Navigating "SaaS-mageddon", AI Answer Engines, and the Power of the Specifier

Are you a CMO or CTO struggling to align your marketing strategy and tech stack with the rapid rise of AI? In this week's episode of Digital Marketing from the Coalface, Dave and Julie unpack three massive shifts disrupting the B2B landscape.   First, let us introduce you to "SaaS-mageddon". We explore why major SaaS company share prices have dropped and how AI agents like Anthropic's Claude are fundamentally changing software licensing. By using Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers to seamlessly pull data across platforms like HubSpot, Xero, and Monday, companies, like yours, may drastically reduce the number of expensive SaaS user seats they need. Letting AI handle the "busy work" might be the future of entreprise tech stacks and that could positively impact your software budget.   Next, we break down the transition from traditional SEO to Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO). If you think blogging is dead, think again: new research reveals that 62% of AI citations actually come from blog posts. The purpose of content has possibly shifted to attract bots and agents rather than just direct human traffic, but we also explore why user-generated platforms like Reddit, YouTube, and LinkedIn have become the "new backlinks" for Large Language Models, too. Optimising for AI discovery is no longer optional.   Finally, we challenge your B2B targeting strategy with this simple question: are you marketing to the buyer or the specifier? Using the construction industry as an analogy, Julie explains why focusing your budget on the transactional buyer (the building contractor) is a waste of money if you aren't influencing the specifier (the architect) who actually dictates which brand must be used...