🚨 This Week in B2B Signals: W/C 9th Feb, What Moved in B2B This Week?

Signals are consolidating. Measurement is fragmenting. And AI is quietly becoming distribution.

It wasn’t a “headline” week.

But under the surface?

Three structural shifts kept popping up across LinkedIn, AdExchanger, vendor blogs, Reddit threads and earnings commentary.

Let’s break it down.

AI Is Becoming a Media Surface (Not Just a Tool)

We touched on this last week, but the stronger emergent theme seems to be the “AI as assistant” narrative is fading.

The more interesting shift? AI becoming where intent forms.

• OpenAI reportedly exploring structured ad models

• Publishers experimenting with LLM-native content partnerships

• Search volatility continuing as AI overviews expand

Sources:

• The Information – OpenAI ad ambitions discussion

• AdExchanger – AI search monetisation debates

• Google Blog – AI overview expansion updates

Why this matters for B2B

Intent is forming before:

• Search queries

• G2 visits

• Website sessions

If LLMs sit upstream of discovery, then:

➡️ Traditional intent data becomes lagging
➡️ SEO becomes probabilistic
➡️ Measurement gaps widen

Fast take:
We are heading toward an environment where AI is both the research assistant and the ad surface. That changes everything about early-stage B2B signal capture. It feels like the AI players are shuffling order a bit right now, with Claude winning many plaudits and perhaps the first signs of some fatigue around the biggest player, OpenAI. Yet OpenAI is where the ad chat is right now.

Programmatic Transparency Is Under Pressure (Again)

The MRC is pushing for clearer disclosure around auction mechanics.

Not sexy. Very important. And havinglived this world for 15+ years, this could get messy, quickly.

Source:
AdExchanger – “The MRC Wants Ad Tech To Get Honest About How Auctions Really Work”
https://www.adexchanger.com/programmatic/the-mrc-wants-ad-tech-to-get-honest-about-how-auctions-really-work/

At the same time:

• More SSP curation layers launching

• Containerisation models gaining traction

• Buy-side consolidation continues

The common thread?

Everyone wants control. No one fully trusts the pipes.

B2B lens

For B2B budgets — which are smaller, more targeted, more account-constrained — hidden auction mechanics matter more.

If you’re running TAL-driven campaigns and paying hidden margins in the supply chain, your “high CPM strategy” might just be inefficiency disguised as precision.

Fast take:
Curation isn’t a tactic anymore. It’s a hygiene requirement.

ABM Vendors Are Repackaging Intent (Not Reinventing It)

Several “new” announcements this week were effectively:

• AI layered on top of intent feeds

• Faster dashboard views

• More automated account alerts

What’s missing?

Actual signal architecture change.

The industry is still:

• Scoring topic surges

• Matching static TALs

• Optimising to clicks

While buying journeys are fragmenting into:

• Cookie-rejected EU traffic

• Dark social referrals

• LLM-driven discovery

• Anonymous multi-committee behaviour

Reddit commentary thread themes:

• “Intent data still noisy”

• “ABM platforms feel incremental, not transformational”

• “Reporting looks better, insights feel the same”

That disconnect is growing.

Fast take:
We’re automating dashboards faster than we’re evolving signal models. These dashboards are failing to go beyond ‘what happened’, and need to be answering what is happening and what do we do next as a consequence?

I was speaking on LinkedIn this week about signal architecture and the view I have of it. B2B teams are generating signal, but few are joining them and creating cohesive multi-surface advertising journeys, there is a huge opportunity here to really build progressive pipelines

CTV & Video Quietly Gaining Signal Importance

Multiple agency posts this week highlighted:

• CTV moving beyond “awareness”

• Increased demand for B2B video completion metrics

• Cross-device attribution becoming board-level concern

The interesting bit?

Video completion and attention metrics are starting to be talked about as scoring inputs, not brand proxies.

This aligns with a bigger trend:

Attention > Clicks

If a senior decision-maker watches 90% of a long-form explainer video on CTV — that’s a stronger buying signal than a junior clicking a gated PDF.

Yet most B2B stacks don’t weight those properly.

Fast take:
Omnichannel needs to feed scoring models — not sit in siloed dashboards. Attention metrics is far from perfect, but it provides a signal which sits above clicks and works on most major channels, its a step in the right direction if not transformational in isolation

Composite Stacks > Monolith Narratives Continue

LinkedIn discourse this week leaned heavily toward:

• “Best of breed over all-in-one”

• Replacement over expansion

• Stack rationalisation over stack growth

Especially in mid-market and PE-backed orgs.

The mood shift is real:

2021–2023: Buy more tools.
2024–2025: Consolidate.
2026: Replace legacy clouds with composite, interoperable layers.

This mirrors what we’re seeing:

• Identity spine conversations rising

• Sovereign data architecture being discussed more openly

• AI trading layers separating from execution plumbing

Fast take:
Stack architecture is becoming a competitive advantage, not an IT decision.

Macro Signal of the Week

Signals are moving upstream.
Measurement is becoming conditional.
Optimisation loops are lagging reality.

The companies winning right now are:

• Treating identity as infrastructure

• Treating HVAs as currency

• Treating omnichannel as one scoring input

• Treating AI as execution, not decoration

What This Means For You

If you’re running B2B media in 2026 and:

• Optimising to CTR

• Using static TAL uploads

• Reporting on last-touch conversions

• Ignoring EU tracking divergence

• Treating CTV as branding

You’re building on sand.

The next phase requires:

• Signal-weighted scoring

• Account-level engagement clustering

• Auction hygiene

• Identity governance

• Upstream intent visibility

Winners / Losers This Week (Signals Lens)

Winners

• Curation platforms

• Composite stack architects

• Identity-first operators

• Video & CTV with measurable completion

Under Pressure

• Click-optimised DSP strategies

• Static ABM dashboards

• “AI-powered” tools without new signal logic

• Black-box auction economics

What To Watch Next Week

• Any formal OpenAI monetisation moves

• Further MRC transparency discussions

• SSP containerisation updates

• EU privacy enforcement shifts

• CTV measurement partnerships

If you’re building in B2B paid media right now, this isn’t a “feature war.”

It’s an infrastructure cycle.

And infrastructure cycles create long-term winners.

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If you want the edge on where B2B signals are actually moving — not just where the PR says they are — follow along at:

We track what moved.
Then we decode what it means.