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AI is changing how marketing and sales teams operate go-to-market, but according to MarTech, many businesses are using it in the “wrong place”: pushing volume instead of building relationships. For Vietnamese marketers, this is an important reminder that automation only works when it helps people do better at the work that truly creates trust.
- Key points:
- Many GTM teams are using AI to increase the number of emails, lists, and nurture variations, while buyers are paying less attention to mass interactions.
- Data cited by MarTech shows that buyers often initiate most first conversations themselves, and purchase decisions are usually formed very early.
- Instead of automating everything, AI should be used to free up time for relationship-building, customer understanding, and value-based consulting.
- 1-1 ABM is seen as a better model for using AI in the right place: supporting research, deep personalization, and letting people handle the important touchpoints.
AI is not the problem, but the way it is used is off
According to MarTech’s article, AI has become a common tool in go-to-market, from prospecting and forecasting to lead scoring and email drafting. However, the problem is that many teams are focusing on using AI to “do more, faster” rather than improving the quality of interactions.
This leads to an obvious consequence: output increases, but the human element in communication declines. When every brand uses AI to create similar emails, content, and nurture sequences, buyers quickly notice and tune out.
For the Vietnamese market, this is a notable warning for B2B sales teams, SaaS companies, agencies, and technology solution providers: if AI only helps send more messages without helping teams understand customers more deeply, it can easily become a tool that amplifies noise.
Buyers have become “immune” to volume-driven growth
MarTech cites a 6sense report with nearly 4,000 B2B customers, showing that proactive SDR/BDR activity plays a very small role in the early stage when buyers begin their research. About 80% of first conversations are initiated by the buyers themselves and happen when they are ready, after doing their own research.
In that context, using AI to push more volume into the very channels buyers are paying less attention to does not create a clear advantage. On the contrary, the more content that looks “personalized” but is actually templated, the more likely recipients are to see it as a soulless form of automation.
The article highlights a point worth serious thought: at scale, personalization can easily turn into a familiar “template.” At that point, buyers no longer feel understood; they just see another variation of the same outreach tactic.
What still decides the deal is familiarity and trust
The data MarTech cites from 6sense shows that successful deals are often shaped very early. In 95% of cases, the winning vendor was already on the buyer’s day-one shortlist before any campaign reached them. In 85% of successful deals, the buyer had direct experience with the chosen vendor, and 75% of buyers said they personally knew the sellers of the vendors they were evaluating.
In other words, purchase decisions are not created by the number of emails sent last month, but by familiarity, credibility, and accumulated experience over time. This is the point many current AI strategies are missing.
MarTech also cites a Gartner survey published in May 2026, which found that 69% of B2B buyers want to verify AI-generated information with a human sales rep at key moments. Buyers are willing to use machines for research, but they still need a trustworthy person to confirm it is right.
1 ABM: Use AI to open the door for people, not replace them
The core message of the article is that AI should be used to “scale the right part” of GTM. Instead of automating the entire journey, businesses should let AI handle data-heavy and time-consuming tasks such as finding signals, summarizing account context, suggesting priorities, or supporting deep personalization. The parts that require nuance, judgment, and trust still need to be handled by people.
In a 1-1 ABM approach, each important account is treated as a separate problem: understanding the organizational structure, industry context, current needs, influencers, and buying barriers. AI can help teams prepare better, but valuable conversations, genuinely useful content, and long-term relationships are still human work.
This is also a reminder for teams running heavy automation campaigns: if the goal is to make the buyer’s “Day One shortlist,” the path is not to send more, but to be remembered in the right way.
A perspective for the Vietnamese market
In Vietnam, AI in marketing and sales is being widely adopted to improve efficiency, reduce costs, and shorten customer outreach cycles. But the lesson from MarTech shows that businesses should be cautious with the “more is better” mindset. In industries with long buying cycles such as B2B SaaS, technology, professional services, or industrial solutions, brand credibility and personal relationships still have a major influence on the final decision.
So instead of using AI only to generate more leads or emails, Vietnamese marketers should prioritize applications that help sales teams understand accounts correctly, personalize more deeply, and spend time on meaningful conversations. In short: AI should do the work that helps people show up at the right time, with the right information, rather than replacing people and talking too much.
Reference: MarTech — “You’re using AI to scale the wrong part of GTM”, published on 09/07/2026.
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This article focuses on AI in GTM with a perspective for the Vietnamese market.
