a fun thing. Like, I loved making my travel itinerary. Have I booked the trip yet? No, but like, I love putting it all together and doing that research and just kind of having almost like a partner to go through the details with. On, um, is this the best time to go? Should I move it back a week? When can I get the cheapest flights? Like, just. It was a really fun experience. So whether it's looking at what's in your fridge and building recipes or researching, uh, fun activities for your children, I feel like there's no right or wrong there. It's, um, it's kind of wonderful how, how broad it is of what we can do.

Speaker B: Yeah. And something you make me think about is I was just giving a presentation this week, um, about how you can use AI in your marketing and at work. And kind of like a response I kind of got was like, people were scared of using it the wrong way or, um, you know, scared of sharing what the outputs were because they didn't want to, you know, maybe look like they were brand new and didn't know what they were doing. So it's almost like this is a, another way to get familiar with it, go use it for your personal life, find other fun ways that you can use it, and then once you're comfortable with the tool, you'll be much more familiar and comfortable on how you can use it for work. Um, so that was something I encountered this week that I kind of didn't expect is people were, like, scared to use it because they didn't want to look silly, maybe in the outputs or the way they were prompting it. So it's like, okay, well, here's another way you can kind of learn the tool, Go use a per for your personal life and find other new fun ways to use it first.

Speaker A: Um, there was also. To add to all of this, there was another finding that came out of the research that was unexpected for me as well. Again, like, the Alice in Wonderland piece is about the unexpected. But, um, the people who are most excited about AI also feel the highest personal risk. So it's interesting. So if you look at, like, gen AI optimists, so people who are most optimistic about AI in the future, they're 15% more likely than gen AI pessimists to be concerned about being replaced. So it's kind of an interesting thing where the fear of AI kind of rises with comprehension, not the pessimism. So, again, these are just findings of things in this space that were unexpected to me in terms of what those results were.

Speaker B: Yeah, I do find that interesting too. Maybe a little scary at the same time. And it makes me think about, um, Makes me think about, like, Elon Musk is one of the biggest people to say, like, AI is going to take, you know, replace all the jobs out there. You know, the world needs to move to, like, universal income or stuff like that. I feel like I've heard him talk about this stuff and I'm like, oh, man, if he's saying it, then, like, maybe we really should be very worried about it. I don't know. But for right now, I'm taking it as being, like, it's very exciting. I like, I have fun using it for both work and personal stuff. I'm still going to ask, like, a ton of baby questions and, you know, maybe have it write some more songs for me and then we'll see what happens down the road.

Speaker A: I love that.

Speaker B: All right, so we covered a lot today with these trends. I think overall, like, marketers have a lot, a lot that they can leverage from these different trends. Um, and I think, you know, Every year the B2B Institute has put out, like, awesome info that for, for any marketer Go back and look on the, their website and just scroll back through those trends. You'll probably pick up like several things that you know, maybe you've seen in your campaigns or senior marketing. And then this just kind of puts research and data behind it in a structured way that you can like lear something from it. So, you know, going back to like the 955 rule or reach maximalism, like there's lots of stuff. So go back on the website and check out and you'll have a lot of stuff that you can learn from that. So Danielle, can you tell people, um, where they can go to learn more about the B2B Institute? And um, do you know when these, uh, new trends will be live on the website?

Speaker A: Yes, they should go live actually tomorrow. So exciting. So once this is live, we can, we can send out the link to everyone. But if you visit the B2B Institute website, we have a whole trends page and with each of the five trends that we're releasing, we have a fantastic video that sums it up in a very succinct way as well as a full article. Um, so we want to make sure that we're creating these trends and sharing them widely, but making sure that they're easy to digest and that when you are in your day to day life, you're thinking about the drip effect or when you're going to your next event, you're thinking about is this the beginning or is this the end of the bottle episode? Um, we, we really want to make sure that these resonate and kind of are memorable and, and stick around in that way. Um, um, so we took you through the three of the five trends. The other two, just so I can tease. The names of them are Marketing Parallax, which is about how marketing and finance may see things from different angles and vantage points at times. We also have one called Authenticity's Tightrope, which I was thinking about that earlier when we were talking about lots of executives posting. And, and there's definitely this authenticity experience where sometimes it feels like we are walking a tightrope where we don't want to be too authentic, you know, could rub people the wrong way. But we also want to be ourselves and, and be like somewhat authentic but in the, the constraints of like the business environment. So it's, it's a really interesting body uh, of work and we're so excited for everyone to learn more, man.

Speaker B: But both of those hit on like points where I'm like, okay, I, I run into those monthly, every weekly. So I, I'm excited to read the rest of those when they're available. All right, well, thanks again for joining us today, Danielle. And then lastly is where can people find out more about, about you and more about, uh, you told them about the B2B Institute, but where can people find out more about you?

Speaker A: Yeah. Oh, I love that question. Yeah. Feel free to reach out to me on LinkedIn. My name is Danielle Hydro. I'm always good about responding to questions, whether it's about work or, or other things. So I'm here.

Speaker B: Awesome.

Speaker A: Thank you.

Speaker B: Thanks again for joining us today. And everyone else, go check out B2B Institute's new, uh, reports and we'll see you in the next episode.

Speaker A: Thank you. Thanks for listening to LinkedIn ads radio. That's it for this episode. Stay tuned for more. It.