Your favorite headcount stat might be fiction, and that's just the start of what your team should stop repeating this quarter.

This week's edition covers:

  • Kevin's Take: That 82% headcount stat everyone keeps citing? It may not hold up.
  • The Signal: Signal: McKinsey's fresh read on what actually separates growing B2B companies, plus why buyers now want proof over AI hype
  • Tools & Tactics: a new review platform built for AI search visibility, and what three B2B CMOs really use AI for once you strip out the hype
  • Quick Links: AI now runs a quarter of marketing work, YouTube quietly owning demo searches, Time serving AI crawlers a different site

Kevin's Take

A number can travel a long way without a source

I've seen the stat that 82% of AI-forward marketing teams are growing headcount show up in probably a dozen decks over the last six months, and I'll admit I've nodded along at it in more than one meeting, so this Scalevise piece tracing the number back to its origin was a bit of a gut check. Their reporting is that the figure traces back to a social repost with no credible primary source behind it, no methodology, no sample, no publisher, just a number that traveled well because it flattered a story we all wanted to be true, which is that if you adopt AI aggressively you get to grow the team instead of shrink it. Everyone keeps their job and the org gets bigger. It's a comfortable story and it's the reason nobody bothered to check where it came from.

I think what this shows is a bigger habit in our field, which is that we've gotten really loose with evidence in the AI era, partly because the space moves fast and partly because vendor marketing has flooded the zone with survey-shaped content that gets recirculated as fact. I do this too. I share things I've seen on Twitter or in a Medium post and I treat them as directional truth without always going back to the primary source, and most of the time that's fine for a personal read, but the moment a number lands in a board deck or a budget pitch the standard has to change. If we're using a stat to defend a headcount plan or a tooling spend, we owe our CFO and our board an actual footnote, not a screenshot.

One thing I've found useful after reading this is small but worth doing, which is that any external stat we put into a client deck or an internal budget document at our shop now needs a link to the primary source and a one-line note on methodology. If we can't find the primary, we don't use the number, we use our own data instead. Our own funnel, our own hiring plan, our own AI utilization. That data is less quotable but it's ours, and nobody can debunk it out from under us on a Tuesday afternoon.

That's it for this week. Talk soon.

— Kevin Kerner, CEO, Mighty & True

The Signal

McKinsey's new data on what separates growing B2B companies (1 min read)

McKinsey's new B2B growth research identifies a 'survival threshold' in buyer behavior, with 10 sourced statistics showing what separates growing B2B companies from stagnant ones. The report ties buyer decision patterns directly to specific growth levers companies can act on. (via Candace Lun Plotkin, Enrique Gonzalez Campuzano, Greg Kelly, Jennifer Stanley, Steve Reis, Tjark Freundt, and Victor Garcia de la Torre)

Why it matters: This gives you fresh, credible data to benchmark your own growth strategy against what's actually working for B2B buyers right now.

B2B buyers now demand proof over AI hype, new survey shows (1 min read)

INFUSE's mid-year update to its 2026 Voice of the Buyer survey polls 310 B2B tech buyers across 266 companies and 18 countries on how their evaluation of AI solutions has shifted since the original study. The research tracks a move from hype-driven interest toward buyers demanding proof points before engaging with AI vendors.

Why it matters: This gives you fresh, buyer-side data on what's actually shifting AI purchase criteria, so you can recalibrate your messaging before your competitors catch on.

Tools & Tactics

A new review platform targets AI search visibility for B2B vendors (1 min read)

HG Insights launched a GEO-powered software review platform aimed at helping B2B tech vendors improve visibility in generative AI search results. The platform is positioned as the first of its kind to optimize vendor presence specifically for AI-driven search and recommendation engines.

Why it matters: If your buyers are increasingly starting their research inside ChatGPT or Gemini instead of Google, this is a direct signal you need a GEO strategy for review visibility now.

What three B2B CMOs actually use AI for vs. the hype (1 min read)

Three B2B CMOs (SOCi, Knak, Bitly) share concrete examples of how AI is actually deployed in their marketing orgs today, from content research and localization to acting as a strategic thought partner. The discussion separates genuine AI-driven wins from overhyped vendor claims.

Why it matters: You get a direct comparison of what AI actually delivers versus what's just hype from CMOs running real marketing teams like yours.

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