What’s driving growth right now — and what will redefine pipeline in 2026

Pipeline generation is evolving faster than ever. Insight’s 2025 B2B Pipeline Generation survey revealed how marketing and sales leaders are adapting — from how they’re deploying AI to where they’re shifting budgets and finding efficiencies. As Executive Vice President Barrie Markowitz put it:

“The mnemonic ABC GO is an easy way to summarize the five levers defining pipeline generation in 2026: AI, Brand, Channel, GEO, and Outbound.”

This piece comes from Onsite Hour, a weekly tactical series for portfolio companies, created by Insight’s 130+ in-house experts. This session was led by Barrie Markowitz and Vice President Dustin Zaloom.

AI: Untapped potential hiding in plain sight

AI remains the top growth lever for pipeline generation — and yet, its full potential is still unrealized across most marketing organizations. As Zaloom shared, “Almost 80% of respondents said AI usage had a positive impact on pipeline generation, but adoption is uneven. We still see a lot of teams acting with caution.”

Content creation continues to lead as the most common and impactful use case, with 86% of respondents using AI tools for writing and campaign asset production. Yet, predictive analytics, where just 32% of teams are leveraging AI for lead or account scoring, is a missed opportunity. As Zaloom notes, “A lot of predictive functionality already exists inside your current stack — HubSpot, ABM platforms, even CRM systems. The tools are there; the adoption isn’t.”

Our advice is to use AI to meaningfully accelerate growth and outpace your competition. Continuing with the use of AI in lead scoring example, it has a double benefit of improving GTM efficiency while also ensuring you are on par with competitors who are doing it.

Companies that are expanding their use of AI are doing so not to replace people outright, but to reallocate budget to higher-impact areas. “Nearly twice as many companies said they’ll reduce headcount rather than increase it,” Zaloom says. “But the inverse is true for technology and program spend — both are expected to increase.”

The takeaway: Determine how to use AI to create efficiencies for your business and team. Once you see traction, reallocate budgets to create even greater impact.

Brand: Differentiation as a pipeline driver

AI may be the new rocket fuel, but brand fundamentals like clear positioning and strong execution are the steering wheel that keeps growth on course. According to the survey, 76% of leaders say strong competitive brand awareness positively impacts pipeline, ranking just behind AI usage as a top growth factor.

Markowitz emphasized that point clearly: “Yes, AI is critical — but it’s not just about AI. The question is, how can you use AI to free up program dollars to get more in the zeitgeist about your brand?”

The most effective brand-building tactics are those that can’t be easily replicated:

• CEO or founder-led thought leadership
• Leveraging first-party data to share how your company solves problems differently (and better) than other companies
• Third-party validation of your brand — through case studies, testimonials, or research

These content types ladder up to the theme of differentiated credibility — driving both awareness and conversion.

Onsite Executive Vice President Jeremey Donovan reminded attendees:

“With all the AI-generated slop out there, the only content that breaks through is first-party primary research. That’s what differentiates your brand.”

Channel: The highest-converting, least-funded motion

Despite having the highest win rate of the common booking sources, the percentage of marketing dollars allocated to partner and channel is only 14%.

“We’re not saying go out and spend tons of money on channel marketing,” Markowitz cautions. “We’re saying be purposeful and thoughtful. If you have both direct and partner motions, ask yourself where your budget should really go.”

The companies seeing outsized results from channel programs are those that:

• Align on co-marketing programs early
• Co-develop events and summits with partners
• Use thought leadership and MDF strategically

As Markowitz summed it up, “Partner motion pipeline is still pipeline — it just takes alignment and focus to unlock it.”

GEO: The new frontier of search

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is quickly becoming a core part of the marketing mix — but confidence is low. While 80% of respondents said they’re implementing programs to appear in generative search mentions or citations, just one in four marketing leaders feel confident they know best practices.

Zaloom explained why: “A lot of companies are still treating GEO like traditional SEO. They’re spending heavily on brand keywords or optimizing content only for Google, not for AI engines like ChatGPT or Perplexity.”

The companies gaining early traction with GEO are focusing on:

• Off-site presence (e.g., Reddit, Wikipedia, and review platforms that LLMs cite frequently)
• Citation rate and mention rate tracking — measuring how often their content appears in generative results
• Natural-language, FAQ-style content

Markowitz added, “GEO didn’t even appear in last year’s data, and now it’s already representing 4% of marketing-sourced pipeline across the portfolio. That’s a signal of how fast this space is moving.”

Outbound: Declining, but changing

Outbound pipeline is declining modestly — down three percentage points since 2021 — but the playbook is shifting, not disappearing.

“Outbound isn’t dead at all,” Markowitz says. “But you need great content. Calls work, LinkedIn works, and even email — if it’s personalized, relevant, and backed by good data.”

Calls remain the top-performing outreach method, with 50% of companies citing them as the most impactful. However, outbound effectiveness now depends on marketing-sales alignment — especially when it comes to optimized, data-backed content.

As Donovan put it, “With all the noise out there, the only outbound that stands out is something that feels bespoke — content that looks like it was made just for them.”

Zaloom added a tactical note:

“Think of your outbound like a story. The goal of the first sentence is to get them to read the second, and so on. Each message should earn the next interaction.”

The marketer’s playbook for 2026

Looking across all five pillars of ABC GO (AI, Brand, Channel, GEO, and Outbound) one pattern is clear: efficiency isn’t enough; differentiation drives performance.

Our guidance for the year ahead:

• Use AI to automate and predict — not just create.
• Invest in differentiated thought leadership to stand out in crowded categories.
• If you have a partner motion, rebalance budgets toward high-conversion partner programs.
• Build GEO fluency and track mentions and citations, not just clicks.
• Elevate outbound with customized, relevant, and insight-driven content.